My sister Maddie
Hello, humans. How’s life lately in your territory?
It’s been pretty good in mine. I’m happy to say our human carers haven’t gone away for ages now. They’ve been staying at home most of the time, looking after us in the manner we obviously deserve. This is very good, because if we make enough fuss, halfway between our morning meal and our evening meal, they get tired of hearing us crying and will sometimes give in and give us some extra food. Apparently our temporary carers will be coming back to look after us again before too long, though. That’ll be nice – I’ve missed them – but it does mean we have to be Indoor Cats again for a while, and I’m afraid we get very frustrated about that. I can’t promise I won’t claw at the walls and leave paw prints all over the windows. I might even destroy the odd cushion, but what else can you expect?
My poor sister Maddie had a bit of trouble with her meowing recently. She’s normally much louder than me; Mum says it’s because she seems to have got nearly all of our Siamese genes, (apparently we are 'Ragamese' cats), whereas I got most of the Ragdoll genes which is why I’m bigger, calmer and like to laze around a lot more. I’m a bit offended by that last part, but I have to admit it’s probably true.
Anyway, a little while ago Maddie was making a pathetic little squeaky noise instead of her usual loud meow. Mum talked to someone she calls Google, who seems to know everything, and announced that Maddie probably had laryngitis, but if her voice didn’t come back soon she’d have to call the v-e-t. She spelt it out like that, and I know why. She thinks we cats are too stupid to know how to spell in Human language. And Maddie is absolutely terrified of the v-e-t. I don’t much like going there myself, but Maddie gets herself into a terrible state about it and almost has a nervous breakdown. She’s ‘highly strung’, according to Mum (and Mr Google).
Well, the good news is that after a few days her meow suddenly came back, so thank goodness, she didn’t have to go to the v-e-t after all. Mum and Dad said they were glad she was all right, but not so pleased that she was back to meowing her head off during their favourite TV shows.
As well as being highly strung, Maddie is more of a wanderer than me. This has been something of a surprise to me. When we were first allowed to become Outdoor Cats, I was braver than her. I got up the courage to go Out-The-Front a long while before she did – although I’ve gone off that a bit now. I don’t like the noise those big roaring ‘car’ animals make as they run along the road. But ever since the day she climbed onto the roof and had to be rescued, Maddie seems to have got the taste for adventure. She goes into all the neighbours’ territories, as well as the place called The Allotments, at the end of our own territory. She tells me all about the two other cats she’s made friends with, two territories down from ours. I can’t really be bothered to walk that far. But being female, she likes to have friends to chat to, I suppose. No wonder she loses her voice.
She’s also got better than me at catching the flying prey. Mum and Dad were upset with her recently for bringing a couple of them inside the house, dead, and hiding them, so that they started to smell by the time Mum found them. ‘That’s not very nice,’ I told her. ‘Leave them outside, can’t you?’ I suppose I’m jealous. She’s quicker than me. They usually fly away before I can get them. I did manage to get a frog – but it was the only one so far this year. There seems to be a shortage – I don’t know why. Perhaps Mum could ask Mr Google about that.
The other problem with Maddie is that she doesn’t always come back when she’s called. Our humans like us to stay indoors at night, and at the moment, someone has made the day-times longer, and the night-times shorter, so Mum calls us in while it’s still light. Sometimes it’s a bit annoying, but I don’t really mind: I’m always ready for a lie-down. But Maddie quite often ignores the first couple of times she’s called, and Mum or Dad have to go back out into the Outdoors when it’s really dark, calling her until she finally turns up. Her excuse is that she sits in the middle of a big bush and falls asleep.
I think it’s a bit rude, of Maddie, really, when the humans are just trying to keep us safe. Apparently one of their previous cats was cornered in the dark once by something called a Fox, who might have eaten up the poor cat for its dinner if Mum hadn’t happened to see it, just in the nick of time. I always thought the Fox thing was just an urban cat-myth. I’ve never seen one. But I don’t think I’d want to, anyway. They sound scary. I’d rather come in and sleep somewhere warm and comfortable.
Sometimes I do wake up and worry a bit when I hear Mum yelling for Maddie in the dark. But it's hard to keep worrying when you're curled up on the sofa on a warm blanket. I can't really see the attraction of that bush she sleeps under. But she's my sister, after all, so if I was needed I suppose I'd have to go and look for her. Let's hope it doesn't come to that. I need my sleep.
Take care, Humans, come indoors before dark and don’t let the foxes get you.
Monty x