25th February
Pablo the rescue cat had to be booked in at the vets as he seemed to have something wrong with his eye. I made an appointment at the Barn Animal Hospital and, with a bit of a struggle, I managed to get him into the pet carrier and off to see the vet. Pablo was diagnosed with an eye infection and I was given tablets and drops for him. Our vet had a final year student with her, and when I regaled her with tales of Pablo’s recent exploits of pond dipping and cable biting she seemed suitably impressed. I wasn’t impressed however to find out that the underfed waif we had taken in last July from the RSPCA, was now considered to be overweight. I assured the vet that he was only fed on the “light” version of the dried food recommended by them (and weighed out accurately by Spencer every morning), and that he had no other treats. I was given dietary advice on how to slim him down to the required weight, and told to report back next week to see how he was doing.
As I reported to Spencer later, as if I didn’t have enough to contend with, trying to ensure that Spencer and I can still fit in our last year’s clothes, now I have to watch the cat as well. It was puzzling how he was getting so fat (Pablo I mean). It is no mystery about Spencer.
27th February
Spencer went to fetch a Saturday paper from Tesco Extra and on the way back met Pablo hiding under our next door neighbour’s car. As Spencer bent down to see what Pablo was doing, John our neighbour appeared and thought that there was something wrong with his car. Spencer quickly reassured him and explained about Pablo being on a diet, and us wondering how we were going to achieve the desired weight loss. John said that he had a really good idea that he was sure would work for Pablo, and that was that he was planning to install a new magnetic cat flap on his back door to replace the one that had been broken by a cat that was coming in and pinching their cat’s food. When Spencer let himself into the Manor later with his paper he was a little red faced. As I remarked later, perhaps Spencer should install a padlock on the biscuit tin as that might have a similar effect on the human occupants of the Manor.