The Double Life of a Melville Cat

2Summers | 22 September 2011
johannesburg melville lucky gardens animals trees cats pets

This guest post was inspired by the Blog of Otis.

Hello, I’m Squeak. I also have another name, but I’m keeping it a secret for now.

This is me, Squeak. (Photo courtesy of Joe.)

Heather asked me to write a post for her blog so I can tell you about my extraordinary achievement. Every cat gets nine lives, but we’re supposed to live them one at a time, not concurrently. Only the most charming, intelligent cats are able to live two lives at once. I am one of those cats.

Around this time last year, I was living a regular cat life at a house in Melville. I had a nice human, Ms. M, to care for me, and other cats and dogs to play with. I had food and a place to sleep. But I wanted more.

I discovered another house around the corner, with a beautiful garden and two new people in it. I liked that garden a lot so I started hanging around there. The people who live there are Joe and Heather. They didn’t pay much attention to me at first. One time I stuck my head in their window to have a look around. Heather took my picture but she didn’t invite me in. How rude.

Here I am, looking at Heather through the window.

There was another cat, Fruffy, who lived next door to the beautiful garden. He was bigger than me and always tried to chase me away. But I’m a brave cat and I wouldn’t back down.

As the months went on, I could see that Heather and Joe were growing to admire me. They let me sit on their porch when they had coffee or lunch outside. I sat under their chairs and sometimes they fed me chicken. They talked about me and wondered if I needed humans to take care of me. I don’t wear a collar so there was no way for them to know about my other house. They used big words like ‘commitment’ and ‘allergies’. I stayed quiet.

Heather and Joe love to take my photo. Here’s a picture of me enjoying the garden.

Winter arrived and it was cold outside. When I came to Joe and Heather’s window, they invited me in to sit on their heated rug. They gave me milk and tuna. They brought me a scratching block and some catnip. I love catnip.

I spent lots of time at Joe and Heather’s, but I still went back to my other house at night. Joe and Heather seemed a little confused about my habits but they were happy when I came to visit every day. They started calling me Squeak, because I squeak at them a lot.

Joe and Heather had learned to love me, and they knew nothing about my other life. I was getting twice the love and twice the food of a normal cat. I had achieved the impossible.

Heather went away for a while and I could see Joe was lonely. I decided to give him some extra attention. I followed him around the garden and helped him pull weeds.

Here I am helping Joe in the garden.

I found a favorite chair to sleep on, and began spending the night in Joe’s house.

Joe took this picture while I was trying to sleep.

Heather came back eventually, and found me living with Joe. I think she may have been a little jealous because a few days later, she made Joe put me in a cage and they took me to that scary place called the vet. At the vet’s office, as if things weren’t bad enough already, the doctor stuck her hand between my legs. How rude.

‘It’s a neutered male,’ the doctor said.

‘What? It’s a boy!’ Heather shouted.

Heather and Joe laughed and laughed. For all that time they had thought I was a girl. Ha ha. We all felt happy when we got back home.

The next day, when I was visiting Ms. M at my other house, Lucky showed up. Lucky lives with Heather and Joe. Lucky saw me and asked Ms. M if I belonged to her. Uh-oh. My cover was blown. Lucky told Ms. M about my life with Heather and Joe. Ms. M told Lucky that Heather and Joe musn’t feed me anymore!

I went back to Heather and Joe’s later, and I could tell they’d heard the news. They seemed sad and unsure about what to say to me. They didn’t take my food away at first. But a couple of days later, I heard Heather on the telephone. I realized she was talking with Ms. M. because she said Ms. M’s name. After Heather hung up, she was very sad. She went to the kitchen and put my food bowl away.

I’m feeling pretty confused now. Maybe living two lives at once was a bad idea.

I initially thought that living multiple lives was fun. But maybe I’ve made a mistake.

I’m not sure what will happen next. I will wait and see.

Read the next post from Squeak. And another post here, and here.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Squeak’s story might sound humorous. But I’m actually devastated over the situation and so is Joe. I’m sure Ms. M is too. We’re going to meet up tonight to discuss things.

Five months ago I wrote a guest post for Notes From Africa about indoor-outdoor cats. I wrote about the pros and cons of letting house cats outside, and I even included my photo of Squeak looking through our window. When discussing the disadvantages of having an outdoor cat, I didn’t even consider the possibility that outdoor cats can decide to adopt two owners at once! Oh, the irony.

Squeak will keep you posted on any developments.