let's go outside....part i

Do you think that someone is trying to tell me something?



The RSPCA told us when we adopted Minou that we should keep her indoors for six weeks until she was comfortable and knew where home was. Judging by the fact that she spends a fair bit of time now sitting in front of the back door mewling, I reckon that 5 weeks indoors is about as much as she can take.

We let her out into the garden as much as we can, but we still feel as though we have to stand there and supervise her to make sure she doesn't get into any mischief. It's not enough though. It's clearly not enough. She spends a lot of the day shut up indoors when we're at work, and although I'm sure she's perfectly happy with this arrangement and spends most of the time asleep, this does mean that she has a lot of energy to burn off when we get back. Just before these photos were taken, I had spent 45 minutes out the back with her getting her to hare around in circles after a small branch from the hedge. As soon as we came back inside and had a bite of tea, she was at the door asking - no, demanding - to be let outside again.

We're going to get a cat-flap fitted in the next week or so, and the plan is that she will have free run during the day and that we'll try to keep her inside when she comes back in for her tea. I'm sure when we actually do let her out that she won't wander all that far: she wants to be outside, but I think she's still quite timid. We were woken up the other night by a terrified cat with saucer eyes jumping onto the bed in the small hours of the morning. We looked out of the window and there were a couple of foxes barking at each other in the street. The big outside world is a scary place, and it's going to be something of a wrench when we let her go out on her own.

Goodness. If C. and I ever have kids, do you think I'm going to be one of those "You're not going out in THAT?!" type fathers?