TheBanyanTree: Every Morning

[Roger Pye]

(Eight months have passed since the kittens joined us. I think they will 
always be 'the kittens'! As in 'The Kittens Are Hungry' Woodstock tells 
us three times a day (breakfast, dinner and supper times) without them 
lifting a paw themselves.)

Every morning the Alarmcat wakes us some time between 6 am and 7.30 
depending on the season or the amount of light coming through the 
windows. The Alarmcat = Caspar the black cat named after one of the Wise 
Men, black all over except for the largest golden eyes imaginable, a 
plumber in a former life (drinks water by dipping a paw in the bowl and 
lifting it to her mouth, sleeps on occasion in the bathroom sink etc) 
and terrified of storms - but nothing else. Certainly not kittens.

Backing up the paw lightly stroking my face is a drumming noise from the 
laundry and, separately, a bokking/clattering sound from the garden. I 
get up, put slippers on and trundle off to the kitchen. The indoor 
companions all get dry food. Hills science diet biscuits (senior) go 
into Caspar's yellow dish on the freezer, Advance small breed dog 
biscuits into Miss Ruby's silvery dish on the floor. Whilst they're 
eating I put Whiskas junior cat biscuits into a double blue dish on the 
floor. When the Yorkie exits stage right I open the laundry door, the 
drumming of paws on it is curtailed and two bundles of tabbiness pour 
into the kitchen heading for the blue dish. Woodstock briefly follows 
until I put his magnesium free senior biscuits in his green dish and 
close the door so he may eat in peace, as deserves the patriarch.

When they've finished the biscuits they all get a little milk though 
Woodstock blatantly and Caspar surreptitiously both leave a bit of it 
for 'the kittens'.

Then I go outside and liberate the four Isa Brown chooks!

roger