George keeps himself busy – when he’s not guarding us against whatever it is that lives at the bottom of the stairs, he is playing with a variety of things – sometimes things intended for cats to play with, but more often than not pieces of chopped vegetable that have escaped the chopping board, or bits of twigs or feathers that he’s brought in.

He still does his thing – whatever it is he’s playing with – of catching and cupping it in his paw, then smacking it with the other paw so he can chase it. And he still plays football with the little rubber ball that rebounds off the walls, passing it back to whoever is playing with him.

And, of course, sometimes he does the cat thing of manically tearing round the house for no reason whatsoever…

But when he’s done all of that, he is very good at relaxing, as these pictures show. The brilliant one of him lying on the kitchen floor and looking straight at the camera was of course taken by my niece Katy, and not by me!