Goodbye Oscar...

My dear old cat Oscar who has featured in the blog from time to time has recently passed away after a short illness. He had lived a very full and long life and was such a character with a very large (and loud!) personality. The house seems so empty without him and very quiet! Poor Rosie, his feline friend and sometime sparring partner, is also missing him. He was formerly my Gran's beloved pet, but when she passed away a few years ago he came to live with me. I would like to think that somewhere he and my gran have been re-united once more.

I have been touched and comforted by the many messages of sympathy from friends on the ponymadbooklovers forum and others who have emailed me. Although people may think nothing they say can help at a time like this, I believe that knowing others who have gone through the same thing are behind you, does provide some comfort. So, sincere thanks to everyone who has expressed their sympathy for my loss.

This is the latest in a long line of unfortunate and stressful events to have happened lately which is why I have not been blogging for a while. I will not bore anyone with all the details, suffice to say illness, moving home, and large changes in lifestyle have all played their part. However I will now be aiming to blog again at least once a month. Watch this space!

A Book-loving Cat

Rosie, my small female long-haried tortoiseshell has aquired a new vice. It's books. No, she hasn't learned to read. With a brain roughly the size of a small garden pea, it took her about seven years to learn how to open doors, so reading is just a tad beyond her. For some reason however, after being surrounded by books for many years she has just discovered that they smell, er, interesting. She has always had a strange fetish for smelly socks and shoes; in particular walking boots after they have been tramped through mounds of ripe cow-manure send her into paroxyms of delight. And now she has developed the same feeling about books. Lately I have had to rescue a few rather battered specimens which were unwisely left lying around and fell foul of her not so tender ministrations. After being rubbed against ecstatically, drooled over and chewed the poor things were shadows of their former selves.

Now books are strictly out of bounds and she has had to console herself with large overdoses of catnip. But at least the first editions are safe...