http://www.felinefunny.com Bluebell’s Story : Page 1 (Hold mouse over small images to view larger image) Following Salie’s death we had moved home. My wife didn’t think she could go through the emotional trauma of losing another cat in due course so again we never set about owning a new furry friend. But Bluebell had other ideas! It was 2005 and having moved home the garden needed some major tidying up and, whilst the wife dealt with issue indoors, I found myself having many hours in the company of a garden fork, lots of grateful blackbirds and curious robins. The odd cat would pass through but none made a point of stopping. But then, in May, I had a visitor. Every day this lovely clean black and white cat with the most magnificent whiskers would come and see me. It wasn’t seeking food but craved attention. I soon became conscious that my new furry friend was spending more and more time with me and in the area in and around our garden. The cat had no collar but due to it’s good condition I was sure it had an owner. At first I wasn’t concerned as it appeared to return home at the end of every day and come back the next day. However, I soon found out this wasn’t always the case. Every time I went out in the garden it appeared. I soon realised it was regularly sleeping underneath an area of raised decking we have. More and more it would spend the day in our garden. Sitting on the shed roof, keeping an eye on it’s newly adopted territory. Lounging on the decking in the sun. Doing “roly-polys” on the grass. Wandering into the conservatory and nosing around the rest of the house as if it owned it. Then, one day, it decided - “I’m staying here!”. It was a foul evening, windy and chucking it down with rain. As had become customary the cat had had it’s evening wander around the house and I went to let it out to go home. It simply wasn’t doing anything of the sort. It sat on the back doorstep, looked at the pouring rain, turned round and walked back in. It new exactly where it was going. It went straight into our porch, laid down and went to sleep. This is where cats have humans exactly where they want them. Firmly under their paw! This is a cat that knew full well we wouldn’t chuck it out in the pouring rain. It had achieved its aim of it’s first night of accommodation. The next day it clearly went home during the day but would it go home at night..... would it heck! It had learned to climb in and out of our high conservatory window. I put it out it came back in, I shut all windows and doors and it either just sat at the back door or did the “I’m homeless act” and went under the decking. So it stayed again! We weren’t just going to steal somebody else’s cat so I had to try and find the owner. Easier said than done when you live in an urban area but we did have a rough idea of direction. Shortly after we moved here we had walked past a black and white cat on the pavement up the road from us. As we passed it had made a point of making us stop by doing roly-poly’s to get a tummy rub. I had a feeling it had to be the same cat so I started door to door enquiries in that area. Eventually I knocked on the door of an elderly lady who at first said she was looking after a cat for her neighbour who was away. Initially, although this was a black and white cat, she dismissed the idea that it had been the cat that had adopted our home as it had still been staying with her. But as I went to walk away I think she realised that “staying with her” actually meant “popping back in for food and going back out again”. Giving it some further thought she had to admit she had seen very little of the cat. In the circumstances as we had a new lodger who refused to leave and as the owner was away I gave the lady our phone number and address for the owner on her return. We had to give it a little food now as it was clear it wasn’t eating all it’s meals at it’s cat sitter’s home and to wait for the owner’s return. To be continued............   Made with Xara Web Designer