Bed - and no breakfast!

Monday morning, I arrived down to breakfast to be greeted by my husband, with the words guaranteed to strike fear into the heart of any pet sitters heart.
"There's something wrong with the cat. 
She is walking oddly. 
She went and sat outside for about 15 minutes and then came back indoors and went back to bed, without showing any interest in her breakfast."
Sure enough, the cat was ensconced in her house.

Now nobody ever wants a poorly cat.
I can assure you nobody ever, ever, ever, ever wants a poorly cat, when they have been entrusted with the care of someone else's moggy!

I try to rationalise.
"I fed her late last night. She probably isn't hungry.."



Then I saw it...
A trail of bloodstains across the floor!
No wonder she was limping!
I quickly peered into her house to see if I could discern any obvious wound. Three out of four feet were just visible, but I could not detect any visible sign of injury.

Maybe she killed something, and the blood is not hers...

Later I tried to tempt her out with the offer of a lap to sit on.
She was not interested.

I offered her Dreamies. Normally she is very keen to eat Dreamies.
She just looked at me through half-closed eyes, and then closed them a bit further.

The cat is a one person cat and that person had left the cat in our care.
I knew my chances of getting her out of the house and to the vets were slim.
I left a Dreamie outside the entrance to her house as a peace offering.
She spurned my peace offering and went to sleep.

I didn't want to worry the cat owner, as I had not yet managed to get any convincing proof of injury or illness.  Even if I found evidence, I still didn't want to tell the owner, as she had a five-hour drive back, and I didn't want her worrying while she was driving.

We had lunch.
DH went out.
Suddenly, the cat sauntered across the kitchen and went and devoured the food put out earlier.
There was no sign of any mishap or malaise.
I sent DH a text
The cat is fine.

As the incriminating evidence was by the chair where DH normally sits to eat his lunch, I reckon that it was not blood, but juice from beetroot - to which he is quite partial! Sunday night was dry, after days of rain, so the cat was probably out longer last night, and as she is getting older, was just a bit arthritic. She also ate a late meal, so  was probably just weary and not hungry - suffering the after-effects of a night on the tiles,
but for a few hours, we did wonder...
Phew!