Hello everyone! I hope the year started well for you all! It started GREAT for me: Mum was sick with the ‘flu and stayed in bed for three whole days. It was soooo cosy! Cuddles in bed are my favourite.

BilboBut I want to tell you about my adventures in the GO today (remember: the Great Outdoors?). I’ve made great progress there: would you believe there’s a chicken coop right at the top of our garden? Easy to get into as well, through the rickety old fence. Sadly, the chickens aren’t particularly friendly. Very protective of their patch. One in particular, a big red bird, gets angry when I sit in her favourite place, which is pre-warmed and very comfortable, and takes a run at me with her wings spread out. Not very nice. Still, I go there sometimes when they’re all sitting quietly and singing together. They don’t mind me joining their choir, at least.

The other great thing about the GO is the field next door. So many mice, voles and rats! I have my paws full keeping them under control. I’ve stopped bringing them home, as my family makes them disappear once they’re inside. Instead, I eat them on the doorstep. Well, most of them. Sometimes there’s a bit left over for the humans to step into.

At the bottom of the field is the road. It’s very busy in the daytime, but really quiet late at night, and there’s a wonderful, wild forest on the other side. I’ve been exploring there a few times already. Unfortunately, my family came home in the car late one night just as I was crossing the road to return home as well. They told me off when we were all back in the house: I’m not to cross the road because it’s dangerous. What they don’t understand is that it’s fun as well! – Anyway, a few days later, Dad installed a new cat door that wouldn’t open when I wanted to go out for my late-night walk. I pushed my nose against it really hard, and when that didn’t work I tried forcing it with my paws and claws, but no luck. I was upset, I can tell you! Mum picked me up and carried me upstairs to bed, but I was still unhappy. She gave me some Dreamies,  which made it a little better, and a long cuddle in bed, which made it almost okay, but still I missed the stillness of my frosty night-time walks, the twinkling stars above and the big, yellow moon...

The next morning, the new cat door opened fine, but made a fearful clatter as it closed behind me, and I had to be really careful to whip my tail out quickly, before it got trapped as the door snapped shut. It turned out later in the day that Tammy got her tail trapped and refused to use the new cat door after that. She has very strong opinions, as I’ve found out; there’s no arguing with her. So a few days later, Dad installed yet another cat door. This one also stays shut at night, but at least it’s silent. However, Tammy has now gone off cat doors altogether and won’t use it at all, even though everyone has shown her how silent it is, and how it never catches my tail. Mum’s been writing furiously on the computer to the people who made the noisy door, but the damage is done: Tammy has become an indoor cat and has started using MY litter box! Not that I really need it, since I do my business outside now, but still I feel a bit peeved. It was mine, after all, to begin with. So I just give her a tiny bite whenever I catch her near it – but I make sure I run off immediately, before she can clobber me. She gets a bit mean sometimes.

Perhaps you can give me some ideas as to what I might do to solve the problem of the locked cat door? Or how I could persuade Tammy to use it again and leave my litter box alone? Any advice from you would be gratefully received! Ta-ta for now!

A Morning Kiss

A morning kiss, a discreet touch of his nose landing somewhere on the middle of my face.
Because his long white whiskers tickled, I began every day laughing.

Janet F Faure