We've just been to Slovakia on holiday (an almost cat-free
country with innumerable small yappy dogs) and came to find
our kittens had grown.  Just before we left, Marion acquired
an enormous dollhouse from a friend; three floors and nearly
four feet high.  Unusually, it's got a staircase.

If we'd got it when the kittens were tiny, they'd have fitted
in fine.  The rooms are just big enough for even an adult cat
to sleep in, and that's where Chloe is right now.  But our
house-sitter spotted Ollie trying to Do It Properly.  Instead
of just leaping into the house off the back of an armchair,
he went in the bottom and walked up the stairs.  In scale,
this was like a sabre-tooth tiger trying to use a human stair.
Lots of grunting and heaving before he made it to the first
floor landing, whereupon all he could do was lie down and
sleep.  Too much like hard work, he's never tried it since.

The house has nine rooms and we have seven cats.  We're
wondering when it's going to be fully squatted.  I can just
imagine the older cats banging on the walls to tell the
kittens to turn down the stereo.

==============  j-c  ======  @  ======  purr . demon . co . uk  ==============
Jack Campin:  11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660 4760
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