In the Company of Cats

WestieBoy is outnumbered. His home has been invaded by a trio of felines. This is Dizzy. She’s quite hard to photograph as she wants to investigate the camera.

Her sister Dora is more reserved, and camera shy which makes her hard to photograph too. She likes to eat WestieBoy’s biscuits if she can.

WestieBoy does not frighten them, though they hiss at him if he gets too close or too boisterous. I think there’s a good chance of inter species friendship as they grow up, but that does not preclude toy jealousy. So here is WestieBoy with a toy mouse that belongs to his kitten siblings.

But the new matriarch on the block is Lily. She disapproves of the kittens, isn’t overkeen on WestieBoy but has established herself as a superior presence and exerts a subtle but determined control over her new humans. The iron fist in the velvet paw.

She has relocated from Belfast as my cousin Tom and his wife have just moved to a small house where the cats would be forced to socialise with their dog. This would not be happy. The dog has a number of issues and an uncertain temperament that make it hard to rehome him, and is how he ended up with Tom in the first place, so the cats have come to the country. Yes, cats, plural. Two adult cats made the journey down the motorway, but the other one has decided if she has to come and live in the country the nextdoor neighbour’s house is her preferred home.

Lily on the other hand has decided that she likes this home, these humans. No doubt she has plans to subjugate the other animals in time and then her position will be unassailable. Queen Lily.

 

Advertisement