hiya bucks in Bourne End, Flackwell Heath, Marlow, Wycombe, Wooburn April 2014 | Page 16

Confessions of a Cat Sitter Chris Pascoe is the author of A Cat Called Birmingham & You Can Take the Cat Out of Slough, and a columnist for various UK & international magazines. He’s also a cat sitter… I’m currently looking after a long term cat-client named Rollo. He’s a one-eyed ginger tom rogue and one of my favourites. Rollo is one of those that could safely be referred to as ‘a bit unlucky’ on the health front. A 50% failure in maintaining what is generally accepted as the correct number of eyes is obviously testament to that, as is the fact that he’s half-deaf and has a thyroid condition requiring tablets exactly 12 hours apart. His owner has warned that, if I miss a tablet, his remaining eye could ‘explode.’ No pressure on me then. Rollo’s reduced senses obviously make him a bit of a liability when out on his own. In fact, he’s all over the place. His walking up to a growling rotweiller on the common near his home and tentatively sniffing its front paws was a deciding factor in his owner’s decision to allow him out only on a cat-lead. Having to take a cat out for a walk on a lead means of course that I get humiliated regularly. Once every 12 hours in fact. On a patch of common-land mainly frequented by large macho dog owners with large macho dogs, I can regularly be seen with a small ginger cat on a lead. It doesn’t help that the said cat will occasionally trip over my feet or walk straight into a tree. Seriously though, I may be teasing Rollo a bit, but he Cat Comforts Cat Sitting Services Flexible, friendly & professional service We visit your cats in their home while you’re away. Fully insured and recommended. Tel: [phone] Mobile: [phone] Email: [email protected] www.catcomforts.ukpet.com 16 and all cats handle afflictions so well, don’t they? Half blind, half deaf, on constant medication, and Rollo is still happy, friendly and confident. I recently looked after a cat who’d suffered a shattered pelvis and a fractured hip, but within a few weeks she was jumping ten foot walls. Can you see any of us humans managing a recovery like that? Well, of course we couldn’t jump ten foot walls with or without having suffered multiple injuries (Six-Million-Dollar-Man aside) but you know what I mean! Rollo incidentally, isn’t the first cat I’ve taken ‘walkies’. A few years ago, I moved into a converted farm building with my own cat Brum, the hero (possibly anti-hero) of my first book, A Cat Called Birmingham).The farm lay beside a busy main road so I decided using a cat-lead would be a good way of carefully introducing him to his new surroundings. On our first trip out, Brum suddenly jumped onto the top of an eight foot high oil container, wrenching my arm abruptly over my head. Knowing that the top of the container was rusty, my immediate concern was that Brum could fall through into the oil (this being the sort of thing Brum would normally do) and so I didn’t dare let go of the lead. And this, sadly, was how the local farmer and his son found me – my arm stretched into the sky and a cat lead disappearing over the edge of an oil drum. A dry humoured, micky-taking man at the best of times, the farmer couldn’t resist completely ignoring my dilemma and happily talking to me about the weather for five minutes. Eventually, after what seemed an arm-aching eternity, his face darkened, he looked me straight in the eye and whispered conspiratorially ‘You do know you got a cat on a bit o’string there, do you lad?’ I think I answered with something inane like ‘eh, oh, yes I do, thank you...’ but the mind mercifully blocks the details of memories that embarrassing. Having said all that, and embarrassment aside, I have to admit I’m quite looking forward to walking Rollo tonight. We amble quietly over the common as the sun sets, watching the dogs play in the distance, and Rollo will eat a little bit of medicinal grass before eventually looking up at me, signalling his readiness to head back to the house. I’ll wink back, and it’s a gentle walk home for dinner. What better way to end the working day than that? To advertise in Hiya Bucks text or call 07947 349134