(1) Something happens to cats after we have enjoyed a delicious meal. Call it a feline sugar hit or…

(1) Something happens to cats after we have enjoyed a delicious meal. Call it a feline sugar hit or a rush of good feeling. Abandoning our usually sedentary nature, we transform into crazy beasts who thunder down corridors, spring from one piece of furniture to another, or pounce from behind half-closed doors to attack the shoelaces of unsuspecting passersby. It is as though we are temporarily possessed. (2) That, at least, is my excuse, dear reader — and the only explanation I can offer for my entirely unplanned global TV debut. (3) To be fair, I had no way of knowing that my master was receiving visitors that particular afternoon. Nor that he was being interviewed live, let alone by one of America’s most famous journalists. (4) All I knew was that, a few minutes after gorging myself on a favourite treat of creamy pudding, I felt that sudden, primal explosion of energy. I made my way back to the suite of rooms that I shared with my master and felt an overpowering compulsion to do something completely mad. I wanted to run like a furious jungle cat, at that particular moment. (5) Bursting through the door of the room in which my master received visitors, I tore up the carpet as I raced towards the sofa opposite where he was sitting. I ripped its fabric as I scrambled up its side like a savage creature clawing its way up a perilous cliff. Then with a final, frenzied burst, I launched myself off one arm of the sofa, leaping towards the other. (6) It was only at this point that I realised the sofa was occupied by the journalist. She was halfway through a sentence, and my abrupt appearance caught my master’s guest completely by surprise. (7) You know, when something truly unexpected happens, time can seem to slow down. Well, that’s how it was. As I flew past the woman’s face, her expression turned from one of calm engagement to that of total surprise. (8) As she pushed back in her seat to avoid me, the shock on her face could not have been more evident. (9) But, dear reader, she was not more shaken than me. I had not been expecting anyone on the sofa, let alone a TV celebrity, nor one who was mid-interview. As I headed towards the opposite end of the sofa, for the first time I observed the lighting, the cameras and the crew watching the action from the shadows. By the time I landed on the other arm of the sofa, all the energy that had propelled me was gone. (10) I was, no longer, a furious jungle cat. (11) The journalist looked at me. I looked at her. Both of us were taking in what had just happened. I was also conscious of the cameras still rolling as well as many pairs of eyes watching me at that moment. My moment of global glory. Adapted from: The Dalai Lama's Cat Omnibus By David Michie