When we went away on hols, one of the cats, Ninja, decided to go walkabout. He did this when we were on holiday last October. He was missing for between 2 and 3 weeks, and we had just about given up on him. Then one morning he turned up out of the blue. This Saturday he will have been missing for 4 weeks…. So, last week when Nikki phoned Tricia, and said that the manager at the Homebase Nikki works at, had a cat which had produced kittens which they were looking to get rid off….. she couldn’t resist.

So we now have Lily, and two new kittens… so back to 3 cats. Lily disapproves, and shows her disapproval by hissing at the kittens. And of course there is still the possibility that Ninja may turn up. And then there will be 4.

Anyhow here are the two new pets. I refer to them as the ‘stinky minkies’.. but to be fair to them, they have been using the cat tray pretty much straight away, so no complaints on that count yet.

Here they are sleeping on a shelf in the unit in the conservatory, which is pretty much where they live at the moment. There was perfectly good cat baskets to sleep in, but no they chose a pine unit. When we are happy they are to be relied upon with the cat litter tray, we will let them explore a bit more.

They don’t have names yet, one is going to be Dave or Daisy, the other Todd or Tabitha or Scamp.. They are about twelve weeks old.

The above photo is the minkies playing in the conservatory. The below photo is Nikki’s leg, which is gradually healing. The scrape on her ankle is the one taking time to heal, as it keeps getting rubbed by footwear.

Rob is a bit down in the dumps, he and his girlfriend had a falling out and split up. But, he is back to school tomorrow and looking forward to meeting up with his mates and getting stuck into his art and graphics again. Ellie had a wobbly tooth come out this week, and has a bruised arm where she ‘fell off’ a slide at the park… she wasn’t messing about she says .

Tricia went and bought a few million jars today, and then one of the villagers dropped off some bags of plums and apples from their trees, so it looks like she will be busy on chutney making over the next few days.

I went to the doctors today. I have been struggling with a back problem for the last two months. The doctor reckons I slipped a disk  but that it is healing nicely… might explain why I could barely walk at some points. Perhaps I should have gone earlier. It is definately on the mend, but it is still sensitive and I know I can’t risk lifting anything at the moment. I am going to be given some physio for strengthening the core back muscles… to help avoid doing the same in the future.