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.

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.

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.

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.

This will do

Interrupting my bed-making this morning, Felix is happy to settle down on Mum’s warm sheets. Perhaps he approves of the cats. There’s a look on his face which might say, “This is fine. Don’t try to move me.” I’m okay with that.