Miaow There! Page 3
“Well, well,” he said to Sheila,” I didn’t know you would be on this trip so soon after your last one, great to see you again!” They grinned at each other, looking like two Cheshire cats! “Well, good to see you too Michael” she replied. She introduced me and he bent down and tickled me behind the ears and stroked my back. I switched to purr mode. Oh yes, I thought, you are a nice man, I know we will be friends. ” Well” he said to me,”I’ve heard all about you Misty! I have Truffles’ book from when she was on the ship and I believe you are going to let us all have your observations as well.” I nodded and stepped up the purr a notch. Sheila then told me that Michael was the Activities Director on board so no doubt we would be meeting up a lot and there would be many things for me to look at with all the activities and entertainment they have on board which Truffles, being rather lazy as I’ve mentioned before, didn’t want to join in. I sat down again while they chatted away catching up on what had happened since she was on the ship about three months earlier. I idly wondered to myself whether when Michael was out in the sunshine, it would reflect off his head or, if he was out at night, would the stars reflect on him too? Maybe if we get to know each other better, he might let me sit on his shoulder and use his head as a looking glass, I do like preening myself... Then Michael said he had to go, so he walked away in one direction and we continued on our way and sat down for a further half hour in another nice sitting area, Sheila chatting to some people nearby, all of us waiting until it was announced that the staterooms were ready.
Arriving at our stateroom
Shortly afterwards, I heard a lady’s voice that seemed to come from above, saying that our rooms were ready. I looked all around, but I couldn’t see the owner of the mysterious voice. So many things were baffling me already about this ship, I had the feeling that this cruise was really going to be an eye opener! With Sheila firmly gripping my lead and pulling along her suitcase, we strolled along until we arrived in front of several of those elevator machines, something like the one we had seen in the port. These, however, were all made of that weird material you call glass which, I have to admit, is just something that we cats, and dogs too, find so very hard to understand. You can see right through it but you can’t walk through it. Unbelievable! Unlike the rather dingy and dull one we’d been in earlier, these elevators were gleaming with highly polished surrounds starting right at the ground, so I could very easily look at myself (!) and the doors slid back silently and all in all, it looked most inviting. Now that I had had the experience of riding in one of these contraptions, I wasn’t at all nervous and so I bounded in ahead of Sheila, giving a few people that were already standing inside something of a shock. Out came Sheila with the explanations again! The doors closed and then again I heard a mysterious lady’s voice saying “Deck 7 - doors opening” Again I looked all around me but could not see the owner of the voice. Weird, weird! “Doors closing” she said and off we travelled again. When she said “Deck 10”, Sheila said, “That’s ours, come on Misty” and so we got out. Beyond us I could see a big room filled with rows and rows of books. There were several more of those comfy chairs set out with small tables handily placed nearby. Now, because of Truffles and her books, I do know what a book is though I don’t know how to read one myself! But I had never seen so many all in one place. Sheila keeps quite a few in her study at home on a few shelves, but this was something else. “This is called a library” Sheila told me. Well, you learn something every day!
Leaving the ‘library’ area, beyond us stretched a long passageway with lots of doors each side of it. We have, I’ve always thought, lots of doors in our house, but here simply everything I had seen so far was just so very much bigger! A lot to take in for a little cat like me, but I was sure that after the initial day or two, I would soon find my paws! After walking along a lovely soft carpet, bliss to my said paws, and passing two or three of these doors, Sheila stopped at one, marked number 1122, and said to me “Here we are Misty - welcome to your new home for the next two weeks!” She reached into her pocket (I remember Truffles telling me that she always wished she had had a pocket - very handy for carrying dead mice or spiders around!) took out our Sea Pass card, and slid it into the door where it made another satisfying chirping sound. Then she opened the door and behold (!) I was looking at a stateroom!
Around our stateroom
Sheila led the way, the door silently shutting behind us. Unclipping my lead, she disappeared into a door leading off directly to the right, so whilst I had a few minutes to myself, I had a good look around the stateroom. It was larger than I had imagined - somehow I thought it was going to be a pretty compact compartment with a view, rather like my room at cat camp. But then I thought, silly me, she couldn’t fit all that luggage into anything small, could she! Carrying on past the door on the right, I came to a large clothes cupboard (closet to our American readers)... a wardrobe I think you call such things, but why a cupboard would want to go to war - and who against - I have no idea. Next to that was a very large and extremely comfy looking bed with lots of soft pillows and cushions on it and to each side was a baby table and shelves. On top of one of these was one of those high tech gadgets you speak into. I never have understood exactly what these things are. We have several at home and Sheila also seems to carry a tiny one in her bag. For some reason she speaks to them from time to time... .. aaah, perhaps they get lonely! Above the splendid bed were more cupboards attached somehow to the wall.
I carried on my exploration, and a little further on was a beautiful pale leather sofa. That’s more like it I thought, I expect she’ll put my favourite furry cushion on that so I can relax in total comfort. I am never allowed to get on her bed at home so I guessed there was no chance of her changing the rules here either! I was dreaming of some blissful sleepy moments on the sofa when suddenly I jumped nearly out of my skin! Unheard by me, Sheila had opened the mysterious door and there came from beyond it a very frightening sound the likes of which I had never heard before! I shrank back underneath the bed! What the... .. was that?
“Misty” she said, “now, there is something you will have to get used to hearing whilst we are on the ship, so I want to show you so you won’t be scared.” Too late, I muttered to myself, I AM scared. And no, I am NOT coming anywhere near it! I retreated further under the bed, but her arm reached under the bed and pulled me out... “It’s OK, Misty” she said, picking me up and patting me, “It’s just the sound of the loo. I won’t get technical with you, but all ships have very noisy loo’s. It’s so the water can flush instantly away and just as instantly, refill. It’s nothing to be scared of, really. I’m going to take you to watch as I do it once more to show you that it won’t harm you... that is,” she smiled to herself” as long as you don’t try to jump into it!” No chance of that, dear, I am definitely going to keep my distance! Why don’t ships have nice quiet litter trays for their guests instead of these noisy water boxes! At home, yes, she has three of these loo’s (water boxes I call them) but they don’t seem to make any noise - she is the only one that makes the noises! (Oh dear, another catty comment Sheila!) She carried me into the little room; I could see that it was a nice bathroom now. We approached the loo and, still carrying me, she leant towards it saying, “just watch, Misty, nothing nasty is going to happen to you, but you just must get used to the noise!” I cringed back against her but did force myself to look closely. She pressed a button and sure enough a torrent of water shot downwards making the loud noise that had startled me so. But as she had promised, it was over in a moment and no, now I had seen it, it wasn’t in the least scary! Oh, well, what a anti climax! I jumped down and as she went on into the main stateroom, I looked closely around the bathroom.
Not sure why it’s called a bathroom as it didn’t have a bath in it! It had one of those overhead pipes that spouts water spray over you... personally I couldn’t imagine anything more loathsome than having water sprayed over me, ugh! Still, each to their own I guess. There w
as also a lot of drawers and shelves and a tall side cupboard with a glass (that mysterious stuff of which there seemed to be so much on this ship) front, and there was also a large looking glass with lights over it. Well, Sheila would enjoy preening herself in here I thought! Investigations complete, I came out into the stateroom again.
Opposite to the bed and sofa I could see a range of units containing more drawers and another small cupboard, inside which, when Sheila opened it, I could see it contained lots of little bottles of those coloured liquids that you all like, some of which make you giggly if you have too many! Above that was a smaller cupboard door, but I don’t know what was behind that! Fixed to the wall above the units was one of those flat square box like things that shows pictures that Sheila seems hypnotised by each evening at home, though it wasn’t quite so big as ours! Aha, I thought, I’ve found just one thing that on this ship is not as big as the ones we have at home! And finally at the end of the room on this side was a desk type unit with a chair in front and another looking glass above. On this desk were some nice flowers and one of those things I think you call a kettle where you make your frothy coffee and stuff. In the centre of the room just in front of the sofa was a low table on which were more flowers and also a big bottle of that bubbly stuff that Sheila likes, with some drinking glasses beside it. Beside that were several booklets and what looked like small newspapers. Well, I thought, we’ll certainly be comfortable in here!
“Just one more thing for you to explore, Misty” said Sheila, “and that’s the balcony.” Balcony, what’s a balcony? She edged me towards some of those glass sliding doors at the far end of the stateroom. We have something similar in our house and that’s where I like to sit and enjoy the sunshine - when we get any that is! Sheila slid the doors open and we walked through. Something else that was very strange... outside our doors at home there is green grass, here it was just a wood floor and I could see above me a table and there were two very long chairs plus paw rests. (not sure what you call them!) At the end of this wood floor there was what l looked like another glass wall but it only reached about halfway up Sheila. “Come and look, Misty” she said. I walked gingerly up to the glass wall, and looked through it only to jump back with a start! OMG, no grass to be seen but just water, water as far as the eye could see! Reminded me of a nightmare I had once when I dreamt I fell into huge pond and couldn’t get out! After my nerves had calmed down a little, I crept forward - very slowly indeed - and peered out again. In fact, now I could see that there were some of those large buildings in the distance so I supposed that it wouldn’t be too bad to be surrounded by water if I could see land in the distance. I breathed a sigh of relief and looked up at Sheila. “Of course, we’re only in the port at the moment,” she said,”Once we start moving, you will see what a big sea is really like, but don’t worry, you’ll soon get your sea paws!” She walked back inside and left me sitting there puzzling. What on earth was she talking about... C a big C! C paws! Was she talking in some kind of code? I shook my head. Oh well, although I am pretty quick and understand most of what you humans say, there are times when I think you talk out of the backs of your heads... and this was certainly one of them! I sat there for a few minutes in the sunshine thinking this would be a pretty nice place to relax. Suddenly there came a bang at the stateroom door and Sheila opened it to see a nice looking dark haired young man, smiling at her... and he had all our luggage. My first thought was thank goodness, my collars!
“My goodness, it’s Pedro!” she said, “how nice to see you again.” “And you too Mees Shella”, he replied in a rather strange accent that I didn’t recognise. Certainly not Cornish and not really like how Sheila speaks either. “Well, I knew I was having the same stateroom as I had on my last cruise” said Sheila, “but I didn’t realise you would still be here too! How are you?” “Fine” he said, “I just have this cruise to do and then I will be going on leave myself.” He pushed all the cases inside, and after a few minutes chatting, Sheila picked me up and introduced me to him. He patted my head and said “Ello Mistee, you are a prettee pussee, I ‘av been told to expect you, and I will be your personal steward for this cruise !” They both laughed. Oh, I was enjoying all this! I switched on my purr at full volume and he said that anything I wanted, I only had to ask! Well, as I said earlier... the saying that cats have servants was now definitely proving to be true! Sheila has always said that the service on this cruise line is the best, and I was already beginning to believe it! Time would tell! After a few more moments of chat, Pedro left and Sheila turned and surveyed the cases. “Well, Misty” she said, I’ll get you sorted out first and then you can go and sit on the balcony while I unpack all my things before we have to go to lifeboat drill.” What’s that I wondered.
She unpacked my bed and placed it in a corner by the glass doors, then put my comfy cushion just outside the glass doors so I went and curled up on it deciding to have a quick catnap after all the excitement of the day! When I awoke about an hour later, I could see that my litter igloo had also been placed outside in the opposite inner corner of the balcony. That’s handy I thought, I’ll use that right away! Sheila then came and quickly did her litter cleaning and changing duty, decanting the used litter into some special bags she had brought. The elf and safety people on this ship are, apparently, very fussy and exacting on anything to do with hygiene,and I knew she would do everything just as required. I believe she had agreed all this with them when she was planning this trip. Well, I do have her very well trained in these duties at home in any case, so I would expect no less than first class service from her at any time, wherever we might be! I followed her back inside the stateroom and all the cases had now disappeared and everything looked neat and tidy. I know that Sheila is very fussy and back at home everything must be just so and in its proper place. Luckily I feel the same, so that’s another reason we get on so well! She leant down and clipped the lead onto my collar once more and told me we were now going to the mysterious lifeboat drill. Well, all would soon be revealed and it would be yet another new experience for me on this exciting day!
Lifeboat drill and leaving port
We walked along the passageway to where the elevators were, but this time just as I was about to pull forward in their direction, Sheila turned instead to the bank of stairs nearby. I noticed that some other people were using them rather than the elevators for some reason, and there were more smiley members of the ship’s staff all dressed in - rather unbecoming I thought - yellow waistcoats, waving everybody towards the stairs. I wondered why? Oh, maybe the lady who announced the different floor
numbers had a sore throat and couldn’t speak, so was having a rest perhaps? We were on deck ten so we made our way down to deck five, Sheila as usual acknowledging the comments people were making about me. It was beginning to get a bit wearing now I thought. I’m a cat, I’m here, it’s all above board (excuse the pun!) so get over it!
After getting to deck five, Sheila gave our stateroom number to a man with a long list and he smiled and patted me saying that he had been told to look out for a cat passenger and he was honoured to meet me! How nice - I gave him a purr. We strolled over to some nearby chairs and Sheila sat on one with me sitting underneath. I felt safe and more or less unseen in this hiding place, and I could have a good look around too! Apart from lots of peoples’ legs walking by, I could see there were many tables and chairs in this very large - dining room I think it is called - and above I could see lots of sparkly lights hanging from the ceiling. It all looked very attractive and the tables were set with those things you eat and drink with - glasses, lots of them, and various hand tools. We cats have no need of such things, two simple bowls - one for food and one for water - and our mouths and paws are quite sufficient. Don’t know why you don’t follow our example; think of all the hours of washing up you’d save!
After a short while I felt Sheila, who had been chatting to the people nearby, take hold of my collar and mutter to herself “
Wait for it”. “Wait for what?” I thought. A rather loud unseen man’s voice was talking to everyone in general... I could’nt help but wonder where all these invisible people were, first the lady in the elevators and now this guy somewhere above! Suddenly I heard seven short, but very loud, hooting sounds followed by the same thing but this time very long and drawn out... horrific! I wanted to stick my paws in my ears, but unfortunately I can’t get them into that position! You humans can, I know! It’s perhaps one of the few things I envy about you as it would be useful from time to time, and this was definitely one of those times! I shrank back further under the chair, but Sheila told me to calm down, and that everything was OK. She said this was a sound we hoped we would never hear again (believe you me, I certainly agreed with her!) and it would only ever be used if we had to get into the lifeboats. These, she explained, are hanging on the outside of the ship but we don’t want to ever get into them! I pondered to myself - what a waste of time if we don’t ever want to get in them, why do they put them there in the first place? I repeat, I will never understand the strange things you humans do! Anyway, after a bit more talking from the unseen man, followed by the man - who had taken our names before - putting on and then taking off again (what an odd thing to do!) a smaller orange jacket - that suited him even less than the yellow one - everyone got up and made their way back towards the stairs. So that was lifeboat drill was it? Oh well... ..
After climbing from deck five up to deck ten, Sheila was puffing and panting! I, on the other paw, wasn’t out of breath at all. You definitely need to take more exercise, dear... As we walked back towards our stateroom I was fascinated by rows of sparkly little green lights that had appeared by the side of the passageway. They hadn’t been there when we left earlier. How pretty. It wasn’t Christmas was it? As we passed the lights I had a bit of fun patting several of them but they didn’t go out. We arrived at our door and immediately Sheila sat down on the leather sofa and put me on her knee. “We’ll be leaving very soon, Misty” she said, “so I’m going to drink a toast as we leave”. What on earth is she going on about now, I thought. How can you drink toast!