Root Cat Paralysis

As Mrs T opened the door, a magnificent grey cat with a shiny coat darted out of the flat. Accompanied by Mrs T's rapid speech, we went inside through the door beads to the back garden only to find out there wasn't much to do there. Our 87-year-old beneficiary was doing pretty well, regularly pulling the weeds growing between the paving slabs. Before heading back to another garden that needed maintenance, we learned about the location of Mrs T's secret tool stash.

Today Mrs T was dressed up nicely as she visited the church after a long time of absence to witness her friend becoming a priest. We, on the contrary, were rocking our mission-hardened, sweaty and dusty red t-shirts. We felt like two sun-dried tomatoes after two missions in the scorching sun. But guess what - we were ready for more action! The only thing that could stop us was the chatty Mrs T. As much as we wanted to have a nice conversation with her, we had to get to work.

Kash jumped into a raised flowerbed with a fork and a saw, and Sevan grabbed a hoe to get to the weeds that thought they could get out of our reach. Mrs T didn't like the small tree growing in the flowerbed because it blocked her view and the sunlight from reaching the kitchen. An answer to this problem was a GoodGymer with a saw. A few cuts and the tree was no more. Mrs T was pleased, although she was convinced that the tree would grow back again. While Sevan broke apart all the branches to fit them in a bin, Kash embarked on a task that would take her most of the mission time: extracting the root.

During the mission, we were approached by a friendly law enforcement officer who asked us whether we are a charity or residents. We proudly revealed ourselves as volunteers. The officer was quite pleased with our work and didn't have more questions. He doubted whether Kash would be able to take out the root of the tree - but that didn't discourage us.

We cleared everything from the flowerbed, apart from a rose bush and another plant that was in Mrs T's good books. Then we swept leaves that collected below the flowerbed. The toughest task was still ahead of us - running away from Mrs T who chased us with a stack of two-pound coins, not accepting that we refused the reward. She was a lovely lady, wishing to show her gratitude. She didn't buy into any alternative ideas we tried to sell her: donating to her church or a charity, or getting treats for her beautiful cat. Eventually, we manoeuvred ourselves out of the gate, said our goodbyes and wished Mrs T a pleasant afternoon, then we ran in the boiling sun back to Ealing.