Mysterious Adventures of Special Cat

The cats were outside in the courtyard this morning while the builders were busy working on the deck.  The builders each have a large dog - dobe cross and a ridgeback cross.  Both are lovely dogs and just hang out in the car port, occasionally wandering down to see what the builders are up to.  Zari is a bit wary of them, so was busy being brave outside then being a chicken and coming back inside.  Basil was very brave.  Or oblivious.  Probably oblivious.  Either way, he wasn't fussed.  So not fussed in fact that he jumped* the fence and went walkies.  He usually comes back pretty quickly, so I wasn't too concerned.

Midday rolled around, still no Basil.

It got to 2pm and Zari started getting antsy.  I assumed all the building and dog activity had stopped him from coming home, but he'd reappear after they left for the day.

5pm, the builders were gone and I started to worry that the numpty would get himself squashed in rush hour traffic.  Zari continued pacing.

Dinner time came and went (7pm, or 6:00 ...or 5:30 depending on when Basil decides he's staaaarrving and commences nagging).  Still no Basil.  I went outside and very loudly opened a tin of tuna, very loudly dished it up into his food bowl - not forgetting to loudly scrape out every last drop of sauce from the tin.  Zari chowed down.  

We left the food out there, hoping the smell of tuna would waft down the street and entice him home.  Instead we enticed a blackbird.  I did not know blackbirds liked tuna.

That's a bit of tuna on the ground in front of her.

At 7:45 I decided to go for a walk before it got dark and see if he was hiding somewhere down the road.  Nev assures me cats don't get lost, but I wouldn't have put it past Basil.  I was half way down the hill when I got a text saying he'd arrived home.  

The smell hit me as soon as I entered the room.  God it was awful.  So very foul.  He was still puffing 5 minutes after arriving home (haha fatty) and his paw pads were a bit raw looking.  Otherwise no obvious sore points, but I couldn't stand being near him for too long...!  

Do you know what happens to cats that smell like a swamp? 

Now he smells like porridge.  

Whatever he got up to today on his smelly swamp adventure, he's too busy recovering to nag for dinner.  Zari's just glad she doesn't smell like porridge too.




*  Awkwardly climbed/scrambled/heaved his way over