Barmy Blue's Bland Blog

Another gingerbread man and another green twisty bone.

Cards would have been posted today but mum forgot to take them. Oh well. Never mind. The last posting day for second class post is tomorrow and there are 3 addresses that mum needs to confirm somehow.

Last night I did some wrapping.....or was it the night before?

Anyway. I've wrapped all of mum's gifts. She has two jumpers, a pair of gloves and a book, if you recall. I found some lovely paper at the back of the tool cupboard. Completely unopened. Not sure how long it's been there. Haven't wrapped anyone else's gifts yet.

Tree still isn't up but the dog wants to eat the needles again.

Baked a devil's food cake today. It's pretty good. Not from scratch. It's a cake mix I got last week. I wanted to get it out of the way so I baked it before I went for a bath.

Stayed in the bath too long again. But I didn't fall asleep this time. Filling the bath takes a while because I have to boil the kettle about 4 times for a satisfying bath. You see. Some years ago our heating buggered up and Napoleon and his friend fixed it but they couldn't get the hot water running again. So we use the emersion heater. That's broken twice now. First time he got his friend round and they put in a new heating element. Second time Napoleon did it himself. Failed once then came back with the right tool and put in a new element. Only problem is it's too short so the hot water runs out twice as quickly as it did before. It goes cold before the bath is even half full.

When that happens I have to spend an hour or so waiting for it to heat up again before I can put in any more hot water and by that time I'm so relieved to be warm that I end up falling asleep or filling the bath so that the hot water runs out again. This pattern can repeat quite a few times before I eventually get round to washing my hair.

Thanks a bunch Napoleon.

Had an odd dream where I caught a mouse barehanded but it turned out to be an intelligent rat that we've had since the first infestation. It's implied that he is somehow responsible for all the mouse invasions. Impossible since mice are afraid of rats (or so I've read). I told mum that we should get some rats to scare the mice away but that would leave us with an infestation of bigger and more destructive rodents .

There's a bloody cat that keeps walking through the garden meowing. I want to have Yuki frighten the life out of it at some point. But not kill it. I'd never let her actually kill a cat.

Most cats are terrified of her and run away to watch from a distance but there's one really brave little one that confronts her. It's a tiny black cat that 's about 4-5 times smaller than she is. But it runs up to her, back arched and eyes fixed. Only once has she frightened it and that was when it was sat on a wall and I didn't notice it and she jumped up at it.

I won't let her chase that cat. I don't even tease her with it because I respect it's bravery. I call it Little Brave Heart. We've only seen it about 3 times but it's made quite an impression.

Now. The fluffy ginger cat that hates me. That one I let her chase. And this black and white cat that keeps meowing. As soon as I get a chance I'll have her terrorise him.

When I had a cat I would have always sided with the cats. But after my cat died none of the neighbourhood cats would let me stroke them so I started resenting them (to be fair most of the friendly ones I used to know are either dead or moved away and the new cats are very cautious).

Since we got the dog and since the neighbourhood cat's aren't friendly to me anymore I'm happy for Yuki to frighten them.

These cats only parade about meowing at all hours when there's a territory dispute, or so I think. If a cat is new to the neighbourhood, or has been injured and out of action for a while, they instantly set about claiming their territory. A house nearby has had it's for sale.....or to let. Not quite sure which. Well, had it's sign taken down, meaning someone's probably living there now or about to. I think they might have brought a cat with them. So. Instant territory dispute.

There's the black and white one that keeps patrolling and meowing at all hours (I want Yuki to chase him so much because he's really starting to annoy me now) and then there are a few cat fights here and there.

Ideally it should settle down in a couple of weeks. But it's so annoying while it's going on. What doesn't help is that our garden is a key piece of territory since it backs onto several others and is one of only 3 houses along here to have a side gate (which doesn't actually open but the cats don't care about that. They walk on the wall or squeeze under).

These things were so much easier when we had our own cat. Better still, when we had two cats. Henry was always pretty weak in regards to other cats. I think that's why he let Tabs in our garden. Tabs probably owned it. I miss seeing Tabs. After Henry died it was comforting when Tabs came to visit for some food and a saucer of milk. He was a stray so he was very cautious. We could never hold him and it took months before he was comfortable to come in the kitchen. He never ventured into the rest of the house and he was always so wary. You had to reach out very slowly to stroke him.

We think he had a pretty vast territory and visited several houses. Occasionally he came to ours but it wasn't a regular thing. I would have loved to keep him but mum wouldn't let me have another cat.
A few times we thought he might be dead. He had several injuries over time. The second to last time we saw him he had a swollen paw and was limping. We were sure he'd be dead soon after.

Sometime after that Tabs came back again but he looked quite different. He was very friendly with pretty glossy fur and most noticeably no balls. It seems that in that time he was away someone had taken him in and made him their pet. He let us hold him and stroke him and was perfectly happy in the kitchen. We haven't seen him since then. I think he was just visiting his old haunts out of habit.

Our cats were fixed when they were young so I never knew what a difference it made to a cat's personality.

I'd better shut up now.

Sorry for the long and random blog.

It's about 6:55am. I need to sleep.

Bluebiird out.