...what happened to Robin and he ain't talkin!

I have been on a week's vacation the last few days and have been
letting the cats outside for a few hours mid-day. When we are out and
about with them, they come and go frequently. When it is windy, they
tend to come in soon. But yesterday was nice.

And I was busy indoors; time to put up the winter blankets after
washing them, decide to make a birthday cake and tear the house apart,
looking for my new Hamilton Beach mixer my sister gave me, since the
old one is going to pot.etc. So it was a while before I noticed the
three older cats were in.

So I go to the door to call Robin. No sign of him. He loves to
ambush/hunt under the big cedar tree. I call and call. Go back in and
wait. Go out and wander about, calling. All the time I am worried
cause the landlord has his two tractors and the manure spreader going.
So i send Jeff to look in and around the barn, in case the
manure-scooping stirred up mice to entice the cat. Bob hadn't seen
him.

I go around all our sheds and other places to hide a cat, calling. No
cat. I come back in and i am too worried to fool with the old mixer
and shelve the cake idea for another day. After awhile i go to the
door again and here he comes, trotting low to the ground from the
north pasture.

He slinks into the house and Sheba greets him with a sniff at the
face. She snarls and swipes at him. He swipes back without claws and
goes to lie down in front of the stove. Amber comes up to sniff at
him. Amber's ears flatten and he backs off, screaming and lifts a paw
wiht claws out. I intervene. Obviously the cats are smelling something
on Robin.

So I scoop him up and take him to Jeff. I don't have much of a sense
of smell. Jeff can smell something faint. So I take a good sniff and
seem to smell something almost like orange peel but it is faint and
elusive. Then i remember something i read a couple years ago and get a
used Bounce sheet and rub Robin's face and body with it. he don't like
that a bit. But it did do something to the smell on him. After that
the cats still didn't like the smell; but they didn't react so
violently.

Robin went to a chair and slept. He didn't come to mealtime. He didn't
come to bed with me. This morning he came to breakfast but is still
subdued. He is not himself. He seems to be tired. What happened to him
yesterday? He has no wounds. His fur was not ruffled or anything when
he first came home. Maybe he was chased a long, long way. I just don't
know. But he is not his usual cocky, playful, loving, big-eyed self.  

--
CATherine