Polly is better!

To continue from last week's post on family pets, I mentioned that Polly had been to the vet because she wasn't well.  Well, I'm happy to say she's back to her usual loud self, eating and functioning normally again.  Phew, thank goodness!

Here's Polly last evening, taken with my camera phone.  We were having a game before bedtime :-D

I still don't know what was wrong with her,  The water infection theory doesn't seem to fit somehow, though being a little stressed does.  There's a new 'cat-on-the-block' who's paying her rather a lot of attention.  Polly doesn't take easily to other cats and is normally quick to see them off, but this one seems a little different.  We think its male, so we keep referring to it as 'he'.  The reason being he's a bit of a hunk!  Drop dead gorgeous, all black with vivid green eyes and a bit muscly.  We've called him Dave.

This is Dave....

He gives Polly every indication that she's the boss, even though he sneaks in when she's not looking and helps himself to her cat biscuits.  If she sees him, she doesn't chase him off, just leaves him to get on with it.  He then rolls on his back in front of her and as a result there's very little animosity between them.  UNLESS the cat mint is involved!

We have a tub with some growing and Dave loves to jump in it and sit in there licking all the leaves.  He then jumps out if Polly is near as if he's made way for her jump in.  She doesn't.  She prefers me to pull a sprig off for her to have a little chew on then she rubs her face in it.  She makes the strangest noises and drools all over the sprig.  The white fur round her face turns a bizarre shade of nuclear green but she's not vain - she's more of a 'who cares if I have green stuff stuck to me face' sort of gal.  No pride, that one.

So, in my usual misguided way two days ago, I pulled off a sprig of cat mint for both cats, setting them a distance apart.  Both were happy to get stuck in, until Polly decided Dave's looked juicier than hers, and went to take it.  For the first time, I saw Dave assert himself and he cuffed Pol's ear!  There was a moment or two of caterwauling before things settled down, then Polly chased Dave off down the driveway.  He didn't appear again until this morning, coming to call for her as usual.  She was very wary of him but eventually went out, sat by the garden gate and gave him warning signals to keep his distance.  The last I saw of them as I headed out to work an hour later was the pair of them sitting together on the patio.

OK, I've digressed a bit though I think it was necessary in order to paint the picture of why Polly might be a bit stressed.  She's getting used to having another cat call round on a regular basis, and I think it hasn't sat easily with her.  Perhaps she'll get used to him eventually, after all she lets him eat her biscuits!