We all had fun today...

Ripley and Izzi live in a state of cautious neutrality, with the peace brokered by Fenda and the human inhabitants of the house. Izzi is top cat, but as she is half the size of Ripley, and getting quite old and creaky, he just has to try it on regularly. She sleeps with one eye half open, and will take a position on the sofa in the corner of the living room, with her back the window, to observe all the doors to the room. Ripley can't come in without her noticing, and although he sits and looks at her longingly, she always gets the highest position, and scares him off without too much trouble.

Anyway, today was warm and dry, and I took the chance to open the living room windows to give the room an airing. Izzi was dozing on the sofa, and didn't see Ripley jump out of the window and into the front garden. I thought nothing of it, it's easy for him to get out of the window, but he's never managed to jump high and wide enough to get back in again the same way.... until today. He spotted the stray peacock that has been hanging out in the cul-de-sac, bushed up his tail, and leaped back in via the window in a state of total bewilderment. BIG BIRD alert!

Being a caring sharing sort of cat, his first stop after a brief landing on the window ledge was a quick visit to the top of the sofa. Izzi was horrified, suddenly waking up to the fact that Ripley had arrived from a totally unexpected direction, in a state of high excitement. Poor old Ripley just wanted to tell her about the BIG BIRD, but Izzi took things the wrong way, and boxed his ears.

Of course, this made things worse, and Ripley fell off the couch and went to tell Fenda about the BIG BIRD and the NASTY CAT. Fenda usually greets Ripley with a big sloppy nose rub, but this time she was confused by the noise and the huge tail, and gave him another good ear boxing. Poor old Ripley ran upstairs, and took refuge under the computer.

I've got a sound file of a peacock .... now should I be really mean and play it?

Copyright © Jeanette Greaves
March 27, 2001