Of Crocks And Cats

For a place that only ever had the odd cat for many years we now seem to be ruled by them!  After we lost our adored tabby Arti to old age some years ago we were cat-less for quite a long time before Crabapple the young Birman arrived. A few years later we adopted the tabby kitten who became Leonardo.  This year the wild black kitten who subsequently came to be called Tabitha arrived and now hot on her heels is another wild kitten, a little tabby we have named Rafael.  It's so intriguing to me that in a place where we never had a wild kitten that I know of for decades that we should suddenly get two the same year and within weeks of each other.  Hmmm, where are these kittens coming from?  We have no idea.

A new neighbour has a beautiful, rather large, short-haired white cat that we often see and a pretty, fluffy,  half-grown gray kitten with white paws  who often follows it.  They often walk down our high wooden fence or cross onto our roofs but they never seem to get into conflict with our own fur babies

At the door there is the old concrete cat.  She was made quite a few years ago now by a local gentleman who made concrete animals and sold them to make some money on the side.  The moss is becoming firmly established all over her. It is quite intriguing to see the moss growing in the concrete.  The stone cat sits beside two antique crocks that were once used for pickling and fermenting and an old stone jar.  They're glazed though so there's no moss on them.

Since Leonardo arrived the rat and mouse population seems to have plummeted.  While Crabapple prefers to lie around all day Leonardo likes to go out hunting for rodents.  Sometimes Tabitha tags along with him so it seems we will soon have two cats to drive the rats and mice away - a good thing in my book, given we have hens, walnuts and compost heaps - some of the things they are most attracted to.