🐾 Weasley discovers that home isn’t a place… it’s where the people—and cats—you love are waiting for you.
This story is part of The Diary of an Orange Cat — now available as a book and as a complete 24-episode podcast series.
👉 Listen to the podcast:
The Diary of an Orange Cat
🎧 Watch / listen to a preview:
STORY OUTLINE
After finally summoning the courage to use his dreaded microchip cat door, Weasley finds himself caught up in a fireworks party and runs away in panic. Unable to accept that his old house is no longer home, he spends weeks wandering between familiar places, searching for food, shelter and his friend Ron.
Along the way, Weasley discovers that some things have changed forever, while others never will. In the moving conclusion to The Diary of an Orange Cat, he finally understands that home isn’t defined by walls or furniture—but by the people, friendships and love that make us feel we belong.
BACKGROUND
Although this chapter appears at the end of The Woes of Weasley, it was originally published on my website on 28 July 2023. When I adapted the book, I moved it later in the timeline so that Weasley’s disappearance took place over Guy Fawkes weekend. The fireworks party is fictional, but almost everything else really happened.
After we moved house, Weasley disappeared for nearly three weeks, repeatedly returning to our previous home rather than accepting the new one. I searched constantly, walked the streets calling his name, put up posters, bought a humane cat trap and left food in the hope that he’d come back.
During much of that time, my former neighbours could see him spending his days around their garden and compost bin, but no one could get close enough to catch him. Eventually I took all of Weasley’s belongings—his bed, bowls, litter tray and favourite food—to the neighbours’ house. Partly, I hoped the familiar smells might persuade him to stay there long enough for us to finally catch him, and partly because I began to wonder whether he had chosen them and might simply decide to live there instead.
On 22 July, my birthday, I finally found him. Muddy, limping and very hungry, he came home at last. It was one of the best birthday presents I’ve ever received.
Looking back, I think I was writing about more than just Weasley. I hadn’t wanted to move house either, and perhaps we were both trying to find our way home.
THE REAL CATS
Looking back, I’m glad I chose to end Weasley’s diary with this story. Although it was inspired by a difficult experience, it reminds me that sometimes home isn’t simply where we live. It’s the place where we feel safe, loved and surrounded by familiar faces—whether we’re human or feline.
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You can read or listen to Time to Go Home, plus all the rest of the chapters in The Woes of Weasley – The Diary of an Orange Cat.
🎧 Prefer to listen?
Spotify – Time to Go Home
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.
Brilliant read Claire xox