The learning process was somewhat fraught, with either my mother or myself in a state of near panic each time she did a 'disappearing act' and it has to be said that along the way there were more than a few frantic twilight searches among the shrubbery, but in the main she was never far away, rather just making the most of her cat camouflage and laughing at us from a bush usually not more than ten foot from our torchlight!
And so, all grown up and familiar with her new surroundings there is only two concerns left. The first is that she will at some point fall victim to one or other of the rather too large tabby tom cats that seem to roam the same territory. Tilly is completely unaware that she should be on her guard for such interlopers, having had one or two pointed out to her from the safety of indoors she seems completely unfazed, her assumption I assume seems to be that all 'foreign' felines must surely be as simple to deal with as Ditto, the only other cat she has ever encountered. I'm not sure who is going to be more scared when the inevitable happens but for now madam remains is a blissful state of ignorance regarding any impending battles she has to face.
The second and lesser concern is that she will begin presenting myself and my parents with the delightful little 'gifts' so familiar to we who are owned by a member of the feline population. For myself that is not a great issue, ok, so I prefer not to be presented with a headless mouse over breakfast but I can live with it.....my parents however, who are not 'cat people', might be a little less than enamored!
It would seem there is little to fear on this latter concern, for this morning, having been given free rein of the garden in the relatively early hours, she was seen performing all the 'bottom wiggling and tummy on the floor' stalking maneuvers associated with a soon to be new kill. Maybe half an hour later, after much more of this performance, she came bounding into the house with her quarry held firmly and proudly in her mouth, chattering and chirruping happily at her new found skill.
Almost proud that she had begun to learn the real grown up cat stuff I investigated, ready to try and turn loose some small defenceless rodent. On approach my pride lessened slightly when it appeared that her kill was merely a worm......it lessened somewhat further when she dropped it on the carpet for another hours 'killing' and I realised it was not a worm at all...... but a 'wild' red rubber band!
Um...perhaps she has some way to go yet in this particular learning process!
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