It's not just the black ones, actually
I've not long written a piece where I explained (with the inevitable bit of digression) how I've had, and presently have again, a problem with identifying the black cats in my life here in Spain, and the present dilemma of whether any of the present contenders is the real Small Sooty and indeed just how many black cats there are on my food bill right now. But there, I digress already, because IT'S NOT JUST THE BLACK ONES ACTUALLY........
But I suppose I do need to digress a bit first, but not about that, about this : those who have followed the tales of how the cats acquired me may recall back in my first cortijo here they moved in on an organised campaign which left me with little choice but to shut up and buy the cat food, and how the little buggers snuck an extra couple in along the way by making me question my sanity when I appeared to be seeing things. Well, extra cats of a certain hue actually.
So imagine my discomfort when the horrible sense of deja-vu creeps up on my again but obliquely this time. I should explain :
Patch has had two litters of kittens to my knowledge and from which I seem to have the survivors, last autumn she greeted my return by promptly giving birth a couple of days later, and then the obligatory 3 months or so before they are big enough to climb out over the roof and head for the dining area ie my terrace. And so I had Sweep, Smudge and Sooty. One white with black, one black with white and a moustache, and one all black and much smaller - this being Small Sooty who may or may not have disappeared and may or may not have reappeared. I have to presume that these are all she had or all who survived since no others appeared.
This spring, she did the disappearing thing again for a couple of days and nobody small appeared before I set off for the summer festival season in the UK, so of course I had to warn my cat sitters to expect a couple of little 'uns at some future point before I came back. And so it proved to be, in due course a ginger and white, a brindle just like her mum, and a black and white with an off centre moustache turned up, but then the black and white one disappeared never to be seen again while I was away. So I returned to my original mob plus the two or is it three extra black ones and a couple of kittens who wanted to know who I was. All fine until the other week when I was unexpectedly confronted by a couple of extra black ones, not even the one I knew about, with the resulting "Sooty? Sooty? who the xxxx is Sooty?" which went unanswered. Still quietly pondering this, and dealing on a daily basis with who thinks they can come in the house when they like now and all that stuff, I was a bit taken aback this morning to open the front door and look along the covered terrace as I normally do, and to see a mini Butch not Butch himself in the chair he has taken to occupying at night, and whilst the head emerging from one of the cat igloos on the sofa was Sparky as normal, the tiny black and white thing which shot off the settee indoors and ended up huddled behind the big flower pots with the one who got off the chair, at which point I recall the feeling of delusion, they're having a laugh, watching me go quietly made all turning up when you least expect them and letting you try to work out who's who.
Now I'm not sure if you've been paying enough attention here, and even I get confused nowadays and tend to glaze over and stutter a bit before hazarding a guess when people ask how many cats I have now, so let's recap :
MY LOT : Pickle Fudge and Minx, original English ones, Nelson and Smokie, siblings and offspring of the original Sooty 3 from 2 houses before this one, Squeak who no longer Squeaks and no longer loves me despite formerly following me home and never leaving my side 2 houses ago, and MIschief who started all this by turning up in the living room just over a year ago and has affixed himself to me and to Nelson as his role model. I should point out that where HE came from was a complete mystery and whilst he could have been Patch's, they didn't seem to know let alone like each other and by then she had what turned out to be Sweep, Smudge and Small Sooty which does mean she rejects the previous litter at that point, I have discovered.
SORT OF MY LOT : Ginger and Big Sooty who lived in the house in front and who lost their human mum, their feline mum and their home with the option of fending for themselves in the wild. So of course they ended up with me.
NOT REALLY BUT OK YES THEY ARE MINE, WELL AT FEEDING TIMES ANYWAY AND NO BUGGER ELSE IS GOING TO GET THEM NEUTERED : Patch, my skinny little stray who patiently waits and stares at me until I feed her, often, and refuses to let me touch her even after 2 years of reasoned argument about it all including how nice it would be to be stroked and how even nicer it would be to not be almost permanently pregnant. Her sort of husband and father of a lot of her kittens many of whom are very very like him, Butch. Last year's litter now over a year old, Sweep (like his dad) Smudge and Small Sooty who went off the scene and it's very hard to guess what size she would be now, got to be a girl as she was so much smaller than the other two. This year's litter, Cheeky (he really is but no idea whose as he is ginger and white), Sparky just like her mum and tiny with it, and the black and white one who disappeared couple of months back. Horace, as in Hungry Horace, accepted as he was thought to be mine whereas I never saw him before, fluffy and black. Might-be-Sooty-but friendly slim black cat, not always around, Also-Might-be-Sooty tiny black one sighted occasionally and small enough it is possible she is a previously unseen one of this year's litter. Or not.
Ok. got that? so then this morning there is a black and white one with a wonky moustache, so first I thought aha, the wandered returns *but how? and why??) but then there was the tiny black and white (another mini Butch) so maybe not, OMG not another litter already. But Wonky Moustache has hung around all day acting like he owns the place and needs no introduction and in fact is as big as Cheeky and Sparky which leads me to conclude that whatever games he is playing, he has indeed been here before and is the missing sibling. Which leaves us another mini Butch and a really little one at that, plus Patch is attending to it so I guess that one slipped through the net sometime in the summer totally unobserved by the cat sitters. It's awful small, awful cute and it's under the sideboard and doesn't want to come out despite Patch visiting with encouragement/exasperation from time to time.
So now I can make sense of the odd squeak I didn't recognise, the scuffling around in the living room and under the sideboard, the restlessness last night, and Patch's appearance which was definitely either nursing or pregnant (or perish the thought, both........noooooooooo). I've done enough double takes over black cats and now black and white ones so they can all just stop it. What does occur to me is that each successive litter seems even more forward than the last and surely this little thing is even smaller than usual when they make their way up here for meals. So either that or she's moved base for having them, OR she has brought me this one and left it here for safe keeping, and the big question is, ARE THERE MORE SOMEWHERE AND THIS IS JUST THE FIRST..............
How many cats have I got? in truth the answer is none, they have got me, well and truly, and in any case I have no idea because as if it was complicated enough, you don't only feed your own, you know, and it's any body's guess whether Herbert, possibly Sooty and other possibly Sooty let alone Butch and missing kitten go or should be elsewhere, Sweep isn't around as much, especially since he got into the cat trap and panicked (that's another story and still unfolding) so is he moving on, is he really mine? I refer you to the blog entitled "Nobody owns the cats" http://www.whatissheonaboutnow.com/nobody-owns-the-cats.php.
Are any of them, come to that? You'd better ask them.