After losing Åsa last fall, we’ve all been a little more anxious about Moa going outside, though of course we understand that she’s really no less safe now than she has been for all the years she’s been allowed outside.  I’ve mused more than once that I would make her an indoors-only cat if I thought it would work, but she’s such an outdoors enthusiast that beyond trying to keep her in after dark, we haven’t given it much of a try.

Enter New Year’s Eve.

Swedes tend to go a little overboard in their appreciation of fireworks at the turn of the year, and the amateur shows we see even in our little burg would rival the Fourth of July show put on every year by my hometown fire department back in Idaho.  The blasts go on for a half-hour or more, and they can be very loud and rather spectacular.  As it happened, this year Moa was outside when the clock struck midnight, and I guess that the hullabaloo freaked her right out.  When we were getting ready for bed, it took Olof at least twenty minutes to coax her out of her hiding spot behind the garage and into the house, and she didn’t venture outside again for several days.  Even now, a week later, I can count on one hand the times she’s gone out, and those times she’s wanted to come back in within ten or fifteen minutes.

I’m sure that once the weather warms up again, and enough time has passed for her to forget the scare, she’ll be right back at the door begging to go out, but it’s nice for the time being — when we’re still feeling vulnerable — to have a break from worrying about her.