Scary days 👻

This week had a very strange start, mummy and I went out for walkies as normal but she took a noisy, rattly tin with her. She also put these strange smelling things by our front door that she wouldn’t let me help make. Mummy spent ages in the kitchen making funny scraping noises and going “ewww” a lot. There were lots of kind of squelchy noises, which is what I think mummy was eww-ing about. I really wanted to help as I love helping mummy do stuff around the house and garden and from the sounds of it she needed my expert digging skills but mummy wouldn’t let me, something about getting my paws all yucky and slimy. So, that was it I was confined to just supervising and making sure that mummy had some company as she really didn’t seem to like what she was doing. Then there was a lot of discussion with daddy as to what kind of face to carve into this thing? Oh My Catness what on earth are they doing? I went off to try to figure out what was going on, and then suddenly Millie came shouting “Mummy’s lost the plot, she’s finally lost it!” We all rushed back through to the kitchen and I could hear a scary sound. Millie said that mummy had a big kitchen knife and was repeatedly stabbing and cutting this big orange head like thing. Over and over again she stabbed and slashed at it, the poor thing didn’t stand a chance! Then she finished with one and started on another one, again stabbing at it over and over until finally, she put the knife down and stood back and said “Well, I think I’ve done a pretty good job” We we’re all shocked and then Millie got a glance of what was on the kitchen side, next to the deceased, stabbed orange thing. “Oh. my. Catnesss” she meowed “I can see their brains all over the table! Those noises you heard before Jen was her scooping their brains out, they’re there just lying on the kitchen side!”

It’s all right girls, mummy said, they’re just big old pumpkins, it’s all just part of Halloween 🎃. We’re just going to put them outside so the kids know that they can come here to do some “trick and treating” it’ll be fun, it’s just like a game. The kids dress up in scary costumes, knock on the door, I pretend to be scared and give them some sweets so they don’t play tricks on us. I thought we might play this together Jen whilst we’re out on walkies.

So, with that said and a sigh of relief from us that mummy and daddy hadn’t gone any more crazy than they already are, daddy picked my scariest bandana and off mummy and I went into the garden for walkies. We got lots of people visiting whilst I was out on walkies and for each one mummy said what fantastic costumes they had and gave them some sweets, I heard her talking about scary dinosaurs 🦖, fierce wolves 🐺, skeletons, pumpkins and even a kitty cat. It was the scariest walkies I’ve ever had, far too many people for my liking and it meant mummy wasn’t paying so much attention to me. It did mean though that we were outside for ages which is always a good thing and mummy was happy so I suppose that’s fine with me. Eventually it was dinner time so in we went but the visitors didn’t stop then, ding,ding,ding went the doorbell and little voices saying “Happy Halloween – trick or treat” sometimes it was just a small group but there was also a couple of big groups of kids, all shouting and laughing and trying to grab what they could from mummy’s seemingly bottomless tin of sweets. I was wondering if mummy has a treat tin for us too? I did dress up after all. Then when it was all over and the doorbell didn’t ring anymore we all settled down for a cosy night in.

I thought all the scary stuff was over after that but sadly I was wrong. Humans have this thing called bonfire night and it is by far the most scary night. Some humans like to celebrate it but letting off something mummy calls fireworks, I HATE fireworks. We had them outside our old house and I didn’t like them there either but it was mostly noises all at once in one big go and then it would finish. That was horrible but at least once it was over it was all quiet. Just as mummy was ready to take me for walkies and opened the back door and what bad timing, just as we opened the door there was a loud whoosh and BANG! That was it I was back in the door, mummy closed it took off my lead but before she could even get my harness off I was off and hid under mummy and daddy’s bed. It was as much as mummy could do to purrsuade me to come out so she could get my harness off. “It’s ok Jen” she said you’re safe in here we won’t let anything harm you, you know that” Still I’m not coming out just yet so mummy carried on with things round the house and after a while I ventured out to help her with the litter trays. It had all quietened down so mummy thought we’d try again for our walkies and again just as I got my harness on whizz bang – this time from the other side of the house so off I went back under the bed, harness and everything, refusing to come out. It’s too scary mummy I meowed, I’ll just wait here till it’s safe to come out again. Little by little I crept out, there was the odd bang here and there so I thought I’d be safest being near mummy and daddy so I curled up in the smallest loaf I could make and sat on the bottom of the perch, hidden away but close enough to mummy and daddy for reassurance. It worked and gradually as the bangs got less I ventured onto mummy’s lap so she could protect me. I heard her say to daddy that I was very tense and every muscle in my body was tight and ready to go at any moment. With little strokes and mummy’s arm round me, and with her talking to me quietly, whispering to me that I’d be ok I finally felt safe and gradually, bit by bit started to relax. There were no more bangs and so exhausted from all the stress I drifted off to sleep.

When we went for walkies today mummy found a rocket right outside our back door. She said to me “No wonder it was so loud last night and you were so scared Jen, those fireworks really were very, very close” I might have been scared and ran away and hid but it was just as well as we might have got hit by it, really mummy I actually protected us by running back inside so quickly. As we continued on our walkies, with mummy having put the firework somewhere safe, I thought about the birds I was chasing; the cows I was listening to moo-ing; the bats that fly around and the other animals and how they don’t have houses to hide in or mummy’s like mine to protect them and tell them what’s going on, they must get extra, really scared, maybe they can come and hide under the bed with me next time.