El Andalous - Three Cats

 

Milo

Isa

Gino

My upstairs neighbour has gone away for two months to Miami (which is where she’s from; well, she’s from everywhere, since she’s also Egyptian, and also has an Italian connection somewhere, and her husband is English). I volunteered to look after her three cats while she was away, on condition that she explained exactly what I had to do. I’ve never owned a cat, and I grew up mostly with dogs, so cats are a bit of an unknown quantity for me.

It didn’t seem too bad – scoop out the litter, top up their food and water, clean the litter trays every now and then. Keep one cat in the bedroom and bathroom annex because one of the other two cats will kill it if it sees it (oops). Everything I needed was left for me, plus some money should I need to buy additional food or litter. I insisted they demonstrate how to scoop out the litter, which they did (and this gave me greater confidence as I really was clueless). The other two cats were outdoor cats, so the balcony door is left open all the time so they can come and go as they please.

It sounded pretty easy and I thought it might be fun to get to know the cats.

The three cats are Gino (the indoor cat in the bedroom), Isa (the cat that hates Gino), and Milo (cool cat).

The first day, I went in to scoop Gino’s litter and top up the food and water. Gino dashed under the bed straight away, absolutely petrified of me. I didn’t think any more about it. I replenished all the supplies, went to check that Gino was still under the bed…  but he wasn’t there. Uh oh.

I looked everywhere, but he was nowhere to be seen. He must have darted out and ran away as soon as he could. I’ve never seen a cat move as fast as Gino can. I didn’t even see him escape. To double-check, I got two other neighbours to help me hunt for Gino, but none of us could find him. We gave up and thought we’d see if Gino would just turn up again.

Day one, and I’d already lost one cat. It wasn’t a good start. I was a complete and utter failure.

Next day, there were bits of white fur strewn across the living room. It looked like Isa had attacked Gino when he tried to return. My stress levels rose. What if Gino needed the vet? At one point I spotted Gino sitting with Milo on the fence at El Andalous. He looked healthy, so that was a relief. Gino appeared to be going to come towards me, but instead he darted behind the fence and into the derelict building (which I can’t access). At least he was alive.

I checked the flat later in the day and there was urine and faeces all over the bathroom floor; a cupboard had been yanked out. But no Gino. Isa had won again. Poor Gino.

I spent the evening in my neighbour’s flat, hoping Gino would try to return again. Instead, Isa came and appeared to be waiting for Gino to arrive so that she could terrorize him. I managed to entice Isa into the second bedroom and shut her in. She wasn’t happy and I could hear her bounding about. I had visions of the door being scratched or the window being broken. Then there was silence. At midnight, still no Gino.

Next morning, I went to the flat again. Hurrah! Gino was in his part of the flat. He still fled from me at lightning speed, but at least he stayed in his home territory. I was able to shut him back in and then let Isa out. To my surprise, Isa was sleeping quite happily and didn’t move straight away. There was no sign of damage from all her bounding about. Phew.

So, all’s well that ends well. But it was a baptism of fire.