A Possible Witness to the Great Tabby Escape!

"Who WAS that masked Tabbycat!?"


We had a bit of excitement on Monday late afternoon, just after supper. I was in the kitchen washing the dishes, and my husband was outside sitting on the front porch holding the cat.

Dexter is an indoor-only cat. A busier-than-you'd-expect road runs in front of our house, and so we keep the Tabby inside for his own safety. He is only allowed out in his carrier, or in the arms of either my husband or myself.

Suddenly the front door burst open! It was my husband and he was frantic! "The cat's GONE!" he shouted. "WHAT!?" I yelled. "THE CAT'S GONE!!!" And we both took off for the front door.

The beat-up old folding chair that we sit on, on the front porch, had finally given up the ghost. It had suddenly broken while my husband was sitting on it holding the cat, sending both of them tumbling to the ground. The cat, our beloved indoor-only boy, was suddenly set loose in the yard!

"Go get the cat treats!" my husband shouted. He ran outside to find the cat, and I scurried to oblige. Before I could get to the front door, the cat came by the door and tried to get in. But since the door was shut, he couldn't get in, and he took off again, running around the house.

My husband found the cat sitting under the deck out back, just wailing as loudly as he could wail. The cat had apparently made two or three laps around the house, trying to find a way back in, then gave up and started to cry.

I rounded the corner of the butterfly garden, shaking the cat treats, calling Dexter's name, when suddenly the cat appeared. We had him between us, my husband behind, me in front. Dexter was running right along the house at top speed, behind the butterfly garden.

"He's headed for the front door!" my husband yelled. And so I moved quickly, running up the steps and throwing open the front door, just in time for the Tabby to run in ahead of me. Slammed the door shut behind us. SAFE!!!!

Dexter ran to his room, jumped up on his table by the window, and GROWLED loudly at the outdoors! (Dexter has only growled TWICE before in his entire life; no, he has never hissed, not even once. I don't think he knows how.) "Take THAT, outdoors!"

He was an indoor-only cat, after all! What a bunch of nonsense! He jumped up to his favorite spot and immediately set about grooming his now-dirty paws, his heart still pounding. (Mine too.)

My husband came back inside and we suddenly looked at him and realized that he was badly scratched up and bleeding. As the two of them fell, the cat put a heck of a scratching on him. My husband was bleeding from several spots on his chest and legs, but worst of all was a huge bloody gash on his right arm.

But he washed up his wounds and by the evening's end, he said they didn't hurt anymore. They still look plenty bad, but things could have been worse; so much worse!

We both figure that the chair was about to break, no matter who sat in it next. "I'm glad it was me," my husband said; "You probably would have hurt your back if it had been you." He would rather have been hurt himself than have it happen to me. *insert big lump in throat here*

Throughout the evening, we rehashed the events. It took a while for the cat to calm down, rejoin the family in the living room for our evening's entertainments. "I don't know what else I should have done," my husband said. I told him that he did everything right; he did good. And he replied: "Dexter and I both knew what to do. We yelled for YOU." *insert even bigger lump in throat here*

And what does this little fella have to do with this tale? This is one of our yard chipmunks who came by for a visit while I was sitting watching for hummingbirds a bit earlier in the day, before the great escape. The chipmunk in this photo was sitting right beside the butterfly garden not long before Dexter galloped through.

The chipmunks like to tease Dexter by running all around the deck, taunting him because they know he can't get them, though he can see them quite well through the glass deck doors. I envision the chipmunk on this day suddenly realizing that there is finally NO DECK DOOR between them, and the cat is FREE. *gulp*

I imagine the chipmunk watching the cat run by at top speed, shaking its head, taking a SECOND look, and shouting (if chipmunks can shout), "Who WAS that masked Tabbycat?" So say hello to the chipmunk, a possible witness to the Great Tabby Escape!

The song: a soundtrack for gone Tabby, gone. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Gone Gone Gone.