Tag: Felix

From the window

I leaned out of the sitting room window and took this photo this morning.

Is it every year that I say, ‘The roses have never been so good’? Is this year better than ever?

Still in my pyjamas, I took a photo from the front door.

Back inside the house, the little wooden chooks look in fear of invasion from the roses outside.

Felix was the only invader via a window this morning.

Which reminds me of his defenestration yesterday as I rescued a little blackbird from him which he’d brought inside. The parent birds almost followed Felix into the house, protesting loudly. I’m not sure that my efforts to save the wee bird were successful. Although it was pecking quite vigorously, it seemed unable to perch on a high branch. I ended up with bruises and scratches from scrambling through the garden and a gooseberry bush is looking a little flat after I fell on it. Fortunately, I offloaded the little bird into a hanging basket on my way down.

Isn’t nature wonderful? (And human efforts a bungling mess?)

High fives and fist bumps

High five

I signed an SPCA petition to ban fireworks so that animals are spared the often traumatising time in their neighbourhoods around November 5 when, for obscure reasons, Guy Fawkes is remembered (or not; most of us just think, ‘Fireworks!’ just as Christmas is associated in most people’s minds with loot and overindulgence).

I could also sign up for Felix – all I needed was his paw print. This proved difficult. Much like trying to give a cat a pill, I suspect.

Felix was sleepy and relaxed as I tried to photograph his paw. Another person to take the photo might have helped. The one I used in the end (above) was more like a high five and I’m not sure it translated well to the image required.

My favourite photo of Felix’s paw is this one: a furry fist bump.

Fist bump

In the event, there have been fewer fireworks in our neighbourhood than in the past. Perhaps people are over it. I would like November 5 to be used to remember the peaceful protests and eventual invasion of Parihaka on November 5, 1881, which is still relevant to us*, rather than Guy Fawkes and his co-conspirators and their failed gunpowder plot in 1605.

Where does he go?

Felix comes home to eat these days, often at irregular times. Gone is his routine of long hours sleeping inside. A couple of days ago, he did come in and slept on a chair for most of the morning. Perhaps he was recovering from his long night out.

This morning, it was after 10 o’clock before he came in for breakfast. I tracked him after that, but lost him in the garden somewhere by the blackcurrant bush.

Listening…watching…
Moving (ignoring the ball on a string – too tame!)
On to the patio
Into the garden
Behind the blackcurrant bush

I have seen him go up the trunk of the grapevine and over the fence at the side. He’s also appeared on the garage roof from the bamboo. Sometimes he’s at the front gate just sitting, watching. Once, I saw him walking along the roof of the house across the street.

Where does he go? On these warm summery days, with rampant growth everywhere, it’s likely that he’s over the back fence exploring the wilderness. Probably hunting. Probably defending and marking his territory.

Best seats in the house

Every day, Mum migrates around the house following the sun.

First thing: reading the paper in the sunny morning sitting room
Morning: The egg chair on the deck
Afternoon: the window seat, with books, knitting bag, and the Listener easily to hand

In the evening, Mum likes to be beside the fire. Even on these warmer evening, she finds a fire cheering.

As you can see, Felix often likes to keep her company.

Catimini

I came across this word for the first time this afternoon in a Françoise Hardy song Rendez-vous dans une autre vie. It means ‘on the sly’ which seemed appropriate as I witnessed Felix casually bite his way through the blind cord. I wondered if he was flossing his teeth on the cord thinking it must be too fine for him to get a grip on. Then, to my astonishment (why was I astonished?), the end of the cord dropped and two severed ends swung in the air. My best Girl Guide reef knots didn’t fix the problem as the knots wouldn’t thread through the spool.

Then I recalled that another blind had two severed cords. The cause must have been the same, as both cords were broken whereas wear and tear would surely affect only one of the cords.

My useless reef knots
The previously chewed cords
Wear and tear: one cord in the three on this larger blind

By the time I’d completed my investigations and rung the blind company to repair the damage (at some expense and involving five days without blinds), Felix was nonchalant, taking his ease on the woollen under-blanket on Mum’s bed. There are curtains in that room. Curtains for the cat. Grrr!

Felix doing his smouldering look for the camera

Armchair pirate

I made the mistake of leaving my chair by the fire for a minute…

This is the same rascal this frosty morning checking out the jigsaw progress.

Unapologetic seems to describe him well.

We had a laugh at his expense this morning, however, as he inched his slithery way across the icy garage roof. It was a case of cat on a cold tin roof.

A game of cat and mouse

Keep the bedroom door shut, was the advice of a friend when I told her that Felix sometimes demands his breakfast at 2am. Last night I did that, but after a game of me chasing Felix chasing a mouse around the house after midnight. I picked Felix up, with the mouse in his mouth, and put them out the back door – but I think he might have dropped it before I got him outside. I shut the door to the bedrooms and went back to bed. Felix had the mouse, dead, in the sitting room in the morning.

There are no pictures with this post, but the one I can’t get out of my head is of the tiny mouse sitting with its front paws up, nose to nose with Felix as if protesting its fate.

Who? Me?

He looks innocence itself, sitting in the sun behind my computer – but I know he chews my paintbrushes back there and that he is keeping an eye out for birds in the myrtle tree.

This evening, I found more evidence of his mischief.

The chooks will have to up their game if this jigsaw is to be completed successfully.