Black Cat Stan

Today is one of the mornings when the yellow dog comes. The dog comes three times a week and I have to make sure I am out of the way. He has a harness as well as his lead. His human likes me so I sit at the top of the stairs and he comes up and strokes me while my human feeds the dog carrots from the fridge. He is always looking for food and if my human forgets to pick it up he eats my stuff. My human says he doesn’t like the taste but he eats it anyway – and my treats if I haven’t finished them up.

The garden chairs are wet and so is the garden table where I spend the summer in the sun. The sparrows fly around my head feeding from their swinging food stations. I see the mice under the honesty plants catching scraps from the bird feeders above. I can’t stay out there in the wet and cold so I sit inside the glass door and watch the sparrows queueing up to have a turn in the bath my human has suspended high up so I can’t get at it. I must bring a mouse in – trouble is, they don’t want to play.

I have been sleeping on the big double bed in the back bedroom. It was cold this morning so I was a bit slow to catch up with my human who was already out of her bed in the next room. I usually greet her by purring loudly and I tell her she has to follow me downstairs. But first she goes in the bathroom. I follow her there and lick her bare toes. They taste nice. She comes downstairs and feeds me. Tuna is my favourite. I hate cod. Turkey is OK. Salmon and chicken are so-so

The stranger visitor has gone. Hurray! Now that big machine on the top floor creates a horrible noise while it washes and dries sheets. Today I got attention by clawing my human’s chair underneath when she was sitting watching another moving screen. She usually gets up and finds the whip I play with. She drags it through my corner full of catnip toys by the stairs and I lie on the next step up and claw at it. That’s quite good fun.

Went on the bathroom roof this morning for a short time. It was sunny. I can sniff the huge family of sparrows in the ivy and jasmine hedge but I can’t reach them which is annoying. I didn’t stay long because the fire was on where my human stares at a white screen all day. I spread out in front of that fire and snore until it burns my stomach and then I turn over and snore some more. Then when she gets up to go upstairs I get on her moving chair. When she comes back brushes me.. Lovely!

The two humans were talking and talking. Travellers need a lot of help with ‘vaccinations’, I heard. To get some attention I tried begging to go out in the back garden at night and she let me. Then she shut the door. It was raining. When she let me back in I told her I was not happy and she dried my fur with a tea towel. I ate my biscuits (from Sweden) and pretended I hadn’t noticed.

I sulked all last week. There was a female stranger staying in the house. She got a lot of attention. I didn’t like it. I got that mouse my human’s always talking about and put it down dead in my usual place on the Persian rug. I was sick all over that rug yesterday so she had to wash it and it was still wet so I couldn’t claw it like I usually do. Anyway she saw the mouse immediately. I got some attention after that.

Last night I dreamt of Mrs Tiddles.  I have not seen her for a long time.  Now it is raining and I am on my human’s bed dreaming of her.  Her human told us she sleeps in a warm box under the kitchen table so I won’t see her again till next year.  I can dream.

My human was out again. Usually she brings back my food, but not today. She wore different clothes from cupboards which I investigated. No sign of mice. They are all downstairs where I left them. Anyway, back came the Big White Cat. This time the fight was to the death. When my human came back she looked at me and then she took me to the Vets. Another thing I don’t like. The Vet stuck needles in me and gave me the once over. I went to my bed up on the top floor where guests sometimes sleep and spent a long time sleeping up there. I didn’t feel too good for a while.

Today my human went out. She left the window on the roof open and the back door so I could get on the roof and then climb down to the garden when I want to. On the roof I can watch the birds. They have hanging baskets and a water dish suspended up in the air where they like to bath. She makes sure I can’t get at them. The pigeons come onto the lawn and sit in a row waiting for the sparrows to drop food onto their heads. I don’t try to get them. They are really big and flap a lot.

A family of foxes live in the garden on the other side of the fence and so I didn’t go down today.