Finally, we have a garden. After spending their first year in a loft without the possibility to go outside, we loved that our cats could now play outside. At first, it went really well. We barricaded all the holes and chinks and our four-legged friends showed little interest in anything that happened above them, except for when a bird would fly over. The plants were exciting enough, after all.
In short, the playing outside was going well. They were having fun and we were having fun watching them. Until now, we’d always been there when they were in the garden. It went so well, actually, that this morning I thought ‘I can leave them alone for a minute while I go fix a work thing.’
Big mistake.
After not even ten minutes of me sitting behind my laptop, I get a call from my neighbor. “I think your cats have escaped.”
Oh god… I never had cats before and for sure had never had to think about how to lure those little furry creatures back inside. So, barefoot and in leisurely clothing, I hurry outside to try and catch them. Obviously, nothing worked. The world outside the fence is vast and undiscovered. They were on an adventure and I wasn’t going to stop them.
When you realize that their love for you isn’t enough to convince them to come back, you let go of your dignity surprisingly fast. Resulting in talking in baby language, weird gestures, and a rattle dance with cat food and trays. Fortunately, this seemed to convince our grey kitten Prim to come back in.
Pippa (aka Pipsybipsy), however, had no intention of cutting her adventure short. The neighbor’s garden was obviously far more exciting than my performance art…
However, Pippa also has a flair for the dramatic, because as soon as I started considering giving up (she is chipped, she’ll get home) she showed up, full-on Lion King style, on the fence between our garden and our neighbor’s.
She looks at me, I at her. With my imaginary Jedi powers, I try to will her to come down. But, all of a sudden, she is a little afraid of the height. So I start piling all the garden furniture against the fence and start fumbling with the little bag of food and her tray. Now that she can actually see the food, it appears to be more important than her adventure and she takes a dive. I lure her inside and give them food. Relieved, I text Mark about the ordeal.
The texts were barely sent before they somehow managed to open the backdoor. Pippa shoots outside again and disappears from view. She has already had her treat and was determined to continue her exploration. At this point, I half feel I failed as a cat mom, and half like we are dealing with natural selection and have to let things run their course.
Fortunately, it doesn’t take too long for Pippa to reappear the second time. I get her back inside and quickly lock the door behind me.
Now they are grounded. But there’s a little fly inside, so they don’t seem to mind too much. 😉
