All best wishes Mouse, hope it goes well.
I had a locked room mystery yesterday, or thought I had. A cousin called in, first time I'd seen him since before Covid so that was nice, particularly since he's been on a cancer journey with various surgeries. It was lovely to see him looking strong and well and enjoying life.
I decided to leave the cats in the bedroom throughout. Coz and I yakked and reminisced and theorised about family history for a few hours, and after he left I went to let the cats out for a belated dinner. Oscar zoomed downstairs, Rosy didn't. I put the food down and called her. No response. I want up to the bedroom, searched all round, no sign of her. Meanwhile Oscar hadn't eaten his dinner and was prowling around making deep distressing howly noises.
I decided to have dinner since if worry about cats being elusive was enough to take away my appetite I'd have starved long ago (I had offered to feed coz, but he was going on to Kerry to meet someone there for a meal). After my first course - scrambled eggs - I went to do another search. Still no sign and I really did begin to get slightly worried - what if another bee had come in and she'd got stung (not sure how that would have caused invisibility), what if she'd nipped past when I went in to get the notebook my father had put some family recollections in back in the 90s - I'd left the back door open for several hours and she could have gone anywhere, and she's an indoor cat with no street smarts. Oscar was still doing the howly growls, and hadn't eaten his dinner, which was more alarming.
Searched other rooms. No cat. Did another trip to the bedroom, and there, in the blackness under the bed (where I had looked, repeatedly over the last hour) were two jade-green eyes. Pulled her out and checked her for signs of damage - none, but she was as angular as a very furry cat could be, and when shown her dinner turned and fled back upstairs.
Eventually when I went to bed she emerged and demanded supper (still hadn't eaten dinner) and spent the night on the bed beside me.
I can only conclude that she was spooked by a strange man in the house - not totally unprecedented in her experience, there was a plumber, an electrician and a chimney sweep in the last year, but because she came to live with me at the back end of 2019 she has had very little experience of other people (Oscar was used to loads of people when he was younger, so maybe the howling was him saying she was daft).
She's still being a bit skittish, but all seems well now. And the uneaten dinners vanished during the night, I know not where or how.
Strange beasts.