Something has happened in the world of the garden cats, though I don’t know what.  It seems there has been some sort of change in the pecking order.

Three ‘kittens’ (they’re coming up to three years old now) still come daily to be fed and often their father comes too.  Zain cat, the tabby, who is a lovely cat, hasn’t been for a few weeks.  When Chip came to live here, Rummy was unhappy and took it out on them.  Zain wasn’t intimidated; though he isn’t aggressive at all he will not run away, but just stands calmly, protecting his siblings.  But I suspect he’s quietly taken himself off to a new territory, although I hope he’ll look in sometimes, because I am very fond of him.  I doubt he’s been run over, I never see those cats on the road and there are many other places for them to go, I’m not worried about him though I miss him.

Of the three remaining, the two black boys, Fred and Barney, are nervous of Rummy, especially Barney, who is the most timid of them all.  When Rummy was in a mood, I had to feed them further away as they wouldn’t come to the normal spot.  Recently, he’s been much better and has not taken much notice of them, though I had to feed the boys down in the other place yesterday afternoon.  This morning, I gave Fred, Barney and their sister Betty their breakfast and then gave Rummy his – and then Betty jumped up near him.  He looked shifty and uncertain.  I put another plate of food down for her and she started to eat, a couple of yards from Rummy and he looked around, to find Fred staring at him from another four or five yards away and he didn’t stare back, but looked away.  Then they all started eating and I left.

This afternoon, Fred stood in front of Rummy and neither let him past nor ran away.  There was no aggression, just a firm attitude.  And later when they were all eating, Betty appeared near Rummy and he jumped and moved away for a minute.  Rose says that Rummy stayed out all night and it seems that there was some discussion between cats.  I haven’t seen father RasPutin, but he doesn’t come every day.  I fed him yesterday and saw him again later in the garden.

I give them dry cat food and also tinned and usually buy the latter at the Co op.  They won’t touch their own brand dry food, but they would eat the tinned.  A few weeks ago, it must have been changed because they no longer liked the Co op tinned cat food in gravy.  It was clearly poorer quality, as the price changed.  The sort in jelly became more expensive than that in gravy.  So I bought the one in jelly – but recently, they’ve been leaving that too.  These aren’t fussy cats, they’re feral ones that are normally grateful for any sort of food, so it must be poor indeed.  LT has come back with Waitrose cat food and Rose has bought some from Tesco.  I’d been having to buy the expensive branded stuff.  Because I obviously can’t possibly tell them to like it or lump it, can I?