Little Chibs and her Big Adventure
The other day the kitty came in with a little bit of white paint on her. A bit on one of her whiskers, a small amount on her side and some on her paws. Like she had ruined someone's handiwork, purely by being adorably inquisitive. I didn't really worry too much about it, I was going to cut it out, but I decided against it because I didn't want to cut her with the scissors.
Yesterday morning she went out. Early. The boyf is on early shifts this week and we have usually let her out when he gets up with no issues. Her hunger gets the better of her and she comes running when I call her for breakfast. But this time, no sign of her. When one of us is in the garden, she's so nosy that she just has to poke her head up over the fence to see who's doing what on her land. I called her on and off all day, tried to distract myself, and found her collar on the side. We usually take it off her in the evening you see. By this point I was worried, and a little hurt to be honest. She usually loves being around us, plus the fact that she hadn't eaten yet made me think something was wrong.
At about half seven in the evening, which is when she would usually come in for some food, a different cat appeared. Usurper cat, as I named him, just would not bugger off and I was annoyed at him because my girl could've been trying to get back but was scared to come near. I've seen her looking out the window at this cat when he has been on the top of the neighbours shed that she likes to sleep on. I like to think that this bloody usurper is Chibs' nemesis.
Soon enough the boy came home. He was worried too. I burst into tears because I didn't like the idea of her being hurt, scared, trapped or worst of all, dead. I started worrying about the paint on her fur, and thought that might have poisoned her. I felt so guilty when I was thinking about that.
It was when she had been out for eighteen hours, that I decided to give a knock on some of the houses close by to see if they had seen her. One neighbour was so sweet. They said they had seen her on Wednesday, when they had been gardening, and that she was very friendly and sociable. They also reassured me that no one nearby had been in their sheds that day, which made me feel better about her being trapped.
They also said they would keep an eye out.
So eventually we had to give up looking. It was dark, and at around midnight we gave up and went to bed. She wasn't even outside and messing around. She had disappeared. I couldn't get to sleep, and I started searching on google on how much paint could poison a cat if they licked it off. I couldn't even get a straight answer, only that "It depends on the type of paint" I didn't know of course.
Sunday morning came after I finally dropped off in a fitful sleep. I was up at 6am. I have never got up that early at the weekend before. Especially not on a day off. I got up, rushed downstairs, hoping and praying that she would be waiting.
I opened the back door, and before I could even call her, my baby was running. Also yowling and mewling so loudly like I had never heard her before. She ran over, and started attempting to grab me and pull me inside. She gave us so many cuddles, and ate 2 meals in one go. Wolfed it down.
Now she doesn't go out for long periods anymore. That first day that she came back, she slept all day. She didn't even want to go out. She was so affectionate too. I guess she felt abandoned all day when the door was shut at night time.
All in all, I am so so happy that she's back. We've not even had her for a year yet and I love her with all my heart <3
