Laboscope app

Midnight was waiting as usual on the swing for his breakfast yesterday (Thursday) morning. The usual loving from him. And he ate his favourite bits from the cat diner. Then settled on the cooler end of the swing for a sleep.

Then I returned to my bed with a coffee and a tea...

I got to drink them hot as there was very little activity in the garden. This is a little too quiet for early morning for me. I was out most of the day before, and went to bed when I got home. The traffic gridlock was already beginning Wednesday afternoon (we are the entrance to Wales from England here), and with the heat, that had finished me off completely by the time I got home.

So, I don't know whatever activity happened in my garden during the day when I was out on Wednesday.

No sign of Little Miss (teenage sparrow), but she had been spending more time with the Bluetits.

So, Mr Blackbird was next, in the absence of Little Miss. He got on the chair a couple of feet in front Midnight (who is on the swing), and is squawking absolutely furiously at him. One foul temper Mr Blackbird has. Midnight has never done anything to Mr Blackbird, so why all this absolute aggression from Mr Blackbird. I have have never seen a blackbird so close to a cat before and not end up a pile of feathers on the ground...

Still no sign of Little Miss by 8:45 am.

One of the Merlins (ginger cats) has fed.

And I am anxiously awaiting to see sight of Little Miss...

Second Merlin has now fed also.

It has the promise of a hot day, and the cats and birds do go to ground for the day when it is hot, and often don't emerge until the coolness of evening.

Midday, and in comes sweeping Mr&Mrs Bluetit and their three cheerful boisterous babies, to feed. They were great to watch. But where is Little Miss, (teenage sparrow, acting as an extra mum/au pair to those baby bluetits)? I am waiting for her. Then suddenly, in she flew. Now I am happy, my mind is at rest. Little Miss has put a smile on my face...she brightens up my day. Yesterday, at least, Little Miss has abandoned keeping Mr Blackbird out of this garden. Her energies are more usefully expended elsewhere, in helping keeping those baby bluetits safe. They all spent the day between the bushy leaves and the fat ball feeders. Those baby bluetits are growing up very fast. Little Miss left the garden at supper time when the Bluetit family left...

But before that, Mr Blackbird was loitering in the long grass making his presence and whereabouts very apparent. Then there were some skirmishes, and blackbird wings flapping above the long grass but I am unable to see what is going on, except Mr Blackbird does fly out of the grass in one piece.

I initially panicked and check the number of bluetits, check Little Miss, and check Midnight, but they are all are present and correct.

Then I realised, this is where the mouse nest is. I Google 'Do blackbirds catch mice?' A baby mouse wouldn't be beyond a blackbird's skill repertoire, would it? And it turns out apparently blackbirds can catch mice. But they can catch frogs as well. It wasn't a snail or a slug because this was a bit of a longer battle with flapping wings.

Creative today is my Acer leaves in a kaleidoscope with Laboscope. Silhouettes are Midnight and Shadow.

Time for a cuppa.

Oh, and by the way, the bin men did come yesterday morning (Thursday) for the bags of recycle and the general waste wheelie. And I got a shock. The road was absolutely spotless. The road and pavement normally looks like a general waste tip after the bin men have been. I suppose they had been told to clear up after themselves because of the Jubilee celebrations yesterday.

Why can't it be like this every week? Many years ago, they did clear the rubbish they dropped from the items they emptied.



A LITTLE BIT EXTRA:
Jade: She was one of my stray cats I was befriending in 2021. And like Shadow she was in my garden every day. Her and Shadow got on with each other, asked for food together,and would eat within a couple of feet of each other.

Just before Christmas 2021 Jade suddenly went missing. Then a few weeks ago, the day I had the bad experience in the pharmacy and I came home exhausted, went to bed and to sleep for the afternoon. I had woken up and thought, oh no, a new stray black cat, which was very hungry and gulping up wet cat food. Then I thought, hang on, it looks familiar. I saw some white on its legs, and then some on its chest and face as it turned round. It was Jade. She ran off as soon as she saw me, but not before I realised half her left ear was missing, as if it had been cut off with a pair of scissors. It was a big jolt and an enormous shock to my system. She was so perfect before.

What had happened there? I Google 'why a left ear cut off'. Answer, because under TNR (Trap Neuter Release), they are supposed to take just the tip of the ear off, or put a nick in the ear, to show it has been neutered. And then apparently they (whoever 'they' are), release the cat back into the district where it was found. Well, this wasn't just the tip, it was half her ear.

Then I realised, it was also Midnight's left ear that was also half off, and I had assumed it was a fight. So, I managed to take a close up photo of Midnight's left ear (by putting food on the other side of my glass door, I couldn't have gotten near him then), and it was cut off (presumably to say he was neutered), just like Jade's ear. Too much had been cut off both cats, it must affect their hearing, and sense of balance.

I was furious. I was upset for Jade. And more. I can understand the tip of the ear to say it has been neutered (but I still don't like that mutilation of the cat's ear). If I had ranted about that day online, I wouldn't have stopped. I had found out on Google that many household pets are taken in this way, not just feral cats. Jade was not feral when she went missing. She was a timid cat. And when a family pet finally makes its way back home, after it has been released being neutered and now with a sliced off ear, the children are very upset, and so the family pet cat then gets rejected. There was a lot more to this too.

The cat societies apparently check for microchipping, and if none, or the address is not up to date, then they go ahead and neuter the cats, and cut their ears. And release them somewhere.

Another thing that made me mad was that the cats are supposed to be released near back where they found them (according to different sites, each one says something slightly different), but what about food? If they belonged to someone, there was a good chance they might be rejected when they returned home. Who provides those cats food? They are not all mousers or hunters. And then, what about the wild life or birds for the cats who are hunters. They need to eat somehow.

I am not going to argue, nor enter a discussion whether euthanasia or TNR is the best option. I don't have an answer to that.

Where was Jade the last 5 months? Where was she released back to? Has she been making her way back here all that time? She is still here a few weeks later, but remains hidden most of the time, and sneaks around. I occasionally catch a glimpse of her by the cat food dishes. She tries to drag the wet cat food to the undergrowth and eat it hidden. But then she discovered that I am still putting Shadow's food in the double cat dish, daily in the front room...just in case (I haven't completely let go of Shadow yet). I accidentally disturbed Jade eating the other day in the front room, but she fled. Then a few days ago, I had just put my Cochlear Hearing Processor on, and was sitting on my bed, and I am over sensitive to any incoming sound first thing in the morning (I had already fed Midnight, and put Shadow's food in the front room, and so the study door was open to the garden), and I could hear a cat eating the cat biscuits. I waited, then Jade popped her head round my door frame, and I spoke for a few moments. She was okay with that. But the second I began to get off the bed, Jade fled.

I think that is up to date on the cat situation here...