Paws for thought.

Cats feet are a beautiful creation of nature. Five little islands, nestled in a sea of fur. All are different, like fingerprints, but all uniquely gorgeous.

The Effervescent Eight are good examples of Mother Nature's design. Feelix is a typical ginger, with white fur & pink pads; being a tabby Gizzy has an assortment of pink & black pads intermingled into delicate little feet. Spike, well he has what we lovingly refer to as ETH (Excess Toe Hair); during the warmer months this does not cause any problems but when there is snow about it's another matter. If he stays out for any length of time when the good old white stuff is on the ground then he ends up coming in with snow shoes on! Wednesday is the complete opposite, with petite little feet and long toes. Her little party piece is for my daughter to pick her up in one hand and get her to stretch out her delicate little front legs with the other hand as though she is waving. Jake is another with beautiful long black legs & toes but he hides an impressive set of fisherman's hooks on the end that I try not to argue with. Midge & Lunar both have little compact feet and then there's Oscar. Oscar is not a huge cat but has a very heavy footfall and we always hear him before we see him. And his toes are the most hilarious of all ours cats because his are what we call tings! What on earth are tings I hear you say? Tings are toes that suddenly flair out from the centre of the foot, like a flower suddenly in bloom, or the sun coming out. He does this at will when he's cleaning himself, displaying web-like membranes between the toes as though he's a frog. We have had him over five years now and this NEVER fails to bring a smile to our faces. Oscar just looks at us like we're mad (well, maybe we are!).

The most beautiful little feet that ever graced The Safe Haven belonged to Hazel and you would have to go a long way to beat these. RIP Auntie Bint xxx

Excuse me, who owns the damn sofa???

Well apparently, not me! A couple of years ago we were offered the chance of 2 black leather sofas for the healthy price of £100.00. With eight cats in the house, we were finding a fabric suite tiresome as we were forever removing cat hair from the fabric so decided that a leather option would be so much easier. It immediately became obvious that this was a clever purchase as leather wipes remove dirty footprints & any other "feline indiscretions" in the blink of an eye.

The problem is, The Effervescent Eight have claimed said furniture as their own. I am currently secreted in the corner of the two-seater with Feelix who is making full use of a whole seat to himself. As for space on the three-seater - forget it!!!! There are 5 little furry bodies taking up every available inch of the seating. From left to right, Lunar is sleeping on her head with a paw curled around her face; Oscar is laying on the sleeping bag content in the knowledge that his big brother will look after him; "big brother" is Spike who is completely out for the count next to Oscar; next to him is Wednesday, a little under the weather with a head cold & is struggling with a blocked nose and finally Princess Gizzy who is keeping royally aloof at the other end of the sofa.

As a final note, I've just noticed that Oscar's feet are twitching in his sleep - this is a sign that he is happy & dreaming of being a "big cat on the plains" (basically a small cat in a garden) but we'll keep humouring him. I watch my beloved cats and wish that all cats in the world could be as happy. I can keep wishing .....

The fine art of pandering.

I have always been a panderer to others' needs. When my daughter Kirsten was little, Barbies were her thing in a big way. When the manufacturers brought out a trio of gorgeous Barbie Mermaids I was quickly informed that they were a "must have" item so promptly went out and bought the pink & purple dolls but that third Barbie decided that she would elude me for as long as possible. This simply was not acceptable in a little girl's eyes and my nemesis was finally tracked down and purchased in a small toy shop in Norwich. The look on Kirsten's face when she had the complete set was priceless and that made it all worthwhile; I just like to make people happy.

This rule also applies to my cats (strange that, eh?). Back in 1989, when Kevan and I got out first flat together my new kitchen was perfectly colour coordinated with red accessories which included a large flat-topped bin. At the time, the lid had no significance but once Frodo and then Basil joined our family it became evident that the bin now had dual purpose - both as a receptacle for rubbish and as a platform for little furry bottoms. Basil had worked out that sitting on the bin gave a much-improved view of items on the worktops. At the same time this clever little cat taught himself to beg (yes, beg!) when he wanted something and sitting on the bin, begging at the front door was his way of letting me know he wanted to go out. Clever eh? In 1994, when we moved to Kingston Road I committed a carnal sin - I bought a new bin! This proved uneventful until we took on Spike. Spike is a sweetheart but not, how can I put this nicely, the sharpest knife in the drawer. The bin I had purchased..... was a swing lid version and on jumping onto the top, Spike promptly fell straight in! After much scrabbling & hysteria, he got out again but I now knew this model was not practical for us & had to go out and get another flat lid one.

And this brings me on to my most recent "pandering" purchase - a laundry basket. Two of our boys, Jacob and Oscar, do not get on. Jake was here first but is a neurotic black half-siamese boy who would not say boo to a goose. Oscar on the other hand is a robust confident ginger lad with the heaviest foot fall I have ever heard; you will always hear Oscar before you see him. The tension between these two makes life difficult at home sometimes and Jake retreats to the bathroom where he sits on the laundry basket. Over the years the basket has had a lot of use and it had become rickety so I look the lid off, forgetting that Jake liked to hide there. Yesterday I made it my mission to purchase a new one. My two criteria points were one, it needed to fit into the small corner of our bathroom near the sink and two, it must have a good lid for Jake to sit on. Luckily the first shop that I went into had a great selection and a lovely bamboo curved basket left the shop with me. As I got into the car, I had a thought. "That lid looks rather hard for a cat to sleep on" so I suddenly found myself in the shop next door looking through their pet beds. One giraffe-skin patterned bed later I rushed home with my goodies and took them into the bathroom. The bin fit perfectly and after laying the bed on the top, I watched a certain black cat's reaction. He got straight onto the top, turning around & around as he acclimatised himself then he turned and looked at me with his eyes slanted and appeared to be almost smiling. At this point a loud purring noise ensued and I knew he was happy.

All the money in the world could not pay for these precious moments (though on this occasion £24.98 did!!).