My update is late today because it’s been such a beautiful day I’ve been out in the garden weeding.

I’ve just had my lunch so am sitting for a while to help my digestion before I go back outside.

Humphrey always plays the role of the foreperson in the garden.  He dashes about checking what we do then keeps coming back and sitting next to us.

One of the things we have to watch out for is his habit of nipping at our heels or legs when he gets excited.I’m standing there minding my own business when “ouch” – there he is again.

Playful always and I’m sure he doesn’t mean to hurt us but still… ouch.

Now the bushes are putting on growth, he keeps disappearing and sometime the only way we can locate him is to listen for the snoring.  We need not sonar but Humphrey snoringar.

What’s the best thing about having a cat?

I think it’s the unpredictability and independence of cats.  Often I think I know how Humphrey will behave based on previous actions.  And then he does something so unexpected that it makes me laugh out loud.

We were watching a nature programme the other day.  Now especially with something like Springwatch, he reacts to the birdsong – in particular he likes the small birds like blue tits – possibly because he hears them in the garden.

But for fun I was watching the children’s programme In the Night Garden last week while I was doing my ironing.  Well I’m a Derek Jacobi groupie.  And I don’t know if you’ve seen the birds that that they have on the programme, blue and purple and green.  Well they don’t exactly make a proper bird noise but Humphrey walked in and straight to the television and sat in front of it and watched it.

Not distressed like he is with real birds, but quite intent like he wanted to know what was happening – a couple of times he turned back to me as if to say – look at that.

Mad I know but it made me laugh and I can accept the illusion that he sees what I do and understands!

What a glorious morning – sun shining, birds singing and Humphrey at last out in the garden.

The warmer weather seems to have restored his faith that he’s an outside cat and this week he’s been dashing about as usual checking on the progress of little birds and their possible whereabouts.

It’s still a bit early but he’s showing all the signs of wanting to play – nicely of course with any small and not so small in the case of pigeons, wildlife that comes his way.

In the Guardian magazine yesterday there was a wonderful photo of a cat intent on staring a small mouse into submission.  Not sure if the photo was staged but it certainly made a striking image.

Now we’re waiting for our garden to turn into a killing field.  Usually with feathers all around the place.  Difficult to get rid of when they stick to the plants and leaving a worrying question mark as to where the rest of the bird ended up.

It’s been a very quiet week on the cat front.  Humphrey’s kept himself out of trouble mostly by staying home.  He had a bit of a cold, being kind enough to sneeze at me.

So I thought I’d quote a couple of things from a book one of my friends bought me for Christmas.

The book is called 100 marvelously maddening things about cats

“If cats are suppoed to retain the instincts of the wild, when did you last see a pride of lions hanging round the kitchen while their owner struggled to open a can of gazelle chunks in gravy?”

“Anti-social human behavior invariably has a feline origin; cattiness, sourpuss, etc…”

As I write this Humphrey is curled up under a chair in the living room.  Sparked out after a night on the tiles.

We always use that expression don’t we.  I know I’ve never actually spent any time on roof tiles on my nights out, but I guess for cats we can take it literally.  Well for Humphrey definitely.

That’s because in our garden we have an outbuilding, sadly now detiriorating but once it was a Victorian washhouse.  With it’s own range and sink where apparently the people lived in the house had to take in washing from the big house that’s still at the back of our garden.

Anyway it’s a favourite place of Humphrey’s to go and sleep in the roof space.  So even if it’s a cold night he at least has somewhere to go that’s out of the wind and weather.

It was so much warmer last night compared to all the nights during the week, when he showed no inclination to stay out at all.

Now he’s resting from whatevery he got up to… and snoring.  I’ve neve had a cat which snored as much as him.  Amazing.

What a week with snow and ice and sun etc etc.  And Humphrey’s reactions to it have Continue reading →

It’s only the middle of January and already I’m wondering if we’re going to get toms sniffing round our Portia again.

It seems like that might be at the root of Humphrey’s odd behaviour.  At the moment as I write this he’s downstairs asleep tucked under a chair.  It’s a beautiful morning – the kind you’d expect him to be out there sniffing the air and checking out progress towards Spring.

Not a bit of it!

But Portia has been out and when we checked on her she had her attendant in waiting sitting near her on the patio.  She’s not a bit bothered.  Such a lot of hassle we had with the toms last year; I’d rather not go through it again.  It felt like we were always chasing them out of the garden so she could have some liberty out there.

This year she’s even thinner, even more deaf and even less interested, if that’s possible.  Can’t understand why they’re wasting their time.  You think they’d realise wouldn’t you.

Meanwhile back in the ranch – Humphrey ignores the lot of them.

I was watching Animal Watch from Longleat on BBC2 during the week. They had on lots about tigers in particular the death of an old lady tiger.

It was so sad. The keepers who had looked after her for over 20 years were in pieces when she had to be put to sleep. I know it’s not ideal keeping them in captivity(though conditions out in the wild aren’t too helpful) but even accepting she was a wild animal to the end there was definitely a bond between the keepers and her.

Sometimes I know in these blogs it sometimes sounds like I shout at Humphs a lot but really I love the bones of him. He’s such a conundrum; sometimes naughty and wild and sometimes the biggest wuss out.

Because it had been so cold one evening we had the door almost closed between the living room and the dining room and a rug stuffed up to the gap under the door (if I say it’s an old house you’ll understand). For five minutes Humphs sat behind the door and cried because every time he pushed at the door he met resistance.

In the end rather than push harder he went and curled up on a dining chair.

All to make me feel guilty I guess! We’ve seen more of him this week with the cold than normal.

Next week probably he’ll ignore us because the temperature is set to rise I understand.

But to go back to the tigers, when I see Humphrey at full stretch in the garden or racing in pursuit of his quarry he’s my mini-tiger.

Well I realise now why Humphrey has been so anxious and twitchy lately.

We’ve discovered a new cat on the block has arrived.  A big, fierce tabby.

The other night my sister went to see if Humphrey wanted to come in before she locked up for the night.  She heard some growling and there was Humphrey sitting on the wheelie bin near the kitchen door.  He wasn’t growling.

As she turned her head she saw where the growling came from.  THE TABBY.  I’ve capitalised it because the way she told the story the moment deserves capitals!

Then it turned nasty.  NASTY.  Because the new cat came towards her and wouldn’t go away.  So we have Humphrey cowering on the wheelie bin and my sister menaced by the beast.

Sounds funny but she was quite scared and she’s not a woman who scares easily.  In the end she had to use the yard brush to scoot him away so that she and Humphrey could beat a retreat into the house.

We haven’t seen him since but it would account for why Humps is so nervy if the cat is roaming the garden.  It reminds me of when I lived in Sandiacre in the 1980s.  The lady in the bungalow next to my house was lovely; helpful, funny and kind.

Her cat was a different matter.  She called him the bad un.  Not a tabby but a very fierce ginger tom.  And large.  Several times I had to shoo him off my back door step with a brush.

I’m not sure if Humphrey has been chased during the week.  It’s quite likely given he ends up where he probably shouldn’t.

The reason I’m thinking so, is that he’s very jumpy at the moment.  More so than usual.  Even if I raise my voice a fraction he cringes.  As if I’m about to hit him.

Now I accept I’ve been a bit tetchier than normal this week.  So much work to finish before I can switch off for Christmas but that doesn’t really explain it.  Such a sensitive boy which you don’t expect given his size and general behaviour chasing anything that moves in the garden.

I’ll just have to be extra loving with him for a few days.  We bought the cats a special tin of food for their Christmas day lunch on our last shopping expedition.  I’m sure they’ll snatch a bit of ours as well; there’s some lovely beef and fish to come.

Well this is my last update before the holiday begins… or maybe yours already has.

Whatever is the case, Humphrey and Portia and I wish you and your cat/s all well for the season and a happy and healthy New Year.