A spring lamb...

I have a wee little problem I went in the kitchen early hours Saturday morning, to make a cup of tea. I discovered I do not have a catflap anymore. It's not outside, it is not inside so maybe something else has a bigger problem than I have.

No idea what it was.
I have 5 trail cameras. The two in the back garden didn't have sd cards in because it wasn't safe for me to go out in that deep snow. The one in the front room window which is inside, only picks up front garden and front door, but there was nothing on that. The kitchen one which is inside facing the street, picks up driveway and delivery vans parking and there was nothing on that one. The other kitchen one which is inside the window, but faces a completely different direction catches what the delivery man does to my parcel, and there was nothing on that one.

So I don't have one trained on the actual cat flap....

I thought, I am going to have to go out and get a new catflap. So as soon as daylight came along, I got ready to go out. But I still have the problem of all the slippery snow outside my kitchen door all the way to the car. And my road still looks as if a tanker had dumped a tanker load of icy slush puppie drinks. I knew I had some crampons somewhere so I had to look for them. I found them, but have you ever tried getting those things on your shoes?

There was no parking available near the shop, so I was going to a coffee shop, then try again, but then parked outside The Original Factory Shop. Thought I would have a peek. I am so glad I did.

I have some rubber honeycomb mats in front of the swing, because the sun never reaches there, and it is slippery any way. These were ones for a horse's stable. But something wrecked most of them about 10 years ago. I presume now that it was a badger. I went back to the country store, but I couldn't afford to replace them. Anyway, guess what? There was a pile of rubber honeycomb mats in the shop I had parked outside of! And they were reasonably priced (exactly the same on Amazon was 3 times as much).

I bought the lot! They are now outside in strategic places where I have slipped before (but not fallen over), and also on the kitchen step where I did slip on the snow. And I would like some more, possibly to go around my container vegetable garden. I'll have a look online, to see if they deliver!

Cat flap? I have cobbled something up in the meantime. I taped something on the sides, and it had a curtain flapping away over it last night. But I didn't have the heart to block the cat flap, because the weather was so foul all night, alternately heavy snow, raining, sleeting, snowing...and I have refilled those cat biscuits twice so far in the night. I think that flapping cloth might deter some of the wild nighttime beasts..

When I came back from the shops with the rubber mats, I was getting them in the kitchen but as I turned round I saw a bushy fox's tail disappearing out of view. In daytime?!? I was blaming the badger for the broken cat flap, but maybe it was the fox trying to get in the kitchen?

I was tired when I got back, so snuggled in bed with the electric throw, a flask of tea, and Midnight. But, I did put the sd cards in the back garden cameras first, and the dry cat biscuits on the swing, filled the sparrows fatball feeders, and threw some cat biscuits for the foxes, but before I had got in, Mr Blackbird brought in all his mates, and they were having a party polishing off the cat biscuits I had thrown down for the foxes....

Wildlife nighttime cameras - these showed a lot of activity last night, cats and the fox.
First of all was the fox, and he quickly takes away an egg carefully in his mouth.
Then the fox is mooching around.
He is startled and hides in the bushes for a bit.
If my editing looks a bit abrupt at times, it's because it is at the end of that two minute clip that the trail camera records.
Along comes Jade to feed off the biscuits on the swing seat. But she is challenged by the bully cat Marmalade...
If both cameras, on either end of the swing record the same scene, I will sometimes put them both in the video and this enables me to see the same incident from another view point.
Jade defends her position on the dry cat biscuits, but Marmalade forces her off the swing.
Then Merlin appears, but he looks nervous, unsure of what to do.
Finally, he takes his position in the middle of the swing and stays there for the rest of the night. You cannot see him very well if the swing is to the left of the video, he is tucked right back, but he is there for the rest of the night, about six hours. There are falling lumps of snow from the swing roof.
The fox appears, and Merlin has words with him.
There are two foxes there at one point.
And then a surprise. Midnight had been on my bed inside until this point, but he suddenly chose to go outside and you can see him here, looking almost tenderly at Merlin. Midnight puts his front paws on the swing and looks at Merlin as if to reassure him and that he's doing a good job. That's my interpretation of what I see. And then you can see the same scene from the camera on the other side of the swing, and to me reinforces what I feel. (Midnight comes back inside to bed with me, and I have a soggy wet cat with snow falling on me in bed...)
Then along comes a new cat, that I have never seen before. It is a black tomcat. And Merlin has some words to say to him and the black tomcat, who looks a little bit worse for wear slowly backs down. And Merlin goes over to check the scent on the bedding on the swing of this new tom cat.
Then there is a weird effect on the screen in the middle of the top, looks like spirit of some sort, but I think it is a water drop running down the lens of a trail camera.
Jade returns for some food.
Merlin finally leaves, and Marmalade comes back for some of the dry cat biscuits on the swing.

https://youtu.be/BBlL9g1hLsE


Creative is a digital painting of a spring lamb in Procreate...

Have your best day for you today.

Time for one of my countless cuppas...

Edit : And you will be delighted to know, I found the remains of the missing cat flap in the back garden as the snow is melting...
I have taped some of it to the cat flap hole, simply to make the hole smaller, but the curtain is still flapping, but it is not fazing Midnight, nor Jade, nor Merlin...