Adventures of Hulo & HuloMa - Part 2 - Hulo's Day-out!

 

HuloMa ends her day with a old-hindi jingle (kya aap roz close up karte hain..) on how to attract the right girls and walk with confidence if you regularly brush your teeth – to which Hulo responds with “eeing” his teeth (according to HuloMa); while to any honest bystander he is just all the time wiggling and planning for an escape route from the daily ordeal! Surprisingly though even though he wiggles out, he normally does not go far – may be jumps away from the counter-top into the basin, and comfortably snuggles in there smacking away at the tuna flavored toothpaste – Thanks to clever marketing by #Arm&Hammer!

 

The other day HuloMa decided to visit a friend to play a few rounds of scrabble. Now she is horrible at it; and have been trying to beat me for the last 20 odd years! So, a little practice does never hurt – does it? I wasn’t home, and she didn’t had the heart to leave Hulo alone in the house on a lovely evening --- so there comes out the relatively unused and profusely hated “cat-leash”…..Hulo very reluctantly slips into it and then for double-protection hops on to his secure carrier……

 

HuloMa gets to the friends place, figuratively lets the cat out of the bag (she has the bungee leash in her hand) and sits down to play her first move on the board…..Ofcourse, Hulo had different plans; plus the unwanted attention and the unknown smells and sounds gets to him, so he jumps out of HuloMa’s hands and runs……runs for life (I wish someone had told him, no one has ever successfully ran away from HuloMa’s clutches, biggest proof being thyself!). Now for those who know HuloMa she may seem slow, but she can be fast when needed; but that fastness was not enough – Hulo was nowhere to be seen….

 

And the search begins – frantic calls and running around later – no Hulo! And, I get the dreaded call and the cries……now I kind of like Hulo, despite his antics so of course I couldn’t say “Good riddance!” I was 500 miles away, so couldn’t be of much help, told myself he will be back, and went back to my work. HuloMa was though devastated and made her friends and neighbors more than guilty and spent her first sleepless night in the car, outside the friend's place – waiting for Hulo to show up, or to respond to her calls for him while wandering the streets of an unknown neighborhood!

 

Hulo didn’t care – Next day the flyers were out, and so was the calls to every pet care – HuloMa didn’t even spare the police (who actually told her that they have enough missing people at hand to actually care for a missing cat! – but HuloMa was relentless, "may be the missing person shows up with a missing cat – who knows"; she demanded and left her details.) The comb search began with a few unfortunate volunteers who followed HuloMa around in the sweltering heat, squatted under every porch and climbed into every ditch – and had to constantly solace HuloMa when she would suddenly sit in the middle of a neighbor’s yard and lament – “Oh my Hulo, what will he eat – what will he drink --- how will he survive….” No one dared to remind her that a cat does have 9 lives for a reason!

 

I rushed home --- went straight to some jungles behind the neighborhood – got handsomely bitten by random bugs – heard stories about coyotes and concluded Hulo lost this fight against one! However – we set up his litter box, his toys and his sleeping bag (with HuloMa’s worn clothes) in front of the friend’s porch – and spent another stormy night both literally and figuratively at home….

 

Miraculously Hulo returned --- albeit without his leash (proving cat’s can get out of any leash – no matter how good the design is – hope #PetSafe customers listening!) – he was all wet and snuggled nicely amongst HuloMa’s clothes….He was shocked for a day or two, and quickly got back to his old antics soon enough – a good hot bath later, no sign of hurt or being lost – I’m sure his 2 nights out was worth his days in captivity with HuloMa…..

 

This is rather a long story, and I was reluctant to write this chapter – the final nudge came while shopping around for 4th of July firecrackers in a rather obscure place quite far away from home – when a kid approached HuloMa and enquired about the prodigal son’s return – of course I think HuloMa invaded their yard on that fateful day and the sight of HuloMa sprawled across their lawn with tears rolling down her hot-flushed cheeks was a sight he might need a few nightmares to forget!!