Little b*st*rd

Today was the big day ... after showing Mystère the garden over the last few days, we let him out to explore. I did what I normally do, didn't give him any breakfast so that hunger would naturally draw him back. In the ten years we've been toting him around Spain, we have expectations ...he'll go off to explore for half an hour to an hour, then come back to check we're still there and have breakfast.

As expected, he hopped nimbly over the wall into the neighbour's extensive garden, disappeared into the bushes, and then didn't come back. After waiting ten minutes S went off into town with the very extensive shopping list while I waited in for Mystère.

The rest of the day saw several increasingly wide-ranging and anxious searches of the neighbourhood. No sign of him. At one point I heard a meow, spotted a black cat silhouette, and was extremely peeved when it turned to reveal a white face.

Monsieur silently strolled in as cool as a cucumber at 7 pm ... so nine and a half hours after we last saw him. Unlike us he was not remotely stressed and didn't even appear particularly hungry, though he did accept the inevitable reward of poached hake. Perhaps he had found the other cat's food supply. S says I should have more faith in him -- he is a smart cookie. So I changed my tune and told him he was a good boy, not a little b*st*rd.  Now he's studiously ignoring us.

In the late afternoon I distracted myself by driving into town to pick up my parcel -- the mifi router. It's a tiny thing, smaller than a smartphone, and requires zero setting up. Just switch it on, wait for it to boot up, and connect your devices to it like a normal wifi network. So far I'm impressed. And hopefully I can catch up with your blips over the next few days.