I heard the accident before I saw it. A dull thud, followed by a high pitched cry, then silence. I know I slowed down. I don’t know why, but I was sure it was a cyclist. It was. When I reached the junction a woman was lying at the side of the road. She wasn’t moving. Another woman stood over her. There was a bicycle in the middle of the road. A young man was speaking urgently into a phone, asking for an ambulance. The woman in the road moved, moaned, “My head, oh my head.” The woman standing over her, spoke to her calmly, and advised her to stay still. She asked if she had any other pain. The woman in the road looked bewildered. she twisted, then yelped and reached for her leg. More people stopped. Two of them also called the emergency services. I decided to leave the scene. The driver was saying to someone at the side of the road, “The light was green wasn’t it?” I glanced at his car and saw the windscreen had caved in and shattered from the impact. I rode home soberly, reflecting that the woman in the road, who hadn’t been wearing a helmet, was lucky to be alive.
Caught in the Light
MasterB had been outside for about an hour and a half when I went to hang out the washing. I wasn’t surprised not to see him immediately, but as the clothes transferred from bowl to line and there was still no sign of him, I began to feel uneasy. He usually appears within a few minutes. This morning he was slow to appear because the ginger and white was effectively blocking his path by sitting on the wall. All the washing was on the line and no MasterB. I walked out to the street, looking in dread at the gutters. No little ginger body. Phew. I kept looking, stopping, listening in vain for the sound bells. I asked a neighbour if she had seen him. Then another. Nothing. He had disappeared. Had he got locked in somewhere? Been lifted? Was he lying injured somewhere? Had someone knocked him down and taken him to the vet? That thought sent me inside to see if anyone had ‘phoned after scanning him and getting my details from his microchip. Nothing. It was an ordinary, quiet afternoon. Unable to settle to my work, I went outside with my papers reasoning that I would be in the garden if he appeared. MasterB raced towards me, his tail puffed up, his eyes like saucers. He kept looking at the wall. i still don’t know where he had been, but boy was I glad to have him back.
The say bad things come in threes. i hope they are wrong.
Isobel (and Cat)'s Blog 
I hope they are wrong too. I can imagine the feeling in my stomach with both of these events.
Big cuddles for MasterB this evening!
Too right. But he has demanded to go out agin. Five minutes more, and I’ll go and look for him.
After seeing the poor cyclist in the middle of the road it had to be very disconcerting to have MasterB “missing in action” – so glad he was OK and I hoep the cyclist was too.
Pam (and Sam)
I don’t think she was seriously hurt. But it wasa timely reminder that when a car and a bicycle collide it is the cyclist that is the one likely to come off worst. I say timely as I have been starting to be a bit bolshy on my bike when it is my right of way and a car driver is pushy. Now, I think I shall move aside more readily. Blood, bone and all that.
It is awful when they don’t stick to their routine and you wait and wait for them to appear. So glad he’s home and well. All that 3 stuff is bull…don’t wait for the ball to drop
Yes, because they are such creatures of routine and habit. So it is strange and unsettling when those habits and routines are broken.
Yeah, what Jo Bryant said. It shows up in 93s or 2s or not at all!
Why DO they DO that stuff to us?! Because it IS all about us. Right? Skritch the cat. Whew.
You are of course right 🙂
I know you got worried especially after the incident, but he is a cat, not a human, he could take care if himself
I think you should give him some space
Blimey! You make it sound as though he has no independence. Quite wrong I assure you 🙂
It wasn’t so much the incident, more that he always appears in a certain timeframe unless something is wrong, as when he was being bullied by the other cat. For him to be absent longer suggested something untoward had happened.
It was the same with Cat. The one time he went missing he had got locked into a building.
lol
Heart stopping day Isobel. I hope the woman is recovering and I am glad MasterB is safe at home with you! MasterB is such a handsome boy to photograph and that is an amazing and I do mean amazing photo you snapped. The lighting, his huge beautiful eyes and his little furs standing up and whiskers too. I am saving the gods stories. It has been crazy busy here. I have the morning to myself today, I will settle in and read.
I hope so too. It was strange to ride past the same spot today and not a sign anything had been amiss.
Thanks for the nice words about the pic. It is another one from the bed linen changing episode I wrote about last week.
I wonder what happened in the accident? Whatever, the cyclist was fortunate to escape without serious head injury. Always, always wear a helmet.
Glad Master B hadn’t strayed too far, Isobel. You’ve taken some superb pic of him lately 🙂
Don’t know, but it is a silly crossing; one for cyclists and pedestrians where I have nearly been knocked off my bike a few times by pedestrians. There is a long wait for the lights to be in cyclists/pedestrians favour and then a v short time to cross, so if busy and several bikes deep, it is flashing before you over, some cars already starting to move forward. The long wait encourages jay walking and people on foot or wheels crossing when they see a gap.
I think MasterB was trapped the other side of the wall. I shall write about why I think that soon.
That crossing has inadequate timing from the sound of things. Not good for pedestrians or cyclists.
Absolutely. There were protests when it was changed. I don’t know how many accidents there have to be before it is reviewed. Btw, did you see the bike basket in the Guardian mag today?
No, I didn’t. I’ll look for it. I have the magazine around somewhere…