Sophie Pembroke - Lara The Runaway Cat - One cat’s journey to discover home is where the heart is

Before Gobi came, they talked to me, or about me. I was the centre of their world, and I liked being there. I knew exactly how important I was.

Until Dad met Gobi.

Now, they’re always talking about how special Gobi is, how strong and brave, how well behaved. And they keep taking her on new adventures – without me.

In fact, Gobi goes on adventures with them every single day. A walk along the street or into the countryside with Mum and Dad, leaving me to watch them disappear from the window. Or sometimes, they go even further. I hear them talking about planes and ferries and distant lands and cities I’ve only seen if Dad’s watching TV when I’m trying to talk to him.

Sometimes, Gobi even appears on the TV. That’s the worst! Mum comes and grabs me to make me watch, like I want to see my sister doing all these things I could never get to do. The furthest I’ve got to an adventure is being allowed out along the side of the road on my harness on a long car trip to somewhere else. I’ll sit behind a window and watch other people adventuring.

My whole life, I’ve watched the world through windows. That’s what I do, you see. I’m a Ragdoll cat, and Ragdolls are indoor cats, so mostly I stay indoors. (Sometimes I venture as far as the garden, or in the car on a harness if Mum and Dad have to drive a long way away.) I watch the outside world go by, but I’m not supposed to want to be out there too. Not supposed to imagine what might be beyond the window frame. And until Gobi arrived, that was fine by me.

But now … now, sometimes I can’t help but wonder what else might be out there. What draws Dad and Mum and Gobi out on their adventures? After all, what’s the point of all the adventuring that other animals and humans do? I mean, they wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t important, or fun, right? So, I wonder. And I imagine.

What would my life be like if I was an outdoor cat, instead of an indoor one? If I went further than the garden wall one day? If, instead of hiding under the house, I went out beyond it?

Especially on the nights when Gobi steals my prawns, or gets excited and knocks me over, or even starts nibbling my tail. The nights when I remember what it was like when there were only three members of our family, and I was the most important one. I wonder what would happen if I decided to have an adventure.

But Ragdoll cats aren’t made for the outside.

Or so I always thought.

The trees outside my window were blooming with spring blossoms the day I first got the idea for my own adventure. I remember, because I liked chasing the blossoms in the garden when they fell. They were light and fun and they floated along on the breeze, filling me with excitement.

Normally, anyway.

This year, I just watched them blow over the garden wall into the great outdoors beyond, and felt depressed that I couldn’t follow them. So, I stayed inside instead, turning my back on the window and ignoring them.

Mum and Dad were talking about Gobi, again , and I was sort of half listening, half playing with a ball of fluffy hair (my own, of course) that had formed under the kitchen table.

‘Well, if they want to interview you with Gobi, why don’t we all go?’ Mum said, sounding totally reasonable. ‘Make a holiday of it. It would be nice to go back to China with you both.’

I glanced up at them. They were all going away this time? Last time Dad was in China, he was gone for months.

Already, I didn’t like this plan.

Dad had his long legs stretched out under the table, but his expression wasn’t nearly as relaxed as his position. ‘I don’t know. Is it wrong that just taking Gobi to China again makes me feel nervous?’

Of course it did – look at all the trouble she’d got into the last time she was there. Maybe they should stop letting Gobi out on adventures altogether, I thought. That might solve the problem.

And I wouldn’t feel so left behind.

‘She’s not going to get lost again this time, Dion,’ Mum said, soothingly. ‘Besides, if we’re all there together, we can look after each other.’

‘I suppose.’ Dad still didn’t look convinced. I brushed up against his legs to remind him of my existence. It worked. ‘What about Lara?’ he asked, sitting up straight so I could jump up into his lap. ‘We’d have to be away for weeks, to do the whole tour. I don’t feel comfortable with the idea of leaving her for so long.’

Good. Neither did I.

‘Then we’ll take her with us!’ Mum sounded strangely excited at the idea. Maybe she thought she’d been missing out on some adventures, too.

Personally, I was considerably wary of the whole idea. I mean, I’d never been anywhere before, and now they wanted to start off with China ? I might not have travelled, but Dad had a map on the wall with pins showing all the places he and Mum and Gobi had travelled to. He’d pointed China out to me one day.

It was a long way across the map from my house.

‘For the whole tour? Three weeks travelling around China, doing interviews, appearing at bookshops and so on …’ Dad shook his head. ‘I’m not sure how she’d cope with all that travel and fuss. She’s more of a homebody, our Lara.’

‘Hmm, I suppose she hasn’t really been anywhere before, has she?’ Mum agreed.

Even though I’d just had the exact same thought, my ears flattened to hear Mum say it, and my tail started to wave warningly from side to side. I would cope magnificently , of course, with whatever it was they were talking about doing. Really, Dad should know better than to suggest I couldn’t do something! Just because I never had didn’t mean I couldn’t. It only meant that it had been below my notice before now.

Before Gobi, at least. Because things were very different, now.

Suddenly, all the things I’d been before Gobi – an indoor cat, a pampered princess, a fluffy homebody – they didn’t sound like good things any more.

‘She’s just not an adventurous sort of pet,’ Dad said, pressing the point home. ‘Not like Gobi.’

It was those last three words that made my mind up. If Gobi could do it, so could I. And I’d do it better and cleverer, and with more panache too.

I’d be the most adventurous pet anyone had ever had, if that’s what Mum and Dad wanted me to be.

I focussed in on their conversation. It always takes more effort to understand humans talking than other animals. But sometimes you have to put the work in to stay on top of what’s going on.

Dad was talking about a tour – like the ones he and Gobi had been on before, around Britain, and overseas too. Gobi had travelled almost everywhere with Dad, while I’d stayed home in Edinburgh. I’d stared out of my window and waited for them to come back, when Dad would stick another pin in their map. Somewhere else they had been and I hadn’t.

But this time, I had the chance to go, too. To find out what an adventure was really like.

I wasn’t going to pass that up.

Dad petted my head, and noticed my flattened ears. ‘I’m not sure Lara likes the idea, anyway.’

Honestly, humans! Do they understand nothing?

I meowed loudly and jumped up onto the table. Maybe Mum would understand more.

‘I don’t know,’ she said, stroking my fluffy fur. ‘She’s always the first one into the suitcases whenever we go anywhere. Maybe she’s been longing to take a trip with us all this time.’

I purred in agreement. Okay, my desire for travel was only a few minutes old, and I only usually climbed in the suitcases because they were filled with warm and soft things for snuggling on, but still … It was closer than Dad’s interpretation, anyway.