Garden update

Hi, some of the hoops and netting went today. Thought I'd take the opportunity to explore the plastic tent in case she's going to remove that too. There is a flap open each end now so I climbed in. Found Amber can't follow me so this is a great den. When mum spotted me she was okay about it but she was going on about carrots. Now you and I know what a carrot looks like - it's a long orange thing. I couldn't see any anywhere. I'd kept carefully away from those big cabbages and lettuces and things. I kept to a bed of feathery stuff which didn't look like a vegetable or flower.

Grow Your Own

Hi, strange things have been happening in our garden lately. Mum put up a plastic tent thing and planted stuff in it. Every so often she looks inside and mutters about what's growing fastest. Seems there's some sort of race between Lollo Rosso and Iceberg (whoever they are). She also put up rows of hoops and covered them with bubble wrap which she has now replaced with green netting. Wierd or what? It may be some new art form - I keep hearing the word "Groeyerown".

As if that wasn't strange enough, she's been burying potatoes all over the place. Amber has dug quite a few holes around them but she hasn't got to the bottom of it. May be just a phase she's going through.

Amber and the rabbit

Heard a good one about Amber. She went with Mum to visit some friends who have a rabbit. Mum tried to show her the rabbit in the hutch but she was too interested in the children to take any notice. A few minuted later there was such a rumpus! The rabbit had realised a dog was near and scurried for cover making such a noise from the wooden hutch that Amber nearly jumped out of her skin. Amber then started repeatedly barking and retreating. She was really nervous of the 'thing' in the hutch just because it made a lot of noise. Honestly, for a dog she's such a scaredy-cat.

When she was young she met a rabbit face to face and neither batted an eyelid.

Merry Christmas

Just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Feeling very Christmassy at the moment. Mum's put up that lovely tree that she hangs lots of pretty things on. It gets harder to climb each year and falls over too easily, but it's fun. She's got some green stuff with berries on too but she won't let me near it. Tried several times but she actually shouted at me. Amber's used to being shouted at, but I'm not. Went off and ignored her for a bit. When I came back she'd hung the stuff up out of reach.

Amber's racing around all excited but I don't think it's got anything to do with Christmas. She's always like that. No dignity.

By the way, you get all sorts at the Crib in Nativity Scenes - sheep, donkeys, camels, even a dog occasionally or a hen - but where's the cat?

What's been happening?

I promised you an update and here it is –

September 2007
Found my cat-flap locked and I was the wrong side of it. Food was inside, I was out. Got quite frantic. Scraped and miaowed for ages. Now they sometimes lock me in, that’s often a prelude to a visit to the vet, but they don’t usually lock me out. Both Mum and Dad claim they didn’t lock it, so that only leaves Amber. It’s supposed to have been accidental, but I wonder?

(Got my own back later. One of the fence panels was down so they put up a trellis as a barrier. I crawled through and made faces at Amber from the other side.)

Played a trick on Mum. Found a long sinuous piece of rubbery sealant stuff. Ran into the house waving and wiggling it and it looked just like a snake.

November 2007
Moved house. In prison for several hours while strange people moved things around. They wouldn’t let me out at first at the new house. The first time I did go out I got a shock. There were strange noises coming from behind the back fence and the weirdest smells! Something had made a huge smell up one of the trees so I thought it best to go back inside.

December 2007
12th – plucked up courage to patrol the boundaries. Still can’t figure out what makes that smell. Bet it’s something big. Found some likely hiding places for games with Amber … and to escape if I really get her riled.

Got really brave and went the other side of the fence. Mum said there were lots of animals and birds in the field, sheep, goats, ducks, geese, chickens, turkeys and guinea fowl. Well, I was immediately surrounded and trapped behind a wooden thing by this flock of HUGE birds which made a strange gobbling sound.

One of them jumped on the fence above my head and Dad shouted and ran away towards the house. Mum said he was supposed to be protecting me, not running away. Another one jumped up, and the chickens came to join in. Mum couldn’t get to me but she was trying to show me where I could creep along behind the incubator, whatever one of those is, and get back into my own garden. The first hole I spotted was blocked with chicken wire, fortunately for me, because it turned out a big dog lived there. Eventually I managed to jump onto our fence and Dad, who was all brave now, came and rescued me.

It took me a few weeks to pluck up the courage for any more adventures.

Early 2008
Just discovered this spirally sparkly thing hanging in the office window. Great fun chasing the shiny reflections across the window frame. At full stretch I can just about reach them. They thought I didn’t know where they come from, so when it stopped I reached back with my paw and tapped it. Clever cat, hey?

March 2008
Found another good game. If I hide under the plastic cover which keeps the garden chairs clean Amber doesn’t know I’m there and I can shoot out a paw and get her or rush out at her. It’s hilarious fun. I get Mum sometimes too. It reminds me of hiding in the office trays when I was a kitten, waiting for someone’s hand.

May 2008
One of the chickens got into our garden today. Amber had a great time chasing it up and down. There was such a rumpus. The chicken didn’t seem to enjoy it much. I would have just dived into cover, but the chicken kept running backwards and forwards and Amber was getting more and more excited. Then it got even funnier. Mum came out and shouted at Amber, but since Amber didn’t take any notice, she started chasing both of them. Haven’t had so much fun for ages. The chicken did escape, by the way.

September 2008
Got into a fight and got caught just under my tail. Painful. Couldn’t even walk right. Can’t really talk without my tail either. Mum said I cost her a lot of money at the vet’s. Don’t know why she took me there, they only made it hurt more and stuck needles in me. Threatened me with an X-ray. Don’t know what that is but didn’t like the sound of it. For some reason Mum has started putting yuckie pink things in my food, but I’m very good at avoiding them.

The tail has healed perfectly. It wasn’t broken. Mum said she’d call this interlude ‘Boris’s Tail Tale’ – very funny.

Another chicken got into garden. It hid under the shed so Amber didn’t get to chase it about. When Mum pulled it out there were some feathers missing. She was about to blame us, but then she realised there were no feathers in the garden so it couldn’t have been me or Amber.

MOVED HOUSE AGAIN! IMPRISONED AGAIN! What’s with this nomad stuff. I’d just got my territory sorted.

October 2008
Actually I rather like this new place. It’s got a huge garden with loads of cover. There are no giant birds, but there is a rather large cat next door. There’s a dog the other side, but with such a big garden I don’t need to go over the fence much.

Actually, I’ve got a funny story about next door. Our neighbour was telling her dog off and she shouted “Go and sit down”, and Amber went into the house and looked up at Mum all puzzled. Hee, hee!

22nd November, 2008
Found my Christmas present. It’s in a big bag in the bedroom. Can’t get into it though.

I'm back

Hi, fans. I hadn't realised how long it has been since I've shared my news. We've moved house twice! No-one told me how traumatic it could be. The first time we moved to a house with a field at the back. Great, you say. I thought so too - until I went in and found myself surrounded by giant birds. Didn't know the easiest way back so just crouched there behind a shed-thing. Our new house has a nice big garden but I still seem to keep getting into scraps with the neighbours and have paid some agonizing visits to the vet.

Fill you in with more detail later.

Ball game

What a great place a bath is! After a leisurely drink at the tap (faucet, if you're one of my US cousins) you can get one of those light little balls designed for cats and chase it round and round the bath tub. It's even better if someone else joins in and fishes it back out of the plug-hole for you.

It's a noisy game but it's great fun. Why don't you try it - but only if the bath is dry.