Hide and Seek

Recently I was staying in York – such a beautiful city!

I was in this great 2 bedroom apartment, not too far from the city centre, and my entire responsibility was to look after Pasha, a 12 year old short haired pussy cat who generally sleeps all day.

If you are now confused as to what the hell I am talking about…. I was Housesitting! Its a great concept and I have been housesitting on and off for 4 years now.

In a nutshell the traveller gets to stay in a private home and look after the owner’s beloved pets whilst they are away on a holiday and the exchange is one of service rather than money.

Every place is different based on the requirements of the home owner and you get to see that before you apply for the gig but essentially the rules are pretty simple

1 Look after the home as if it were your own or even better.

2 Maintain all the usual requirements like putting out the bins.

3 Clean up any mess you might make and leave the place looking just as it did when you arrived

4 If you accidentally break something replace it

…..oh and look after the pet(s) and let the owner know how they are doing.

Essentially its like playing auntie to your sibling’s children.

Its not for long so you can give them extra treats and spoil them whilst their parents are away!

Remember this is the key….. Look after the Pets!

Loosing pets is not a good look!

So as I was saying I was staying in York and Pasha was my new BFF ( Best Feline Friend ) for 2 weeks.

The first 2 days passed uneventfully… Pasha ate her food, slept all day near where I was working or reading, came outside with me when I went out the back for some lovely Autumn sunshine and had a little play of her own. I took cute photos of her and sent them to Henrice, Pasha’s mum, just to let her know that I was being a good auntie and all was good in my world.

Day 3

…started out the same.

The owner next door was doing some renovations in his front garden area and it was a bit dusty and noisy but nothing else to report.

I fed Pasha her breakfast, gave her some cat loving and then went to the study to work.

I noticed Pasha playing guardian cat outside the study door, a game she really loved playing, her mum had told me.

A few hours passed and I went downstairs to make a cup of tea and called for Pasha but she wasn’t around. To be completely honest I didn’t really think anything of this as Pasha had a cat door and Henrice had told me that she went in and out pretty much as it suited her, as cats do!

Back to work for a couple of hours and then same routine… and still no Pasha.

Well at this stage I did get a little worried and went out and asked the next door neighbour if he had seen Pasha

‘No not all day’

Mmmm

A few of the neighbours were out and about so I introduced myself and asked them all if they had seen Pasha.

‘No no today’

bigger mmmm

I then checked again all through the house!

Now Henrice had warned me that Pasha liked to find small quite places to sleep including cupboards so I double checked every place I could think of including the bathroom linen press but still no Pasha.

I walked all around the nearby streets calling her name and rattling her food – plenty of other cats came up and tried to convince me they were Pasha but I wasn’t fooled for a minute!

By this time it was starting to get dark and I was starting to get worried.

Now came the moment of truth!

I had to fess up and contact Henrice and say…

‘Honey I lost the cat!’

I knocked on neighbours doors just to see if maybe Pasha, the sneaky cat, had somehow crept into their house and hidden herself in a cupboard.

Gotta say some of the looks I got were not particularly inspiring…you know – ‘this lady is a bit loopy’ type of looks.

By then it was dark and still no Pasha and eventually I went to bed sending a little prayer to the Goddess of Cats and House-sitters to please bring me back my cat!

Day 4

Still no Pasha.

I had work on in the morning but by lunchtime I was really worried.

I have never felt quite so bad having to keep in touch with Henrice and keep telling her that there was no sign of Pasha.

I had checked the sheds next door, knocked on doors and asked if maybe there was a cat hiding in their homes…

‘no crazy cat lady’, I could see them thinking to themselves!

I then started the awful process of ringing around to see if Pasha had been found by the local VET, RSPCA, Facebook cat page in York but nothing!.

Bloody Hell I had really lost the cat – the one and only important thing that I was supposed to do as a House-sitter….and I had failed and failed really badly!

So finally in desperation I researched the house.

Now let me remind you I had already done this at least 3 times – every cupboard in every room, even the washing machine, but I was about to write ‘have you seen this cat posters’ to put into letter boxes in the neighbourhood, so this was my one last desperate option.

Last room to check was the bathroom and I as opened the linen press….hey presto out comes Pasha stretching and yawning like..