An Unhealthy Interest

The young couple who are my neighbours have now acquired two puppies and two cats.  They all seem delightful.  Well, as delightful as cats can be when they are interested in one's goldfish.

The solution that I had found to keep the seagulls off seemed unlikely to deter this curious chap.

So another deterrent had to be found

and this is it: floating plastic interconnecting grids which prevent  the cat from getting into the pond or scooping the fish out and at the same time preventing the gulls swooping down.  What's more for most of the time they can hardly be seen 

Who Me?

Patience and expectation:

Fortunately Curiosity Didn't

Bibs is a curious kitten:

Thankful Thursday

Today I have so many things for which to be thankful I don't know where to start. 

So I am going to save most of them for some other time and keep it simple.

Today I am thankful for people who are kind to animals.  So is Bibs:

The Ahhh Factor

Back in the day when we were a family at home and we had cats:

Smokey

Whilst I'm on a roll with animal photos I thought I'd introduce you to Smokey.  She's the cat  who lives with (no one owns a cat) my God-daughter, Lou and her partner whom I stayed with before I came back to Eagleton.  

A Sad Dilemma

I sometimes have difficulty with the real world.  Feral cats are a real nuisance in Australia and New Zealand and, I'm told, in rural France as well.  I have the realism to know that they have to be destroyed and, living in rural areas as I do I realise that a farmer and a shotgun are the most efficient method both from the point of view of the cat and the farmer.  Risking a scratch from a feral cat can mean risking a necrotising sore (as an acquaintance who nearly lost an arm knows).  So feeding feral cats is definitely not an option.

Friends in France were therefore rather discomfited to find a litter of kittens with their mother in one of the outbuildings adjacent to their house.  It was thought that there were four kittens.  Earlier this week the mother appeared to have disappeared with all but two of the kittens who appeared to be very frail.  Given her attitude (defensively aggressive when approached) the assumption had been made that when she had moved the stronger kittens to somewhere she considered safe and left the others to die.   However yesterday morning I thought the remaining kittens looked better and when I saw the mother  leaving the outbuilding and hunting a little later I realised that she must have been feeding them.

This morning all became clear when we saw the mother and six kittens on next door's farm.  I photographed them but didn't want to get too close and upset her.  Unfortunately I didn't realise that the automatic focusing had focused on foliage in front of her.

The point of the photos is, of course, that they present a picture that appeals to the heart which can lead to the head being overruled.  What is even more strange and heart-rending is what happened at lunchtime.  The mother conquored her fear or antipathy towards us and made her way towards the table where we were lunching in the open.  She was thin and obviously struggling to feed her litter.  She was begging for food.  Food she was never going to get.  I left the table and she walked at my heels to the edge of the property hoping or anticipating that I was going to feed her.  I have rarely felt so torn for an animal.  She is a feral cat who was prepared to do almost anything to ensure her kittens survived.

I had a beautiful meal tonight - fillet steak in a cream and Almagnac sauce with all the trimmings.

Somehow I don't feel quite so good about today.

For Michelle and Zebby Cat

When Jo was on the floor a few minutes ago with Meek I couldn’t resist a photo and dedicating it to another person who’s just as soft about her cat (even softer actually): Michelle from Mickle’s Pickle.

All Creatures Great and Small

I'm definitely having a few days of involvement with the feathered and furry creatures in the neighbourhood.

Yesterday started with two cats from the area having a really massive battle in the garden leaving it covered in fur. My attempts to separate them before I had to take one home to an owner in a black sack were not proving fruitful and were exposing my uncovered legs to potential excessive brutality (not that even a thick pair of jeans would have afforded much protection had they turned on me). My eventual solution was to turn the high pressure hose on them. Water is always a great favourite with cats!

Then, as I was idly watching the world, a rock dove kept circling the house sometimes very close. Suddenly I realised that it's 'companion' was not in fact another rock dove but a bird of prey with a significant white throat area. At one point it became difficult to know which was chasing which. There are Merlins in the area. Merlins are similar in size to pigeons but, so far as I can see, don't usually take them. However they do take their prey by flying with them (compared with Peregrine Falcons which tend to swoop down on their prey). So it looks very much as though this was a particularly enthusiastic Merlin.

Talking of rock doves they and the starlings are becoming a nuisance again. The Study roof is covered in their droppings and the starlings are driving the sparrows away from their feeders. As I write this there are 25 rock doves and countless starlings on the feeders and ground around them and one sparrow braving the starlings' beaks. Hmmm.

Now if anyone thinks that pigeons are bright let me disabuse them of that notion. I have a pond. It has a 'beach' area so that the birds can easily have a drink or bathe or whatever. This morning I was distracted from the computer by a splashing on the pond. A solitary collared dove was standing on the surround to the pond and trying to lean in (a drop of about 4 inches) to have a drink. He (or she) kept falling off the edge. After a while he realised this was not going to work so he tried to land on the water. Pigeons are not equipped for this task. He didn't know that. Time and again he tried and time and again he failed to manage to walk on the water. Eventually ie by the time I came to my senses and managed to power up the camera, he realised the error of his ways and flew off. I've not seen him since.

I wonder what other exciting things will happen today.

This Garden's Not Big Enough For The Two of Us

One of the disadvantages of the bird table is that the local cats (of which there is a considerable number) think that it is also their breakfast bar. This is the reason I moved it from its original position next to the rockery and hence near cover from which the cats could pounce. Two of the rival cats met in the garden on Saturday:

The stand off

Raised hair!

More raised hair but fained indifference (Or does it mean something else? I'm not an animal psychiatrist)

No mistaking what he's thinking

After the spat just walk away.