‘Our’ little black cat

So this summer our neighbours (and good friends) went to France for a month with their kids. Husband and I therefore became the proud pseudo parents of two cats: an elderly black one we call Pushkin & a skittish, skinny ginger one we call Harry-Cat (maybe he reminds us of a certain member of the Royal family?) Pushkin came to live with us; we put food outside for Harry-Cat because his home situation is a little more complicated. Let’s just say that he wants to live with our neighbours but technically belongs somewhere else.

We have learnt some new skills this summer, not least that we are not ready financially or otherwise to become parents. Other new found talents include ignoring a batting to the shoulder every few minutes from 5am; cleaning up vomit; persuading something to eat when it really doesn’t want to; catching kitties who don’t want to take their medicine & administering 3 separate tablets with the aid of a tool which looks suspiciously like a pea shooter. We have also learnt that emergency trips to the vets in a taxi with a cat cost more than a normal trip, despite what our neighbours told us; that an ill cat usually but not always has the decency to get off the sofa before he is sick but will not make it outside & will favour the same part of the hallway each time; that raw chicken is yummed up every time & food in jelly is preferable to that in gravy.

We have also realised how much we enjoy the company of a cat & how working at home is less lonely with a furry friend curled up beside me on the sofa (although working is harder if he insists on poking me until I let him sit on my lap & then refuses to remove his tail from my keyboard).

His owners return home at the end of this week: summer is over & the children are returning to school. Our summer of pseudo parenthood is coming to a close, and we shall miss him when he leaves us.

Top photos: in bed.

Bottom photos: Preventing me from working & then preventing Husband from eating his yoghurt (please excuse the mess in the background: my sister was staying & that chair became a dumping ground. On top is the bear Husband won by guessing that his name was Trevor. We don’t know what to do with him now though, and he is bigger than the cat).

{All photos by me & Husband. Please excuse the quality as they were snapped on our BlackBerrys}