A cat flap

We've had excitement here this evening: a whole bunch of children and a somewhat smaller number of grownups over for dinner. A simple feast to celebrate the autumnal air: bangers and mash and baked beans. Delicious.
Unfortunately in the excitement of everyone leaving, the back door was left open for about ten minutes.

Now, our two cats are in the process of being switched from indoor to outdoor cats, but we haven't introduced them to the cat flap yet, or given them incentives to stick around and come back inside (you know, pieces of chicken, etc) and they were nowhere to be seen. We searched around the house for about quarter of an hour, calling, rattling cat food in a bowl, peering under trees and bushes, but they weren't to be found. Eventually, it being bedtime for little ones, we left the back door open a few inches and went to get the children ready. Two minutes later LOML walked into the kitchen, and there
they were, at eye level, staring back; sitting in the kitchen window -- on the inside of the screen -- insisting that no, they hadn't been outside at all, not no how, not no way, not never!


Yours, greatly relieved,
N.