Life After Cheeky

Well, it´s been a few weeks since Cheeky died, yet another of our cats who has fallen victim to Spanish driving. Despite the problems she caused we both miss her more than we can say.

The problems arose because, as soon as she reached one year old, she started flexing her muscles and assumed the role of Alpha Cat in our household. She soon succeeded in driving our other two cats out of the living room - often out of the house - and the only place they felt relatively safe from attack was behind closed doors in each of our bedrooms. If they walked through the lounge, Cheeky would launch an attack like a fuzzy guided missile from ´her´sofa and cow Tango or Jaffa into submission.

Now that Cheeky´s no longer around our remaining two cats are starting to re-colonize the house. Tango´s still, at heart, a street cat, and we often have to go searching for her if we want her to spend the night indoors but she´s slowly losing the hunted look she assumed whenever she entered Cheeky´s territory - i.e. any part of our house or garden. Jaffa has started climbing on to the sofa for the occasional cuddle between trips to the food bowl and excursions to decimate the local squeaking and chirping wildlife.

And theoretically getting cat-sitters should be an easier task: no longer will they have to sit the compulsory cat identification test and learn to maintain a delicate balance through feline apartheid. Now there´s only Tango and Jaffa ... and Tia and Elvis.

Cheeky´s mum was Tia and, unless I´m very mistaken - because he´s the spit of Cheeky - Elvis was the dad. As a slightly bizarre memorial to Cheeky, Tia lives under the table on our rear terrace (she has her own chair and towel) and Elvis is often found in our front garden, where his creaky mieow means ´feed me please´. So we´re now taking care of both of Cheeky´s parents.

God knows what we´ll do when we move house - as we plan to do in the next few years. I can see us returning here once a day to find Tango and feed Tia and Elvis.

So, a bit of a rambling post today. I need to tone up my blogging muscles and focus on writing something acerca de cats on a more regular basis. For now Tango and Jaffa are asleep, safely away from the road and consequently I´m happy.