My cat has 'run' away---why oh why, I asked my Jack Russell.

The header is not a frivolous statement or meant to be demeaning in any way to my cat, Jasmine. I am actually saddened by the fact that she doesn’t even sneak in the back door at night to have her food, despite the fact that I shield the area from Perdy, the Jack Russell who no doubt has made her peaceful life a thing of the past.

For about 18 months, the two pets coexisted; much like the old Soviet Union did with the USA. Both had the capacity to maim or kill---well OK, that is a bit rich, but they kind of got on. I would often see them late at night asleep on the couch, a few feet from one another.

Enter stage right a neighbour who has his elderly Mum living with him. It seems that Jasmine started to visit them and at first that was fine with me. After all, the dear old lady loved to see Jasmine I (who is a very pretty girl) in her yard as she watched the birds (that’s Jasmine watching) and occasionally caught one. Jasmine started to spend more and more time in ‘their yard,’ and I am quite sure they fed her little ‘titbits’ from time to time.

Finally they invited her inside their home and said to me---‘Oh, we don’t feed her and we send her home at night.’ Gradually Jasmine became a bit of a fixture in their home and was soon spending most of the day there, ensconced like some royal personage. They admitted that they fed her and that she ‘often demanded to be let in from about 5 each morning and was not ‘sent’ home until late at night.

What was Perdy’s reaction?  Well of course she started to see Jasmine as a ‘visitor’ and she started to ‘inspect’ Jasmine when she occasionally came home during the day. This of course coincided with me being at work and little lonely, Perdy wanted to ‘play;’ playing in Jack Russell terminology means chasing the crap out of anything that dares to move.

Thus began the final movement of this sad ‘opera.’ Perdy increasingly saw Jasmine as an unwanted and very boring visitor. Jasmine became fearful of the unwanted attention and set up residence on a more permanent basis. My partner and I became a little reticent about paying vet fees and de-fleeing jasmine. I heard the afore mentioned neighbour claiming that he had to ‘flee-bomb his home.’

Hell, what could we do? Things are now so strained between jasmine and us that she completely ignores us and we can no longer catch her in order to de-flee her.

Despite my stunningly unfeeling description of the defunct relationship that exists between Jasmine and us, do not mistake that for one that lacks feeling. We are both deeply grief-stricken. We will get through this in the knowledge that ‘you can’t trust a cat,’ especially if you have a jack Russell and conniving neighbours in the deadly cocktail.

Go well Jasmine, but please send us a glance as you sneak along outside our fence. Perdy misses you too, in her own special way.

Mmmmm---- maybe we shall get a second Jack Russell!