Freddie and Gemma – 2

Introducing Freddie and Gemma the main characters in the books Diary of a Buddhist Cat and Our Cats in Amsterdam. 

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Freddie decided to attack Gemma from his hiding place. He raised his backside, wiggled his hips, and leapt over the box expecting Gemma to be surprised and run away. Instead, she looked at Freddie with what approached a sneer and swatted him on the nose when he got into range. 

Freddie decided this was no fun and ran to the front door where he started to miaow. From what the cat shelter had told us, Freddie had lived in a single room in a house prior to going to the shelter, and had never been allowed outside. I was unsure how he’d react, especially as the grass hadn’t been cut and was very wet after several days of rain. 

I opened the door and Freddie ran outside and down the front steps. I followed as he ran into the grass. After three or four bounds Freddie started to slow down and he began to miaow. He stopped and lifted up his front-left paw and his back-right paw. He looked around at me with a degree of panic in his eyes and began what I would later call his “distress miaow”. I ran over and picked him up and took him inside. His legs were soaked as was his tummy and chest fur. 

I took him into the bathroom and tried to place him in the bath, but he spread his legs wide and started to gyrate them around making it almost impossible to hold him. He escaped from my grasp, ran into the bedroom, and hid under the bed. I had grabbed a towel in order to dry him and I threw this over him. He backed out from under the bed still covered in the towel and hit a bedside table, which knocked over a small glass of water. 

I picked up the towel containing Freddie and took it back to the bathroom where I dried him on the floor despite his yowling. He scratched me a couple of times, but nothing malicious. Gemma came to see what all the fuss was about and licked Freddie’s chest fur in a very motherly way. Once Freddie was dry, we decided to give him some food and he ate the whole plate in what seemed like one gulp.