Samson

This is Samson:
As a kitten, sunbathing outside his barn.

Having found a home, with Cheeky.

I'm afraid that no-one will ever get to met him, since he died on Friday morning. It turned out he had leukemia and his liver was in a really bad way. It was something of a shock since he'd seemed to be healthy until last week and it all happened so quickly.
He was only ten months old - one of the cats that I'd rescued from the barn near my mum's house. I'd brought him back home to get him used to being around people with the aim of finding him an adoptive home - I was going to post on this organisation's website - but he turned out to be such a sweet and gentle cat with the biggest paws -  with which he'd only ever pat at you gently - and so eager for company and love that the idea of letting him go had become very difficult. In the end, I had to give him up in the hardest way possible.

Not only am I devastated, but Cheeky has lost his best friend too, he's become very affectionate now his snuggling partner has gone and is curled up on my lap as I type this, purring.

While I'm here, and on a happier note, I'd like to make one more introduction. This little scamp is Mouse, the third cat I rescued, Cheeky and Samson's sister.

I think she's going to be hanging around now, since I can't bear to give her away anymore. From a quiet, shy, skinny puss, deserving of her name, she's turned into lively, loving little minx.

I suspect Cheeky's going to have his paws full keeping all four ladies in order.

Quite possibly the cheekiest puss in Asturias

Everyone, this is Cheeky. He's very pleased to make your acquaintance.





Oh, and don't let the appearance fool you, the name suits him perfectly.

Four-cat household

Yes, I have taken another step down the path to crazy-old-cat-womanhood. Although the lastest addition to my household may only be temporary. It depends on my will-power.

Anyway, the story goes something like this... In the village where my mum has a holiday home, there's a small black and white cat, that I have, over the last couple of years, been befriending. She has no permanent home but lived, I presume, in the outbuildings of a small-holding on the edge of the village - at least she always disappeard in that direction after I'd petted and fed her. She must've been given scraps of food, although no-one is ever there in the winter and hunting for food must've been difficult for her then.

I'd seen her pregnant several times, but never with kittens. It's a very sad fact that in rural Asturias controlling the feline population means drowning the offspring at birth. However, she must have realised I was a trustworthy, kind sort because this June she appeared with three kits in tow in the barn opposite my mum's house and has been there ever since.

This has posed me a great dilemma. What to do? I can't not feed them, the kittens are too young to hunt for survival and the mum too weary from looking after them. But then again, I don't want to have an ever-expanding population of cats on the doorstep, clamouring to be fed. On top of this, two of the little ones have come down with a bad cold. One, of them, who's completely ginger, is a suspicious fellow who won't let me near him. Helping him, beyond providing food, is currently impossible even though I'm desperate to take him to the vet's and get him well since he's in a really bad way and I'm dreadfully worried for him. I keep going up there to see if there's any chance of catching him, but no luck so far. His brother, however, a very cheeky ginger and white tom who'd previously enjoyed nibbling my hand and getting strokes, is much friendlier and I brought him back here instead of watching him go the way of his ginger sibling. (The third, one, a very pretty, mostly ginger female seems perfectly healthy at the moment.) He's currently in a spare bedroom with food aplenty and a comfy bed to sleep on and can't believe his luck. Beeps, Mahou and Elbi are aware that something's up but I'm keeping them separated until this little one is better.

There are organisations here who will help you neuter stray cats and look for adoptive homes. Once I've nursed as many as I can back to full health I'm going to see what I can do along those lines for the three kits. The mum is going to be spayed too, she's so tiny, the ginger kitten is almost as big as her already. She's too small to keep on having kits and I'm incapable of not being responsible and doing my part in keeping the unwanted cat population down. So, once that's done, do I let her stay where she is, where she's happy enough, although life is difficult at times, or, do I bring her back here? I watch my three on the terrace, rolling in the sun, content, and know that in the winter they'll enjoy snuggling in front of the fire and the answer seems a simple one. However, introducing an adult female cat to a household where there are alreay three adult females is going to be difficult, and I wonder if she'll be happier here or not for that reason. I can envisage power struggles with Mahou already. Do any cat lovers out there want to help me figure this one out?

One last thing, I'd include pictures if I could, the three little ones are adorable and I've caught them in some poses that would've made you go 'awwww'. However, my camera is still refusing to function so you'll just have to believe me when I tell you that they're damn cute.

Photofest

I haven't been taking many photos these last few months, but here are some of the few I did snap. Make the most of them becasue my camera seems to have given up its hold on life and no amount of persuading can get it to work -  believe me, I've tried.

Oviedo city council opt for the cheapest solution - Woody Allen, now completely devoid of glasses.

March skies and Redes mountains

March snow

Fruit from the garden. The berries and plums have all been scoffed and I'm about to make a start on the pears.

Feeding greedy sheep though the garden fence.

A neighbour's lambs

A different neighbour's donkey and a two-week old... erm, what's the word for a baby donkey? Donkette?

Still curious

And still friends

The forgiveness of cats

When we returned from our camping trip Elbi was there, waiting at the bottom of the drive for us. As soon as we appeared, she rolled on her back and and demanded strokes with a series of chirrups. It's comforting to know that after our ten days away she was still hanging about for us and became ecstatic the moment we arrived. Our absence was immediately forgotten and forgiveness has been easily earned over the course of last week with a series of stokes, tickles, scratches and cuddles that we were only too happy to bestow.

The other two were a different matter.

Beeps materialised from the garden about half an hour after we returned, gave a little meow of welcome, and then continued her adventuring. For several days afterwards she carried on with her own routine and we saw her every now and again. One evening, about four days after we got back, I was lying in bed when I heard the pad, pad, pad of a cat coming up the stairs and along the landing. The next thing I knew, a small, black, furry ball was curled up on the bed demanding to be stroked and purring as loud as she could. Tummy rubs ensued for half an hour and she would've had more had I not needed to go to sleep. She stayed on the bed all night, purring, only getting up when we did. After that, everything was alright again.

Being half-Siamese, Mahou is rather highly-strung and easily offended. We returned at about 4pm from our camping trip and at 11pm she'd still not appeared despite our calling and tapping her favourite food bowl. This happens every time we go away, be it for a couple of nights or a couple of weeks. However, it doesn't stop me worrying about her every time, even though I'm sure she does it on purpose - we have upset her by going away so she wants to make us suffer a little before magnanamously granting us the honour of her presence. At 12am Matt went out and called and she appeared straight away as if nothing had happened. After a good scoff she came and joined us in the bedroom and spent the next couple of nights snuggling in the crook of my legs.

It's good to be forgiven.

Tagging cats

Elbi here, but shhhh, keep the noise down. I've managed to swipe the computer from mum and hopefully she won't realise I'm here until I've got this tagging thing done. Lorenzo decided it was up to us to answer the questions. I wasn't going to bother until I saw how well Plumpy had responded and decided to give it a go. I've been nominated by the girls to answer for us all as Beeps is too scared to come near the computer and Mahou thinks it's beneath her.

Q1. Are you happy/ satisfied with your blog, with its content and look?

No, not at all! If I had more time and mum wouldn't notice I'd been fiddling with 'her' blog, I'd put up lots more pictures of me and the girls. I'm sure that would keep Plumpy happy. Mum thinks that people don't want to see photos of us all the time, but I say how can people not want to look at pictures of three gorgeous felines? I'm always rolling on my back to show mum how photogenic I am, but she rarely picks up the camera for me these days, a change of strategy is called for. Actually, while I'm here.....

Mum has been trained to tickle me just where I like it best. Anybody else is welcome to line up for a try, although first place in the queue is reserved for Plumpy.

One at a time boys, one at a time.

A fine figure of a puss.

See mum, that's how it's done - take note!

Q2. Does your family know about your blog?
Ahem, mum doesn't know I'm here now and dad'd go nuts if he saw me fiddling with the computer. Let's keep it between ourselves shall we?

Q3. Do you feel embarrassed to let your friends know about your blog or you just consider it as a private thing?
Embarassed? Of course not. Everybody knows, and everybody says how lovely we are, as expected.

Q4. Did blogs cause positive changes in your thoughts?
No, although we get lots of 'positive' comments from Plumpy.

Q5. Do you only open the blogs of those who comment on your blog or you love to go and discover more by yourself?

We're really too busy sleeping, eating, hunting and lazing on the terrace to look elsewhere. If other people want to make friends then they can come to us, but they must be willing to snuggle, or bring food.

Q6. What does visitors' counter mean to you? Do you care about putting in in your blog?

The more people who see how gorgeous we are, the better.

Q7. Did you try to imagine your fellow bloggers and give them real pictures?
We already know how handsome Plumpy and Scaredy are. I think they've been giving each other posing tips.

It's also good to know what Maalie looks like so we know who to scratch (Mahou)/run away from (me and Beeps) should he ever appear in this part of the world.

Q8. Do you think there is a real benefit for blogging?

But of course, how else is a girl get such adoration?

Q9. Do you think that bloggers' society is isolated from real world or interacts with events?
How can we be isolated? We tell Plumpy about our voles and he tells me about his birds, and we all commiserate with Scaredy about his trips to the v-e-t.

Q10. Does criticism annoy you or do you feel it's a normal thing?

What is there to critcise? We're perfect.

Q11. Do you fear some political blogs and avoid them?

The only politics we're interested in is who get to the food bowl first.

Q12. Did you get shocked by the arrest of some bloggers?

Has Maalie had Plumpy put away?! Help! He'll be after us next.

Q13. Did you think about what will happen to your blog after you die?
Well, as it's mum's blog I'm sure she'll try to soldier on valienty without us, as difficult as that will be, of course. I bet she'll put up lots of photos of us then, when it's too late. We want them now, everyone needs to see just how wonderful we are.

Q14. What do you like to hear? What's the song you might like to put a link to, in your blog?
We all like to hear the sound of a tin being opened; the keys to the loft being picked up so we can go and play in there and annoy mum when we won't come out after, when she wants to lock up; voles squeaking when we play with them; mum telling the dog next door to shut up...

We'd like a link to anything by Cat Power (hint, mum, hint!) or perhaps 'What's New Pussycat?' by Tom Jones.

I've decided not to tag anyone because, really, after reading this, what else is there?

A cat, a cart and an horreo

This afternoon was spent sawing wood. I never look forward to it, but as Matt always says, 'if we don't do it now, we'll be cold in the winter'. Put like that, I can't really say no. Once I'm sawing, however, I get into the swing of things and always stay longer than planned. It's enjoyable to be out in the fresh air, getting a bit of exercise and looking at a splendid view, all at the same time.

This is where we store and saw all our firewood:

It's an horreo, a traditional Asturian, rodent-proof grain storage. You can see them all over the region. They're now protected as several years ago Asturians were in the habit of 'accidentally' knocking them over with their tractor so as to let more light into their house. Matt says he remembers similar structures in Kent when he was a young, and rather mischievous, lad.

I always have company when I'm sawing. I may head up there alone, but sooner or later Elbi, Mahou or Beeps, or all three of them, will come and join me. Today I was honoured with Beeps's presence.

Eyeing up a mushroom

On the horreo steps

On the old cart we use as a sawing horse

And even when you think she's not watching, she often still is:

Keeping an eye on me from the next-door chapel roof

I was rather surprised she was hanging around as we'd just given her her monthly flea-worm treatment which is comprised of a simple, but very pricey, pipette squirted onto the back of her neck. The other two get cheaper tablets and pipettes, but giving tablets to our smallest cat is impossible, anyone would think she were fighting for her life when we tried. We've given up with tablets as we were heartily fed up with being scratched and even bitten. As it is, one of us still has to sneak up on her, gently, but firmly grab her, wrap her in a blanket and hold her neck straight while the other one does the squirting. All as quickly as possible, as she still puts up a fight - claws out and teeth bared. She wasn't a pleased puss after we let her go but from the looks of it all was forgiven fairly quickly.

And finally, here is our lovely, growing woodpile which will keep us warm and snug this winter.

We finally see the light, but the cats get a little confused

I forgot to mention in my previous post the building work that had been done on our house this last week. It was nothing major, but it has made all the difference. We had a new front door fitted. One with glass in it, lots of glass. The old front door was a wooden affair. It was so old and badly fitted that it let in lots of drafts. For more than a year we had cardboard and old carpet stapled to it in an effort to keep out cold winds. But no more, the horrid old door has gone and we have this to replace it:

Not only does it mean the house will be warmer in the colder months, but that we get a significantly increased amount of light into the house which I'm still getting used to. The first thing I did when the door was fitted was to get myself one of these:

I love having plants in the house and was quite upset at having to give all mine away when I left Wales, including a rather splendid dracaena. We hadn't had the light or space for plants up until now.

I used to have one of the above in Cardiff, and I loved it dearly, but it grew too tall for the rental house I was in so I gave into the caring hands of my mum, who promptly threw it away when she moved house - no mum, I've not forgotten! So I seized the opportunity to get myself another one. It can grow as tall as it likes where it is on the stairs and I'm hoping it does. I always find a house with plants in it to be much more welcoming.

The only members of the household who aren't too pleased with the new arrangement are the cats. They used to have their cat flap in the old door, so Matt has had to adapt a ventilation hole in the kitchen to give them their own tunnel leading through the stonework to the flap which gives onto the terrace. The tunnel had been prepared two weeks previously to cause the least amount of confusion as possible. Matt checked on the size of the hole by picking up Elbi - who's always happy to oblige, and also the fattest of the three - and shoving her ever so gently, but firmly, through the hole. After discovering that the fat cat would fit through we left the tunnel open for investigation before closing it off until we put the door in.

Cats are conservative creatures and our decision to change the door, and so the position of the flap, has not been welcomed as enthusiastically as we had hoped. Never mind that they will be much snugger in winter, our three felines are not happy at having had their own front door moved, despite our careful planning. They will now often sit by the new door and look in or out and sniff to see what's happened. Only then, when they've checked that the flap hasn't reappeared in its proper place will they resort to using the new entrance. We have only just been forgiven by Mahou, always the grumpiest of the three, who has spent most of the last two days outside, away from the house, in protest. This morning, however, she jumped on the bed with a chirrup before snuggling against my leg and purring gently, which I'm very grateful for.

Summertime, and the living is easy...

Well, it has to be when it's this hot. The forecast is giving it to be 37 degrees today and for once, it's not wrong. It was possibly hotter on our terrace today at lunchtime and we ate inside for the first time in ages. Phew.

Seeing as it's too hot for us to have done anything of much interest I thought I'd post a selection of photos I like, taken during the last couple of weeks or so.

A flower from what we think is an ajo-puerro (garlic-leek). They grow in our garden every year without us doing anything to them. Even if we pull them up they still reappear the following year, although we tend to leave them so we can enjoy the flowers.

Moonrise over the mountains. We've caught a few of these recently as it's now hot enough to eat dinner outside, and we take full advatage.

How to spot a black cat on a dark night.

Three of the luckiest cats in Asturias, on the terrace in the cooler evening weather.

And finally, this is where I'm hoping to laze tomorrow, joined by a good book, a glass of something cool and refreshing and maybe a cat, if I'm lucky.

Three excuses for a cat

We went camping last week while Sue and Simon were visiting (more about that in my next post) and our cats made sure we had a welcome present to come home to, although we didn't find it until yesterday evening. A live mouse. In the pantry. Somebody must've brought it in and then got tired of playing with it (this is Elbi's style and I suspect she was the culprit). It seems it was very soon allowed to make itself at home in the brown rice and, as we were greatly disappointed to discover, also nibbled on our only bar of favourite Lidl chocolate. Just what our three felines were doing while the mouse was living it up I have no idea but they certainly weren't earning their keep.

The first thing we knew about it was when Matt saw it climbing up to the top shelf in the pantry yesterday evening and it was left to me to don gloves and get the step ladder to find the little beast. Matt's solution of putting Beeps up there failed miserably when all she did was sit and gaze down upon us from her new throne. Fortunately the mouse had scurried into an old box we kept up there so it was just a matter of taking the box outside and releasing it.

While I've been writing this Matt called up from the lounge to declare there's a vole hiding under the fire. No-one would ever know this was a three-cat household! They're hopeless. It's hidden itself under there somwhere but we can't see it. Elbi, however, as you can see, has taken it upon herself to make up for her earlier mousey misdemeanours.

When the sun comes out

Yesterday morning, while it was raining, our cats were cavorting around outside. In the afternoon the sun came out, and this is where I found all three of them.

Pavlov's cat?

I've been giving Mahou her daily tablet, as always, crushed in the mortar and mixed with some tinned food. I always thought that she scoffed the lot because she was used to the dried stuff and the tinned food was so tasty. Ha, more fool me. She gave me her second surprise of the week. (The first one is here.)

I put the tablet in the mortar this morning, went to look for a tin of food and returned to find Mahou crunching on her medicine. I gave her some canned food aferwards, just in case. I still want her to associate tablets with getting a treat, although I may try offering the tablet on its own tomorrow - it solves the problem of what to do with Elbi and Beeps when Mahou is eating. I had to shut Elbi in the lounge the other day to stop her from getting at the bowl and she screamed blue murder, the greedy little scamp. Now everyone'll be happy.

Puds, bugs and flowers

Some photos I've taken this week:

We went for a walk up by the lakes behind the house one morning. Everything seemed to be flowering.

There are many different types of orchid in Asturias - these seem to be the most common.

Wonderful, large dog daisies.

We get lots of foxgloves around here too. Something I very rarely saw in the British countryside.

The lakes were covered with a mist that was blowing down the valley. If you watched for long enough, it seemed that it was the mountain moving, not the mist.

The mist cleared later and the horses appeared for a drink, as if they'd been waiting for that exact moment.

On the way back we stopped to give some dandelion leaves to the neighbours young hens.




Back home, our roses are flowering.



Beetles are common round here too - big ones - this is about medium-sized by our standards.



And finally, two very good friends dozing on the terrace.