Hello Mabel!

Hello Mabel, are you able
To come out today?
It's a lovely day
Won't you come and stay?


Mabel the Rescue Cat has come to stay. I think she likes living with us, but distinctly on her own terms.

And one term is that she doesn't have to like us very much.

Mabel is beautiful but she can only tolerate us in small quantities. In the morning, when I come downstairs to make coffee she is ecstatically pleased to see me and writhes around my ankles, purring and vibrating her tail and butting me with her hard little head.

Once she sees what's on the plate, my glamour wears off and that's it - until there is another chance of food.

Mabel had been allowed to get very fat while out at fostering. Frankly she looked like a small black Gladstone bag on dainty little feet. We had to promise the RSPCA only to feed her a very small amount.

And we are good and do just that. Mabel cannot believe our stupidity.

So she tends to come and sit close to us, but turn her back very ostentatiously indeed. It has taken me four months to get a picture of her facing towards me.

(And, incidentally, despite the diet, she still looks like a small black Gladstone bag on slim little black legs. Six Dinner Sid could take lessons from Mabel.)