I have to say that as the days went on she did relax somewhat. The hissing and growling stopped almost completely, except when our cat Lorenzo went anywhere near either Maisie herself or any random bowl of cat food that happened to be in Maisie's line of sight at the time. I'm sure that at heart she is an affectionate little cat and towards the end of her stay she would even come to greet us when we came home after some time out. It did bring a little lump to my throat the first time she did it, as with only three legs, moving is a bit of an effort for her. There was something very moving about having this little ball of tabby fluff limping along the floor to come and say hello.
She was nonetheless very pleased when Sue came to pick her up on Saturday and our cats were quite pleased to see the back of her I think. It was stressful for them having a strange and very vocal cat introduced into the house, and although we told them several times that she was only here temporarily I don't kid myself that they understood. I'm fond of my cats, and at least two of them are intelligent, but not intelligent enough to understand human speech.
Sue is de-stashing madly as the house she is going to in the Isle of Man is smaller than the one she lives in here, and she'll be sharing that one. Books and pictures are being seriously culled, which is why she delighted me by presenting me with this on Saturday
A print of Samuel Palmer's Coming From Evening Church.
I'd seen and recognised it as Palmer's in her house months ago and we'd had a bit of a chat about him; in my experience it's not often you meet anyone else who knows his work, but I'd never given the conversation another thought. It was therefore an unexpected and much appreciated gift [always the best sort] and I lost no time after she had departed with Maisie in taking down the watercolour of Skye that was hanging over the fireplace and replacing it with the Palmer. Where it looks very good indeed.
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