Barnikins.

[lolabobs]

About a week ago, when going to bed I noticed my wardrobe door was a little ajar - I shut it, but did the cat sweep first. I put my hand on warm fur, so pulled said feline out and into my arms.

Cue mutual squawking as it turned out this was Not My Cat. Not My Cat was most indignant at being thus disturbed and absolutely furious at being held. Struggle and scratches ensued and he fled. (Pausing only to do a cartoon run on the spot as he couldn't get to grips with my laminate floorboards.)

NMC was to be seen again, he walked into my front room a couple of days ago, took one look at me and scarpered. (Still not fully on top of the flooring situation.) He then took up residence in the garden shed thing I have. (That I leave open with a cushion in to allow any sad cats to shelter in overnight/from the rain.) Sh. There's a reason I have so many cats.

Anyhoo.

This particular NMC was soooo skinny and threadbare he worried me. But then today I found a Missing Cat poster and phone calls were made and soon there were folk knocking on my door. I opened the door and said that I couldn't promise NMC was their cat, but to come and see.

(As an aside, the woman at the door said "Oh yes, you've got lots of cats yourself haven't you?" I was a little perturbed as the house was clean, moderately hair free and my cats were all absent. I became more perturbed...turns out they back on to my house somehow and "We see you." My sense of 'doing a good turn' wavered a little at this point. And I made a mental note to replace the broken blind in the spare bedroom.)

Back to cat. They explained that they didn't expect it to be their cat as he'd been missing since Christmas Day and was over 20years old.

And then there was much joy and exclamations of "Barnikins!" (And many loud yowling, complaining, miaows.)

Aw!

Comments

[whatho.livejournal.com]

Aw! How lovely - I'd have hated for Tinker to go missing ... well, at any time, obviously, but even moreso when he was geriatric. So glad they got him back. Also, I have never found a strange cat in my wardrobe. I do not consider this fair.

[whatho.livejournal.com]

(Also I love Barnikins' total lack of gratitude.)

[lolabobs.livejournal.com]

What's happened with Bruce now, seems like some really screwed up reverse Karma.

(Also, get a catflap, you'll find strange cats everywhere)

[whatho.livejournal.com]

We've always had catflaps and we have had a couple of invaders in the past, but they were always seen off by our other cats (it's happened once here in my parents' house as well), usually before we've even caught sight of the invader. I think a cat did come in one night after Tinker died because the flap was slightly open, but I never saw it myself, and nothing's come in since - probably they realised there was no food for them here anymore.

[lolabobs.livejournal.com]

Ah, my cats are rubbish at seeing other cats off (as evidenced by the large number of cats that owned me, having started at 2)

I think some of the cats local to me seem to come in just for warmth and comfort when the old fashioned type of owners chuck them out at night. Mum has one who sleeps on her kitchen side overnight - it's always warm and covered in tufts of fur when she gets up!

[curiositykate.livejournal.com]

Yay! Lucky Barnikins!

By the way, I keep meaning to tell you something! Remember those little mice that you sent Milo last year? Well, he played with them for a while before losing them under the fridge or wherever it is he loses these things. One day when Hugo had been here for a couple of weeks, he suddenly produced one of them out of nowhere and it has been his absolute favourite toy ever since! He has a lot of little toys but I think the reason why he likes that one best is because it's lighter than the others so he can throw it into the air by himself. It's lovely to watch him leaping around with it! So thank you again! ♥

[lolabobs.livejournal.com]

Hey - yep, I'm please for Barnikins, more so in a way, now that I truly know what his owners were going through.


I'm very glad that Hugo likes the little mouse though!


(Did you ever get the other of the books I sent you? I know the other one went awol but was hopeful at least one got there?)

[mrs-sweetpeach.livejournal.com]

I'm very glad Barnikins was successfully reunited with his humans.

As for NMC stories, close to thirty years ago I lived with a guy named Bruce. Bruce insisted on keeping one of the downstairs windows propped open with a can of pipe tobacco, so that the cats could come and go as they pleased. One day I awoke to a small grey adolescent cat sleeping on my chest. He put up a ferocious fight and soon clawed his way free, but during the struggle I was able to determine that he really wasn't one of ours, even though he was nearly identical to the grey cat born to our ginger. He couldn't have been one of hers, though, as we'd had her fixed after her first litter. We'd have had her fixed sooner, only she was already pregnant when she was found by my boyfriend (who was neither Bruce nor Jebra).

[lolabobs.livejournal.com]

goodness! I've not yet had a stray sleep on me (although mine fight for the privilege!)

(And it was exactly that situation wth Phoebe, we rescued her but she was already pregnant. We got her done as soon as it was possible after her litter - and it meant we got the joy of rearing kittens and I got to keep Albert too.)

As for Barnikins, I just hope the Karma fairy is out there and sends Bruce back home to me.

[lydia-petze.livejournal.com]

Oh, yay! :D

[lolabobs.livejournal.com]

I'm glad Barnikins got home safely, but can't help feeling that Karma has gone in reverse now that Bruce has gone missing :(

I'm still glad about Barney though of course.

[hardboiledbaby]

Never a dull moment at Lola's House! :)

[lolabobs.livejournal.com]

I really wish there were!