look what Fate brought us

In the absence of any great progress with either of the houses, and no conclusive news about our local government's Flood defences cock-ups, I thought I might as well breathe a bit of fresh air into the blog, and share our delight in the new addition to our household.

Potok, I, and a builder were driving through a forest miles from any human habitation when something small and furry crossed the tarmac, making us screech to a halt. The macho builder immediately opened his door and ran to get it. And this is it: a tiny baby kitten, which I of course couldn't leave there - it was looking pathetic, it was shaking and I suppose it wouldn't have survived for much longer. Someone must have dumped it there as I don't see how it could have wandered off so far, let alone not have been eaten by the martens or foxes or one of the many birds of prey that live here.

Well, life is pretty complicated this year for us, and even such a small addition adds a lot to it nevertheless. Luckily the kitten is a survivor: she quickly learned how to lap up kitten milk from a saucer, soon understood about the dirt box, and already by the second day she was playing around with everything and anything. But we worried about our resident 3year old cat: would he accept this little intruder?

Wasn't easy at first! When he came in during the night as he always does, just before dawn, he found the kitten sleeping on our bed - well, HIS bed as far as he was concerned. After some low growling, he left, disgusted. But a few days later they were friends - due to the kitten's persistence in initiating the friendship. Well, now there's a lot of hide and seek, chases and rough play going around now (so much so that I sometimes wonder how the kitten survives), but as you can see, the older one is probably quite pleased to have his little friend - even though he still prefers to be out and about most of the time.The rest of the time, then, the kitten takes up MY time - it's hard to get anything done with this small being needing so much play and attention. Even now she's curled up on my lap as I write. But at least, for the moment now, I don't have to leap about playing games with her, like I am asked to do at any time when she is not sleeping.