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.

Caught In The Headlights

by admin - 22:59 on 08 November 2012

Of late, there's not been much in these pages about pine martens – little surprise when the next time I'll see one in daylight is April at the earliest. Until then I have to settle for the occasional glimpse of a ninja marten on the garden gate, illuminated by the outside light.

But tonight, on my return from the latest Strawdogs rehearsal (ahead of our charity gig at Jubilee Hall, Evanton, a week on Saturday) a marten was lit up by the full force of Son of Seat's headlights when I turned into my usual parking spot, just a few yards away.

It was no surprise that the allegedly shy woodland creature looked up, blinked a couple of times, then returned to her nuts, raisins and Nutella. Even when I exited the car (slowly, admittedly) she continued to eat and departed only when there was nothing left.

So to mark the occasion, as I've nothing new here's my second marten snap, from three years ago, which was the first in which I made eye contact. How could one not become hooked?

Dr Supervet's assistant phoned today to report that all their tests had revealed nothing – Maia the Emo Cat is definitely not suffering from parasites or fungi. Allergies remain the prime suspect for her itchy condition.

We can now wean her off steroids and replace them with a potion containing no side-effects (apart from the one on Matchgirl's bank balance). The hypo-allergenic diet will continue and we're to report back after three or four weeks when its effect, or lack of one, should be clearer. Then it could be back to Paisley for another examination. Snow permitting.

The good news is that The Fearless Ones continue to thrive and are becoming almost trustworthy when allowed into the garden. Almost. It will still be a while before they're let out to play unsupervised.

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