Repost - The Cat Who Came in From the Cold

 Repost - from 29 July 2021

One of the earliest photos F ever took of me - possibly 2008 (Southampton)

I sat at the top of their garden.

Two humans, but only one was there every day.

No cats.

No dogs.

Two motorbikes.

He put out some catfood.

She didn't want a cat.

That didn't last long.

It was Christmas day when I decided to stay indoors.  I had a choice: in with the door closed, or out with the door closed - either way the door was going to be closed.  

She's commanding like that.

So it was in.

I hid behind the long curtains in the lounge.

Red curtains.

They made me 'go home' at night when they went to bed.

I slept under the cloche over the rhubarb.  She had put deep straw around the rhubarb.

It was almost bearable when it snowed.

They had a ladder leaning on the fence and I climbed it to bang on their kitchen window when they got up in the morning.

She followed me one night.

And sat with all the local cats under the big tree where we gathered and looked at one another.in silence.

My first night indoors I spent sitting on a hard chair beside their bed.

I was a bit nervous.

On guard - like under the tree.

That was then.  We lived in Southampton then.

It's my bed now. 

That's the deal we negotiated in the end when I agreed to move to Havant with them (they let me approve the house and garden before we moved).

Now everything is mine, 

And there is no more sleeping in the snow.