George at two

He’s as eccentric as ever. Those of you who have followed his career will know that a pastime of his was to listen for the paperboy opening the garden gate in order to rush to the front door in time for the paper to fall. Sometimes it fell on him, and perhaps that’s what prompted the change, but these days he waits until he hears it come through the letterbox, and then he runs to the door to find the paper lying there, doing nothing very interesting. So he looks at it boredly, and goes to back to wherever he was. Why? Don’t ask me.

But he loves anything that comes through a slot. Mail and newspapers coming through the letterbox, tapes and DVDs being ejected, paper coming out of the printer or the fax – he rushes over to the TV when he hears the sound of a tape being run back, for instance, because that could mean that it will be ejected, and he’ll get to watch.

There’s news on the Greta front. (For new visitors, Greta is the white cat that has lived rough round here for years, and was named Greta by us because of a Pete and Dud sketch.) We have a new neighbour who moved in complete with two cats of her own: Chloe, a tortoiseshell whom I’ve never seen because she doesn’t go out, and Trouble, a lovely pale-ginger tom, as you can see from the photo.

Anyway, she took Greta in and renamed him Rogue, which I agree is a little more appropriate for a tomcat than the name we gave him. So he at last has a proper home, but he still visits – he and George more or less take turn about on that big cushion, as you can see. In fact, I saw George thinking of joining Rogue on it the other day – I hope he does, and that I can get a photo of it. All the cats get along just fine with each other, which is nice.

Although you might not know it from the photos, we do have a man who comes to mow the lawn and trim the hedges – it’s just that since it won’t stop raining, he hasn’t been able to work all that often. Anyway, when he’s due I put down a runner from the kitchen door to the back door (there being no way to our back garden but through the house) so that he can bring his mower through. On a recent visit, George decided to be a speed bump, and for once he actually stayed there while I went and got the camera.

And he even stayed long enough looking at himself on the computer screen for me to get a photo of that. I swear he knows it’s a picture of him.