The Adventures Of 'Small Cat'.

I usually just write about my goats but we have other animals on the farm and this story I have to share, because if I had not seen the cat disappear into the chimney I would not have believed what she has been up to. We reckoned she had been playing 'chimney sweep' as she has been looking somewhat sooty of late.

'Small' was picked up off the side of the road some years ago.  The bloke found a bag on the side of the road on one of his road trips. Some horrible person had thrown a bag containing 3 kittens out of a car in the middle of nowhere. Two of the kittens had been squished and sitting by the bag was a tiny little ginger & white female kitten.  She was so tiny she got the name 'Small'.

She has grown into a lovely cat with a very interesting personality.  Loves her cuddles, is very vocal when she wants to be noticed, and is still a little on the small side compared to the other cats.

When we bought the farm the old wood-fired stove had been replaced with an electric stove and seperate oven 'monstrosity' that was in need of replacing.  The existing 'mess' was removed which left us with a hole in the wall.

Well, cats being cats thought this was a good place to go 'toil-lies' and so to stop that activity we installed a mesh gate over the hole until we got around to fixing up the space and installing a new stove. The mesh has kept the cats out ...but one evening I found Small climbing up the mesh from the inside.  There was no sign that she had used the floor as a toilet tray. 

 

We reckoned she had come down the chimney, as she sits on the outside of chimney and has often been seen & heard on the roof. Then there have been times when we know she was 'out' but has turned up 'in' or vice versa and neither of us have let her in or out.

 

In the chimney above where the old wood stove used to be is a sheet of tin which has 3 holes in it ...obviously a flue hole & two vent holes. The largest hole would be about 9 or 10 inches in diameter.

 

This morning I was in the kitchen making up the poddy bottles for my little kids, Small was prowling around the kitchen, then onto the back of the chair beside the mesh.  Next thing ..there was a rattle of metal and Small was nowhere to be seen.  I looked up to the tin plate and saw Small's tail disappearing into the darkness.

 

 

 

I put a piece of wood from where she jumped to the the hole to show the angle of the jump. The distance is 5 feet or 150cm.  If you look carefully at the last picture (through the cobwebs) you can see the flue hole & in the lower left hand corner what looks very much like the head of  'Small Cat' peering out of the vent hole. (If you click on the pic it should enlarge)

 

 

Outside photo of the chimney.

 

Our other ginger girl 'Meg' used to exit out through another chimney but we put a stop to that caper by having her de-sexed.  Meg's chimney has since been removed.