Le chat noir

Well, I've finally managed to get Marlo to our place

As those of you who have been paying attention to the blog will know, I was supposed to collect Marlo on Thursday and take him to the vet for his little operation, before bringing him on home to The Sidings. The van scuppered that. Oh yes -- the van is now back from its sojourn at the mechanic; The Builder's wallet is lighter to the tune of £500. Sigh.

Anyway. The Builder met me at Waitrose after I finished work yesterday. We filled up our trolley (and, perforce, the car) with wine and beer and supplies and cat food. The car already had The Builder's large tool box in it, so there wasn't a whole lot of room for the cat and his accoutrements. We mosied on to Nethergreen to collect the cat, which, mercifully, was at home. He was absolutely delighted to see us, when we ambled in. As yet, he had no idea of his fate. Anyway, we gathered up his basket and cushion and food and litter tray and one tiny toy (I'm sure there should have been more toys) and popped him into the cat basket and loaded him and all his stuff into the poor, laden car (should we change its name from Vixen to Camel?). He mewed a couple of times as we walked to the car but stopped as soon as the car started to move. We heard not another peep from him until we got home.

We parked the car in the driveway when we got back. We don't ordinarily do this because you have to drive over the kerb to get into it (the kerb isn't dropped and it will cost upwards of £1000 to get it dropped, even if we get planning permission to do it -- which we might not because we are on a corner and have double yellow lines outside the house) and the available space is very tight and it's a bugger trying to get back out again. But there was lots and lots of stuff in the car, and some of the stuff was quite heavy. The Builder thinks access and egress might be easier if he knocks down part of the front wall. I think this is something to think about later! It's not as though we actually need a drive most of the time -- the car is quite happy parked down the road.

Marlo seemed quite interested in his whereabouts when we got the basket out of the car. He emerged from the basket into the kitchen somewhat cautiously. He explored the kitchen and the dining room and the cellar. Then he seemed to decide that, since these rooms contained his food, water, litter tray, basket, toy and lots of dust (the cellar, behind the wine rack), he didn't need to explore the rest of the house. Spent the evening moving a wee bit nervously from my lap to the floor to his cushion to The Builder's lap and back and staunchly resisted any attempt to introduce him to the rest of the house. . Seemed happy enough, though.

Then we went to bed, quite early; Marlo consented to being taken with us. Wasn't the most restful night I've ever had, however. The Builder got up sometime around 2 to go to the loo and tripped over the cat on the way back. This woke me up. I did go back to sleep, but only lightly. Every time the cat moved it woke me up! Fortunately, today is Saturday so there was no need to leap from the bed at 05:30!! And the cat seemed settled. Last seen by me, curled up on the bed, cuddled up to Freyja's pyjama dog Harry (who he always used to adore until I abruptly moved Harry out of the flat) sound asleep.

The Builder later reported that Marlo had moved. To under the doona on his side of the bed!!

I'm at work for another 2 hours. Then I am not coming back until 09:00 on Tuesday 5th September. Monday is a public holiday and the University is closed for reasons of its own on theTuesday. I'm taking the following Monday as Time off in Lieu. So I get Sunday to Monday week, inclusive, off for the grand total of 3 days annual leave :-)

I am expecting lots of interesting things to happen next week. Or perhaps I am just expecting lots of things to happen next week, some of which may well be interesting. Which ever, I shall try to keep you in touch!