HAPPY!

What a happy day!
Apart from having a good night's sleep for the first time in a week, I am also feeling really cheerful. Thomas is much much better, so I am really hoping that when he goes back to the Vet tomorrow she will give him the all-clear.


Thomas slept all night on and in my bed, and this morning has eaten and had a long drink, and has also had no trouble wee-ing. He just seems a lot brighter, more like his normal self; he has been playing and running about and hopefully he can now get back to normal and not have to endure examinations and injections and having pills chucked down his throat any longer.


He is also back to his normal devious and trouble-making self where the other two are concerned. As I write, he has pinched Pete's space on the futon (marked by the Navajo blanket which Pete claimed the day we got it) Pete has returned from the kitchen to find his space taken and has jumped up on the other end of the futon. Thom is lying with his back to Pete, pretending to be asleep, but he is half looking around over his shoulder - with ears flattened -to see what Pete will do - if anything. Pete has sniffed Thomas from about a metre away, but then turned round and is now sitting right on the edge of the futon, facing the window with his back to Thomas and his ears flattened slightly (i.e in a bit of huff) Having reassured himself that Pete will not actually challenge him and has settled down on another part of the futon, Thomas has now turned round to face the fire and is now relaxing because he knows his space is safe. Pete is sulking. There is a three foot gap between them!


I love watching the cats interacting and their funny little mind games etc. Before we got Thomas, Spangle was the undisputed Queen of the house. Everything in it belongs to her, and she has to know what is going on at all times. She knows where everything is and never forgets where we put things (e.g a couple of weeks ago I looked around for - and found - all the ping-pong balls which had gone behind various bookcases and underneath sofas and so forth. I found about eight, and put all but one into one of the little IKEA chest of drawers next to the bookcase, which is where we keep occasionally-used but important stuff that has to be located easily. I promptly forgot about these other balls. However, the other day I was on the futon watching TV and I heard a scratchy-scrabbling noise behind me. There was Spangle pulling open the drawer, and as I watched she casually extracted a ping pong ball and started playing with it. HOW did she remember where they were, and how did she remember which drawer, out of a possible twelve, they were in? See what I mean?

Back in August 08, when Thomas arrived, a very boisterous 4 month old kitten, Spangle was incredulous! What an insult! Allowing this youngster to enter her home and go on the rampage, disturbing her peace and disrupting the household routine! Without her permission!! She was, to say the very least, highly offended. For about two weeks she sulked, looking daggers at me every time I had Thomas on my lap. Then, she tried another, more direct, approach: slapping him for absolutely no apparent reason every now and again. He started getting to know Pete, and Pete actually really likes him. They would lick each other's faces, and lie on the bed or sofa together.


Spangle continued to ignore Thom other than to whack him every time he got too close. As Thomas started getting older, he started fighting back. He is a big cat, and the other two - not having had a very good start in life before they were 'rescued' - are very small; Spangle in particular is very petite under all that fur. As soon as he was old enough he began trying to take over. He started actively seeking Spangle out to attack her, and these attacks were rather vicious. He was still young though and he didn't do any damage. When he was 6 months old he was neutered and this actually calmed him down. But he wanted to be the boss and Spangle continued - and still does - to defend her position! She has a hard job. Sometimes Thomas can be a real nuisance. And he is jealous!! If Spangle is being tickled or being shown any affection, Thomas will pounce on her and start fighting her. He cannot bear to see her getting attention! Spangle bears grudges and will often wait until he least expects it before getting him back. For example, if he walks past her she will casually whack him right across the face. Then chase him and do it again. If cats were humans they would be diagnosed with schizophrenia and locked up.

Last night I made two delicious Crumbles: one with apple and cinammon and the other with all manner of berries from the freezer, plus the remaining apple pieces. Josh declared the berry one to be slightly too 'cats' bum'(i.e sour - think about it) yet his plate was almost clean nevertheless. Rob had his apple and cinnamon crumble with Ben and Jerry's Belgian Chocolate Brownie (or is it Chocolate Fudge Brownie?) I had hardly eaten last week and so I had both types and a big chunk of B & J's too. Plenty left for today's brunch - ha ha!! It is almost a rule in this house that there has to be enough crumble for the next day. Josh swears by it as a pre-College breakfast.

On a totally different subject, I found this fantastic website the other week, called Colour Lovers. This site is the visual answer to Prozac for people like me who get their pleasure not from material things but from natural things, particualrly becaue of what their colours do to the brain. I look at the sky on a cloudless, crisp Winter's morning and that particular shade of blue, and also the way it fades from an almost lilac-blue higher up to the palest true Sky blue, create some kind of chemical reaction in the pleasure-feeling section of my brain. I cannot see the sky that colour and feel depressed or sad. The colours which really have a positive effect seem really difficult to reproduce, for instance it is hard to create them on a omputer screen,or rather if you do manage almost to create the right shade, it just doesn'tlook right or have the same effect. I have to see these colours in real life, in their natural state, on the right object. The colour which has the most positive effecton me is a pale-ish pale-but-bright purpley blue. I call this colour Sky North.


My other created colours are here. Mostly blues/purples, and combinations thereof! The site is great for messing about, trying to find your favourite and perfect colours. I'm sure there must be a more serious use for it, but i use it as a form of Therapy!