Cat Tales.

The kind man feeds his beast before sitting down to dinner. Hebrew Proverb

The girls have guarded their hearts, loath to love until love was a sure thing, so I was the sucker putting out food & water for our stray. It spent Monday, which was bitter & wet, perched on the verandah. Iss hissed & spat at it through the glass door but any time the door was opened the stray tried anxiously to get in.

While I was out Dearest, who was cooking chicken, gave both Iss & the stray a wing ~ the first crack in Dearest's armour. Poor man. He has a houseful of soft~hearted females but when I took biscuits & water out to the stray when it arrived yesterday afternoon Dearest stood there aghast & furious. The poor thing was too frightened to eat, desperate for some affection even more than food & thin to the point of emancipation. It has been beaten &/or attacked, probably by a large dog; we've plenty of vicious ones round here. He went himself & found a good sized box as last night looked like being another bitter wet night but the stray was too frightened to find a box comforting & in the end Dearest just said; " Let it in & let them sort it out."

I have had more pleasant evenings. My friend Siano, who works in a cat shelter, says Iss displays all the characteristics of an alpha male so an un~neutered male was bound to send him rank. The horrible part was Iss wasn't in the least bothered by the intruder eating his food, using his litter box or wandering through his territory. What Iss really didn't like was the way Sir Ginger clung to me, sitting at my feet, walking at my heels, parking his butt under my chair ~ all Issi's spots. As Dearest commented, two protector purties & I could barely move. Both cats know exactly where I am & what I'm doing at all times.

I thought bedtime was going to be a nightmare but ginger slept with Liddy like a lamb & I took Iss to bed with me as per usual. We had no trouble until just before I got up when Iss discovered ginger had snuck up the stairs. I stepped on him as I attempted to negotiate the dark room.

I have never seen such a small cat eat so very much! Not a lot at any one time but it keeps going back to the food bowls unable to believe that there is always food available & the people aren't chasing it away, though in an effort to sooth Iss's injured feelings I have been feeding him little speciality tid~bits just for him ~ & he knows it!

We have almost always been a two cat household, mostly because it is easier to share 2 cats between the number of children than just one & we have almost always had wonderful cats. Ever since we lost Gyver the girls have been angling for another cat because Iss is most definitely mine but Dearest was adamant one cat was adequate & the resident cat wasn't to be unnecessarily upset. This has been hard on us girls. We all adored Gyver. He was the sort of cat that made you want another cat ~ affectionate, amusing, sweet tempered, vocal. Liddy suffered from that last the most as her room is by the front door & that is where Gyver made his requests to come in or out known.

Liddy has taken to calling ginger Pippi. I'm struggling with that. Ditz wants Mozart now but I can't see me crying that round the neighbourhood. I am considering Purcy, short for Purcell. He's definitely something of a vocalist!