Adventure cat mode activated

What an exciting week, mummy and I have been exploring the neighbourhood. One day I just decided to engage my adventure cat mode and crawled under the gate and ventured off down the road. Mummy calls it the curl-de-sac. Little by little, pawstep by pawstep we walked slowly down the road and along the hedge, listening to the birdies flying around inside. The end of our neighbours hedge was enough for our first outing but I could tell that this was going to be a fun place to explore.

Other than the birds in the bushes I could hear other exciting noises further down the road, even when went back into our garden I couldn’t help thinking about what exciting things might be a little further past the hedge. Maybe the next time I’ll go a little bit further, I’m sure I could hear a tree in the distance and it sounded big.

The next time I fancied going out of the garden, I was feeling pretty confident so with mummy following along behind I engaged my adventure cat mode again and off we went. I was off trotting along with mummy saying “wow Jen, you’re what’s got into you, you’re off like a shot, like you own the street” There were so many interesting smells on the way, mummy let me take the lead, no pressure to go anywhere in particular, just wherever I wanna go and at my own pace. She does keep mumbling something about needing to walk on the pavement and that not polite to go walking in other peoples front gardens. Hey I’m an adventure cat I can go anywhere!

The curl-de-sac was very quiet so we just gently carried along down the road bit by bit, exploring every new scent and stopping to sniff most of the bushes. It was so exciting and there wasn’t anything to interrupt our expedition so we just kept on going a little further each time. I really wanted to dart off this way and that each time I discovered something new but I was very controlled and despite my urge to run off at every direction I kept going systematically. I needed to map the area first and then once that’s done, I can run around this way and that, knowing where I am, where my safe places are and more importantly how to find my way home. Even how the ground feels different under my paws helps me, sometimes it was hard but even, then some bits of it were all cracked and rough and some bits were even a bit soft and squishy. Along with all the new sounds and smells the different feelings on my paws just adds to the excitement and helps me to map the area better.

After I’d had a bit of an explore and been round most of the gardens, we came across a little area where there was some grass that mummy would let me walk on (finally). I could hear these very strange noises so I stepped forward cautiously with mummy gently reassuring me. I could smell strong smells that were familiar but just stronger than normal. The noises gradually got closer and closer, it was a kind of munching, snuffling, dribbly noise with an odd snort. I could hear that they sounded like biiiig animals from their noises and the sound of their big paws on the ground which made a thudding noise as they gradually come closer. They weren’t soft and quiet like mine are, there’s no way these giant animals could sneak up on any birdies.

I stood close into mummy legs, just for reassurance as mummy told me that these were the animals I could hear moo-ing in the background from our garden, she called them cows 🐄. Mummy said to me that we’d be brave together, whilst mummy loves all animals, she’s scared of cows so together we protected and reassured each other. Then when they started to get quite close , even though we were behind a little gate in what even I could tell was an overgrown hedge where there’s no chance they would really even see us, they got too close for mummy’s comfort and she was the first of us to say, “Come on Jen we’ve seen enough now, let’s head home”.

“Ok then mummy, let’s go, I’m not so sure about them yet” so off we went heading back up the road towards our gate. Mummy kept telling me how brave I was and that even though she knows me better than everyone, she was surprised at how I just wandered off to explore. “If I didn’t know you were blind Jen I really wouldn’t believe it. You’ve done so well today.” Then, just as we were heading back up to home the door of the house with the big, interesting tree opened and a lady came out and started talking to mummy. I could hear mummy chatting and whilst she stood there for ages and ages I carried on exploring up the street and down the street and listened to what was in the big, beautiful tree. Then mummy picked me up and I heard a strange voice saying “hello Jenny, aren’t you beautiful” then a hand giving my head a lovely couple of strokes to say hello. I meowed hello to the lady and heard her telling mummy that she had watched us from her window and just had to come out to make sure that it was a cat that mummy was walking on a lead down the road. Mummy of course explained that I was also blind but that didn’t stop me from exploring and going for walks. I

It reminded me that when mummy and I first went out on walkies all those years ago that mummy got asked quite a lot if I was a cat on a lead. Then we kind of forgot about it as everyone around us got used to seeing us every day but here mummy is back to being a ‘mad cat lady’. So far everyone who has said anything when we’ve been out in the garden or now down the road seems to think it’s just lovely and calls me cute. I like being cute so that’s fine with me plus now I’m showing a whole new group of people that it’s ok to be blind and that us blindies can do anything any other kitty can do.

Then we headed home for some well earned dinner and to tell daddy all about our exciting adventure. When I meowed excitedly to tell him that we met a cow and daddy just laughed and said “well, mummy must love you if she went anywhere near a cow! She’s petrified of them 😂”. I slept well that night snuggled into mummy’s tummy and giving her a big hug right the way around. I’m pretty sure mummy must have slept well that night too after seeing the cows.