Monday 4 April 2016

C is for Classroom Cat-astrophe!


Welcome to my posts for the A to Z Challenge 2016.
This year, I am posting 
Special School Stories
 tales from either my time as a teacher or teaching assistant within classrooms in the U.K. or from my own school days growing up around the country

The interconnecting door between our classrooms flung open and a child shouted “Come quick, Mrs Turner needs you.”

My wonderful teaching assistant leapt into action to take over and I raced through the door wondering what calamity had occurred.  I found Mrs. Turner standing on her desk and her poor T.A. up on a chair too.  The children in the classroom looked slightly perplexed at the situation but the majority had remained seated with only the odd one huddling by the classroom door.

“Oh Mrs P, you like cats,” Mrs Turner cried and pointed towards the open window the other side of the classroom.  It was then that I realised that two black cats were slinking their way across the carpet obviously having jumped through the window.

“No problem,” I replied and making my way through the children’s desks I approached.  Both cats came straight towards me, tails up in greeting.  It was so easy scooping them up, one under each arm and then asking one of the children to open the door onto the playground where I deposited them.

I turned to go back in through the classroom door only to have one cat scoot through between my legs and its sibling jump effortlessly through the open window again!  By this time, the children were all up out of their seats wanting to watch what was happening so it was a little trickier rounding both cats up again.

“Can someone close the window, please and the outside door?” I asked and this time took the pair around the corner of the school into the school garden. Putting them down, I gave them both a bit of fuss before legging it back and letting myself in through the main school door without them.

I returned to my class and our English lesson wondering why on earth two cats would be so desperate to get into a school classroom full of children on such a hot, sunny day and how in all the years I had known Mrs Turner and her assistant I had never known they were both so scared of cats!  

Not that I am disparaging that - if it had been a tarantula then I’d have been standing on a chair on top of the desk!!


So now it’s your turn – have you had to step in when someone’s phobia got the better of them?  What animal would make you jump on top of your desk?  Or alternatively, which animal would have you running to pick it up?

14 comments:

  1. Awww! How cute! I'm not fond of spiders, but I've learned to step on them if needed. My mother argues that they eat bugs, so I try ignore some, but if they come for me...splat!

    Great stories!

    Heather M. Gardner / @hmgardner
    Co-Host, Blogging from A to Z April Challenge
    The Waiting is the Hardest Part

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  2. I rescue colleagues from spiders quite a lot, I really don't mind them, and another colleague who's scared of birds... my phobia is hospital related but luckily hospitals don't jump out at you ;)

    Animal wise I really don't like being around cows without a hedge/fence between us...

    Mars xx
    @TrollbeadBlog from
    Curling Stones for Lego People

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  3. My phobia is mice and flying. All the men in my family have a phobia of spiders. So I kill the spiders and they take care of the mice. LOL! Good post


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  4. Oh dear, not a big animal fan - they need to stay on the ground. I'd be calling you for help!

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  5. I am not a fan of spiders, I would definitely be on top of the desk. I love most other animals, especially frogs :)
    @AllysePanaro from
    The Frog Lady

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  6. I teach speech, as well as English, so I deal w/ the fear of public speaking daily. BTW, your story reminds me of one from a school in Montana last year: A bear roamed the halls of the school! Nothing that exciting here. Glenda from
    Evolving English Teacher

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  7. I imagined the whole scenario as I was reading your tale. It made me giggle for sure.
    A snake would paralyze me. We have a great nature trail in our town. I enjoyed it immensely. One day I was walking with a friend and almost wound up in her arms because she yelled "snake!" I haven't been back on the trail since then.

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  8. I once had a huge spider that was so terrifying that I asked my neighbor to come over and kill it LOL! Normally, I do well with spiders, but this was the size of a small fruit!
    ~Katie
    TheCyborgMom

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  9. Nice story. Once I owned 13 cats (or perhaps they owned me). When relatives from Norway visited, they shrieked when they saw a cat inside the house. Not an easy task to remove all 13 so they could enjoy the rest of the visit.

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  10. Nice story. Once I owned 13 cats (or perhaps they owned me). When relatives from Norway visited, they shrieked when they saw a cat inside the house. Not an easy task to remove all 13 so they could enjoy the rest of the visit.

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  11. I'm glad the calamity was only two cats!
    I'm not a fan of bees, personally.

    Yvonne

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  12. What a neat story. I can see the cats now, just wanting to be friends. I also understand being afraid of them. I'm very cautious around strange cats or any critter until I see if they're friendly. Now yellow jackets and things that can hurt me I try to avoid. Thanks for stopping by my blog. http://beverlystowemcclure.blogspot.om

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  13. Wonderful story! Any story with cats on is great in my books. :)

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  14. This is cute. My "phobia" is definitely spiders! I'll share a true story where I almost jumped "out of a car" but it was highly exaggerated. It's the premise that counts, right? :)

    There Was a Spider in my Car

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