: 05 April 2002 :

“we’re flying Mother Nature’s silver seed to a new home in the sun”...

Just now a tabby cat that I haven’t seen before came onto our patio. I’m watching it through the open back door. Right now it’s rolling around on the flagstones like a fat little brown tiger, looking up at me and showing its teeth.

It’s an infestation now - another cat’s just appeared on the back wall, the one that was whining at the cat next door the other day. So now we have the half-Siamese from over the wall at the end of the garden, the fat tabby in the garden, and our long-haired grey cat sitting on the back doorstep. Nothing much happening-- oh, now the big white-black-and-ginger cat from next door has appeared and the tabby’s run off.

On spring afternoons like this I get a lot of entertainment from watching all the cats that pass through our back garden.

[brief pause while I shut the back door]

Our cat just got up from where she was sitting by the back door, and ran to attack next door’s cat. There was a lot of spitting and a couple of scratches, both of them with ears pinned back, up on their hind legs (quite an impressive sight), then my cat ran back inside and the other cat walked away.

Now there are scraps of white and grey fur blowing all over the patio. The half-Siamese is still sitting unconcerned on the back wall.

Sometimes I think there are too many cats living around here.