A busy day for the cats in the garden
The Cat Distribution System loans us some neighbourhood cats. The CDS understands that we do not want the responsibility of a pet right now but that we need some animal companionship. Cats are ancient gods and they know it. My niblings named them, not particularly imaginatively. They like updates on the cat shenanigans and I send photos.
The primary cat is Cheddar. Ginger and incredibly friendly. She will wander into the house and sleep on me for two hours, no problem. She likes to sleep in the greenhouse and when I moved her favourite plant pot in order to, you know, use it as an actual plant pot, I felt compelled to put a camping chair there for her to use instead. She runs around trying to catch butterflies and frogs and I run around trying to stop her. We see her most days and it's not unusual she's hanging around all day.
Furball is a large black cat with very wiry fur. He is so large one of the smaller niblings is actively afraid of him and called him a panther. I suspect he lives in (or has colonised) one of the houses behind ours because I see him there often. I call him a he but I don't know. He will approach for strokes. One time he and Cheddar had a three-hour standoff in our garden, looking round corners at each other. I watched them for a bit, went out, came back, they were still at it.
Storm is grey, obviously, with a red collar. She will stay in the garden while I am there as long as I don't make any loud noises or sudden movements. She and Cheddar tolerate one another's presence.
An infrequent visitor is Midnight. Slim and grey. I found her sitting on the dining room table once. Otherwise I only see her passing through the garden.
Flat Stanley is a flat-faced cat that I see round the corner. Only ever on the pavement outside one house. They never come in the gardens. Just demand passersby stop and make obeisance.
Our neighbour has a building across the end of their garden with a flat roof which is a frequent meeting place for cat skirmishes and hour-long yelling matches in the evenings.
Today Cheddar apparated when I went outside first thing to open up the greenhouse. Which is where she still was soon after when Furball wandered into the garden. Cheddar looked up and watched as Furball dug a hole amongst my onions, shat in it, and covered it up again*. Cheddar did nothing. No defence was made. Once Furball went off Cheddar inspected the poop and followed Furball into next door at an extremely safe distance then came back to the greenhouse.
Cheddar was still in the greenhouse late afternoon and popped out to shout at me a bit when I disturbed her by opening the back door, which was rude. She ten ate some grass. Storm stood on the fence watching. Weighing up her options. She skedaddled when my brother-in-law and his girlfriend arrived but Cheddar came back out in order to be admired.
We went up the road for an ice cream and paid our respects to Stanley. Now it's starting to get dark and Cheddar is hunting moths on the lawn. I wil check all around the house before we go out, to make sure I'm not accidentally doing a catnapping.
When I say busy, I mean not busy at all.
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