The last few days have been fairly routine really, I forgot to mention last week that Rose has a new name. The slaves seem to call her 'cloth head' for some reason - it seems to be related to the fact that she got stuck in Fernande's garage again. I have found Fizz's hidey hole in the Garage, Basil has one there too and I have tried out both. They are great for a bit of a nap after I have been doing some serious pottering around - I tell you, pottering can be very tiring. Talking of Basil, he gave me quite a scare during the week. I was snoozing happily on one of my chairs, on a nice soft cushion. The flap 'flapped' and so I cracked open an eye and in came a grey cat. I was a bit worried as we don't have a grey cat in our clan. Then the grey cat put its tail in the air and it looked like Basil's feather boa of a tail. It was only when I checked out his rear end that I realised it was Basil. He had been out to the furdressers and had his fur recoloured. Actually, I don't believe him. He likes to have a bit of a laugh with me, I suppose it's because I am young and impressionable. I suspect that he has just found somewhere that is a bit grubby to sleep. Sunday I was stuck in the house most of the day. The slaves went to something they called a 'Vide Grenier'. They went out early and came back late. Then they went out again. Still, it gave me the chance to catch up with some sleep and to jump all over the worktops when no-one was looking. Tee hee! I have been up the tree at the back of the side garden a couple of times - rose, Fizz and Coco make it look easy but I find it all a bit too wobbly. I went the wrong way and the branches got a bit thin and bendy but I managed to get back down without ant disasters. I tried again a bit later and found the way to get up onto the top of the big side wall - the last bit was a bit of a scrabble, the slave said it was a good job that I wasn't wearing his climbing boots as they would have been worn out. That was a bit cheeky really, the slaves aren't very graceful ...

Last week this week ...

The end of last week finished with little extra excitement but Saturday was excellent. despite not being out all day, I caught and ate my first mouse. Brilliant. I know Coco has brought me some mice, she is kind like that, I haven't managed to get one for myself before. All that poking in holes finally paid off. I had to growl at everyone to let them know that it was mine and not for sharing but eventually, I found a quiet corner in which to eat it. It went down nicely. Unfortunately, it came back up too a few minutes later. I don't like being sick. I haven't felt 100% for the last few days either and have become a bit more used to being sick as it has happened 2 or 3 times a day for the last few days. In between times, I have been round the back of the house a few times, eaten some flies and come in the the magic window that leads from outside back into our house.

Routine...

Had a couple of fairly routine days, pottering in the garden, going over the wall to next door and round the back. Although now I think of it, something really amazing did happen that makes me think that the slaves have magical powers. I was round the back and jumped up on the outside windowsill of a house and a few minutes later, one of the slaves opened the window and called me in. It was my house!! I really don't know how they do that. Last night, Fizz came on the bed next to me and I was feeling all mellow, so I put my arm round her. She liked that and slept with her head on me. That was nice. Anyway, the Sun is up, the sky is blue and there's pottering to be done ...

Under the Duvet ...

Yesterday was a duvet day for all of us. I was out bright and early but came in and spent a fair time in bed. Coco and Jaffa spent most of the day in the loft apartment above the garage, Rose and Basil spent most of the day snoozing too. It's always a duvet day for Tollie, I like him but he is a bit fat. No idea where Fizz was, she must have found a duvet somewhere else. Went round the back a few times but that's really about it. One could say it was an unremarkable day.

Medium Size Adventure ...

Wow, every day is different at the moment. Weather was great today and so there was some slobbing around in the undergrowth to be done. There was also the back of the house to check out, see what was happening there.

And then there was next door's barn ...

I hadn't been in the barn for a while so I decided to nip in and have a poke around. I hadn't really noticed the big hole in the floorboards before, there was always enough of interest on the ground floor to keep my nose pointing down. But yesterday I looked up. Brilliant, I thought, better nip up there and see what's what. So a couple of jumps and a bit of a scrabble with my back paws and I was up. It was great, there were loads of new smells and little holes to poke. One of them was big enough to get my whole body in and so I did. Guess what, I found myself outside on a little roof. It was miles up in the air and I could see loads more than I can see from the garden walls. Anyway, after a while, I had sniffed and poked enough to want to come back down. The trouble was, I couldn't remember how. By this time, the slaves had appeared, one seemed a bit worried about me being on the little roof for some reason.

Anyway, the other slave shouted my name but I couldn't tell where he was. So I ended up back on the roof and shouted back. I wanted to go down at that point but didn't know how, it was actually too far even for me to jump straight down. So I howled a bit more. Then I thought about it for a while and went back inside. The slave shouted again and it actually seemed like he was near the hole where we go into the barn. So I headed that way. I still couldn't find my way. Anyway, cutting a long story short, a while later, I was near the big hole in the floorboards and I saw the slave poke his head through the broken window of the barn door and he shouted me again. I still didn't know how to get down so I howled a bit.

Then I stopped to think about things and figured that I had to get down through the hole in the floor. So gingerly (even though I only have a bit of ginger!!) I climbed down onto the beam that supported the floor before it had broken. There was another beam fastened to the wall, so with a bit of twisting and pussyfooting (and whimpering) I squeezed myself onto that. Then I held my breath and jumped down onto the top of a narrow wooden partition (it was only the same width as my paws) and from there I dropped onto the floor among a load of wooden fruit boxes. Job done. A few seconds to compose myself and I was able to casually stroll out and took a drink from the watering can as if all was well with the world.

A new hole ...

Yesterday was reasonably uneventful. I was outside most of the day, some of the time was spent in the undergrowth in the garden and on the wall, some spent exploring next door and some round the back of the house.

I went round the back a couple of times, the first time, one of the slaves came and got me because she thought I might be lost. Ha! No way, I can get back to my food bowl really easily now. The second time, I rolled around on my back to show the slave that I wasn't worried and knew exactly what I was doing so she left me alone and pruned a couple of trees so that she could see out of a window.

But the best bit of the day was when I found a new hole in the wall to poke. I hadn't seen it before and you can get your head in the first bit. After a while though, it got a bit boring, I couldn't find anything in it.

The others just slobbed around most of the day. At one point, it was quite amusing. Tollie was lying in amongst the lupins that have invaded next door's path when some people arrived. He was fairly complacent but you should have seen hos face when he realised they were coming up the path - a real picture of panic. He came leaping over the wall back home where he tried to cover up the fact that he had been in a bit of a flap by lying on the grass and looking disdainfully over at the people who had disturbed him.

Waiting for better weather ...

Thursday was truly awful weather so we all just hung around with noses up bums all day (our own noses and bums I hasten to add), other than the occasional feed.  It stopped raining by the evening but was still pretty cold so none of us ventured out for long.

Yesterday was a lot better, so I went out first thing. A big noisy BigMat delivery truck came up the road and parked opposite to the garden so I ran in and hid just in case it was looking for me. But it eventually went so it was safe to go out again. I had to come in half way through the afternoon as the slaves were heading out somewhere. I went out again a bit later for a while but then came in and played with my rolly-ball toy.

Stormy weather ...

Not much of any note happened for a day or two so I did a big poo on the netting that covers the veg patch. I managed to scrape a bit of soil through the netting, destroying just a single leek plant but the dump ended up suspended in mid air on the netting. It looked rather impressive I thought but one of the slaves cleared it away. Not much later, a load of people arrived and looked at the flowers. Then they got back into their cars and drove off. I have no idea what that was all about but I did hear one of the slaves say that he hoped that they would win another 10 euro voucher so they could get some more plants next year.

Then yesterday arrived! For a start, there was a bit of a storm first thing with a load of solid stuff instead of the usual wet stuff falling. There were loads of flashes in the sky and a lot of noise. The slaves seemed fairly upset about the fact that the flowers and their vegetables were a bit flat and most of the leaves and flowers had come off. There was a big pile of cold stuff in the undergrowth where I usually lurk during the day, it looked like sago. The storm was really impressive, the road looked like a river and there were lots of little ponds in my garden. I was out and about in the afternoon and one of the slaves kept shouting me so I hid. But then he heard Rose squawking and after a bit of faffing around, discovered that she was stuck in Fernande's garage. So he headed round to get Fernande to open the door to let her out. As soon as the garage was open, Rose decided that she was fine where she was and headed up to the upper floor of the garage. So Fernande opened the other doors and we all waited outside for Rose to come out. But Tollie was feeling mischievous and dived into the garage. The slave managed to turn him round and he grumbled a bit as he was shooed out. But Coco then decided to join in and dashed past into the garage. She was faster than Tollie as she isn't as fat so Tollie took advantage and they both went under a big machine. The slave was getting a bit stressed and managed to chase them both out using a broom. Coco was OK about it but Tollie was really grumpy about being pushed out by having a broom stuck up his bum. Rose then strolled out and while the slaves were closing one of the doors, insisted going back in. The slaves managed to discourage that and eventually the doors were closed and locked, rose was out and Coco and Tollie had wandered off. Then Basil decided to do a big rush-puss and shot past a slave towards the road. The other flapped her arms around and made him run parallel to the road because their was a car coming. They got us all back in the house and shut the flap (just as well as there was another big storm). and it was stormy for the rest of the night.

Anyway, today was a bit grotty to start with and I didn't fancy going out as it was cold and wet. I did go out a bit in the morning but when it cleared up later, I went out a bit more. But nothing much happened, I played chase the grass with the slave, pottered around on the wall and then came in for a bite to eat.

Good weather ...

The weather has been brilliant the last week or so and I stayed outside all of the day yesterday because it was so nice. This morning is a bit odd, I can't see much further than the other side of the road. It's a bit boring really, no jumpy things, no buzzy things and no fluttery things.

I had a mini adventure the night before last to follow up on my big 'getting stuck' adventure. I had wandered off round the back and wasn't sure how to find my way back. Luckily I heard one of the slaves shout my name so I howled as loud as I could and he came and found me and brought me back.I tried to pay close attention to the way he took me, it's so hard to remember you know.

Yesterday started really well. Coco arrived back and announced she had brought a mouse. I leapt off the bed and dashed downstairs with the slave. While the slave distracted Coco, I nipped in and pinched her mouse. I sneaked along to the TV corner and started flinging it around. Then disaster, I lost it. I don't know where it went, it was an 'over the shoulder' fling I did so I lost sight of it. I think I can smell it behind the books on the bookcase.

During the afternoon, Jaffa decided that she wasn't tired any more and we had a great game of poking each other under the garage door.

Anyway, back to my mini-adventure story. I was confident I could find my way to and from the back of the house so I tested it out yesterday. I hung around in the garden all day and helped one of the slaves with a load of gardening. When they sat down with a book and a shandy in the evening sunshine, I decided to chance it. There were a couple of people from the forge opposite putting up a new sign to get people to visit them and I wandered off round the back. Half an hour later, one of the slaves called me so I shouted to say I was OK. The slave came blundering through the undergrowth so I told him again that I was fine. He still didn't understand, I really wish I could talk 'slave' to explain it. So the only thing I could do was to demonstrate. I dashed back along the wall, back into the garden. Then I went in for a bite to eat and a snooze.

Then I remembered the lost mouse. So I headed over to the bookcase and started to poke around again. Unfortunately, that reminded the slave that he hadn't looked for the mouse. He pulled a load of books out. I could smell the mouse but couldn't actually find it. I think that the sneaky slave had found it and eaten it himself without me knowing. Anyway, I got bored with that and went to bed.

Missing friends and Big Adventures ...

Just after my last post which is ages ago now, the slaves turned up with a cat that looked like Jaffa but frankly, smelt awful and besides, all ginger cats look the same don't they? Not like us tricolours eh! This new cat was in my bedroom ... MY BEDROOM ... in the room downstairs. Outrageous. I can tell you I really wasn't happy so I took every opportunity to let this infiltrator know. I hissed and growled as often as I could.

Tollie, who is very wise, took me to one side and said that it was Jaffa, who had come back and the reason she smelt different was thet she had been in the vets for a couple of weeks and was still quite poorly after her car accident. I sort of believed him as I trust him, even though he does wrestle roughly with me sometimes when he is hungry, but I also believe my nose which said it couldn't possibly be Jaffa.

Thankfully, after a few days, the infiltrator was moved upstairs, STILL IN MY BEDROOM! I was annoyed at that even though I don't use it, it's the principle you know. Then a few days later, the door to the front room was shut and I could hear it moving around, playing with a new toy, scratching on the litter tray and the wallpaper, shouting for attention at 5am and so on. It did sound a bit like Jaffa but you know what it's like, all ginger cats sound the same don't they?

2 weeks ago, they let this new cat out, so I had to start hissing and growling again. Coco was the same as me, she agreed that it was an impostor and not her daughter. It still smely funny and hobbled around on its gammy back leg. So she did some hissing too and occasionally hit it just for good measure. Although it looked sad, neithe me nor Coco felt sorry for it. The slaves seem particularly attached to it for some reason.

But I know differently now. The ginger infiltrator actually smells much more like Jaffa so Tollie was right. He just shrugs, rolls his eyes and says 'I told you so'. Then last week, new ginger started to go outside. It seemed to be a lot happier even though it was hobbling around and was quite tired.It even started to smell better and I finally realised that it wasJaffa. So me and Jaffa are friends again.

So I decided to celebrate by living up to my name. Normally, I like to hang around close to the house, so that when I get a bit panicky I can dive under the hedge or go and hide behind the 'throne' or under the gooseberry bushes. But I decided to live up to my more famous counterpart's name and headed off to do some exploring. BAD MOVE. I went miles and miles and found a little hole to go through. Brilliant, a new barn to explore.

That was great fun, loads of new smells to smell and things to poke. I even heard the slave calling me but ignored him as it was having such a good time.

Trouble was, I forgot how I got in and was stuck. So I had a bit of a nap. During the evening, I heard the slave calling again and so I shouted back. The problem is that he doesn't hear too well so I don't think he could hear me. He did say later that he thought he could but wasn't sure where I was shouting from. Eventually, not long before it got dark (I am supposed to be in and tucked up in the snuggler before dark, after all I am still only 10 months old) I heard both of the slaves shouting my name. Eventually one of them realised where I was and helped me to get out. He called my name through a hole in an old door so I found my way to that. His hand appeared through the hole and moved a few bits and pieces by the hole so that it was easier for me to get out. The other slave went back home to get me some biscuits to help me to get out easier but I didn't need them. The picked me up, cuddled me, shoved me through a window at the back of our house and then made me stay in. I really really wanted to go out into my garden so whilst their pizza was cooking, one of the slaves took me out for a while on my harness.

So that's it. Today I decided to have a day at home, mainly in the garden, and to post this long-overdue account of the last 6 weeks on my blog.