For a few days now, a young black cat has been appearing in our garden. He is in superb condition and has a collar holding a name tag, bell and magnet. He comes to the kitchen window and sits miaowing for the few microseconds it takes Blip to stomp over and check him out. What then happens is that he sits gazing adoringly up at Blip, who sits gazing impassively down at him. She does not, however, attack him (this is the height of compassion for Blip
).
Yesterday evening it was raining and the little chap turned up as usual, except this time he was very anxious to come in. We wondered if we should be worried about him and, prepared for a problem, opened the door. To our astonishment, Blip was pretty relaxed about his presence and he, it seems, just wanted to be with her - he didn't want to eat her food, certainly, although he did play with one of her catnip mice.
I picked him up, checked his collar and rang the number. Turns out his name is Oscar and he lives just around the corner, so his patch is also the back gardens in our square. He has a lovely human, was adopted via our vet and is just one year old. Blip was pretty relaxed about having him around for half an hour or so - I therefore imagine we'll be seeing more of him. I reckon he has a crush on Blip, perhaps because she looks like his mum.
PS yes, he is neutered and under the care of our wonderful vet (whose number is on his collar disc - a good idea if you have a disc?).
I just can't get over Blip's uncharacteristic indulgence towards the little chap - is it because he is barely more than a kitten, do you think?
(and please forgive the shameless anthropomorphism in this account
)
