Moses’ Call to adventure

How privileged I felt watching him, he snuffled as he suckled, letting go of his mother’s teat momentarily and whimpered as he sought to regain it, I knew then that he was the one.

Several weeks later he left his mother and siblings from the dimly lit barn and came to a bright and happy home.  He settled in quickly and in no time at all had formed a strong inseparable bond with Maverick.  Moses quickly became a curious and playful ginger kitten, always ready to explore the world around him.

The time eventually came to let him take his first tentative steps outside. It was a warm sunny day when he stepped through the door, he stopped, looked up at the blue sky and sniffed the air, he looked back at me for reassurance then stepped onto the grass.  As he surveyed his new surroundings, a gentle breeze took a feather into the air and Moses played with this for some time, chasing it and tossing it around.  After losing interest in the feather he explored the borders, smelling the flowers and jumping in the air to catch flies.  He spent many hours outside and experienced many new adventures.  It was now time to come in, a clap of my hands brought Moses swiftly into sight and into my arms. Each day he ventured a little further into our neighbour’s gardens, sitting on the back fence to watch Bramble hunting or sunbathing in the meadow or following Maverick and goading him for a fight.

One bright sunny afternoon in September however, everything changed as Moses had a new call to adventure.  Moses did not come to the call of my voice or clap of my hands. As the curtain of darkness began to fall across the sky our early trickle of feeling soon swelled to a torrent, bringing with it a landslide of worry rushing down upon us, the void without him weighed heavy. We informed neighbours, called family and friends but unbeknown to us, plans were already underway and had begun to surge.

We continued to call him, searching the undergrowth by torchlight and spent many hours walking the fields and lanes.  As we returned home and into the light Susie’s eyes were heavy as tears rolled down her face. “We’ve lost him haven’t we,” cried Susie.  It was long past midnight when we eventually climbed into bed but sleep never came as we wondered what Moses’ fate would be.

In the golden light of dawn people came together in a special, almost magical way and the search resumed.  After many hours of searching his little voice suddenly caught the wind and reached us.  We quickly cut back the brambles, but his cries seemed to come from another place. We gained access to our neighbour’s gardens and frantically searched under the decking, inside the sheds then out into the meadow.  His faint cries seemed to come from everywhere.  We were losing hope, when suddenly a group of crows came wheeling and screaming above us and the sound of the swaying branches stirring in the wind’s breath caught our attention.   Suddenly, a little voice arose amongst the foliage high above and there at the very top of the tallest tree in the meadow was little Moses.

I knew then that I had to try to make the most of the situation by fanning the tiny inner spark of possibility into flames of achievement to rescue him.  We quickly brought a ladder, placed it on the tree and our son climbed as high as he could, calling softly to Moses to come down. He tentatively made his way down the tree but stopped just out of reach.  A basket and line were called for and quickly passed up the ladder.  This was a basket that Moses knew well, something familiar to him and he clambered straight into it, we couldn’t believe it.  He was lowered down to my waiting arms, everyone cheered, and a delicious shiver of excitement entered everywhere.

I rushed him up the garden path and into the house where he quickly tucked into a chicken dinner, drank his milk and slumbered away into the late evening.  Maverick fussed over him as he slept, lying by his side waiting for him to awaken, but he didn’t stir.

No harm had come to him during his ordeal, he hadn’t ventured far and thankfully the weather was kind.  He was grounded for nine days in all.  We would like to thank everyone who cared and shared information, made posters and assisted in helping us to find our precious little kitten Moses who is impossibly perfect.