some good luck in the beginning, with the owner of the restaurant we ate dinner at, offering to let us sleep on a mattress there…a tempting offer, but also slightly sketchy…we decided to look elsewhere first and hold that as our last resort. So, we began searching for a place to stay, walking up and down the road, asking everywhere, pleading, begging, trying to look as pathetic as possible and hoping that some kind soul would
take pity on us and offer us something. That kind soul turned out to be an Israeli owner of a restaurant/guesthouse, who offered us a mattress under mosquito netting on his gorgeous roof…for FREE! As we got settled in, unable to believe our luck, he came up with what was the best cup of herbal tea ever (it is sooo rare to find herbal tea here…usually there is only masala chai). It was honestly too perfect to be true...and that is the truth and the lesson we soon learned: Nothing in this world is for free or that easy!!
So, getting ready for bed, we were elated. Thinking, “Look at us, we found a place to stay in Arambol the night before New Years when no one thought we could, and for free! Woohoo we are awesome!” Then came the cat…and this is the point where I have to ask you all not to judge, because words can not do this story justice!So, the setup was as such: two nice mattresses underneath a lovely mosquito net, on a beautiful clean tile roof, with no gate or door to the steps. So up came a cat and made itself quite comfortable on our bed. We weren’t bothered at firs
t, but as it came time to lay down, and we tried to shoo it off things started to get crazy…or rather the cat started to get crazy. First, it was going nuts on the mosquito net, seriously, NUTS! So, we moved the net, hoping it would follow. But, then it went nuts on our mosquito spray, so we sprayed it, hoping it would run away. But, it didn’t…no no, this cat was a crazy cat. It started going nuts on our stuff, on our bed, and finally, on us!
We weren’t sure what to do, we tried to sacrifice one mattress to it, but it wasn’t having it…it wanted both. We gave it a toy, tried to con it downstairs…it came right back up. Audrey contemplated throwing it off the roof…we paused…it seemed like a good idea…but…well…we just couldn’t. So, the next thought was to trap it. We got a box, and we got the toy, and we got the cat in the box. The next question was how to keep it there…we got a table, we put the table on the box. But, this wasn’t good enough. The cat was still going nuts, pushing the table off, tearing holes in the box…so we got the curtain, a heavy curtain, and we wrapped the box with the table in the curtain…and then we tied the curtain. The cat got out of the box, started go
ing nuts in the curtain, so we got some cushions…and we fortified the box, table, and tied curtain with the cushions on all sides. It was quite a structure. But, we still weren’t convinced, as it was still going crazy, meowing, clawing, the works. It was about 2am at this point, and Audrey and I were sitting on the top of chairs, torch (flashlight) in hand staring at the structure willing it to just die or be quiet or something/anything, so we could finally get some sleep.
Well…it didn’t stop moving/meowing, but eventually, we couldn’t keep our eyes open, and finally laid down to sleep…or to try to sleep. Every 15 minutes or so, one of us would hear something and jump up, wide alert, torch in hand, and terrified that the cat had escaped and was coming at us. In retrospect it really was silly how scared we were…but at the time…it was really scary! I mean, I think I almost started to cry at one point, from being soo tired, wanting to sleep sooo bad, but being sooo scared of this damn damn cat! Morning soon came, or rather not soon e
nough, but it came. And with it, came two girls up to the roof to do some yoga. So, there they come, and there we are, me, Audrey, and this structure… Quite a sight! We start to clean up the bed, wash up, give them space for their yoga…and meanwhile try to figure out what the heck to do with the cat, who is up and meowing at this point. Slowly we start to defortify it. One by one, the cushions come off. As Audrey gets ready to pull the string, I decide these girls need to be warned. So, I go to try to explain as best as I can that we are not cat haters/killers, but that this is a crazy cat, and it was for our safety that we had trapped it, and warning them to stand back or get up, because after being trapped all night it is probably going to be even crazier. Looking terrified, they stood up on the chairs, as Audrey pulled the string. We all held our breaths as the cat peeked its head out, looked round, and then bolted for the stairs and down… And that was that! That was the cat that we had been so scared of all night. That had kept me up, convinced it would attack me. That was it; it just ran away, finally leaving the roof and leaving us alone. Hah! I think the girls thought we were crazy…and I am sure most of you reading this think so too…but honestly, if you had been there you would have done the same! Guaranteed!
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