Love is ever hopeful

Poor Sammy – he persists in continuing his love call to the lovely, but now spayed, Marguerite. He sits at the back door night after night only to be rudely rebuffed. He calls to her she repays him by rushing the door and swatting him through the screen. I ask you though, who could resist this face?

The curmudgeon and the terror

Anyone who knows us well knows that somehow stray cats know to come to our house for rescue. We currently have two rather moth eaten toms who make their home in our backyard. Then in early May we noticed a youngish looking longhaired calico who occasionally flitted in and out of yard to eat some of the boys food. We just assumed that she belonged to someone as we had other moochers come by and partake of the dry food we left out for the boys. However, we began to notice she seemed to be ravenous all the time and came to the conclusion that she did not belong to anyone. In early May we decided we needed to do something about her. She had already had one litter of kittens and was showing clear signs of being in heat again. We were able to snatch her and have her spayed. During her recuperative phase she remained indoors but my intention was to turn her into an indoor/outdoor cat as we have a very old (22yrs) cat already indoors and I knew she would not appreciate a new cat being in the house My husband had other plans and so Marguerite has remained indoors with us. Tilly, the other cat is not amused by the newbie. Tilly can sulk rather effectively around the house and rather ungraciously growls at the new cat and generally goes out of her way to show just how displeased she is. Being set in her ways she would just as soon that this new, loud animal of elephantine habits would disappear. Marguerite, not to be outdone in the surly department, has the lovely little habit of lunging at one both front paws fully extended in a sort of an Mountain lionfish type of lunge. Her claws are fully extended and she does not attack with a light paw. Little wonder then that Tilly is so curmudgeonish around Marguerite. Tilly mainly growls at the newb and then vacates her immediate vicinity as she does not want to play the role of hapless victim. Last night though Tilly finally got her own back. She, my husband and I were all lying on the bed reading while the terror aka Marguerite was providing her own entertainment on the floor, darting in and out beneath the dresser, rooting around in the baskets I have set out for books and magazines and just generally having a good time. Tilly, in a very stately way slowly made her way down the cat stairs next to our bed. We had thought she was perhaps going to go get a drink of water or perhaps snack on a few kibbles. This, however, was not her plan. She waited until the little one was halfway beneath the dresser chasing yet another dust bunny when WHAM, Tilly plants a paw right across the backside of poor Marguerite. Marguerite somehow does a flip out from underneath the dresser with a most shocked expression on her face. Tilly, being a wise one immediately fled the scene.