We're back home from the island. I wish I could say the trip went well,
but travelling with Caliban is never easy.
We almost didn't travel with Caliban at all. My sister was taking us
(me, the cats and my niece) to a ****t from which the bus to Helsinki
starts. She had never driven the boat to this ****t, and was not sure
about the route, so we were supposed to set out in good time before
2.30, when the bus was leaving.
At 1.30, we were all set to go, but there was no sign of Caliban.
Miranda was meatloafing on my bed; I think she knew what was up and she
was quite content to be going home. But Caliban would not come, though I
wandered around the headland shaking a bag of kibble and calling his
name. I thought, 'great, we'll have to wait until tomorrow to catch
another bus.'
At a few minutes to 2, my other sister called to me, 'here he is!' I
called him and shook the kibble bag, and he came running like a streaked
lightning. I rushed him into the shed I sleep in, bundled him into the
carrier, and then we rushed off in the boat. We'd only gone a few
minutes when I noticed I'd forgotten my jacket. The jacket was not such
a big deal, but my keys were its pocket, so I needed it to get home.
My long-suffering eldest sister sister promptly turned the boat around
and we rode our own backwash back to the island where my other sister
was still watching us go, screamed at her 'Marina's jacket! Marina's
jacket!' She rushed to my shed and brought it, threw it to my nephew
(also on the boat), luckily it didn't fall in the sea, and we were off
again.
Luckily it was fair weather and the sea was calm, so we made very good
time and we were there 5 minutes before the bus was scheduled to start.
So we made it. Whew! My sisters saved the day, again.
Caliban had been howling all the way on the boat, and he continued for
the first 1.5 hours on the busThen he settled down to a bout of howling
every half hour or so. By the time we got a taxi from the bus station,
he was exhausted, and even the driver commented on how quiet my cats were.
Miranda, typically, was the ideal traveller - she just meatloafs in her
carrier, looking perfectly calm and ladylike and never saying a thing.
Such a good girl.
At home, the cats could harldy wait until I opened the zippers and
latches to burst out of their carriers and check out that their place
was as it should be. When I opened the door to the enclosure., we upset
a bird that seems to have been nesting right outside the wall around my
patio, and it made a terrible racket, giving the cats something to
excite them and keep them occupied for hours. They seem perfectly happy
to be home again.
--
Marina, Miranda and Caliban. In loving memory of Frank and Nikki.
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