Some of you will remember that I have my uncle and aunt staying with me to
help me after my eye op.  There are lots of things I'm not allowed to do,
bending, reaching, lifting, looking after chickens for a starter.
So dear Uncle Bryan aged 79, who had a stroke two years ago which has
affected his speech, and my aunt, 78, neither who have any experience with
livestock whatsoever have arrived.
Dysphasia - stroke related speech loss - is peculiar.  Uncle B knows exactly
what he wants to say, but the words often come out wrong which is very
frustrating for him.

Kitty took to him right away.  Anyone who will allow her to sit on their
chest and purr is okay in her books.  Last night when he wanted to go to
bed, my aunt had to detach Kitty from his sweater, and she hung on with all
her claws and growled and hissed.  Didn't bother Auntie - what she says
goes, Kitty FC found herself on the floor without quite realising how she
got there.

Boyfriend is very gradually getting used to having them here.  Mainly he
prefers to stay outside until they've gone to bed, but last night HE CAUGHT
A VOLE.  He had to come in with it to make a good impression.  He laid it on
the kitchen carpet and batted it around (it was dead, fortunately.)
I saw him out of the corner of my eye and hoped no-one else had noticed so I
could sneak in there and put him outside with it.
Too late.  Uncle B noticed. How did I know?  because he said "dog got rat in
room"  Aaargh.

So we had to own up to it, and I fetched the short-tailed field vole into
the living room and showed it around.  Eeeeewwww, they said.  I knew they
would ;-)
I then took it outside and BF followed his fierce prey and I threw it some
yards away.  He snatched it up, threw it in the air, and played with it like
he was a ballerina.  "See how high I can jump after this mousie"  "See how I
can pass it from paw to paw in mid air"  etc. etc.
I thought he was clever, anyway.
He also failed to impress this morning, when the voles head was on the
kitchen carpet and my aunt trod on it.
I'm very much afraid that I laughed.
It's been raining today, and Boyfriend has been in some of the time.  He
actually let my uncle stroke him and I tried not to notice that he was
petting him and saying "beautiful boysie, lovely boysie, sweet boysie, puss
puss" Because it's so great that a few phrases come together and mean what
he wants them to mean. And Boyfriend let him, that's the amazing part,
although I think he must have had to gird his loins to go through it, since
he went out after about five or ten minutes, it was too much for him.

Poor Uncle Bryan, he wouldn't hurt a cat, but BF doesn't realise.  Before
uncle went to bed he went to the back door, opened it and stood there.  I
asked him what he was doing.  "Waiting for dog, eerr, cat. Challenge"

Yes, it *is* a challenge to get BF to let you touch him. He is now fine with
me but strangers can be just that too much scary.

I have to laugh actually.  Thirty seconds after my aunt and uncle go
upstairs to bed, Boyfriend comes into the house and settles in my chair.  I
guess he's been waiting and listening for hours.  I would so much like that
he'd realise that not everyone except me is out to hurt him.

He is an absolutely beautiful cat to look at, and his temperament is the
kindest I have ever known. I can't imagine that someone could have
illtreated him.  He's almost perfect ;-)
I suppose I'll never know what has made him so shy and unsure of himself.

At least he's fine now.  He is snoozing very peacefully, and very spread
out, in my comfortable favourite armchair.  Kitty is in the other one.
<sigh>  It's pouring with rain. <another sigh>  Four days without rain must
be a record in the UK and we just had it. Now it's over.  It's throwing it
down and very windy.  Not like you folks get though.
This might have been our summer, we could easily have missed it.

Tweed