Hi Annie
Some cats are just special aren’t they and sad that they just sometimes aren’t around so long. My old cat, years ago, was a lovely boy, but he only lived until 7. He got some horrid blood parasite how or where from I’ve no idea. It is amazing how such small animals can have such big characters and presence.
Sounds like the blackbird had a lucky escape. I haven’t seen the sparrowhawk here for a while, but I expect one of them will be back. I think they are clever enough to know not to target one garden too long at a time.
There are a few hogs around, but they are being very annoying and mostly turning up very late at night. I have managed to get a few to come before 11, so I can actually see them. Most of the ones I have seen so far are last year’s hoglets and one of the big boys. He has taken to dashing in eating for a few seconds and dashing off again. I don’t know whether he has found a female. I haven’t seen any of the older girls yet, but one of last year’s early hoglets may be a female. I saw ‘her’ sharing a bowl with the big boy, one night and he usually biffs any other male in sight. Really good that it seems all 3 of the early hoglets are back.
I seem to have acquired another rat. Very annoying. It’s ok when I’m still up to chase it away from the food, but feel I have to leave a bit out for the late hogs. There was a very old looking rat around a while back – the one that used to go into hoglet’s nest box. One morning I went to check the box and the poor old rat was curled up dead in hoglet’s nest. Rats are the one animal I don’t really like, but I was glad it found a nice cosy place to curl up and die. I hoped the place might be rat free for a while, but no. The current one seems to have something wrong with one eye as only one shines in the light from the camera. Needless to say, I haven’t seen a single one of the 6 different cats which have visited through the winter!
Hoglet, who is called Horace at the moment, I think is one of the hogs turning up late. Horace was apparently a hedgehog character in Rupert Bear stories, although I didn’t know that when I thought of it. I’m still not sure it’s the right name, but I can’t keep calling him hoglet forever! I have been leaving kitten biscuits in his feed box, but interestingly, he seems to have stopped eating those and prefers the hog food.
Fingers crossed for you that some hogs appear soon. It’s still early yet, so still time.
