By Russell Deeks

My introduction to cat sitting is an interesting story. It is a story that began in a beautiful place, with family around, but this story takes a rather funny turn. I quickly learned that taking a job because it sounds super easy is a bad choice.  My cat sitting job one of the most exhausting jobs I have ever done. It is debatable whether the money I earned for that job was worth it or not.

This story starts on my family island in Georgian Bay. It is an island made up of seven cottages in a beautiful landscape. The blue water shines like crystals in the sunshine, and the granite rock is home to big sweeping pine trees that look like they have been there since before mankind. I usually live with my grandparents there, and the house can have as many as 20 people in it on any weekend. With my family and then my cousins, aunts, and uncles, it is a busy place.

During the summer weekdays, the cottage is quite different. Most people go back to the city to work, and it becomes very quiet. Last summer, my older sister, Annie, was working up there at the cottage with one of my cousins, Lily.  During the week they moved in together to another cousin’s cottage to cat sit. This involved taking care of the two cats, Black Cat and White Cat. It was an easy job. They got to sleep in a beautiful cottage that was much newer than my grandparents’, and they only needed to feed the cats and make sure they were safe.

The two cats were quite different. Black Cat liked to roam around a lot, and White Cat was more of a stay-at-home cat. They both used the cat door to come in and out of the cottage, so they were independent. Annie and Lily liked their cat sitting job and did it most weekdays. One week in the summer, I decided to stay up for the week too. Everyone except Annie and me in my family went back to the city. I hung out with the girls most of the time. We played cards, listened to music, and did lots of swimming, and then I would go back to my grandparents’ place to sleep.

One Wednesday night, Annie and Lily and I were hanging out as usual. The girls then got a call to go out boating with some friends and would probably stay overnight. They wanted to go, so they asked me to take on the role of cat sitter. I figured, why not? it wouldn’t be too hard, and I liked the cottage. They left, and I hung out by myself. I did a little bit of reading and then made sure White Cat was fed and in the cottage. I was not worried about Black Cat but knew I needed to leave the cat door unlocked. I checked on everything and crawled into bed.

About an hour later, I heard some noise in the kitchen. It was quite loud so I thought it must be the girls back home. The strange thing was I didn’t hear any voices, just pots and pans banging around. I climbed out of bed and grabbed a flashlight. I walked into the kitchen and saw 5 pairs of glowing eyes staring back at me! I almost had a heart attack. I knew it could be Black Cat but why were there so many eyes. I flicked on the main cottage lights, and to my shock, there were at least 6 raccoons having a kitchen party! I could not believe that my so-called easy job had now turned into me being a bouncer trying to shut down a party.

I didn’t know what to do. At first, I froze but quickly realized that I was the only human in the house. I reached for the broom in the kitchen and began waving it at them. Now I had gone from the role of a bouncer to the role of a dancer at an improv show. The critters quickly jumped down from the kitchen counter, and to my surprise, crawled back through the cat door. Ah Ha! That made sense. The cat door was now a raccoon door. I quickly locked the latch on the cat door and went back to my room. My heart was still pounding! As I lay there, I popped up and thought – Oh no – what about Black Cat!  I called for him but he was nowhere to be found. I didn’t know what to do. Should I leave the car door locked and leave Black Cat out all night, or should I risk opening the cat door? I decided the girls would kill me if I didn’t take care of the cats, so I went and unlocked the cat door. I got a chair and a frying pan and sat down beside the door. Nothing happened. I decided I better have more tools, so I grabbed a fire poker too!

I must have dozed off a bit because I woke to the sound of the door opening. Please, I thought, please be Black Cat. No such luck! The flap started to open and I saw the paw of something grey. Gulp! Not Black Cat! I tried making lots of noise, but it pushed its paw through. I tried to close the flap with the frying pan, but they didn’t seem to care. The first raccoon came through the flap and started a parade of raccoons. At least 4 more marched behind their leader. They went right back to the kitchen this time and headed for the fruit on the counter. I got out the broom again, but this time when I waved it at them, they just ran somewhere else in the cottage. I must have chased them for more than twenty minutes. Finally, I figured out if I opened the main doors, they might have an easier time getting out. I was worried though that more might come in!

I opened the doors and eventually got them out. I was so tired, but I still had a problem, because Black Cat was outside somewhere. I went back to my post at the cat door. It must have been after midnight by now. I dozed but did not fall asleep. I heard some noise. Oh no, I thought – not again. The flap opened quite quickly. Thank goodness it was Black Cat who looked at me and then just walked by to his bed. Not very grateful, I guess. I locked that cat door immediately and flopped down in bed.

In the morning, Lily and Annie came home and saw me still sleeping. They gave me the ten dollars they had promised but figured I didn’t really deserve it because I just slept anyway. They walked away and under their breath mumbled how this was such an easy job. I rolled over back to sleep and figured I would tell them later. I was too tired.