At Home on a Blustery Day

I hope everyone had a pleasant and contented Easter. Mine was good; I have another week off before I must return to work. I am feeling quite well, and should be able to put in a full day’s work next Monday. It will be but five weeks until my real holidays at that point; I am grateful for this fortnight during which to recover from my surgery, and I will be grateful for my holidays when they come.

The cats continue to be my main concern. Neville has been throwing up in the most inconvenient spots. I think that he is eating too much Recovery food. He likes it, but it may be too rich for him. I have taken him off that and put him on Fancy Feast; he likes it, though not as much as Recovery. I won’t mind if he doesn’t eat a great deal of it. He needs to lose weight. Besides, he has hard-food to keep him going, too.

Renn is doing all right. He isn’t eating as much as I would prefer, but he never has. He is sneezing much less now, and is getting over his cold.

Hector seems always untroubled in his health, knock on wood, though he too is dissatisfied with his menu: there’s simply not enough on it! That boy would eat constantly, if it were up to him.

Finally, Minuet: she is doing well, I am pleased to report. Though she has gone off her seniors’ soft-food entirely, she is eating rather more of the Recovery than had been the case. She isn’t consuming enough to make her sick, but it’s a good amount, and provides more nutrients per serving than other foods. It seems a coincidence that her renewed interest in that brand came when I bought a new case of it. Pet-food is probably not as consistent in its ingredients or production as it should be and, like Dr Jekyll’s transformation into Mr Hyde, a cat’s preference for a brand may depend on the accidental ingredients of one particular batch.

But Min is also eating a new kind of hard-food – expensive and available only from a veterinary, of course. I am loathe to laud too soon an interest in any new fare, as it may be due solely to its novelty. She is, however, eating it now, and that’s something.

Today is a very blustery day. The air should be warm, but is being chilled by the wind, and it will grow cooler at night. Madame, as you can see, is snug in her corner of the library, on her heated cat-towel, with a little heater warming her space. At dusk, she will don her pyjamas, which will add to her cosiness through the night.