Adventure

[supermouse]

'Is one of your cats missing?'[1] asked my next door neighbour. 'No...' I said, puzzled. Hatter was bouncing around and Spice was probably where she usually is when she's not romping with Hatter, snoozing under my bed or behind the sofa.
'Only, this cat got into our garden, and then the dog chased it into our loft.'
'No, pretty sure our cats are inside. Best thing is to leave the cat alone, it'll probably come out on its own in a couple of hours.'
'It's been there six already.'
'Ah.'

I couldn't really help much, so I went looking for our own cats. Hatter was there and fine. Spice, who had been really quiet all day... really very quiet... wasn't around at all. Shit.

Sooooo I went over to next door and told them the news, and they let me upstairs, where I listened for ten minutes or so at the open loft, but could hear no sound of cat. Nor smell one.

Puzzled, I went home and went up to my bedroom, wondering what on earth I was going to do now. Just in case, I unpiled all the things that have been in front of my loft door for several days and opened it. And there she was, looking rather unhappy, but very pleased to see me. She hadn't miaowed while she was in the loft - possibly in case the dog heard her.

So, Spice has had her first outing beyond the garden gate. It didn't go well. She's had two dinners today and tonight she's... behind the sofa. I know, because I just now checked. Just in case.

[1] This isn't quite the conversation we had, but there was a lot of boring confusion about what colour my cats were and so on, and I cut it out.