Cross cat

If a pig loses its voice, is it disgruntled?

A couple of days ago I woke with a start, aware there had been a strange noise downstairs. I lay quietly listening for a moment or two and concluded it must have been an early postal delivery. When I went downstairs there was no post, but I noticed a clump of ginger cat hair under the table in the dining area and vaguely wondered where it had come from.

Later on as I was watering the house plants I discovered a piece of silver gaffer tape lying near the patio doors. The previous occupants had taped up the cat flat in the patio windows with silver gaffer tape - I checked, and sure enough the cat flat was no longer firmly sealed. Piecing the evidence together, I began to wonder if the noise I had heard was a cat going out of the cat flap. There's a large ginger tom in the neighbourhood which is highly unpopular with all the other cat owners. They say that ever since he was involved in a road traffic accident, he became vicious to an extreme. I surmised the clump of ginger hair could have been his.

Sure enough, today as I was coming downstairs I heard the sound of the cat flap closing, and was in time to see the ginger tom walking away down the garden. It's bad enough that the garden serves as a public convenience for the neighbourhood cats - there are at least 7 regular visitors. I don't want them finding their way indoors, too. Today I made sure the flap was sealed shut again. This evening I was sitting watching TV when I noticed the ginger cat, nose pressed against the cat flap, glowering at me, his tail twitching with rage! Boy, did he look disgruntled!

PS Later in the evening I heard a cat scrabbling at the cat flap - I drew back the curtain and a black and white cat miaoued at me, asking to be let in. Seems the ginger tom wasn't the only intruder whilst the cat flap was unsealed.