In which Amber gives us a fright

So come mid-afternoon R set off back to Donich Lodge.  Before this is all over, he will never want to see the A83 again.  Oh hold on – did he ever want to see it after about 2014?

Before he left, we moved the ladies from their basement confinement to an “open prison” arrangement in the Turret Room.  This room is one of our favourites in the house – in fact it was the second thing that attracted R’s attention when he found Castlebank (after the huge floor area) – it has a balcony with a crenellated “battlement” effect.  We opened the (hideous) mirrored door wardrobe, put a pile of towels inside and left the girls with all amenities and the door open for them to emerge and inspect the facilities in their own time.

About an hour later, Saphy emerged.  At first she was a bit tentative, but soon she was rushing about the place scent marking everything she could get to (the previous owners had had a dog).  There was no sign of Amber, but this was as expected because when we got her from Cats’ Protection three years ago it took her nearly two weeks to come out from under the bed.

So J and I spent another evening in base camp, and around 8pm I thought I would brave the shower for the first time, and check on Amber while I was at it.  There was no sign of her in the wardrobe.  This surprised me a bit, so I had a look round the top floor – no sign of her.  Then I called J and we searched the rest of the house.  Then we searched it again.  We could not find her anywhere.  Was there a hole somewhere she could have crept into? We had checked all over the house but who knows with cats!

So then J and I looked everywhere.  It is a big house as I have mentioned and checking every cranny took well over an hour.  We decided in the end that she must have got out of the house somehow – but in any case there was absolutely nothing we could do until the next day.  I decided not to tell R because there was no point in sharing the sadness and worry when there was nothing he could do either.

So I went off for a shower – nearly in tears.  The shower was not good – alternating between freezing and scalding – but my thoughts were all on the poor lost Amber.

When I came out of the bathroom she was sitting calmly outside the door waiting for me.