I like sleeping with one of the smaller humans. One sleeps in a big room with a fluffy rug and a tunnel in it on top of my pink chair, the other sleeps in a smaller room with string on the blind, it swings and is good to chew.
I’ve lived here almost as long as I can remember, since I was little. I like to run around really fast, usually at night. I have snoozes during the day, and there’s always some company. I like sitting on one of the big humans at night time. The other one feeds me in the mornings, and one of the smaller ones feeds me at night. I like tuna from a round box, flower-shaped biscuits, and crunchy white things that I like to take to the lounge room rug and break up with my teeth.
Occasionally the humans leave me alone all day, it’s a bit lonely. They go in and out the openings and don’t let me come, except sometimes when they take out the red string and put it around my neck and take me out with them. I love that, I can sniff out thin creatures, and flying creatures, and snack-sized buzzing creatures. I also like going to my garden, where I can climb on my tower and feel the sun on my back. It’s not big enough to run around though.
A few sleeps ago, I found an opening that was open! Some fluffy padding blocked a hole in the opening. I pushed it out, and I slipped through it. It was just getting light and there was no red string around my neck. The purple gate was closed, but I squeezed under it. It was so good to look around!
I did whatever I wanted. I watched a rock and waited for a thin creature to come out. It was tasty. I rolled around in the grass. I drank from the bowls that I came across. I passed other animals like me: black ones, mottled ones, a strange-looking white one with a thin tail and thick fur at the end. Big humans whizzed past on their two wheels and I saw one notice me. I didn’t care though. I was so free, I loved it!
After a while, it got dark and cold. I tried to find my way back to the humans who feed me, but I didn’t know where they were. I found a bush and tried to sleep under there, but the night was noisy, other creatures with bushy tails ran up trees and made scary noises. I missed my food.
In the morning, it was nice to chase the buzzing snacks, and I ate some of them. When I looked up I could see pictures of me on poles. It was quite warm again, so I was glad that there were some bowls of water amongst the grass.
I had such a lovely time, mostly! But scary sometimes too: there were roaring noises, barking, and no-one paid much attention to me, whereas where I live, I always get lots of hugs. When it got dark again, I found myself back where I belong, and I went through the opening that had been left open again, and put my furry nose in the face of the smaller human asleep near my pink chair and gently bit her nose. She woke up and gave me a big cuddle and took me in to the big humans, who also seemed pleased to see me. They took me to the other smaller human, who hugged me and made some nice noises.
Even though she saw me at night, the second smaller human seemed surprised to see me in the morning.
I pretend I don’t understand what they say, but I’ve been listening to their noises for a long time. I heard them talking about the first night I was gone, and how a creature with a bushy tail came in through the opening and ran into the big humans’ bedroom. I heard them say that they chased it out into the lounge room, how they closed the openings to the smaller humans’ rooms, and turned the lights on, and the one that feeds me tried to throw his jumper over it but couldn’t. I heard them describe how the creature climbed up the opening that has tiny holes for climbing, and set off the extremely loud noise, but eventually they chased it outside. They said that the smaller humans slept through it.
They were all a bit distracted the morning I came home, and let the opening open again, so I went out exploring again. But this time, a black and white bird chased me until I ran under the noisy thing that carries the humans around, and I went straight home after that.
The humans left me alone for more than one night after that, but that’s OK because another human came in to give me food. I’m having a nice quiet time to myself for now, and looking forward to my next adventure.
