Oh Happy, Happy, New Year!

Life is full of ups and downs isn't it? We went to a really fun house party last night (that's New Year's Eve in case you're still hammered) and saw 2007 arrive in style. It wasn't a seriously late night as we were home by 2am. However, our fabulous cat Henry, was nowhere to be seen. Then we thought about it. The last time we'd seen the little fella was when we arrived back from doing a bit of shopping at 1.15pm that afternoon.

Now our cat is really, really great. He's nearly 5 and still very inquisitive which means he has more than used up his nine lives by now. The other thing about Henry is that he is very much a creature of habit, like many felines. So when we got home in the early hours of 2007 and he didn't appear from nowhere and trot at speed alongside our car, we knew he'd be in the house (via his groovy little catflap) waiting for some New Year food. As it turned out, he wasn't in the house either. We were fairly concerned but knew that he had done this sort of thing a couple of times before. However, what made the situation a little more unsettling was that he'd not been around since early afternoon. He never does that but realising there was nothing we could do at that time, we turned in for the night.

I didn't sleep well. I got up a couple of times in the night but Henry was nowhere to be found. By 8.30 we had both been awake for quite a while. We'd been calling for the cat and out the front and back doors but to no avail. Now I know it sounds a bit soft when people get upset over pets but hey, you give them plenty of love and affection over the years and of course you care about them. Suffice to say, the mood in the house was one of real sadness and sense that something really bad had happened to our cracking little (well large actually) cat.

I decided that I needed to do something, however pointless. I decided to drive round the neighbourhood, mainly to see if I could find any clues or, well, anything. I took my car keys and left the house. The morning was absolutely beautiful with a gorgeous blue sky and bright, winter sunshine. This made things seem all the worse somehow.

I opened the car door.

The bloody cat casually jumped off the driver's seat and out of the car, purring as he did so. I nearly died. The little fella was absolutely fine. We went straight back inside the house where he re-introduced himself to my wife. She was well chuffed. I was over the chuffing moon. He was pretty chuffed too when I gave him some tinned tuna for his breakfast. Then we started thinking about it. He'd obviously slipped into my car, unseen, when we got back from the shops the day before. The time now was 9.10am. That meant he'd been trapped inside my car for 20 hours. That's 20 hours with no food, water or anywhere to .... I ran straight back to the car to check for, er, 'gifts' left by the cat. Nothing. He'd not even had a sneaky tiddle. Bless him. Well, the cat is just fine and he has taken the whole thing in his stride - unlike us! I had to capture the moment though so - the photo above was taken just minutes after his dramatic return to freedom.

Now that's what I call a 'Happy New Year' !