They are all well ...

the 'upstairs cats' Macc & Ming

the luxury-loving 'downstairs cat' Ratty, formerly a street cat, if you would believe it

and the magnificent Miss Beowulf - Norse Woods - Doyle, in her favourite fruit bowl:  definitely a 'downstairs cat'

I wish I could say that peace reigns supreme and that the er, tensions between Mr Macc and Miss Wolfe were all distant memories, buried by the hatchet of time.  This is not the case.  Even while I was uploading these photos there was another chase, roaring and hair pulling incident:  very tiresome.

The survivors of the mass poisoning are thriving.  We have lost none of the street cats since January.  Tiny Tim has been sort-of adopted by next door and is flourishing on regular meals.  LG is the healthiest I've ever  known her, thanks to not having kittens I surmise, while Helmet (who should be 'Bonnet'), Scout and Skippy are also doing well. 

I must try to get a photo of Seams before she disgorges her current bus load of passengers as she looks quite funny - picture a double-decker on its side but not red and you have an idea of her shape.  If we could have her spayed we would stabilise our population because she is the mother -- the super-successful mother -- of almost all of the street cats.  She is very wily and skittish and I think, impossible to catch:  I have touched her once in the years I've known her.  I am sure it was a momentary aberration when distracted by food.


Here are some of them enjoying breakfast:

clockwise from the top:  Skippy, Tiny Tim and Black Tom

I know that I have been neglecting you all, and my blogs, for the last little while, which I apologise for.  Thanks for your continuing interest in our sagas.  As for me,  I think you can fill in the gaps ...  next week I go in for an experimental treatment which might help.

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I am possessed ...

Is it any wonder I struggle to get things done?

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The Cats at Number 4

Life has got complicated since we returned to Exile in mid-September.  As you may recall, our long term resident cats, Macc and Ming were disturbed in their naps by the change in circumstances of Miss Beowulf, who moved from months of doorstep sitting to 'resident' status.

Ming has always been a shy retiring sort of Princess, but latterly she has taken to lurking upstairs in cupboards:

and under beds.  Mr Macc is also displeased with the new arrangements:

The pair of them have ruled the upstairs is out of bounds to interloper-cats and Macc defends his new border fiercely.  They slink downstairs for meals and then retreat.  At night they are cuddlesome - Ming always ends up under the blankets in my armpit and Macc in the crook of my knees on top of the blanket.   I feel guilty that this is the main bonding time we have together.  I miss their company too.

I was hoping to report that peace has returned to the household, sadly I cannot.  Even this morning there was another fur-pulling encounter that ended with the watering can being tipped on the antagonists.  The fight - for that is what it was - was instigated by Wolfe, who snuck up on Macc as he was going out into the garden.  There was a great tumble of fur and growls and screams inside, and when I opened the door further they tumbled outside to continue.  I kept pushing the 'nulla-nulla' (Aboriginal hunting stick) between them to no avail.  That was when the watering can came into play.  It is very tiresome this constant quarrelling.

And it is usually Miss Wolfe who starts it.  She is a delightful cat, loving, friendly, clever, and a domineering bossy-boots.  She seems to have a plan to eradicate the former owners of the humans.  I think she tries to eat all the food, all the time, in the hopes they will starve and leave ...  it is not working.   She loves playing, pats, being brushed, and sitting on my lap.  She doesn't believe in sharing. 

Ratty is tolerated, mostly because he ignores her and keeps out of her way, while Ming and Macc are threatened on sight. 

Apart from my lap, Wolfe rather likes the wooden fruit bowl:

Of course the week after Wolfe changed status from visiting permit to resident permit, we brought Ratty home for intensive care.  He is now nearly himself again.  He has been neutered and is recovering from that assault, and is allowed, nay, encouraged to visit the great outdoors beyond the safety of the garden.  He comes with us on our evening walk and then slopes off.  We always find him in the garden in the morning and at the breakfast bowls.  He is becoming less clingy and dependent.  For a previously never-domesticated cat, he has taken to residential life in the manner born.  He is actually much less trouble than the grand Wolfe, and although he has raised a snarl from Macc, there have been no physical encounters.

Just one happy cat.

If Wolfe would settle down and stop trying to tyrannise the household, all would be well.


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Something Different - the Alien in the Kitchen



Wolfe in the salad bowl

Not quite sure how she got up there, but Wolfe is still trying to find a place that can be 'her' territory.



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