In the morning she was upstairs with Charlie and myself.
Then she vanished.
What we think happened was that she was either chased or attacked by another cat in the garden (possibly Ralph!), and jumped over the fence to escape - then discovered she couldn't get back. We had an absolute downpour on Tuesday that lasted all night and we were out of our minds worrying about her. We called her, we walked around the local streets searching, we asked people to look out for her, but nothing. It was a long sleepless night (well unless you were Charlie who took complete advantage of the situation by stealing Pepper's spot on the bed).
By Wednesday morning I'd informed Pet-Log (she is identi-chipped) that she was missing, I'd put an alert on Facebook, and a local radio station asked people to search their gardens/sheds etc for her. I decided to try calling to her one more time from our garden, so out in the rain I went with umbrella and Charlie (who always likes to know what's going on). Amazingly, after calling her name (without much hope it has to be said), I heard a plaintive miaow coming from the gardens behind ours. Standing on some bricks to look over the fence I was able to see Pepper running frantically backwards and forwards, crying pitifully but unable to get to me as the gardens there are at a much lower level than ours. I tried encouraging her to jump up and climb the fence but she couldn't, and so I tested each fence panel to see if there was one I could life up or remove, finally finding a narrow one right in the corner that I was able to pull off. Then suddenly there she was jumping into the garden, very wet, cold and muddy, but with no injuries apart from a couple of scratches.
We were so glad to have her back safe and sound . She seemed rather subdued, stiff and uncomfortable for a day or so, but after a few good naps and meals seemed back to her old self. Thank you so much to all those who helped and who spread the word about her, and especially to Corrie the nurse at the vets who got in touch with the radio station.
Getting dried off in her towel...
Fur a bit spikey from all the rain and mud...
Glad to be home...
And finally... I'd just like to let everyone know that I now have a website for my pet photography! It's a work in progress at the moment but I'm pretty pleased with it. So if you're in the UK and want some beautiful pics of your pets please get in touch. It's at www.focusonpetsphotography.co.uk
For more kitty news visit Gattina's Cats on Tuesday.
