I’ve been working as a mobile vet now for three years. Every day presents a new adventure, but sometimes not in the way you bargain for.

The daily life of a vet is an extremely varied job and you never know exactly what you’re going to encounter next, but you have to be prepared for anything. One minute you are seeing a lovely new puppy for his first vet visit, and the next you might be called to see a cat who has just been hit by a car.

Or just maybe, you might have to see a cat who is smarter than you. Enter, Horus.

Horus is an exceptionally beautiful but also dangerously intelligent Egyptian Mau who we have the privilege of treating. This is the story of how two highly trained veterinary professionals were once outsmarted by a cat.

Horus, perhaps not so intelligently, had decided to try and eat a bee a few days prior to this particular visit. He’d had a swollen face and an ulcerated area on his tongue that we were going to recheck as his owners were away on safari in Africa. Horus’ owners had entrusted us to let ourselves into the house to re-examine him at home in his own environment, which would prove to be stress free for him, but stressful for us.

Upon entering the doorway, we caught Horus' startled gaze before he darted up the stairs. We followed him upstairs and watched him dart out his cat door onto the veranda. “Perfect,” I thought, “we’ve got him cornered”. We followed him outside onto the veranda and closed the sliding doors to keep him contained. I nearly had hold of him but he slipped through my fingers and darted back inside through his cat door.

"Right, back inside then."

I tried the door. Our nurse Chelsea tried it too just in case. It was locked. We were locked outside on the upstairs veranda. Horus had tricked us, big time. I tried to see if I could reach the lock through the cat flap while Horus stared at us from inside looking smug. Not a chance.

Next idea.

I tried to climb down the side of the house. I swung one leg over the balcony wall, then the other. However, I suddenly recalled my fear of heights and retreated to safety.

Horus was looking quite relaxed from the safety of indoors by this point, slowly blinking at us through the locked sliding glass doors.

Chelsea and I discussed our options.

Option 1 – try and climb from the balcony and possibly break a leg.

Option 2 – call the office for help and risk endless teasing from the rest of the team.

Option 3 – call my mom who lives five minutes away.

We went for the latter and fortunately my mom came to our rescue in minutes.

We managed to capture Horus and his mouth was looking much better. All was right with the world again, until we found out Horus' owners had watched the entire ordeal on their security camera and were extremely amused.

The moral of the story is, stay humble because no matter how smart you think you are, you can still get outwitted by a cat.