Do you ever find yourself being bored with your daily routine and wish for a little excitement and adventure? Well, I did.
Let me tell you what happened to me recently. I was laid relaxing one day, thinking ‘I’m bored, there’s not much happening around here, same old same old, every day’.
Unexpectedly, due to a commotion at the gate with people trying to get in and other people going out, three of us cats slipped out unnoticed and suddenly we found ourselves outside the compound. And no-one seemed to have noticed!
Freedom for the three of us, that is myself (Sylvester) Harry the ginger tom and Penelope, a Siamese look-alike. ‘What do we do now?’ I asked the others – ‘I don’t know’ said Harry, who could never make up his mind. ‘Let’s go and explore’ suggested Penelope, which surprised me, as she was normally a quiet cat who didn’t say much at all usually. I think the freedom made her a little bolder.
‘OK’ I replied. Let’s take a walk and see what we can find. So off we set, down the lane that leads to the main Akrotiri road. What traffic! – streams of vehicles all rushing to get where they were going. ‘Hurry’ I cried ‘let’s not get run over before we even start’ so the three of us ran as fast as we could across the road, and thankfully made it to the other side.
Still no-one came or shouted after us, so we walked at a more leisurely pace and explored the woods around the area. What excitement – new surroundings, strange sights, birds and creatures all around us and no-one to tell us what to do. ‘This is living’ I thought and the other two seemed to be enjoying it too. So we walked and walked, onwards through the wooded forest, and then we came across a clearing where some human beings were working. They were busy attending to the trees so they didn’t notice us as we crept silently by, blending into the background as we do when we are hunting.
It was late afternoon by now, and we said to each other ‘we would be having tea if we had been at the sanctuary’, so as we were all hungry, we started to look for food. That was not as easy as it sounds. We were not quick enough to catch the birds, though Harry did catch a little gecko, but that was too small for all three of us to feed on, so Penelope and I kept on looking. I did happen across an old crust of bread with tuna, left no doubt by one of the workmen, and I shared that with Penny (as I call her).
By the time we had spent doing all this food searching, we were ready for our afternoon nap, so we found a shady spot and settled down for a snooze.
We woke up quite a while later and noticed it was getting near dusk, so we carried on walking, thinking to get back to the sanctuary and our own beds for the night. That was the first problem – we tried and tried but just couldn’t find the right way back, we just kept going down different paths and seemed to be getting further into the forest.
‘This is not good’ I said – ‘don’t you know the way, Harry’. He replied ‘I’m not a boy scout; all I do is sit around and sleep all day long. Penny whimpered’ I don’t like being lost’. ‘Don’t start crying’ I said ‘it can’t be that difficult’
Then the second problem happened – Penny stood on a thorn and hurt her paw, but there were no helpers around to help her, so she had to limp along on three legs, which slowed us down. Harry was turning out to be a grump and was no fun at all. ‘This is going to take forever’ he said ‘I didn’t want to come in the first place’. ‘So it’s all my fault is it?’ I replied. ‘Well, no-one forced you’.
This was getting us nowhere, and even I was beginning to regret our break for freedom, it wasn’t the fun I expected it to be. Anyway, we suddenly came across an opening and there in front of us was the main road we had crossed a while ago – quite long while ago it seemed and now it was getting dark.
So we crossed the road, which was not quite so busy now and eventually found the lane leading back to the sanctuary. Then we had problem number three – it was all locked up for the night!
‘Oh my dear’ cried Penny, ‘dear oh dear’ said Harry. I stayed quiet, thinking perhaps we can climb the fence and break in. It was starting to get colder and we so wanted to be in our beds in the shelter. Oh why, oh why did we break out?
So we huddled together for some warmth, and must have dozed off, because the next thing I remember is one of the helpers waking us up saying ‘don’t you want any breakfast then?’ and we were INSIDE the compound! How did that happen?
Then slowly it dawned on me, I had fallen asleep and dreamed it all – it had never really happened – oh Glory be! Never again would I wish for excitement and adventure – we were really happy to be at the Malcolm Cat Sanctuary with all the helpers and feeders looking after us, no uncertainty over meals and our health and safety being taken care of constantly, every day – give us the old boredom any day.
Joy of joys – see you at the sanctuary!
Sylvester
Find us on facebook Here
