Happily Ever After

Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running

Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.

Pusses And Poetry

by Russell Turner - 18:43 on 13 January 2016

Cats know who's the soft touch inside The Rural Retreat.

Our regular 6am alarm call is Maia demanding she be fed immediately, and thanks to Matchgirl she usually is. But things change when The Big Softie is away in Shetland.

For the past three days I've been in charge of feline breakfasts, and for the past three days I've enjoyed lie-ins until at least 8am. From Maia there's been barely a peep.

So does Maia think I'm harder-hearted? Is she scared of me? (Her demand for my lap suggests otherwise, although her preference to sleep downstairs is a little worrying.) Or is Matchgirl too sensitive to caterwauling cats? I couldn't possibly comment.

The Black Isle Writers were back in action today. As I had nothing new to present, yesterday morning I made the bold decision to try some poetry – a sonnet, no less, as I fancied something with a set structure. Strangely, the feline world became involved in that too.

A tangled heap of limbs, a buried nose,
One open eye alert for those who dare.
A careless sound brings end to sweet repose,
Our heroine slips softly from her lair.
A silken shadow slinks across the night,
On silent paws she steals toward her goal.
This warrior queen is eager for the fight,
No mercy will contaminate her soul.
A patient pause, her prey exposed at last.
Instinct is all. The queen prepares to rise.
A reckoning. A leap. Her jaws close fast.
Triumphantly she gorges on her prize.
“You’re up then, lazybones,” she hears him say.
The cat, her supper done, just walks away.

Mechanical Update: Matchgirl has received a revised bill for the work on Agent Cooper – around £600 less than she was first quoted. As a result, her darling Mini has won a reprieve. However, the search for his successor continues. It's only cats that are guaranteed to spend all their days at the Retreat.

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