Guilty Pleasures

Yesterday evening our friend Ian brought us this tiny kitten not knowing what had happened with Borg in the morning.

She had been seen with her mother at the house where he is working but then mum hadn't been around for a day.

The timing isn't great but there you are.

We have managed to get her eating at first from the end of a finger and now from a dish.

She has been to the vets today for de-worming and de-fleaing and has been pronounced a healthy six weekish tigre gris (grey tabby?).

TS is calling her Mo I'm calling her Mi-Mo. ( much as I admire Mo Mowlam I just can't see the resemblance. Although she is very fiesty).

Tasha wants her for her very own puppy despite the hissing and growling. Sissy thinks she's spooky "she's small but she's not far away!"

Cool Cats Drugs and Chicks

We took Borg back to the vets today for his check up. This weekend we had been worried about him as he couldn't find a comfortable position to sleep and he looked really depressed.

However over the last couple of days he has managed to sleep and has perked up to the extent that he is giving the dogs black looks even if he can't be bothered to swot them and he is going upstairs to find a sunny spot on the bed to kip. At his age we can't expect a full recovery but as long as he is happy I'll keep drugging his food. I'm getting so good at it that Tech Support is starting to wonder just what goes into his meals as some days he finds he does exactly what he's told without realising.

The chickens have discovered that they can get out of their run. Well actually it's just Dolly and her mate Jean at the moment. Anita and Twink are not so adventurous. Luckily they are happy for us to go and pick them up so no comedy chicken capers yet. Tomorrow we will have to sort out a move for them. Their run is looking a bit bald and the grass is definately greener on the other side. They'll be on the lunch menu next door if they hop over that fence .

We noticed our first little peppers forming today so we are full of anticipation for the culinary delights to come. I've told the tomatoes they've got some catching up to do.

Vets in France

Today has been a bit crap. We had to take Borg to the vets. He seemed to be panting a bit yesterday and what we had thought was a growing spare tyre increased in size dramatically. It was out with the dictionary first thing this morning to look up breathing difficulties, swollen stomach, appointment, today, as soon as possible, and so we got our first experience of French vets (who to our relief spoke excellent english). They kept him in for tests and it seems his heart is enlarged and he is retaining fluid. We have been calling him a lazy fat git and the poor old love has got a dicky ticker. Que guilt trip.

So we have had an anxious day where basically all we have done is driven him up there come back and poked around and stuff then driven back to pick him up all the while expecting the worse. Even when we saw the vet tonight and he showed us the ultrasound and the fluid he had drawn off I was thinking "Yes this is leading up to the nothing can be done speech". But we have some tablets for the fluid and some for his heart so we'll keep our fingers crossed that he starts slapping the dogs around again soon. By the way all the above, consultation, ultrasound, drugs came in at 79 euros much cheaper I think than our old vets in the UK.

The chooks have excelled themselves by delivering four eggs today except that they've taken to sleeping in the nest box and laying their eggs on the floor in the middle of their house. We've given half a dozen to Madame next door to store up some goodwill for when they decide to raid her veg plot.