We believe that she shinned up our apple tree onto a shed, on to next doors workshop and was gone. This little madam does not do house calls normally preferring to snuggle down in the warmth of her chair (with cushion) next to the radiator in the kitchen or laying sprawled out in front of the glowing fire. Other favourites are her rucksack that she likes to sleep on and occasionally wake up and then give the bag a jolly good scratching or spreading herself across the narrow kitchen floor so you have to make an exaggerated step over her to get to the other end of the kitchen. In general she prefers the indoors only venturing out to watch the birds in any one of her several 'bird hides'.
So when Scribble disappeared it was a true concern for us because although it was only an hour we know that once over the wall she really struggles to find a way back into our garden. So Stephen and I started the hunt for the blessed ball of fur at about 2pm. This mainly consisted of us going out and about calling her name. Tammy would be a good cat name to call or maybe Blacky or Snowy, all good names that any one overhearing the call would say to themselves ahh they have probably lost their Dog or Cat, but no Claire being fairly young at the time of being given the responsibility of naming her cat chose............ Scribble!
"Scribble, here Scribble, come on girl", then a little louder as there is no response.... "Scribble, dinner, here girl, come on Scribble", and finally as desperation starts to ebb in we find ourselves shouting more than calling "SCRIBBLE, SCRIBBLE, HERE SCRIBBLE, COME ON GIRL, COME ON, SCRIBBLE HERE GIRL"
Now if I was a neighbour I'd imagine that they would sit in their houses saying to each other, "why is that guy shouting out the word scribble randomly? He's probably a bit simple in the head poor dear".
So obviously nothing, not a meow, absolutely nothing. Now I feel I know this cat and I was sure that she was not very close by and that she would not be home safe and sound that night so we started to spread out our search to a wider field, including the wider fields. We really pulled the stops out as 3pm became 4pm and slowly but inevitably the dusk inched in and 5pm became 6pm ad still no sign of her. I visited the Farm nearby where the farmer opened up his barns and let me have a good look around, "SCRIBBLE" I called, the Farmer gave me a look, "It's her name". I clarified.
"Why is she called that", he inquired.
Well in truth, I thought, I don't know why she is called Scribble. I don't think I ever got a satisfactory answer to the question when I originally asked her why she wanted to call it Scribble, you'd think that I might have pursued the question but probably for an easy life I think that I just accepted it. In hindsight it was decided upon by my daughter in what seemed like an instant,
"What are you going to call you cat then Claire?"
Pause for though,
"Scribble" she finally replied. I think it was a bit like those names you have to come up with for Pub quizzes. You knew well in advance that you were going to the quiz and who was going to be in your group but you completely forget that you need a name until the guy with the pen is waiting by the flip chart hassling you for the teams name.
"Can I have your teams name please" and all of a sudden you have the weight of the whole world on your shoulders as you try to come up with the most clever name.
"Gin'll Fix It", someone suggests, "The Old Gits" a lacklustre imagination puts forward, then the team start blurting one after another out like popcorn popping in the pan....
"The famous five" (because they are the only group with five as all the the others have six people and no one knows where Ed has got to), "The no hoper's", "The lost souls", "Away with the fairies", The weakest link", then it'll twist a bit as they realise they can make it more difficult for the person announcing the score updates...
"The losers", "Ken Dodd's dad's dog's dead" or "Wait a minute I need a wee" or "The Woozy Bankers" or "Llareggub" which we have used being the name of the Welsh village in Dylan Thomas's Undermilk Wood but ruder when spelt backwards and to be really mean "llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwrndrobwillantysillogogogoch train spotting society".
This normally really gets the team in fits of giggles until they realise that they have to give their team name in now and they shout out in a panic "The Bend it like Beckhams" and in an instant all their potential kudos has dissolved away and they are doomed to 5th place. Well I think that is why Claire blurted out "Scribble" as her new cats name there was just nothing else there to supersede that thought.
So in answer to the Farmer I just said "My daughter came up with it" and we left it there.
We carried on walking about the village calling her name late into the evening, but not a sausage. Eventually having lost the best part of my working day we had to concede that we were meowing up the wrong tree and gave up.
The next morning she had not returned and so I and Alison went on another walk around the village humiliating ourselves by shouting out Scribbles name, nothing. At this point Alison had to work and I had to collect Claire from University so we could only hope that her cat returned soon as Claire would be devastated otherwise. Alison was to phone me if the cat turned up. Well we drove across to Peterborough where I was to meet Claire then started home hoping to receive a good news call, still nothing. We stopped for lunch and I broke the bad news to Claire over an all you can eat Pizza Hut meal deal (the best sort). Obviously this put a bit of a damper on the homecoming and things were a little glum for the remainder of the journey.
We got home at about 3-4pm and Scribble had now been 'lost' for well over 24hours, she had never been away so long and things were looking black now. Claire sneaked out of the house to make some attempts to find her and whilst I knew this would make her feel that at least she tried I knew that she was now clutching at straws. However I felt I was ready to be humiliated again and followed her out to the street to start shouting that now quite embarrassing name. I went out of the back gate to see where Claire had got to, only to find her walking back towards the house with a little black and white Scribble clutched firmly in her arms. Well I was amazed. "Where did you find her?" I asked, "I just called her name and saw a cat run across the road, so I went around the corner and there she was" After all those hours looking and sounding like an idiot Claire returns home calls once or twice and the little bitch comes running to her like a flaming homing pigeon!
Later on in doors we conducted a test. Stephen and I called Scribble to beckon her over to us and an ear merely twitched in our direction.Then Claire hid in the next room and she called the cat, quick as a flash she run to her, well no wonder we never got her as clearly we were on a hiding to nothing from the start. WOMEN!
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