When the cat’s away…

Actually, the cat is not away. It’s the dog that’s away – on a family road trip. And, while the dog’s away, the cat is here.

Yes, it is the latest move in the attempt to make Maisie happy here. Brought her over here the day after man and dog departed. I did not carry the cage up to the bedroom. I put it down on the floor in the hall and opened the door for her. She came out, looked around, spotted the open spare room door and went in there to get under the bed.

It didn’t take her long to figure out That Dog wasn’t here. Out she came for a proper sniff around. And she quickly found her way upstairs to the food bowl. I think we can say she likes it here – without That Dog. Curled up on my lap when I’m watching television in the evening. Stretched out on my legs when I’m reading in bed. On the pillow beside my head when I wake up. No sign of bed wetting. (I did bring my duvet over, so it would be familiar.) The only thing that seems to bother her is not being able to get outside on the balcony (where, I am quite confident, she wouldn’t stay long).

When they get back on Tuesday, I am sure Ember will go ape shit at the realisation that That Cat has been all over the house. Yes, Ember, the cat is going to be all over the house. We just need to figure out how to make That Dog and That Cat accept one another’s presence.

Elsewhere in the house…

Some time ago, before we went to France, long before I viewed this house as a prospective home, I told him the colour of the downstairs bathroom had to go. It was baby diarrhoea green. I wasn’t pushing an alternative colour agenda. I just couldn’t bear that particular colour. Told him to pick an alternative and I would come over and paint it myself. Which I did.

Post France, post the decision to work towards co-habiting, there was another bathroom problem. The ensuite bathroom was beige. One morning I woke up smiling from a dream I’d had about the bathroom being a different colour and two framed posters of mine hanging on the walls. I told him about the dream and how happy it made me. He said he had no problem with the framed posters, but wondered what the problem was with the colour of the walls.

“They’re beige,” I told him.

“No, they’re not,” he said. “The colour is ‘spring green’.”

“In your dreams,” I told him. “The room is beige.”

Not anymore.

Okay, very odd camera angle, making the posters look square when they definitely are not. If you know me, if you’ve been to my house, you’ll see that the walls of my diningroom have been stripped. What you’ll also see is a room that looks totally like my room. And that is very important, because this room now makes me feel at home.

Now, if we can just figure out how to get That Cat and That Dog to live in peace…