She did not come home last night.

She packed a big bag and drove off in the noisy car. The man came back and we were worried that he was going to eat all of our food. But he didn't. He fed us and walked the dogs. But he does not let us sleep on the bed with him. Maybe if we catch him a big juicy rat he will let us curl on the soft bed. He is funny and smaells a bit of compost.

Something is happening......

......and we are getting worried. A man came round this evening and she showed him where our food is. She has a big bag, good for sitting in, and She is putting clothes into it and muttering things about having nothing to wear and italy. She should grow ginger fur. Then She would not have to worry about clothes. We hope the man does not eat all of our food.

Studio cats.

Well, it seems that we were mistaken and that Brody is not a studio cat. It is Ellie May who lives in a studio and sits upon her person's lap while She paints. Ellie May was shocked when she saw that Brody who lives in the house was claiming to be the painter of the family.
Ellie May used to run a gallery. Now she sits and thinks and paints and watches chipmunks. They are a bit like mice but with fluffy tails.

Introducing the dogs

Two dogs we live with. The first is Floss. Her favorite place is by a pond. She cannot count. She thinks there is one of us, and that we move really quickly and can be in more than one place at a time. She speaks in words of one syllable. When Floss came to live with us she chased cats. Now she stares rudely at Martha, and sometimes smiles at us, but we have taught her manners.



The second is Bella, who is kind and who Pixie loves. She likes to make sure that Pixie is clean and when we were little she let us use her as a cushion.

Violets

The wall by the path that leads to the top of the hill has violets on the side where the sun shines. From the top of the hill you can see the big blue sea whichever way you look.
In the evening the sun makes the shadow-cats long.

Far away across the sea

across the water, Brody the cat, who lives in a studio, has been reading about us. Ginger and white, with long long whiskers, Brody helps to paint in the studio, and he wants to come walking with us and we want to know how he got in to the studio because She will not let us in and let us help. We cats like Mac's.
It is cold and raining where Brody is, but here the sun shines and today Elmo met a slow worm.

Camping it up.

Some cats were born to make mischief.

Tuesday

Finally She put down the book and went to the room where She will not let us go. After a while of sleeping in sunshine and finding warm places and watching birds fly we walked over the hill. The wind sang in the bushes but today it did not push our ears flat so we could hear its song.
In the newspaper we sat on it said that we live on a deserted hilltop. We think they mean here. Once people did live here. Now it is the realm of the twilight ghost cat.

In the evening, with a polar bear.

It is dark outside. Soon She will walk the dogs and we will walk too. Every night now we hear the badgers laughing in the fields and foxes scream. But now we wait again. Last night we left Hannah some bits of mice in the bed, for her night-time snack. She did not seem to be impressed and says we cannot sleep in Her bed again. It is not Her bed, it is our bed. Maybe we will not let her sleep in it!

While Maurice was levitating.

Pixie was gardening, soaking up sunshine and watching Her read and read and read.

Walking with the black dog.

Today we walked with Ffion and her black dog who was scared and would not walk past us. Ffion is very small and drives a boat, and she takes bats for walks. Pixie slept in her jumper when she was a kitten. The black dog likes to carry sticks. It was cold on top of the hill and the wind blew our ears flat to our heads.
Yesterday we saw some cats on a website. They live inside and don't go out and were all dressed up. We hope She does not get any ideas. To cover up our ginger glory with clothes would be wrong. We need to shine in the sun. The cats in clothes had big ears that would blow very flat in the wind if they could walk with us, except they would probably wear hats.

What I have been doing today, by Maurice.

Today I have mostly been learning to levitate.

We are waiting.....

Late in the evening and we are waiting to go walking. She has done nothing but read all day.

More resting

Maurice is not the most comfortable cushion to sit on.

The bus cat.

Too hot to walk in the mid day, so we let Her walk alone to the top of the hill and hope that She does not get lost.
We like the clever cat that rides on buses, with his mismatched eyes so bright.

Resting.

In the newspaper, on the radio. Media stardom is exhausting. So, Maurice hid in a box while Elmo rested, holding paws with Max, long time star of illustrated books.



Later in the cool of evening we walked while the sky turned purple.

Fame

Too hot to walk today, but we are basking in publicity. Today we are in the newspapers, The Sun and here, online in the Daily Mail. And as every good cat knows, newspapers are good for one thing. Sitting on!

What...

...is this thing that is in the garden? What is inside?




Hannah! Cosy and comfy!

Oh the gingerness of me!

We were sitting on the newspaper the other day when we noticed there was a new cat in town. Carlos the ocelot lives in Pembrokeshire at Folly Farm. Not ginger, but spotty. In his dreams he wanders through emerald forests, climbing tall twisted trees, chasing snakes while coloured parrots scream out warnings. In our dreams we leap through the trees with him, wild and wonderful.
He is not ginger, but dapple spotted like the shaded glades in forests.

Elmo wakes up....

Sleeping all weekend on Hannah's bed, and when I woke up the sun was warm. They did not walk very far because it was hot, but sat on the rocks and we found a wood with thorn trees and blossom and underneath were rabbit burrows. Big burrows. They smelt very good and it was exciting.
The sky was blue and full of shouting birds.

High hills and sunshine

High on the rocks where we once saw the biggest fox, Bella and me looked over the sea, and later on the way back Maurice walked the lichen covered wall and looked beautiful. And all the while Elmo stayed a home and slept. Lazy cat. The sun was warm and the sky was blue.

Forgiveness

I have forgiven Her for not liking my gift of a lizard and am helping Her in Her studio.




What is this here? It looks like paint.




And over here? She does not keep it very tidy.




And this painting looks much better with my tail curled around it.

Lizard

She had been saying that She had not seen a lizard for a long time. When I climbed through the catflap I called for Her to come and see. It is difficult to miaow with your mouth full.
She did not seem pleased but shouted at me. "Out", She screamed, pointing at the door. That is not the same as "Thank you" but I think she was overwhelmed with delight. The lizard dangled limp from my mouth, like a curious tongue with legs. She said it did not look attractive and it was not clever, but I would like to see Her try and catch a lizard. I dropped it and it scuttled away and She seemed happier now and I was relieved. They do not taste good and it did tickle. In future She can catch Her own lizards. There is no pleasing some women.

Not ginger, but dreaming.

Urban cat dreaming of walking the wild hills after reading The Ginger Darlings. Squeek lives with Louise Arnold and helps her to write books.
She hunts worms ( Squeek, not Louise, though you ever can tell with these literary types. We once met one who lay on the floor pretending to be a cane toad for months.) She lays in wait for children going to school then pounces and flips open the lid of a lunch box, and runs down the street trailing pepperami. Queen of the streets with her leaf green eyes, she is beautiful, sometimes. And sometimes she is fierce and snarling. And sometimes a wise child will hand over the pepperami without the chase, but she, like we, prefers to hunt.

Golden light

She painted all day again and then when the sun was sinking we walked. The light was golden.



The air was chill and the light was fading, painting the world with purple shadows. Mice were waking and birds getting sleepy. The perfect time for a cat to walk. Pixie hid on the rock wall high above the sea, ears listening for the smallest sound.

Slow days

For days now She has shut herself away in Her studio and painted. So when She sat to check Her email we pounced. And then we thought. What have we done in the last few days? We have slept. We have chased the mice. We have curled in sunny places on soft cushions and collected the sun's warmth in our ginger coats. Then tired from all this effort we have slept again.
Maybe tomorrow we will walk. Until then we rest while the full moon rides across the sky, and we wait for the sun to spill the light of day again.