Deep Trouble

🐾 Featuring a missing cat, Facebook detectives… and one very overactive imagination.

This story is part of The Diary of an Orange Cat — now available both as a book and as a podcast.

👉 Listen here:
Spotify (Episode available on Sunday 12th July 2026)
or wherever you usually get your podcasts.

🎧 Watch / listen to a preview:

STORY OUTLINE

Fresh from his unexpected promotion to Leader of the local cat Cabinet, Weasley is determined to make his mark on Diamond Harbour. Before long, Cabinet business is interrupted by a rather unfortunate kererū that crashes into the ranch slider above the meetiHaving finally been allowed outside after moving house, Weasley is delighted to begin exploring his new neighbourhood. His excitement is short-lived, however, when an encounter with an unfriendly local cat sends him fleeing back to his old home.

While Weasley settles into life as a reluctant fugitive, surviving on neighbours’ compost bins and occasional visits from Squeak and Serafina, the humans of Diamond Harbour launch an increasingly determined search to bring him home. From Weasley’s perspective, however, the rescue effort soon becomes something far more sinister as rumours of cat traps, Facebook sightings and false trails convince him that an elaborate conspiracy is unfolding.

Although filled with humour, Deep Trouble is also one of the most heartfelt chapters in Weasley’s diary, exploring the confusion many cats experience after moving house and the gradual realisation that “home” is not a place but the people who care for you.ng. As the cats attempt to organise a rescue operation, an unexpected visit from the Peninsula Post raises awkward questions about family appointments, conflicts of interest and whether Weasley has surrounded himself with relatives rather than the most qualified candidates.

BACKGROUND

Like many episodes in The Diary of an Orange Cat, Deep Trouble is closely based on real events.

Only a few weeks after moving house in 2023, the real Weasley escaped during one of his first opportunities to explore outside. Instead of remaining near his new home, he instinctively returned to our old house a few hundred metres away, where he remained for several anxious days.

During that time I posted on the Diamond Harbour Facebook page asking if anyone had seen him. The response from the local community was extraordinary. Friends, neighbours and complete strangers all kept watch, reported sightings and offered practical help. One resident even offered the use of a humane cat trap if it became necessary.

As always, the fictional version is told entirely through Weasley’s eyes. Rather than recognising that everyone is trying to help him, he interprets every development as evidence of an increasingly elaborate plot to capture him.

THE REAL CATS

The real Weasley definitely must’ve had a list of things he wanted to do when he finally got home

Number Two – Have a cuddle so huge that I can’t control my purring

You can read or listen to Party Games, plus all the rest of the chapters in The Woes of Weasley – The Diary of an Orange Cat.

🎧 Prefer to listen?
Spotify – Deep Trouble (Episode available on Sunday 12th July 2026)

Or wherever you get your podcasts

📚 Prefer to read?
You can find the full story, along with all chapters, in The Woes of Weasley – The Diary of an Orange Cat, available in print and eBook on Amazon.