Happily Ever After

Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running

Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.

Mad Cats And Englishmen

by admin - 20:00 on 03 June 2013

It's time to admit defeat – taking two almost-cats for a walk of exploration is a two-person job. There's just too much stress for a lone attendant.

All three members of The Pride were keen to be outdoors today, although only The Fearless Ones were willing to step outside the garden, so Maia stayed behind when they accompanied me on a stroll up the lane towards the old steading.

When they were kittens, the pair stayed within sight of me or Matchgirl at all times beyond The Rural Retreat's boundaries. Now they don't care, so a great deal of today's walk took place with invisible moggies hidden by walls, in long grass and shrubbery, and behind tempting trees. No trees were climbed, but the outbuilding opposite the steading was a whole adventure playground for almost-cats, filled with smells and interesting junk needing close examination.

One or both disappeared for long stretches; the most unnerving was when Pandora climbed up the inside of a ruined fireplace, from where faint yowls could be heard for some time. When she reappeared I was ready for home. The almost-cats weren't, for the heap of tree trunks next to the steading (where one of my favourite Tess snaps was taken) had to be looked at, then used as a source of shade from the midday sun; much panting was now taking place.

Fearful of feline heatroke, I left them to rest and hurried home to collect a bottle of water and their drinking bowl but returned to find two tired almost-cats making their own way down the lane. Water was offered, sniffed at and declined. The ingrates.

Back indoors, I expected a sleeping contest to break out. However, food and a few sips of water was enough to refresh the pair who then disappeared into the garden and who-knows-where beyond that. Life is still an adventure.

Marten Update: June, and still no daylight sightings. Last night's Bushnell captured snaps of the gate occupied by The Fearless Ones in the early evening, a marten close to midnight, Mystery Moggy No1 at 3am and The Fearless Ones at 6am. And I'm almost certain that an opportunistic rook is scavenging food from The Nutella Tree. No wonder we're not as popular with the mustelid world as we were. Life is change.

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