Cat update

Just realised that we haven’t mentioned our feline friends for some time, so I thought we should give an update about Tara and Dolly’s antics.

When we moved to the house back in May 2004 we brought them with us and tried to keep them inside for a few days. This was very difficult as there was still so much work going on in and around the house, so during the day we tried taking them outside, away from the house, in a cat box. Unfortunately, one of them relieved themselves in the box, so we tried to get them out on their collar and leads to clean up the box. I held on to them while Lainie went to the house to get a bucket of water to wash the box out. Somewhere back in the house one of the workmen started shouting, his naturally deep booming voiced amplified by the bare walls inside. Tara, freaked and literally went berserk, she tried to run away, reached the end of the lead and then turned into the cat you may have seen on TV in a video clip. She was yowling, leaping into the air and spinning round on the lead. She only stopped leaping about when I allowed enough lead so she could climb into an olive tree where she cowered glaring and growling at everything around her. Dolly meanwhile did what she always does, she tried to copy her sister, but without the same fervour, thank goodness.

We managed to calm them down and kept them in for another day before letting them loose. That was a big worry, would they return? Yes, we were very relieved next day when two little faces appeared at the door. Naturally, as soon as there was any noise around the house Tara would cry and run full pelt to get away. As soon as she came indoors, she would cry to be fed and then if the doors were closed would set the most pitiful yowls that always sound as if she is saying “OOOOUUUT”.

We have had a few scares, once Tara went missing for 6 days and then returned as if nothing had happened looking well and not even hungry. After that amount of time we had given up hope of ever seeing her again, then anther time she went off again for 2 or3 days, but she seems to have settled now.

In mid December with the cooler evenings she began to hang around in the evenings after being fed. We put an old blanket over one of the chairs on the balcony and both began to sleep there. Then as the winter set in they decided that they would come in and sit with us in the evenings, finally deciding that it was even better if they stayed in all night.

Both slept in the bedroom with us, then in the morning after being fed they would go out into the garden. Tara would not reappear until then next evening but Dolly would be back after about an hour, have another quick snack and then dash back upstairs and bury herself under the bedclothes. She slept there until early evening when she would have another snack, a quick stroll in the garden, and then back to sleep on our laps until it was time for bed. Not bad being a cat is it?

Now the weather is getting hotter they have changed roles again, Dolly goes out for the day, sometime we only see her for her food in the evening, Tara sleeps with us and hangs around the house during the day. Both are much calmer now, they only get worried when we have visitors in the house.

One thing that still does worry them is a doorbell. If anyone rings our bell they both get very scared and either run out of the house or rush upstairs to hide in the bedroom. There are adverts on television and radio that both use the same bell chime as ours, when they hear this they react in the same way. One morning we had the front door open and Dolly was sitting in the doorway. The advert came on the radio, Dolly sat bolt upright and spun her head round looking inside and out. She was so confused, she knew the bell had something to do with the door but couldn’t work out why she was the only one at the door. After a minute of head spinning she finally decided that it was all too scary and ran off.