TERMINATOR 2

Some 4 months after the demise of Gin, our cat of 20 years’ standing, a rush of blood to the head has seen us acquire another. Meet Maisie, a real troublemaker if ever we saw one.

We found Maisie at a rescue centre. Apparently, very large numbers of animals are lost or abandoned in this part of France. The rescue centre had 40 or 50 cats, half-a-dozen dogs, three goats, several ducks and a goose, all of which had been rescued. All of the cats were kept indoors and we’ll leave you to imagine the stench.

Because Maisie has spent virtually all her life with all these cats and has come into contact only with the two people who have fed her, it took almost three weeks before she would let us touch her. Prior to that, if we tried to touch her she hid In a cupboard (good) or displayed extremely effective use of her claws (very bad).

Now that she’s discovered the joys of being stroked, she’s become obsessed. There are, however, two drawbacks to this. One, she insists on being stroked under the kitchen table or one of the kitchen chairs. This is a bit inconvenient but bearable. Two, she gets so carried away she almost always farts. This is not at all bearable!

She’s outside now so I’m just off to take the clothes peg off my nose.