Monday, July 13, 2009
The trouble with going to Corsica
The handsome chap on the right is not a Corsican cat. Stanley is every inch an English cat, but has somehow managed to become a subject for scrutiny in this otherwise very Mediterranean diary.
Like so many other families, we have to find somewhere for our cats to stay when we go to our favourite island. Could we leave them both at home and get our kind neighbours to feed them while we are away? I'm afraid not. Our cats, Coco and Stanley (seen here taking his ease) do not get on.
Coco, a petite Burmese weighing in at a modest 3.5 kg, despises Stanley with a deep and consummate loathing. There is a good deal of hissing and spitting when they meet. Stanley, a robust neutered tom displacing the scales at a little over 7 kg, enjoys chasing Coco to all ends of the house - a house which they both regard as exclusively theirs. Needless to say it's an unequal contest and encounters usually end in catty tears.
So we have effectively divided the house in two, with Stanley in charge of the back (lounge, back hall, downstairs bedroom and catflap) and Coco roaming the front (kitchen, dining room and upstairs most of the time).
And when we go away, they have to be housed separately. Coco retires to the safety of a cattery and Stanley stays at home, looked after by our friends next door. It kind of works but it's expensive and causes us a lot of grief. Anybody got any ideas?
