Kittens ...

Tollie and Rose were reminiscing about Coco the other day, apparently, before they really got to know her, the slaves thought she was a boy! Honestly, how stupid was that, everyone knows that black torties are girls with attitude! But they were actually quite upset as 'little Eric' has disappeared. The male slave was re-building the garden wall that had fallen down and was miserable. The other slave was just miserable - such was the impact she had when she arrived just a few weeks earlier.

A day or two before the kittens arrived, the female slave took Coco to the vets. He said there were lots of kittens and she was about ready to have them. So the slave put beds around the house but Coco wasn't havng any of that. She wanted to have them in her secret place where she had had her other kittens so she disappeared for just over a day. When she came back for some food, apparently she was exhausted and really hungry. She didn't stop, she had food then went to look after her kittens.

Not long before she had the kittens, her change of diet to include proper cat food, bunged her up. She was supposed to have been given an enema but there was no way she was going to succumb to that. But at least she enjoyed the taste of the laxatone so after a week she was OK.

After a few more weeks, Coco turned up in the barn next to our garden, this was a bit before I was born of course so it wasn't my garden then) and had moved the kittens. She reckoned that it would be easier for her get a good supply of food and to be able to keep an eye on the kits if she got closer to the slaves. There was a big square hole in the door that made it easy to come and go. When the new arrivals had been in their new barn for a few days, they started to poke their noses out of the barn. Eventually, they all came out and suckled as Coco laid there in the Sun. Even Tollie, the hardened old cynic that he is, said that he had to admit they were cute.

She arrived with 3 but never told anyone how many she had had or what happened to the others. They were christened Koala (because she had the markings that made her look like a koala bear), pale ginger and dark ginger. Dark Ginger stayed with us - that's Jaffa.

Another Lock in ...

We got locked in again yesterday. On of the slaves was doing some pointing in the bedroom around the window when a car stopped outside the front gate. At first he ignored it as they seemed to be lost and were trying to work out where they were. Then he heard someone mention cat and point as a huge load of motorbikes were going past. So he rushed out and there was one of the poubelle clan lying in the road. As he ran towards it, it got up and ran back up the road, hiding under the silver car. The slave helped out the lost people who were miles from where they thought they were, thinking the poubelle cat would stay under the car. But it didn't. The poubelle cat then ran off and the slaves tried to find it to help it. They couldn't and were quite upset and so they picked fizzy of her bed in the garag and locked us in to keep us safe from the traffic. But then today, the same cat went past our place and it was OK. It looks like the bike just dazed it a bit and didn't do any bad damage. Nevertheless, we were locked in until after dark and then again today. The slaves are really paranoid about the traffic now.

Coco was called Sally number 2 when the slaves first saw her about 5 years ago. Apparently they knew a cat called Sally a long time ago. They often saw her over the road in the fields and sometimes they went out to shoo her off the bird table.

Then, two and a half years ago, an old ginger tom came to them in the middle of winter needing a hand. He had lost the hunting knack so they gave him some food. Then, early in the spring, when one of the slaves was putting out some food for 'Good Ginger' as they called him (Bad Ginger was the one that kept beating up Tollie), Coco appeared from nowhere and dived into the food as she was desperately hungry.

She kept coming back and after a couple of weeks, Good Ginger headed off somewhere. But Coco kept coming for food. It turned out she was pregnant and was struggling to find enough food for those inside her. She soon learnt the flap because she was fairly smart but a bit scatty and more or less moved in.

She disappeared for a day or two here and there but after she had the kittens, she was back every day.

Rubbish Summer ...

It rained again yesterday evening but at least we got to see Jaffa. She has taken to living in the garage roof now and so we don't actually see her unless she is passing through the garden.

The summer has been rubbish for three reasons, the weather, Rose has started self-harming and 2 of my friends have been killed by traffic. Basil was the first as you know. Coco was second and we think that Jaffa might be living in the garage roof in the hope that she will turn up at some point.

Just after Lexie died (which was a couple of months before I moved in), Basil apparently took over her job of annoying the slaves when they were eating tea on their lap watching telly. He used to jump up between them and try to poke his nose onto one of their plates and ended up with his tail in the other! He was a class act. He was also very good at playing with shoe laces as the slaves were trying to tie them up - on more than one occasion, he succeeded in undoing the laces that had been tied. String was one of his things though. Rose said that her youngster, Pip, was a bit of a string thug. She used to spoil it for Fizz when she was chasing string on the rug. But Basil was bad too. Whoever was enjoying a string chase was always pushed out by Basil if he was around.

He had a great technique when he wanted food, he would wrap himself round a slave's feet until he got some Bozita or some biccies. The rest of us are a bit shy of doing that because of the possibility of being trodden on. Basil seemed oblivious to that.

Next time, I will tell you a bit about Coco.

Poorly cats ...

Fizz didn't come back home during the night so we were all a bit worried as no-one could find her. Eventually, during the evening, one of the slaves managed to get her to come out of her hiding place. She was quite weak but had stopped throwing up. She only complained a little about being captured and locked in. She didn't seem to want to eat much ... great, that means more for me! I like my food.

Rosie seemed a bit off-colour as well, but at least today she only bit her tail the once. She came in last thing, went to bed and has stayed there ever since.

Anyway, back to Basil. Tollie reckons he only came in because of Rose's two young girls, Pip and Fizz. I never knew Pip, she got ill with something he said was called pyothorax and died quite young. He soon lost interest in them after he went for the snip! Tollie said he got on quite well with Bas and liked him being around, although he was a bit of a wanderer. He used to go out on walks with a slave up the road next to the chapel and often went up to the poubelles with them as well. Out in the garden, he used to love jumping out on the rest of us and making us run, after the inirtial shock of 'who's that attacking me', it was quite good fun really. The only one who didn't appreciate it was Fizz, who is a bit of a loner really. Having said that, she is quite happy to snuggle in to the rest of us during cold winter nights. Basil used to bully her a bit in the winter, when she was settled on the setee, at the end nearest to the fire, he used to jump up and attack her to make her move. He preferred that spot. I don't know why, but he always tolerated me pinching it and went to the second best place at the other end.

That's it for today, there are mouse holes to watch and butterflies to chase!

Another day ...

Jaffa was fine and did a huge poo at the vets! She is really fed up as she has to wear a collar and stay in for 10 days until she has healed and the stitches removed. She hates the collar as much as being stuck inside.

I had a chat with Tollie as he has been here the longest, 11 years with the slaves and 5 years in this barn - he said he fancied emigrating from England and brought his slaves with him.

He remembers seeing Basil pass through the garden as a youngster and said he was actually quite jealous of Basil's big fluffy tail. Tollie's tail isn't bad but Basil's was just amazing, it was about half the width of his body! He had beautiful blue-green eyes and didn't really meow, he clucked! Apparently, the slaves had also seen him passing through the garden but one day, he just came into the garden and sat on a slave's knee and said that he was thinking about moving in. He learned the flap by watching the others and was soon popping in and out for a plate full of Bozita or some biccies.

Basil being bad on the kitchen worktop!

But he didn't really move in properly until the weekend that the tour de France finished at Besse. The slaves had been out to watch it and when they got home, Basil came down stairs on 3 legs - he had been in a fight at some point and had been bitten on his back leg, right on the joint and had an abscess. They took him down to the doc's on Monday and they fixed him up. After that, he stayed, apart from a week or so when he disappeared completely. One morning, he just appeared in the kitchen as if he had not been away and was there every day after that.

Fizzy didn't seem to well today but she is a bit independent and sloped off into the undergrowth after she had been sick, a kind of yellowy mucus. Yuk! We all hope that she comes home soon and lets the slaves sort her out. Rose has gone into Fernande's garage once again and seems destined for yet another lock-in.

Therapy ...

I rather got out of the habit of blogging but need to do this to help me to heal. We have had a horrible day today, in fact, it has been a horrible two months.

It all started on May 23rd, a Friday. As always, I am not allowed out at night as I usually end up getting lost as you know. I was all settled on the bed, with Tollie and Rose and the foster mum slave when I heard the other slave, who had gone outside the house Say 'Oh no Basil' and start sobbing a bit. When I came down, the other foster mum slave was going hysterical and the one that had brought Basil into the house was lying with his head on Basil. Apparently he was trying to see if he could hear Basil's heart. He wasn't sure and rushed off down to the vets with him. Basil had been hit by a car, and the slave was concerned that if he was still alive, he needed to be put out of his pain. It turned out that he was already dead.


Fizz and Coco were around when the slave picked Bazzy Boy off the road and I think they saw what happened, but they never told. I think they were too upset. We all saw him in the basket that night but I am not sure that Rose appreciated what had happened. More of that in a later entry. I quite liked Baz but didn't really hang around with him that much, I did miss him for a while but then sort of got used to the fact there were now only 6 of us. There was a bit more room on the bed! I will write some more about his life in some blogs in the future, I have been chatting to the others about it and they have filled me in as I only really knew him for a year and a half. He was three and a half when he died.

The next bad news was that a cat that I had heard of, Moïse, a cat who lived with some friends of the slaves, was run over just a week later. I felt sad because Moïse had been saved from the river Allagnon (we drive alongside that when we go to the vets) so I kind of felt a distant bond as I was rescued from certain death too by my slaves.

Then tonight, a real body blow. Coco, with all her experience, made a mistake and was hit by a big black 4x4. She never stood a chance and died just as one of the slaves got to her in the road. At least she wasn't alone like poor Basil. Coco was like a mum to me, she brought me rats and mice to eat and she was always very kind. Not like Fizz who sometimes hits me! But I like Fizz, I just think she is a bit stressy at times, she's a bit neurotic and nervous so I don't mind. I will really miss Coco, like I missed my real mum at first. Sometimes she brought a rat home and cashed them in for biscuits with one of the slaves! Other times, she gave the rat to me and then demanded biscuits.

I don't know what we will do about Jaffa, she still loves her mum but she isn't around tonight. She is a bit bunged up and also sliced her armpit right open and is stopping at the vets tonight. She went down a couple of hours before Coco was killed. I am a bit worried about her on two counts, first, her mum is dead so she will be sad about that when she finds out (I hope she doesn't spend hours looking for her or waiting for her to come home, she is a bit headstrong and doesn't always believe what we say) and secondly, she needs an anaesthetic to clean and stitch her wound, it's a big one, you could see right down to her muscle. I just hope she is OK and comes through the operation alright and that the bung is just a piece of rat that is a bit big to come through and slowing everything down. If her gut nerves have stopped working and she can't poo anymore then we will soon lose her too. That would be really hard to bear. She has come a long way since her brush with a car last year. She has been a sister to me and I think that the slaves will be really devastated.

In the meantime, cloth-head Rose has been stuck in Fernande's garage again, three times can you believe! The last time, the slaves just left her overnight. Maybe she will learn, maybe not. She has also started biting her tail again but won't tell anyone why.

Anyway, that's all for today, I will write about Basil and Coco and celebrate their lives over the coming weeks.

Oh yes, just one last thing, I caused a mega flap when Dave was here last week, I nodded off in the barn and one of the slaves spent his entire evening walking and cycling miles to try and find me. I gave them a bit of a run around when I re-appeared at dusk, well, why not? Having had a bit of a kip I was raring to go - no way was I going in and going to bed again!

Back Online ...

Just after my last blog post, all hell let loose. The snow arrived early. The others tell me that it wasn't really due for at least another month. There was loads of it. It was starting to disappear a bit but the second weekend, it went mad again. The slaves had gone out and so much fell that it was deeper than all of us. So we stayed in! The slaves got back OK but I heard them talking about it. Apparently the snow was really deep on the road and they had to fit something called snow chains. They said the drifts were much deeper than a cat and they were amazed that the car was able to get through. They seemed pleased with the chains. They also said that they were nearly wiped out by a snowplough, I don't exactly know what it means but it sounds like it wasn't a good thing to happen. Still, they got back OK so no problems with being fed. Hurrah.