Caution Cats Crossing!

I know that I have mentioned (most probably cursed about) speeding drivers in our little village. Why is it that a 40 sign is read as the minimum speed on the road and let's see what fun it is to skid and slide round corners and why bother to stop at those big red signs... who is going to stop us???

Anyway, daily I fret and worry and check the whereabouts of the cats... usually fast asleep on the bed! Morris has a habit of lurking over the road and suddenly shooting out from the bushes and straight across the road without looking and we have now banned Basil from his daily walks with us. He always walked with us when we take Alfie for his daily trot, but one day last year we were talking to a new neighbour who has a beautiful German Shepherd cross, and Basil heard our voices. Being the nosy cat that he is, he leaped over the wall to see what we were doing, and ran straight under a car that was coming up the road..... He came out from between the wheels, saw the dog and turned around, and ran straight back into the front wheel of the same car. Bouncing off the wheel, he took off up the road like a rocket, cut in front of the car and disappeared. I was convinced that I would find him dead

When I could find him that was. I called and searched everywhere but he was nowhere to be found. Rob in the meantime went into the house... and there was Basil, sitting on the dining table with a black tyre mark on his head, but absolutely fine!

Anyway, digressing as usual, we now make sure that the cats are in and safe before we go off now.
Alfie too has his own troubles as he is now becoming an old man, we have had him for over 12 years and he was at least 2 when I found him, so adding that up.... and he is getting very hard of hearing and sadly his eyes are clouding too.

So, a couple of weeks ago I saw some warning signs on Facebook!! Where else I ask myself!

Aren't they gorgeous?

I ordered two from Ingrid, and literally the next day there was a message from Post Net to say there was a package for me! I had an idea of how and where to mount them, and Rob did the rest!

We re-used a bird-feeder-holder that our neighbour had made for us, and with some clever drilling and hammering, Rob sorted it out.

You can see how close to the road we are.

And here it is...

Attached firmly to the garden wall!

Hopefully people will take note and slow down and think about it. Maybe they will slow down to read it and have a chuckle.

But if it can save the life of any of my cats, or any 'refugee' AKA feral, then I am happy.

Voucher Vexation!

Last week, Wednesday to be precise, we went shopping!

I know this sounds very trite, but to us, shopping is a thing of wonder.... we only go to town once a week and then we fit everything that we need to do into the morning. Things like hair cuts, doctors appointments and visits to the Post Office, and then we happily turn round and head home! Reading this, you would think that we live 60 km from the nearest town, but no, we are only 15 km from not one, but two towns!
Anyway, enough digressing!

Our cats love the Pamper pouches. Only Pamper, they will not touch any other brand, and only the jelly ones! Ex-feral one and all, you would think they would be happy with an old dried up crust, but ha ha to that. So about two weeks ago I bought the usual box and found an extra pouch inside with a Voucher! The pouch was a mince one so I split it three ways for the cats and waited for them to turn away in disgust.

The Happy Box! With a voucher!!

Surprise. They loved it.

So..... last Wednesday (being Shopping Day), I decided to take the voucher and buy a box of Mince Favourites, using the 'R10 off ' voucher. Easy hey?

Read on.

Vienna Sausage To The Rescue!

The title may be a tad misleading, I have visions of you imagining a Vienna sausage with a bejewelled cape and a mask, ready to swoop down and save humanity!

Well, it isn't that dramatic, but in a small way, the heroic act of one sausage, saved our feral female cat Bella from a lifetime of pregnancy, unwanted litters of kittens, and more and more problems as each litter grew to maturity and starting breeding!

Read on;

As you may (or may not know), there is a little feral cat family living just over the wall in the farmland behind our neighbour Emma's garden. For several years we have been feeding Blackjack, who recently disappeared from our lives, and the really sad thing is that we don't know what has happened to him. We have searched, called, asked around and searched again, to no avail. We only hope that he moved on and is safely eating someone else's food.

Then last year a fat tortie (tortoiseshell) female arrived in Emma's garden. We tried to trap her but she managed to avoid being caught for a week or so, and then I had to return the trap so we planned to try again in the new year.

Which we did..... try that is, but each time she just would not go into the trap. We tried tuna, salmon, biltong, special pouches of kitten food.... but nothing worked. I even borrowed a second trap because Blackjack kept nudging Bella away from the original trap!

BUT... we were suddenly aware of a gorgeous black and white fellow who arrived one morning with Blackjack and Bella. Young enough to be her kitten! But a teenager, not a tiny. But Blackjack was not to blame because he had been neutered several months before Bella's arrival. So the newcomer was named Peanut, and as he was quite happy to head into the trap, we carted him off to the vet and he came home a little sore, very bewildered, but safely 'fixed'!

And Bella simply chuckled at us all.
And carried on eating and getting fat!

Daily Emma and I looked at her and I said 'We must get her fixed' and Emma said 'She looks pregnant!'....... and life happened and the weeks passed.

Until one day a few weeks ago, Emma called me to say 'Bella's got three kittens!' I went next door, peered over the back wall into the farmland.... and there, sure enough, were three kittens. Two gingers and one darker. But not teeny ones! They had open eyes, they were playing and leaping on each other, chasing leaves and stretching in the sun.

And Bella watched them proudly and looked at us!

So, I knew it was now desperately important to trap her. Goodness knows where she had hidden them until they were big enough to be seen, but there they were. And she would be pregnant again in no time (if she wasn't already).

Emma started giving her extra food for the kittens, and every day Bella came closer and closer to Emma to get her ration of Vienna sausages, one at a time, that she took back over the wall to the waiting babies.
On Monday Michelle dropped the trap off.

Yesterday I used one of Emma's Viennas as bait and set the trap.

I hid round the corner to watch. Both Bella and Peanut arrived, but Peanut isn't very keen on Viennas, so he had a sniff and moved on to the pellets!

Bella walked round the trap which was covered with a towel. She sniffed and sniffed and finally moved to the open door. She stuck her head in and I held my breath. But the smell of the sausage was all she needed.

She went in completely.... and I waited for what seemed hours but was maybe 10 seconds until.....clunk. The trap sprung, the door closed and we had her!

That is one of the best sounds in the world! A door closing on a trapped cat, especially if the cat inside is the one that needed catching.

Off to the vet we went and we picked her up yesterday afternoon. She spent last night in a large dog-size travelling crate, with food and water and room to move and this morning Rob and I carried the box over to Emma's back garden and opened the door expecting her to shoot out like a bullet from a gun.
She walked out quietly, looked at us all gathered there and went off over the wall to her family.
Emma went to peep and they were all together.

Next month?

Three kittens....

I hope that Emma keeps a good supply of Viennas!

Cat-Trap Update!

I thought that I would follow-up on my last rambling writings as I left you kind of in the lurch. I had the trap, my daughter was due to arrive and hopefully I could report some positive news!

Read on!
As Tuesday 8 August was the International Day of the Cat, this report back about cats seemed to tie in very nicely. The International Day of the Cat was started in 2002, and August 8 is the Day! In this house, every day is the day of the cat, so Tuesday slid by without being noticed!! At that stage we were making sure that the abscess on Morris' head was clean and that we were managing to shove the antibiotic down him morning and evening. (I bless the pill-popper every time I use it!)

Anyway....digression time there as usual!
Catherine has trapped many cats in her time in Dubai, so she took charge. We decided to trap in the early morning so that we could get the patient to the vet early and have her awake by the time we picked her up later in the day. Also, we didn't want an awake and agitated feral spending more time in the trap than was necessary. So, 6.30 on Thursday morning last week (gulp, still dark), we grabbed torch, dish with tuna, trap, blanket and a cable tie to close the 'front' door once we had placed the dish with tuna inside and crept past the still sleeping houses and into the garden where I always put the food. Catherine set the trap while I stood watching and holding the torch for her, she covered it with a blanket, and home we came for coffee and breakfast (thanks to Rob!)

After breakfast Catherine went back to see if we had caught anything.... yes! There was a tabby in the trap, quietly crouching and warily watching!

We loaded the trap into the car and set off to the vet! I was elated that it had been so easy, Catherine popped my bubble by calling it 'beginners luck'!

The vet was in darkness!!! No power.....no operation. They didn't know what the problem was, but until it was fixed they couldn't help us..... come back tomorrow!
We left and trekked off in thick mist to find the other vet!

They were open, had power and yes they could (and did) help, so we dropped our little terrified tabby and headed for the Hospice Shop as Thursday is my volunteering morning! When we returned to the vet later in the afternoon, (after a delicious lunch of fish and chips and salad at the nursery in St Helena Bay), our little soul was still very drowsy, so we decided to leave her in the trap overnight in the garage, covered with a blanket with food and water available.

By now I was ready to catch another one!

So, Friday at 6.30 (eish) we carried our still occupied trap, plus the torch, food, etc back to the feeding station and let her out! Off she went, none the worse for wear and we re-set the trap and went home!
When we returned an hour later...success! There was another catch!

Except this time, instead of a feral that we wanted, we had caught the cat who lives next door! And he was furious! I have never seen such an angry cat. He spat and growled, his tail was puffed like a bottlebrush, and if looks could kill both Catherine and I would have dropped on the spot!
He shot off home to tell everyone about his adventures!

So we went home empty-trapped.

Catherine went home later on Friday, and I have tried this week alone. With no luck. I was going to try again yesterday but there was rain in the forecast (yay yay yay) so I am leaving it till next week.
Juniper (the patient) is fine, I have seen her a few times when I feed, so hopefully I shall catch Jasmine and Jennifer next week. Why all the J names? After Jacobsbaai of course! (My sister said I should have called them January, June and July. Guess Jan, June and Julia would have worked!)

Fortunately Michelle does not need the trap at the moment, so hopefully I have time to catch before they are 'in trouble'.

Now I am planning to make a little house for them from a wheelie bin. I shall cut a hole in the lid, lie the bin on its side with the lid closed and have blankets inside. I think it will make a super house.

Next step..... steal a bin!!

Seven Days = One Week!

I am sitting here, it's nearly 'wine-o'clock' (aka evening), and the weather can't decide what to do! We have had alternating fog and sun all day, with flitting shadows...... but still not a drop of rain. So we continue to catch every dribble that we can in our trusty plastic bucket, and carry it out to our waiting plants. When I see the temperatures that some of the inland towns climb to at midday, I am ever thankful for our wind!

It has been a week that started off very sadly. Amy (she of cat trap, neuter and release fame) phoned on Sunday morning in a state of desperation. Her two dogs had cornered one of the ferals in the garden and were literally shaking it to death. I leapt in the car and drove down in case of an emergency rush to the vet, and Rob joined me there.

But, sadly we were too late. The cat was dead and Amy was devastated, feeling guilty and sad and angry and useless and back to sad and angry and guilty. Rob and I consoled her as best we could and brought the little body home to bury in the garden and join all the souls gathered by St Gertrude.
And there we hit rocks as we always do in this garden. But we persevered and he is lying close to the others under the manatoka trees that look very sad at the moment as they are drooping with thirst.
But, I think with the digging, I strained my shoulder!

My right shoulder.

And without the use of that shoulder, I was unable to do anything!

Now, this is where you find out who your friends are......... Rob was happy to hang washing and do the odd bit of dusting and cooking and I struggled to shower and wash my hair and dress myself! Pulling up knickers and trousers one-handed took me ages.  And, have you ever tried to use a roll-on deodorant upside down? Let me explain.

As I could not lift my arm at all, I had to bend over at the waist and let my arm hang down a bit. Then, using the deodorant upside down, I had to roll it on as best as I could. But, once the roll-on was upside down, it wouldn't work! It was like trying to write with a ball-point pen on the ceiling....... the ink won't flow!

Even Alfie was offended at the shoddy way the bed had been 'made' and as for ironing, well, that is waiting patiently for my recovery! (That was one thing that didn't bother me....)

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday passed in a blur of pain and frustration. I could only sleep on my back, so Rob was bombarded by my snores! On Thursday it started feeling a little easier and by yesterday, thanks to painkillers and anti-inflammatories, I was just about back to normal.

But, the really vexing thing about not being able to use my right hand was......

I couldn't use the computer!
I managed to get into my emails using my left hand.

But.
For a whole week I could not do the daily jigsaw! I tried, I really did. But my left hand is just not able to cope with the intricacies of manipulating the bits and sorting the edges from the inside bits! And my right hand was twitching with frustration.

So, yesterday I did a week of puzzles in one day.

And now I think I have 'jigsaw shoulder' as my shoulder aches again!

Pill-Poppers Rule!

I know what you are thinking!

I have not suddenly become a druggie in my old age, although I must admit that there are many times when my hips ache and my shoulders don't turn and my knees whinge when I am climbing the stairs, that I can easily imagine becoming hooked on pain killers and anti-inflammatories.

But no. This has nothing to do with drugs!

Last week I decided that it was time to de-worm the animals! We try to do it every few months when I have gathered the strength needed to do battle with the lot of them.

I am sure that you have read the 'How to give a cat a pill' followed by 'How to give a dog a pill'. For those of you who have not, very briefly it goes something like this:

First catch the cat. Wrap it in a blanket, don gloves and goggles and tuck the blanket-covered-cat that is by now a struggling demon with claws at the ready, under one arm while with the other you try to trap the legs and with the remaining hand prise the jaws open and flick the pill to the back of the throat. Once you have released the cat, you notice that in the ensuing chaos, the cat has gone 'ptooo', spat the pill onto the floor and has sauntered away, sharpening it's claws on the couch on the way out.

Then it's the dog's turn: Grab the pill, wrap it in a piece of bacon/cheese/ham/peanut butter smeared bread/ sausage/liver paste and simply chuck it in the direction of the dog who gobbles it down and sits grinning at you.

Whoever wrote this is lying.

Cats, Clouds and a Silver Lining!

I am sure that by reading the title of this week's writing, you will have gathered that cats come into it.

Yes, they do.

And a guardian angel by the name of Michelle.

A few weeks ago a stray but friendly female cat arrived at The Poleyard. This yard is right next door to Phillip's nursery, and Godfrey at the Poleyard started to feed her. Sage, (the resident nursery cat) was not overly impressed by her arrival, but as long as the food was plentiful, they seemed to get along. I met her briefly when I went to buy plants and she was happy to be stroked and held and we knew that she was used to people and had probably been dumped/abandoned/chased away.
She decided to stay and Godfrey was happy to keep her, but the first thing we needed to do was to have her spayed.

But as you have probably guessed by now.......she was pregnant! Too pregnant to be spayed, we knew that kittens were on their way. We just didn't know how soon that would be!

I saw her last Sunday (18 Sep) at the nursery, looking very pregnant and then she wandered off into the poleyard to have a snack.

Godfrey was planning to make her a little wooden house so that she would have her kittens in a safe place, and he was going to move them into the poleyard so that they were away from the parking area when they were old enough to frolic and chase around.

Last Monday morning (19 Sep) he phoned to say that she had had her kittens!

And where did she have them? Nobody knew!

If It's Thursday........!

This morning, Morris proved beyond a doubt that cats have an intelligence that is far superior to any other animal on the planet.

Read on:

Last Thursday was 'Morris To The Vet Day' as he was digging, but not filling, holes in the garden and we were worried that he had a bladder infection or small stones in his bladder. I also mentioned that our regular vet had surgery hours every afternoon except Thursday.......................

Our 8 kg Morris!

So, twice daily for the last week, Rob and I have scruffed (Rob) and shoved antibiotic pills down Morris' throat (me) followed by a special paste to help clear up any lingering infection (me), at great risk to fingers and hands! But he really has been a model patient and has swallowed everything that we shoved at him! He has been eating and playing with Kindle, somewhat roughly though I might add, and he and Basil are 'enjoying' a peaceful truce, mostly.

Morris and Basil doing the laundry. (All pics thanks to Rob)

The Week That Was............!

It has been an interesting week!

Sunday was Father's Day, so I did what any loving, thoughtful and supportive partner would do.
I sent Rob into the kitchen with a large black pot and a wooden spoon and allowed him to rustle up the most delicious lamb potjie that I think he has ever made (and that's saying something as all his dishes are Masterchef quality!)

Burbling away on the stove! Delicious.

Monday came and went, as did Tuesday. In fact I can't remember what we did. I know we had some rain, just a couple of mm but it all helped to swell our 'puddles' on the way to town, and we now have two resident flamingos in one of them. They are in water up to their knees, so it is a fairly deep puddle. Now I am digressing about flamingos, and one of the interesting facts about them that I didn't know is that they fly at night! Far and without stopping! I belong to the EWT and receive regular newsletters and updates. The latest one (and I quote) says:

'On the 10th of June 2016 the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) recorded some extraordinary movements by a Lesser Flamingo (Phoeniconaias minor) recently fitted with a GPS/GSM satellite transmitter. This individual covered a staggering distance of 1,069 km in one single flight over 16 hours, crossing the Indian Ocean from Mozambique to Madagascar.
Flamingo no. 27 (a small female) had been satellite tagged at Delareyville in the North West Province as part of the Eskom/EWT partnership’s efforts to track flamingo movements to develop measures to protect them from collisions with power lines. When Flamingo no. 27 crossed the border into Mozambique, she didn’t stop there and instead she proceeded at 7pm on Saturday the 10th of June to cross the Mozambique coast at Maxixe. She finally reached the western shores of Madagascar near Morombe at noon the following day.'
Thanks to the EWT. (End of digression. Is that actually a word?)

Goodbye Dear Dopey.....

I shall never, ever get used to the death of a much loved pet.

This morning we said goodbye to our beloved Dopey.

Our beautiful Dopey.

He was the third cat to arrive when we moved into our new home, he followed Daffy and Dilly by a few months, obviously lured by the idea of food on tap! One morning he was there, in the garden, wary but not wild, fearful but not feral, and after a week or two of backing away when we approached, he decided that being an inside cat was pretty good!

And he made our house his home.

Boats, Cats and Crayfish!

Sorry that this is a tad late, I seem to be saying that a lot lately...

Today Rob and I took ourselves off to lunch. The reason being that we met eighteen years ago, on the 19 February 1998 to be precise!! Mutual friends decided that we 'deserved each other' (we are still trying to work that out...) and finally managed to get us in the same place at the same time. It has been a wonderful eighteen years with Rob, and hopefully we shall celebrate a lot more years together before we shuffle off this mortal coil.

So, off we went to Paternoster to a fabulous restaurant that is literally on the beach. Called 'Voorstrandt Restaurant'  (it really does mean on the beach), it is a bright green and red corrugated iron building that serves some of the best seafood around!

Voorstrandt Restaurant.

While we were there we watched at least fifteen fishing boats race to shore and our waiter told us that they were offloading crayfish! Closely watched by the fisheries men I might add. Each boat was being followed by a cloud of gulls fighting and squabbling over the debris that was being thrown over the sides as the crayfish were being cleaned ready for sale.

Somewhere out there are fishing boats!!!!! Our view from the restaurant.

The sea was a calm, flat line, the beach was clean and empty with a few dogs racing up and down on the sand and it reminded us of the first time we drove into Paternoster, many years ago now. The beach stretches for a good few kilometres and the wind blew my straw sun-hat off my head, onto its brim and sent it bowling along the sand with me in hot pursuit! Right past the restaurant! Once I had retrieved it, we sauntered back with me trying not to pant, and had our first taste of their delicious meals.

Crayfish being offloaded.

Anyway, today, once we had completed our meal, we drove to the beach where the boats were by now empty and lolling around on the sand, waiting patiently until they head out again tomorrow.

And the reason we are not waiting until Friday to celebrate? Well, I am a granny, and grannies babysit.

Tomorrow I am driving to Catherine and Stuart as they are going away for the weekend.

So I shall be 'babysitting' the three littlies.......William, Harry and Jemima.

Jemima is the tabby. William is behind.....or is it Harry?

Their much loved and well travelled cats!

And then I shall stay on for a few days after they return to 'kuier' properly!

The Prodigal Cat Returns!

Here are the words of the week:

Dilly is home!

Last night I took Alfie out for his final emptying before bed, and as usual he dallied and sniffed and wandered around and as usual Basil and Kindle came too.

So, there we all were in the road, in the dark, when from down the road came the shape of a cat! A dark cat. I first assumed that it was Morris, but as he had never accompanied us before I realised that it was not him.

And then I looked again and saw our Dilly coming towards me and meeowing with every step!

I scooped him up, took him inside and called to Rob who was upstairs.

We could not believe it. He is fine, a little thinner than he was when we last saw him, 17 days ago, but all in one piece and happy to be home. He ate a large supper and then joined us on the bed where he purred the entire night, in between trying to climb into either my nose or Rob's ear!

Basil and the other two were a little put out I must admit, but they all finally settled down and we managed to get some sleep around the furry bodies.

He is wandering round now and doing a lot of calling. I think he is as happy to be home as we are to see him again! And he has found his kruiwa too!

Carol was right, he was expanding his territory, and I am so grateful to her for all her help.

She truly is an amazing lady!

If I Could Talk To The Animals.......

Remember these words.... 'This is not the post that I had planned for today, that one is written and waiting to be shared with you, but sometimes life gets in the way and plans have to change.'?

It's happened again.

I have shared interesting, funny, odd and sometimes sad, snippets of our life with cats. Daffy and Dilly were the first feral cats to share our lives, and since then we have welcomed Dopey, Basil, Kindle and Morris (who has had his visit to Aunty Vet and is now recuperating in our garden!) Dilly has been an 'oddball' since he arrived, never taming down to become a full member of the household, but tame enough to be around for meals and on a cold night to spend an hour or so on my lap before meandering off to pass the night in his 'nest' in one of my kruiwas.

Dilly's nest!

He would never allow me to carry him, and refused to stay inside any room that did not have a way out. He disappeared once for three months before re-appearing as if nothing had happened. He regularly stayed away for a few days at a time, but always returned.

Dilly and friend in the garden.

Until last week.

Baby Steps!

It's been a funny old week all told, one step forward and three back, two forward and one back, but I think, taking all the forwards and backwards, we may be slightly forward!!

On Tuesday we dropped Kindle off at the vet at eight (in the morning!! A usually unheard of time for us pensioners!) and then we headed towards Riebeek-Kasteel, a village about 100 kms from us. Why? Read on. About 10 kms out of Vredenburg, we heard a bang from under the car, it sounded as though a stone had been flung up into the wheel arch by the tyre, but as we couldn't see anything and the car didn't wobble at all, we carried on to Hopefield, a little town that has a cafe that sells the most delicious toasted sarmies (sandwiches). As it was breakfast time, we decided to pop in, buy some bird food in large sacks like farmers do, and grab a sarmie to keep our strength up. It was 3 degrees!!! That's cold!! But with snow on the mountain tops, we understood why!

Snow dusting the mountain tops!

And we saw that we had a puncture!

A 'Fourgone' Conclusion!

Well, who would have guessed what happened next?
Have a look at the picture below.......

Isn't she beautiful? And she knows it too!

It wasn't planned!! I was still in the 'pondering' stage on Thursday evening when I went to feed Kindle. At that stage I was thinking that I would catch her on, say, Sunday or Monday evening and book an appointment with Aunty Vet for her operation sometime during the week. Or, maybe wait until the weather warmed up a bit. And I mulled and meandered  into Marie's drive carrying food and milk and a variety of clean bowls. And there was a car! Marie had come home from visiting her daughter and they were standing near Kindle who was head-down-and-chewing on a piece of snoek.
Marie was more than happy to allow me to carry on feeding her in the same place, but Nicola warned me that the rest of her family were arriving the next afternoon for the weekend, with their two dogs who were not cat-friendly! The best thing would be for me to go on Friday lunchtime and catch Kindle then and there! Before she headed into the bushes never to be seen again. So, my mind quickly came out of 'vague mode' and I made plans!

Come In Number 4...............!

A couple of weeks ago we had a fleeting glimpse of a small tabby cat that raced through the garden and over the wall and down the road. Not far behind was Blackjack, the large, long-haired feral that we are feeding in the garden. As wild as a goat, he waits for us to put food out most evenings and glares at us through yellow slits if we get too close.

We didn't see the tabby again until the week before last, when she (as I saw) came into the garden again and cried for food. Her haunches had that caved-in look that a really hungry cat gets, and she was obviously living rough. Also wild and terrified, she wouldn't let us get anywhere near her, but as we backed away, she came to eat, cramming the food into her mouth as fast as she could.

This happened for three evenings running. Rob and I watched her eat and then he asked me what I was going to call her. I thought about it, and then he said 'She is a small tabby, more like a tablet'
And I said 'Kindle!'

So Kindle she is! It also is the name for a litter of kittens which I thought was very appropriate. And we are trying to kindle a friendship with her.

Kindle arriving for food.

Menta de Gato!

You didn't know that I was fluent in Spanish did you?

Well, I am not actually, but I just love the phrase above. In French it is 'Herbe a chat', and I think the Italian is 'Herba Gatera'

And in English? 'Catnip'!

And the reason I am writing about Catnip? (Nepeta Cataria). I have two cats with dilated pupils who are drooling and rolling on the floor. And it is all thanks to my sister who sent them a little gift in the shape of two felt fish stuffed with dried catnip. The fish arrived in a parcel that contained two books for me, as Dizz regularly sends me super books from the SPCA in Pietermaritzburg, and once I have read them, I pass them on to a small nursery in St Helena Bay as they sell them for Animal Welfare. In that way the proceeds are still going to the animals who so badly need it.

The fish, still looking fishy!

International Day of the Cat!

I have had a really frustrating weekend with regards to the Internet. Listen to me grumble when a few years ago I was learning how to send a text message. Now I get frustrated if Google is not available as quickly as I need it! I was trying to find something interesting to write about this week and I always find something if I surf the net!!!

And this morning I did! I decided not to bore you with the fact that my car needed a new battery, and the grader had graded the roads just in time for the rain. No, I delved further. Did you know that August 6 is 'Root Beer Float Day'? Or that 7 August is 'Particularly Preposterous Packaging Day'? I thought not. Or how about August 9? That is 'Rice Pudding Day' (and I can do without that thank you).

But, this is what caught my eye. Friday the 8 August is 'International Day of the Cat'.

Our dear old boy Clyde.

Sleep Tight, Daffy.

This is not the post that I had planned for today, that one is written and waiting to be shared with you, but sometimes life gets in the way and plans have to change.

This morning we had to say goodbye to one of our beloved cats.

Daffy in the garden as a youngster.

Daffy arrived in the garden as a kitten six years ago, feral and wary. Together with an older cat, (Dilly), he would wait for me to bring food but would never let me near him. Months later I was able to touch him, and then he moved in.

He was always around, he was the one cat who seldom ventured past the front door, unless I hauled out the vacuum or strangers arrived. Then he would streak out of the door like black lightning, only returning when the coast was clear.

Daffy with Alfie on the couch, move over!

He had two favourite sleeping spots, the couch in the lounge and our bed. Every now and then he changed over to the chair in our bedroom, and on winters nights he loved to take over Alfie's bed. Being black, he blended in with the black blanket and the only thing we could see was a white whisker, or an eye. Then Alfie left his bed to Daffy and slept on the bed with us.

Daffy and Dopey on the bed.

He was quiet and unassuming, until Rob rattled the butter dish, or cut a piece of cheese. Then he would come and sit next to Rob and bite his leg until he got a little bit of butter. Every evening he would appear in the kitchen at the precise moment that Rob made his evening coffee. The he would always have a little milk before heading back to bed. He was never a problem and never sick. But the only time he ever sat on my lap, was last Friday evening.

Then on Saturday we noticed that he had not come down for breakfast and he spent the day quietly on our bed. He seemed fine, purred when we spoke to him, went out when he needed to but by the evening his breathing was laboured and his third eyelid was beginning to appear in the corners. Yesterday we knew that he was ill. There was no vet on duty and nothing that we could do until this morning. We kept him warm and as the vet opened this morning, we were outside.

Our beautiful boy.

He had feline leukaemia. He was in pain and there was only one choice for us.

Beautiful words, and so true.

We stayed with him until the end and then brought him home to lie in the garden next to Clyde, our old boy who had come with us from Johannesburg.

Our hearts are spilling over right now.

Purrfect People!

St Gertrude needs to sharpen her pencil in readiness for this entry into her Book of Purrfect People.

I have written before about the wonderful members of my family who regularly rescue, foster, save, re-home when possible, keep if they can, put to sleep with aching hearts when sick or injured, but without exception, love cats.

My daughter and her husband are winding up their Dubai days and returning home! (Every time I think of that, I grin! In two months time they will be back on our shores, and close by, in the Cape, only 600 odd kilometres from me! More grinning!) For the last six years, Catherine has been involved with TNR (trap, neuter and rehome/release) of cats in their vicinity. Her own tally is standing at 83 and apart from that, she has fed several other homeless cats and has had four wild 'outside' ones living in the car port. When I was with her last month, she was faced with the heart breaking decision of what to do with those special four.

It was a decision that was made for her. She knew that at least two of them were FIV positive and that is a death sentence for a cat that is too wild to be homed. It means that eventually they starve to death as the mouth sores make it impossible for them to eat and in a weakened state they are unlikely to be able to fend for themselves. If they were staying, the cats would simply stay too, until their quality of life became impaired but abandoning them was not an option.

So, it was with heavy heart that I accompanied her on three trips to the vet. We knew that it was the right decision and we kept telling each other that there was nothing else that could be done, but when push comes to shove, it's hard to take a cat that looks fine to the vet, and come out with an empty basket and a heart that's spilling over. I think that week was the worst one in Catherine's life.