The other day I woke, got up and went into the bathroom to find a little mouse in the bath - it couldn’t get out. Then I noticed that there was a cat on the windowsill outside sheltering from the rain so I opened the window wished our old cat Artemis good morning and suggested that she should deal with the mouse. She looked at the mouse,lifted and turned her head, jumped down into the room on her arthritic back legs and stalked off towards the kitchen. She was quickly followed one-year old brother and sister Orestes and Electra - both excellent mousers. But they were not interested and taking up similar poses in the window lifted their tales and sallied forth towards the kitchen. You could almost here them “No thanks. We prefer Whiskas”.
Breakfast time - Whiskas or Felix?
Their arrival for food in the morning is always testing. Ori and Eli eat from their own and then the other’s bowl, changing once or twice as if the other’s food is better. The fact that Eli eats faster and gets more that way, may have something to do with it! Matriarch Artemis is used to a few bits of chicken liver to make her day go well - and is happy to wait for the rapid cooking process. Ori who wants to be very grown up is not so patient and waits rather closely behind her as she eats - hoping to get leftovers. They like variety. Best of all - they like to eat the same things as we do. They smell a chicken roasting and that’s when they want to eat it - when we are sitting enjoying it- not in two days time.
This whole morning rigmarole takes much longer than it should. Somehow early on in the proceedings I’ve managed to turn the coffee machine on - but it may be sometime before I get to make a cup.
I didn’t grow up with any pets - my parents had a cat later in retirement which was very much part of their life but when we were young we just enjoyed other peoples animals. My sister’s love of horses made up for the rest of us! Peter’s family had always had a Lakeland terrier but it was clear from early days that Peter was secret cat person when other people’s cats would pick his lap out for a snuggle.
When Peter and I married we were busy working people and had no time for dogs or cats. We ha to be ready to head off for work or holidays without complications. Much later, when we had bought Brel and the renovations were under way, we were surprised when a cat found us.
Kate found a kitten in the ditch going down the drive. She was tiny and had got caught up in some electric flex - presumably mum and the other kittens had abandoned her. This small frightened animal was coaxed over days to take food from us - to be disentangled from the flex - and to find a home in the big barn. Kate and Michael shared feeding duties when we weren’t around and I remember the delight when Penelope as Peter named her, walked up to the courtyard and ate some food in the kitchen. We were smitten.
A year later we got Artemis from the local cat rescue centre. She had been found tiny and abandoned by the side of the road - thrown out because she was unlucky black.
The two cats never got on. They hung out in different parts of the garden and barns. But they would hear the car when we arrived from being away and run up the drive from their various haunts to be at the kitchen door to greet us.
You go your way … I’ll go mine.
The two cats have been part of the Brel experience enjoying the extra attention from our young musical guests. Artemis is always keen to be part of the audience at concerts where Penelope would find somewhere to hide from the music. What company they have been for all of us over the years.
The new kittens seemed tiny.
Last year Penelope got a malignant growth on her face which grew and we said a sad farewell. A chance enquiry to my friend Barbara resulted in the arrival of two little kittens about two days before our first musical group in 2019 - brother and sister. We called them Orestes and Electra to continue the Greek naming tradition. Peter prefers to call them by their full names but they don’t respond. Call “ori-n-eli’ and shake a food pouch and they are there in two twos.
Getting to know the territory……
A well earned zizz ……
Peter and I fell in love with the two little bundles of fluff - although Artemis had reservations. Now, nearly a year after their arrival, there is a tentative entente cordiale. The energy of the little cats is amazing - they rush off together, almost fly up the trees in the orchard and run round the property madly. They find mice every day - most of them presented in the kitchen as presents for us. They often work as a team when they find a mouse - moving in for the kill from both sides - almost like a miniature bullfight. Cruel but with a ballet-like grace.
They live outside and have pleasant quarters in the garden room but it’s not at all clear whether that’s where they hang out. The big barn offers opportunities for adventure and the lavender labyrinth is a good hidy hole. There are other wild cats out there on the hill that they need to contend with.
They have certainly enjoyed lockdown as we have been here for a long time without mysteriously heading off somewhere else and leaving them to be looked after outside with no access to the house. They clearly love the summer. They both try to help with gardening although their efforts at planting and weeding usually means making a useful hole. Eli’s technique of leaping on to my back when bent over can be disconcerting.
Enjoying the spring sunshine in lockdown
As they grow up their cat independence grows too but they still like a cuddle and Ori’s technique of running from one end of the kitchen straight on to your lap is carried out like an Olympic sport.
Most important, they make us laugh. They are part of the Brel family and we love them.
As I publish this blog Eli has been off on her first big adventure. We have not seen her for 5 days but we hope that she comes home soon - so does Ori.