As you all know I’m an adventure cat and so ready to explore whenever the opportunity comes along. This week though, I think I owe daddy an apology for playing the best game of hide and seek ever! Unfortunately I forgot to tell daddy we were playing a game.
There was a man working in the house and as I was wandering around trying to avoid him and find a quiet place to while away the day I came across something unusual in the hallway. As well as this odd thing in the hallway there was a slight breeze coming from somewhere above my head, it had an interesting smell which perked my interest. The new thing in the hallway felt kind of like the stairs I used to go up and down when we went walkies in our old home. So the adventure cat in me whispered in my ear “go on Jenny, up you go, it’s time to explore”
So paw by paw up the steps I went , double tapping each one just to make sure it was safe to go up. Step by step I got closer and closer to the unknown, closer to that unusual smell and the breeze felt a little stronger on my whiskers. Eventually I reached the top and I couldn’t help but let out a little meow of excitement, my meow told me that this was a big space to explore, so off I went into the unknown, my heart was beating quickly with the anticipation of what I might find, my whiskers were fully forwards to alert me to anything I might bump into and my ears were listening out for the tiniest noises. With each pawstep came a puff of new smell to breath in and try to understand where I might be and what else was up here.
There were mostly hard things to walk on but every so often my paws would touch something soft, squishy and slightly tickly. My double tap method told me that it wasn’t solid enough to walk on but I gave it a good paw and a sniff to try to find out what it was, it smelt kind of dusty and musty, like it hadn’t moved for a long time and then it made my nose tickle so I left it alone before it made me sneeze.
I could hear daddy down below and the noise of the wind and rain around me, it sounded different to normal though, kind of like I was in a big box, which as you know cats love, so I felt quite reassured by this and carried on exploring the giant kitty box.
Then I realised I had actually explored quite a long way from where I came up and as this was the first time I’d been up here the scent from my paw steps wasn’t very strong and I couldn’t smell it very well over the scents dusty, musty smells. It was going to be tricky to follow it all the way back to the beginning. Still, I was playing hide and seek so the further away from the entrance I went the better the game would be for daddy to find me. Then I heard some footsteps on the stairs so I stayed very still and very quiet and the footsteps went back down again and so I waited a little while longer and then carried on exploring.
Then I heard daddy calling my name, so I meowed back to him “I’m up here daddy” so he could have a little clue as to where I was and come and find me but then I heard Millie shouting somewhere below me and thought to myself that there was no way daddy would hear me over Millies giant meows so I thought I’d just carry on exploring, venturing further and further into the depths. As I moved around silently I could still hear daddy below me walking around, it felt like a very long time had passed since I first heard him calling for me. Then I heard footsteps on the steps again, this time they sounded further away than before so I knew I had explored a long way, I thought this was it, he was bound to find me this time but again I heard them go back down again. This is going to be an epic game of hide and seek I thought but then I heard the front door open and close and I wondered where daddy might be going, has he left me up here to fend for myself, find my own way back down? Daddy wouldn’t do that, would he? I really should have told him that I was going to play hide and seek with him, maybe he really doesn’t know I’m up here, normally he just pretends he can’t find us to make the game more fun. Then I heard daddy shouting from the outside, his voice had gone from the normal “where are you?” he normally uses when playing with us to sounding more anxious and worried, he sounded urgent.
It had been so long playing at hiding that I was starting to get really worried that daddy wouldn’t find me at all, ever, after the last time he’d come up the steps I’d hidden in the soft fluffy stuff and now I couldn’t fine my way back to the hard stuff I could walk on, I was surrounded and not entirely sure how I was going to get back to where the steps were. I started to think that this game wasn’t quite going to plan and I wasn’t enjoying it very much anymore. it had become about time to help daddy find me.
I heard daddy come back in and so I let out a couple of big meows to give him a hint where I was.
Then I heard daddy’s footsteps coming up the steps, this time he came all the way up and started walking towards me saying “Jen, are you up here?” Yes daddy! I’m over here I meowed. “Oh Jen! There you are, I’ve been looking everywhere for you, I’ve popped my head up here twice already and didn’t see you, how on earth did you get all the way over there?”. Then as his footsteps got closer and closer he scooped me up from the fluffy stuff into his arms and gave me a big cuddle. I didn’t even wriggle as he carried me back down the steps into the hallway below. “I was so worried that I couldn’t find you” he said, “I looked everywhere, I even looked outside under all the bushes and went down the road in case you had got out of the house. I was really worried, you scared me Jen.”
We had a big cuddles downstairs and daddy was laughing as he said he looked just like me coz all the fluffy stuff I had picked up on my fur when I was hiding had stuck to daddy instead. Just to be sure daddy gave me a big rub all over to make sure I was fluff free, he said he didn’t want me to wash myself in case I ended up eating any of the fluff as it wouldn’t be very good for me. This was fine by me as I love having body rubs, its one of my favourite things to do and its even better if mummy or daddy have damp hands when they do it, it makes all my fur stand up on end and then they say that I look like a punk kitty with cattitude. Whilst we have rubs daddy explained to me it turns out he didn’t think that I would ever have climbed the steps into what he calls the loft so when he looked up there before he found me he didn’t look way into the distance where I was but just around the entrance. He also said that every time he called for me Millie meowed and meant he stood no chance of hearing any of my muffled meows coming from above the ceiling.
But daddy, I thought you knew by now, that you should never underestimate a blind kitty, specially not one who loves climbing and loves being an adventure cat.
Daddy said I was a very clever, naughty kitty and he was too relieved to be angry with me but he was really proud of my fearlessness 😺. I think that just about sums up what us purrfectly imperfect kitties are all about.
Jenny’s Story 