Mum – as I have said before has an appetite like a sparrow with a terminal disease and there are occasions when she doesn’t finish her meal. This is something which is heartily approved of by The Puss though after eating real meat we tend to have the mad half hour… Liver produces the most effective results though chicken had the most interesting to date.
The Puss – having eaten a substantial part of a chicken breast – was bouncing off the walls – literally and I had donned my suit, a clean white shirt and a bow tie to go to an evening wedding reception. This was the ideal moment for him to stop – briefly – in the fireplace, look up and
there is a moment when you can see what is going to happen but there is no time to stop it. Oliver leaped into the chimney. Mine house is some three hundred years old and the chimney is – apparently – fine for climbing and all I could do was listen to the sounds of rummaging as he gained height. My imagination conjoured images of dismantling the house to rescue him but thankfully his skills of exploration were sufficient to allow him to return to the dining room.
As the – formerly black – now grey cat emerged from the darkness of the chimney my initial heartfelt concerns for his safety moved into an all too real awareness of the possibilities created by a sooty cat loose in the house so relief was expressed in the single word:
OUT!
