Basement Cat!

I had a bad night last night so I didn't wake very early, but about 8.50 I heard some strange noises, which I thought was cats scratching at something unfamiliar, plus some odd hiss and grunting.

I sat up just in time to see a beautiful black cat disappearing out of the bedroom door, which is always left open a few inches for cats.  Morgan was off after him, and Bramble wandered back into the room going "Duh!  Woss goin' on?"

I rushed out to find Basement Cat sitting in the passage;  he went spare when he saw me but couldn't get down the stairs because Phoebe was spitting at him from the top step.  He leapt through the banisters to a position a few steps down and dashed downstairs where he found John  John followed him along the corridor and lost him; later he found Basement Cat under the display unit in the hall, besieged by three cats;  he hadn't noticed him before, in the shadow.  John chased them off and Basement Cat exited through the kitchen and the back door like a streak of black lightning.

I do wish he was ours.  He was soooo beautiful, a completely black shorthair without a trace of white and elegantly slender.

I've pointed out to John that if we had put the new cat-flap in, a strange cat would be unable to get in because he would need a magnet on his collar.  This made him rather grumpy as it's a sore subject because when he put the first cat-flap in, he cut the hole much too large and it was only just possible to fit the existing door.  So we need a new back door, for the new cat flap, because the design has changed and John won't even try to find one.  I know we probably can't afford a new one, but we might find one at a breaker's, or whatever those people who hoard bits of old house are called;  we might even find a Victorian one, which would be a bonus.

I've now got kitten-broody, but I'm not allowed another one;  it's so unfair, because a completely black shorthair was exactly what I wanted when I got Bramble instead, and Morgan wasn't even planned but was passed on to us by people who didn't, after all, want a dear little kitten in their lives.  I love all my pussy cats, but there is a black-cat-shaped hole in my life!

It's still bl**dy freezing here.  I shall get dressed in my winter uniform in a few minutes, because I want to go into the back yard to plant my basil in a couple of bigger pots before it starts raining again.  I have to get up so that I can start off pot-roasting the beef in my slow cooker.