Django Unchained!

Well not exactly, in fact I'm beginning to feel the opposite is what Django needs, a little less liberty to create more problems for himself. Yes,...he's been in the wars again.

At the moment our home is enveloped by scaffolding for work that's being done on the leaking roof. It never occurred to us that the cats might think we'd erected one massive climbing frame for them, but of course that's just what they thought.

Arlo seems to be more interested in my knitting basket than swinging from
the rafters, thank goodness

Arlo, being the more cautious of the two, hasn't been inclined to risk life and limb on it yet, but Django was full of the joys of spring a few days ago and threw himself wholeheartedly into exploring his curious new toy. He had no problem with the first level, the trouble started when he attempted to launch himself from a standing start up to the second level - 8 feet higher!  He managed to get his front paws onto the timber at the top, but  couldn't get a hold and he plummeted down two floors to the garden below, watched by the bemused builders.

P and I only found out about this a couple of hours later, after wondering why Django hadn't appeared for his breakfast. Knowing what an incorrigible adventurer he is and that he wouldn't ever miss a meal if he could help it, we were wondering what had happened to him. So P thought he'd ask the builders  first of all, not really expecting anything to come of it, but he was then regaled with the alarming story of his accident and told he'd picked himself up and scurried off on three legs!

Arlo is so chilled, I swear I found him sitting in the chair exactly like this

Needless to say I was frantic when I heard all this with all sorts of things going through my mind - oh no not again, hope he's not badly injured, hope it's not the same leg as last time, please Django be OK.  We set out straight away to find him and sure enough he hadn't gone far, just into the front garden where he could take cover and regroup. He seemed very sorry for himself but was managing to walk, but when we were safely inside again and I tried to examine his legs he hissed and growled and ran off upstairs.

So off to the vet's again, where it was duly ascertained that no bones were broken or dislocated and thankfully, after a thorough examination, Django was sent home with some anti-inflammatories.  Phew! What a relief.

Django licking his wounds on the evening after the fall

He was very subdued that evening, stayed close and just lolled around in his basket in front of the fire.  Luckily, three days later, he seems no worse for wear and hopefully the sprains and bruises are beginning to heal now.

In his brief two years on the planet, Django must have used up at least three of his nine cat lives. The first episode was not long after we got him when he went missing for 24 hours and only after diligent and persistent searching did we find him locked in a neighbour's garage in the next street. Full story here. Another life was lost about a year ago when he was run over, presumably by the dustbin van outside our home.  This was a terrible incident and took three months and many many visits and stayovers at the vets.  It's at times like these that you're glad to have taken out pet insurance as the total bill for this was around £2000! More about this episode here.

Fingers crossed all will be quiet on the Django front for a while now - here's hoping he won't be needing any more of his six remaining lives in the near future!