Body Clocks and Bloody Cats

My body clock is messed up again. I am sleeping from around 9pm til after midnight then rousing myself for a decent 2 and a half hours quite focused work. As a result I am a little more prepared and sane than last week but I keep passing my husband as we enter and exit the bedroom going in different directions.

It's tough in the evening to avoid sleep though as the log fire is piled high and the family room is so cosy. I love my big, fluffy leather sofas! It's like sleeping on a cloud.

And since I'm just rambling now before going to bed, I thought I'd tell you about the Cat Wars MkII which are going on at our place currently.

Some months back we spotted two really cute kittens over the fence and realised the neighbours must have got themselves a Christmas present. The kids of course tried to lure them over and pet them but they wouldn't have it. They came into our garden of course but we couldn't get within 3 feet of them before they bolted next door. Well, this was all very well until we realised our cat food was disappearing at an alarming rate and then we started surprising them, helping themselves at the bowls in the kitchen.

To put this into context, our kitchen is well inside the house, not just as the back door. These guys have to sneak in through the cat flap, through the laundry, up the hall and into the kitchen before they can taste the rewards of their clandestine efforts.

Having shoo-ed them out once or twice we started to get irritated by their persistence. No2 Son threatened to dunk them in the pool if he caught them or peg them with his slingshot. I was initially aghast at these inhumane suggestions but......

These little buggers are incredibly resilient! They have been the recipients of Himself's roaring and stamping, the very thing which, when we were first married, so traumatised our older cat Pippin. They have been corned and chased with brooms. They have been caught and thrown (literally) out the back door. Has it made ANY impression on them? Well, I dare say we won't ever get to pet them any time soon but they sit at the back door and look in at us! Their cheek is unbelievable.

We have taken to closing the laundry door at night so that if they get in, at least they can't get to the cat food. As a result, when I open the door to let our guys out in the morning, one of the two of them usually streaks out the cat flap leaving behind his comfortable bed on a pile of laundry!

At least this has encouraged me to complete the washing and leave the floor bare, cold and uninviting :-D

Seriously though, we are starting to wonder whether they DO belong to next door or not. We don't see our neighbours much. They have one of those electronically sealed houses and everything seems to happen at midnight or 5am so we haven't had a chance to pop our heads over and ask. I am beginning to suspect they may be ferrals from the same litter although they are vastly different; one being a fluffy apricot/brindle tabby and the other a Russian Blue cross with short fur and grey and white markings.

We are losing patience however and these two cute little eating machines may soon be taking a one way trip to the RSPCA if they continue to camp in our patch!!!!! I mean they are ALWAYS here! Do their owners not miss them??????

I'll try and get a shot of them although they tend to move fast when I am around due to the broom incident. Meanwhile I'd best try and sleep some more.....