I've been catsitting for the last ten days at my parents' place. As you may remember our cat was run over earlier this year, but my nan has been in hospital recently so her cat is staying with my folks and he needed looking after while they were away on the trip. He's 18 years old and the feline equivalent of a doddery old man in a home who has his dinner (mashed up because he has no teeth), shuffles about for 10 minutes twice a day and then sleeps in his chair the rest of the time. He's quite sweet though and I think he's enjoyed having me look after him. It's just a shame about the toilet mishaps - that'll teach me for moving the litter tray...

There was a drama while the folks were away. I let in a very distressed teenage girl who I thought had been attacked but it turns out she had run away from her sixth foster home (for the third time) and was clearly mixed and babbling about some boy that she hasn't seen for a year. I think she expected me to take her in or drive her across the country to find this person who she thought was the answer to all her problems. Anyway a call to social services was useless because they couldn't find her on their books as she's just moved here from another county, so they advised calling the police. The police were next to no help. I spoke to a very blunt man who said "she's seventeen, she can do what she wants, we're not a taxi service etc." Eventually I convinced them something had to be done and a woman called me back saying "I understand you have a problem with your girlfriend" - Doh! Anyway after a long explanation she said she could send someone round in 90 mins time and was I happy to look after her till then, so I said no, not really! I was worried what she might do. She could steal something when I left the room or pull a knife on me, or later claim that I tried to touch her or something. About 30 mins later the police called back saying she'd been reported missing and her fosterparents were coming round to collect her, which is not really what I wanted as she'd been ranting about she can't go back to them because they don't understand her etc. I didn't know how she'd react when they showed up to get her. Well, eventually they did show up after what seemed like an eternity even though they live in the same road, and the girl hid in the kitchen and refused to come out for a while. Then she ran out and asked if she could hide upstairs. I said no it's not my house. The fosterparents gave her a stern talking to and said that if she didn't want to stay with them she could go somewhere else that night to somewhere else provided by social services. The dad asked me if she was here on Sunday, apparently she's done this several times, and it sounds like people have even let her stay the night. It was all pretty scary and I felt like a bit of a fool for getting sucked in and letting her into a house which is not even my own. It sounds like something out of Home and Away except in that she'd be a model citizen within 5 minutes and serving sandwiches in the local diner in no time. I do feel bad for her though, she was very polite and apologetic at all times and I wonder what's going to happen to her. I was pretty stressed out as you can imagine, all this took hours and I was exhausted by the end of it so went straight to bed!