Black Doggerel

Stayed mostly off the Interwebs yesterday with a case of the nameless dreads. Spent the time watching Poldark. The DVDs I have from Blockbuster are arranged with two and a half hours of solid Poldarkery on each one, rather than split into episodes at all. It's a bit intense. After four solid hours of it I was talking in a Cornish accent myself (and a better one than most of the actors used, too, but it's very like my native Dorset and trips nicely off the tongue.)

there was also ER, which I'm rentally revisiting season by season. Yesterday was the first four episodes of season six. Great show. There was Alan Alda in the eps I watched yesterday, but even he wasn't the best thing in them. Truly, madly glorious.

I keep trying to catch dogs and kittens on video, but they do most of their playing together after dusk, and the movie function only makes sense in bright daylight. Yesterday's highlight was Shona attacking Spike's paw - pouncebite! He got bitten two or three times, kept giving her worried looks, and finally tucked the paw neatly underneath himself when the sharp kittenteeth got too much.

The other highlight was Elda falling asleep next to him. It's a pity it's so warm still; my mental picture of kittens and dog snuggled up together isn't going to happen in real life. Even Squish doesn't want to sleep pressed against me. But this was close.

Cassie's still in the bedroom most of the time, but every time I feed her she comes out to greet her public:

( Adoring fanboys )

She was actually rubbing against Spike at first, but I missed getting a picture of that.

And now, kitten pictures! Sorry I missed a couple of days, I had my head up my arse chasing my tail.

( Eight pics under the cut )

The first three - Callette being snuggled and the two after it - are from the 21st (Wednesday) and the rest are from today. Cassie's a bit fed up with the photography and keeps putting herself between the kittens and the camera, but she's happy for me to pick them up now as long as I'm careful. If I let any of their feet dangle they complain and she gets all cross with me.

She ate an entire raw chicken thigh last night - only one small chunk of bone left, too small to even bother giving to the dogs.

The last day or so I've been puzzled by Spike continually snuffing and staring at a point on the wall in the hallway. Yesterday I realised what that was about - that's where the kittens are, just the other side of the interior wall inside the wardrobe. (The wardrobe is built-in - a section of bedroom partitioned off with a sliding door, not a piece of furniture). My sweet obsessive boy! The dogs have been allowed into the bedroom during litter changes and feeding and they've seen the kittens from a distance, but I have a barrier of boxes (full of stuff) around the wardrobe door so they haven't been close to the wardrobe. Cassie makes it clear she doesn't want them inside that barrier, so they're only in the room when I'm there to stop them jumping it.

Mum phoned me this morning, sounding very weak and sorry for herself. She's still unable to keep anything down, and her nose feeding tube (she says it's like she's a horse with a nosebag) came out in the night. They're putting her on a drip again and she was waiting to be taken down to X-Ray when I phoned - it seems she may not be there when I visit.

Sister T still hasn't gone into labour and is highly fed up.

I really need to get some cleaning done here. I've been so tired the past two weeks that the flat's slipped to an unprecedented degree of disgustingness. It's so bad that I'm putting off calling the Council about the dribbling tap because I don't want anyone to see the place when it's this revolting. That's classic Mum behaviour right there and it needs to stop. Except I have to go out the door in a minute to go to the hospital and when am I going to do it? Arghh! I also forgot to turn the oven off after heating a half-pizza last night. KITTENS ATE MY BRAIN.

In the meantime, I've defused the tap's water torture effect by keeping either the coffee pot or one of the dogs' water bowls under the drip at all times - it stops the nerve-shredding noise and that way at least the water doesn't all get wasted. The weather is much more bearable as well - we didn't get the storm here but there was some rain, and it's cool and grey and soothing again today. Small victories!

Cat polishing: I made Cassie a Catster page.

Opened the bedroom door and the dogs and I trooped in. Spike was tight as a coiled spring, the tips of his ears vibrating with cat-love, and Squish kept wanting to yap in happy excitement, but they lay on the bed with me and behaved. Cassie hissed when we came in the room, and sat on the windowsill making her indescribable growly/grumbly/whiny/complaint noise at the dogs. I've never heard a noise remotely like that come out of any feline. I'll have to get her to do it near the computer for you before she gets too used to the dogs and gives it up.

We lay there for a while, the dogs being good, although Spike's bright-eyed fixed stare never left her, and I talked in random soothing sentences, making a point of using her name, stroked her, stroked the dogs and yawned a lot. Cassiopeia fell silent and I saw her silhouette behind the curtains relax and her ears come forward, though she showed no sign of leaving the windowsill.

Stayed like that for a while and then trooped out with the dogs. Will leave her in peace for the night.