Had for a Mug Again.........
They are doing it again. It's a plot , you know. But to understand what they've done to me now, you need to keep up! I've just explained about catching cats (or not) and how Sparky is recovering in the spare room and the bully boy black tom cat is still on the loose. And the reason why is part of the general having me for a mug situation.
Since I came back in September I've been presented with a black and white (Itty Bitty)kitten living under the sideboard for a fortnight who turned out to have not only a small black sibling who is not Small Sooty but also a lookalike twin rather than just being a fast mover when I thought I couldn't really have seen him in two places so short a time apart) Wonky turned up after being missing for a couple of months, Smudge disappeared and hasn't been seen since, Patch, Wonky and Itty Bitty's siblings spent a lot of time clearing off, the great debate as to who/where was Small Sooty went on but petered out with a satisfactory conclusion, Sweep and Cheeky decided sleeping indoors was good so long as I didn't interfere with them (ie come into the same room or even look at them). Big Sooty moved indoors too, and the routine of musical beds ensued whereby some people sleep in a certain place all the time until someone else just decide they will take that spot. Sigh.
Next, well I think it was next, a cry for help for 3 kittens dumped in a bag and one with a paw cut off. I've got Oliver 3 paws, since he came out for the vets, and a more lovable, boisterous little bugger would be harder to find. He gets around just fine but does keep that leg off the ground a bit more than the others. But he needs to be kept safe so he sleeps in the ginormous crate in which I brought the UK four to Spain, so we can't light the fire downstairs as the crate is in front of it. Hence the portable gas fire is permanently on low down there and now the boys have taken over the sofa and the rug in front of the fire. But I digress slightly (although some would say the gas fire thing makes a mug of me), and I should introduce Tabitha who came next and stayed for over a month in the spare room waiting to travel to be reunited with her owner in the UK. The owner had to leave quickly and her cats were up for rehoming which seemed very sad to me so we made it work for the one to follow on, the other 4 were rehomed successfully. So I have had two cats in isolation as it were and needing time spent with them, which I solved partly by bunging the titchy menace in with Tabs and letting him bully her all day as well as spending hours in there being treated as a climbing frame and sparring partner. Kittens, eh?
So the population went up by 2 and a week ago back down when Tabs left for the UK and a happy new life for her and her mum, but nothing is ever as simple as wondering if the cat food bill is going down, as I foolishly mused at the end of They're having a Laugh at my Expense. It did, but actually only thanks to a very generous donation of cat food. The problem persists that I don't really know who thinks they live here and who just takes advantage of the free grub. I mean, Hungry Horace can eat his own bodyweight and he's not little, but he's also not here all the time, so I have hard decisions like shall I get him neutered (yes of course,in principle but money is tight and if he's not even mine.....I mean, where does he go when he's not here??) Patch's tribe just cant make their minds up, and the final straw with her was almost unbelievable. Over two years she's silently ordered me around and still refused to co-operate with going to the vets, she'd not long dumped Itty Bitty and left him here, and then one day, I followed her down the track because I simply happened to be going that way at the same time, and she only went and crossed the road, looked back at me and disappeared down an alley between the houses. Gobsmacked hardly covered it, I tell you, especially when she didn't come back, and as far I was aware still hadn't. Until today. But I'm getting ahead of myself and as I've mentioned before, I have to try to account for all this logically otherwise even I get confused. Wonky disappeared and reappeared and the youngest kittens were coming and going with Patch, that much was clear, and occasionally so did Sparky, Cheeky and even Sweep. But when Patch went and didn't come back, eventually and occasionally the littlies and even Wonky did.
I feared the worst, as in more kittens born somewhere different this time, or at best that she's found some other mug to feed her (and for a small skinny cat she can put it away) but she'd never ever just cleared off. I didn't know whether to feel relieved or insulted. People ask me all the time how many cats I've got , and I tend to say it depends what day it is, because I honestly don't know, and lately I thought the numbers were down on account of Patch leaving home, Butch wasn't around much either, Horace seemed to be away a lot, (looking for Sparky no doubt) and the food supplies started lasting a bit longer. Less to feed, less to trap, right ho! And as reported in How to Catch a Cat (or Not) I did indeed catch Sparky. and had every intention let alone possibility of catching the big black tom cat who surely eats my food when he can get it in between raping and pillaging and fighting with all of my lot. But he significantly failed to go where he's been hanging out recently and the trap is still there with the door up now. He spent all last night yowling around outside and keeping me awake so I really thought I was going to get him for sure. Where has he been today then...........this afternoon after I brought Sparky home and put her safely to recover indoors, I went to investigate a bit of fisticuffs down the land and did a double take (not for the first time I thought my eyes deceived me) at a small brindle cat sitting on the top of the deposito wall with a large black tom sitting behind her. Of course it wasn't Sparky, but I was hardly expecting Patch after all this time, and clearly she is now the object of unwanted attention from his nibs, and the reason he hasn't been in that blasted trap and away to the vets. Butch has been for his tea, I notice, maybe things are going back to normal (whatever that is).
But oh boy do I feel taken for a mug at times.....
Now all that was a couple of months ago now. Kittens came and went as did Patch, Horace and Wonky. Smudge disappeared and hasn't been seen now for a couple of months and Sweep pops in and out as he pleases. He and Cheeky have progressed to sleeping on the sofa downstairs as long as I don't want to walk through the room. But I digress. Three kittens dumped in a bag and one with paw cut off, so who put her hand up to take the pawless one.........me. Then there was a crisis with someone needed to rehome 5 cats very quickly because of going back to the UK and after a bit of jiggery pokery it was agreed the 5th one could go to the UK to rejoin her owner so she spent 6 weeks in my spare room. Visited daily by me and Oliver 3 paws. Meanwhile Patch decamped and took Wonky and Bitty with her, how do you like that for loyalty after more than 2 years? I could understand that she'd had enough of the kids, and quite likely was off to produce another lot, but still. She's never listened to me about the need to get in that cat box or even in the cat trap so we can pay Uncle Mario the vet a visit and never have any more pesky kittens, and on that subject I could write an entire blog. Cat traps are wonderful things so long as there is either only one cat around or tons and any one of them will do. But try have one trap and 9 cats who don't need to get in it and who will be most upset and angry if they do. Try having another - erm, depends which day it is - 10? any of whom could do with a vet visit but some of whom are too young and others are priority. Then there