Brave Mountaineer

My oldster, Neville, still can surprise me from time to time. He is diabetic - with insulin having little effect on his condition - and hyperthyroidic. He’s overweight and doesn’t groom himself enough, and he’s sixteen years old. But he still has a few tricks up his furry sleeve.

For a few days last week, he had been showing an interest in the bedroom, with which he had not bothered much before. He would make as if to enter, and stand on the threshold, looking in.

Then one day, I came in to see him up on Minuet’s cat-tree at the window. More than that, he was at the top and actually had a foot on the narrow window ledge, and was peering out. His balance on a solid, level floor isn’t always good, and Min’s tree has smaller platforms to accommodate more of them for less distance between, so, worrying about him falling, I started to go in to help him. But he was, this time at least, capable of descending on his own, as he had been ascending. It was only when I observed this that I paused to take pictures.

I think Nev was curious as to what could be seen through the bedroom’s small window, rather like the one that he enjoys in the cat-room. Whatever the reason, he has demonstrated that there is still life and verve in his old, often slow body, and appropriately feline interest remaining in that sharp, frequently opinionated mind. The Nevsky can still surprise even those who know him.