Hillfoot House

Woo.  LONG pause which I was blaming unfairly on a combination of BT’s inefficiency and the failure of 18th century builders to think of how wi-fi would work… turns out it was my laptop which was on its last legs.  I am now fully equipped with a new laptop, and am steadily trying my hardest to move files/photos/bookmarks from the old one to the new one: not easy when old laptop hates connecting to wi-fi!

In the intervening few weeks we have finished the girls’ bedrooms and today the decorator has finished the sitting room.  But as ever we are far more interested in the cats.  So today I am going to pick a few of the photos of cats from the last few weeks and show them instead.

Lots of people have asked how the two resident cats have coped with the arrival of two new cats and a whole new family of people and their furniture.  We’ve been amazed, frankly. We seem to have had very little blood: quite a bit of bad language, and a few flapping paws, but no outright fights.  There’s been quite a lot of territory carving.  Charlie owns the dining room table; Merlot owns Caroline’s bed; Cleo owns Liz’s bed; and Rose owns most of the rest of the house. Our bed is still no-mans-land with Charlie and Cleo dominant but Rose making inroads.

Rose (spelt Rosé, as in the wine, but largely pronounced Rosie as it sounds less pretentious) is the one whose opinion matters most.  She purrs very loudly indeed when she has got her own way and is the only cat of the four to jump up and sit on laps.  She’s hugely pretty, very clever, and has the most enormous eyes.

Rose being very cute

She likes to make sure she is fully aware of who is where at any given time: she counts us all in and out, and checks the girls’ boyfriends in too. She is permanently convinced that, without her supervision, I would be unable to find the food and bowls for their breakfast. If a cat could hold a clipboard and a handbag, that would be Rose!

Rose looking gorgeous

Meanwhile, Charlie, the James Bond of cats, languidly works his way round the house, quietly astonished by Rose’s determined attempts at overall dominance.  He is a large cat, and hasn’t really ever thought about it before: think of hefty rugby players who don’t have an aggressive bone in their bodies but who find that everyone offers submission to them.

Rose and Charlie eating

Cleo tends to lurk, mostly in Liz’s bedroom but sometimes in ours.  She is uncomfortable with sharing space with everyone else and is always dominated by Charlie.  Every so often she tries to sniff Rose, particularly when Rose is sleeping on the wicker chair: but this usually goes horribly wrong. Cleo then runs for cover. Of the four cats, she is the only one who still wants to use the indoor litter tray even when the doors are all open to the garden (very annoying!)

Cleo on wall

Merlot, youngest of the cats and least complicated, is a simple soul.  He is completely and totally in love with Caroline and sleeps on her bed all night.  He’s not sure about the rest of us and so far hasn’t purred for anyone else: but for Caroline he purrs incessantly. He chats a lot, and comes into our room at night to talk to us.

Merlot on Caroline’s bed

Generally, though, they are all being very good with one another.  They accept that each has a right to be there, and there has been no ganging up or taking of sides.  A couple of other cats have strayed into the garden at times, and they have been seen off very quickly: but other than a few harsh words at times, there has been little aggression here.  At night all four are kept in: so far I think there have only been half a dozen occasions when one or more cats have failed to come in when called.  We haven’t ever had to get up in the night to break up any fights (or been startled from sleep!)  Here they are on the patio (newly laid) outside the kitchen door.

Charlie, Cleo and Rose

So all is well in cat-land here.  I am having bulk deliveries of catfood from Zooplus, and have finally found dry cat food that all four cats will eat.  We have only had about three or four mice in the house (though there have been a couple of baby rabbit incidents, thank you Merlot) and we have found that the steam cleaner is very helpful in getting cat sick stains out of carpets. I thought my colleagues in the office were going to explode in hysterical laughter when I bought a cat scratching post and some new filters for the cat water fountain: I didn’t understand how big the scratching post was (it’s about four feet tall and the width of a dinner plate) and the delivery arrived in the office.  And when I mentioned the filters, there were howls of laughter at the thought of cats pressing a little silver button to squirt water into their mouths…  But there are four happy cats here, and that has to be a good thing.

Tomorrow we will aim to hang the curtains in the sitting room and I will post photos this weekend of the girls’ bedrooms.  It’s a relief and a joy to have uninterrupted access to the internet again: I was getting so frustrated with finding that my access kept cutting out, and the computer kept overheating and resetting.  But now it’s time for bed!