Of pet shops and Christmas activities

It’s an Aladdin’s Cave! Since Maisie arrived (see last blog and picture) we’ve found ourselves visiting a shop



which specialises in items for pets. We haven’t had to do that for 20 years are our eyes have been opened. It’s not just the vitamin pills, the food for cats with delicate stomachs, the compounds and formulae to strengthen teeth, the several varieties of special cat-litter. We were absolutely intrigued to find toys (e.g. a ‘cat tree’ which has a little niche for curling-up and sleeping at ground level surmounted by a ‘trunk’ which doubles as a scratching post and which has a viewing platform at its summit) costing upwards of 50 euros and which the cat will almost certainly ignore completely. How can any self-respecting cat be seen out without a designer-labelled collar? Say goodbye to pet halitosis - buy a toothbrush and some toothpaste. (You'll probably also need elastoplast and Savlon if you are going to try to use these on your cat.) Want to stop your dog from destructive chewing? No problem; buy it a large bag of dried pigs ears (honest)! Going away for a few days and don't want your cat to (a) starve and (b) get lonely? Buy an electronic cat-feeder and record a message to be played to the cat each time it eats! But best of all are the clothes for dogs. Ranging from waterproof anoraks in a range of tasteful fabrics and colours to knickers (chastity-belts?) for females in heat, you can fritter away a fortune on haute couture for your little darling. It’s great!

As Christmas approaches, we have engaged in two of our traditional pre-Christmas treats. On Saturday we went to Clermont Ferrand to visit the Christmas market and to have our ‘Office Christmas Lunch’ in our

favourite restaurant. Both were great but the undoubted highlight was the journey. The weather has been VERY cold here recently but we’ve had no snow so far. However, in the high areas we cross between here and

Clermont, they’ve had snow to go with the temperatures. The volcanoes look stunning in the snow. (In case you aren’t aware, if you click on the photos, you can see them at full size.) And it certainly was cold there. As we reached the Col des Goules (970m) at around 10 a.m. it was still only –8°C. That had moderated to a balmy –6°C on our return journey.

Yesterday we went to a local Christmas market, in Moutier d’Ahun. Again it was very cold but we’re not sure even that justified this lady sticking her head up a sheep’s bottom!