I love them, but...

...cats can be really freaky sometimes.

My sister was on her way home from work, and as she was walking down the drive to our house, she spotted a small silver tabby cat, complete with harness and leash, by our neighbour's car. She told me, and I went out to try and catch it before it ran out into the road. It wasn't easy. The little rascal was scared stiff of me, hissing a few times (although cats generally like me, and this one preferred me to my sister) but I finally managed to grab hold of its leash.

Then we were stuck with a kitten on a leash, not knowing what the hell to do with it. So my sister told me to stand in the drive (bare-footed, I might add) while she, in her boots (why she had them at work, I don't know) went to the end of the drive and walked up and down the drive, looking to see if anyone was searching for this cat.

So there was me, cat on a leash, standing bare-footed in the drive, with wet hair (I'd just had a shower). I looked at the cat. The cat hissed at me, and then tried to drag me down the drive, but I was quite a lot bigger than it, so it didn't have much success with that. And then, just to make things worse, my neighbour's cat Cleo decided to come and have a look. And that's when the cat on a leash did something really freaky. It made this odd noise, like a baby crying, but it actually said 'Meow'. Seriously! It was going 'Meowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeow' in this high-pitched baby voice. It almost gave me a heart attack.

Cleo, onm the other hand, puffed up like a cobra to twice her size, and let out this long, snake-like hiss from the back of her throat, then jumped on top of our fence and stayed there, looking sulky. The cat on a leash tried to follow her, but I wouldn't let it.

Then the guy who lives at the end of the drive came out, utterly relieved that I'd found his cat. His cat. And he told me the cat hadn't had his last injection yet, and wasn't really meant to be outside.

No kidding!

He picked the cat up -if I'd tried that, I'd've been scratched to pieces, I tell you- thanked me for finding him, and then went away. I stood outside, whistling at my sister to tell her to come home, and that was the end of the cat-on-a-leash fiasco.

Hell, I love cats, and want one, but if mine ever makes a noise like that one did, I'll seriously freak out. Spawn of Satan and all.