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 (June 2004) Gerry came to us at the end of the season last year, suffering from a nasty eye infection. As a consequence of this his eyes had to be removed. He was around 3 month sold at the time.
It never ceases to amaze us how well he has coped with this problem - in fact on first meeting him people often don’t realise he is blind.
He has great fun exploring everywhere and has even caught mice and moths. We have an expression in our house, all injuries are now called ‘being Gerried’; his claws are like swords, and always kept in good condition. If you surprise him when picking him up, he uses them!
A week ago, he was playing on the veranda at 9 PM, but come bedtime two hours later, and he was nowhere to be found. Panic set in, and we were out with our torches and calling for him - no response at all. During the day, my father had been painting the outer gates, and had removed the wire from the bottom, which is there to prevent smaller animals escaping onto the main road. None of us had thought about Gerry at that time!
After a sleepless and guilt-ridden night, several friends came round in the morning and we scoured the village, posters went up and the local business people were asked to keep an eye out for him. I have to admit to complete lack of optimism, I thought that there was no way he could survive out there on his own.
Lo and behold, at 9 PM on the following evening, there he was on top of an 8 foot high fence crying for assistance to get down.
He had left through the outer gates, turned right and passed the taverna and mini market, headed up to the main road junction and taken a right turn towards Avithos beach, a long way when you can’t see! He had then cut through a large garden and over some derelict land to the fence. How did he know how high he would have to jump to get onto the wall, and even how high the fence part was?
Super cat or what?
He is now watched like a hawk, and if we don’t see him for a few minutes we call him, he is getting well fed up with that!
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