SPINNING HEADS AND YARNS

     I swear, I took just a few minutes' nap.  It was a stressful day, and Chikie decided to run away just as I opened the screen door to feed Goldie on the back porch. Usually, in this situation, I yell for Sonny, and he catches Chickie in moments. Sonny was at school, so, after following Chickie around the garden, trying to lure him to myself with a piece of ham, I gave up the chase. Even stopping time to time to chew on some shrubbery, he easily managed to stay ahead of me. Goldie was there too, watching us with bright eyes from a base of the basketball stand .

Goldie

     I picked up the trash from the grass on the way home and decided that, it was enough exercise for Monday! Chickie will come home eventually.
     I laid down on the couch and closed my eyes, struggling to put away the nagging thoughts about the day. ...
     - "Did Chickie come back?" - Roberta's voice cut through the pleasant drowsiness, which began to overtake me...
     - "Mmm... No..."
---
     Knock, knock, knock...
     There were three knocks on the glass door to the garden. I rolled off the couch, at the same time trying to pry my eyes open.
     "Dina, Dina..." - It was Roberta's voice again, but she never before went to the garden, especially, alone!
     I pushed the vertical blinds aside. Roberta stood on the patio by the steps, holding Chikie in her arms!
     I opened the door. She pushed Chicken Bone over into the room. I had to use my strength to drag her up over the steps, because the poor lady was all tuckered out!
   

Roberta and Chikie

 I tried to tell her, what a stupid thing she did, going to the garden with it's bumpy, uneven ground and treacherous cats for the company without me knowing about it, but couldn't finish my sentences, so flabbergasted I was! She put herself in too much danger and didn't seem to realize that! Roberta looked rejuvenated by her adventure, although she had to work hard to catch her breath.
     - "I didn't know, how heavy he was! I had him by the neck and the hind legs, but he was slipping and, time to time, he began to cough, because he couldn't breathe [oh. my. God! She had him by the throat!]".
 

 Roberta continued: "I had to crouch down to prop him on my knees to help him catch his breath, but I am glad that, the door was not much further away: I wouldn't be able to drag him too much

longer!"
     Roberta usually walks with a walker. She has low blood pressure and can black out anytime and fall, damaging some other part of her frail body. And here, she went out to an unfamiliar, difficult place without her walker or myself. I wanted to strangle her, but she was too excited by the brave thing that she did.
     According to her, Chickie became friends with Goldie, our little, stray, yellow-and-white kitty. She made some advances to him before, rubbing his shoulder through the screen mesh, approaching him playfully, when he ran out to the patio, but he always rebuffed her, hissing or raising a paw at her. He is, actually, a very mild-tempered (neutered) male, so I was surprised to see him react to Goldie that way. Well, it appears that, she overcame his resistance! Roberta said that, they were playing, jumping high in the garden. Chickie and Sylvie haven't played in the twelve years together in our home, never mind, jumping high in abandonment! Of course, there is a chance that Roberta, a master yarn-spinner, could be making it up to enhance her story, but that's too much even for her!
     As we went on with our day, Roberta told to Sonny and Reina the tale of her heroic rescue of Chickie. All I could see in my mind, while listening to her, was her bony hand, clutching his throat, and Chickie's astonished, furry mug!