Sure, there are colder places in Oz, but Sydney, with its cheery hurrying ways suddenly shows the hard and unforgiving face that we don’t always care to remember once unaccustomed coldness sets in.
Sunday morning's air is fragrant and almost fresh, birds are singing and the cats join in the conversation I’m having with Ron. They are gambolling around the lawn, hurling themselves up and down the loquat tree, showing off like I remember showing off in childhood when adults gathered for a natter outside on a fine day.
We wanted the adults to look at us, and while we tumbled about, throwing little glances at them, we hoped they would look at us and smile. Of course our kinds of adults weren’t supposed to notice kids at all. Remembering that, I notice my little critters now throwing glances at us.
Rolly-polly Stanley tries to leap on Balanchine. Balanchine takes after his namesake a ballet master, and a triple summersault into the air takes him out of Stanley’s heavier reach.
I bend to stroke them, praising the ones who still have the new collars. They are pretty good at slipping their collars. Sylvio’s black collar, which made him look very handsome, has lasted exactly twenty-four hours…
Anna brought collars on Saturday, along with a load of litter and cat food, (the latter, which because of the Gary Larson jokes, we always describe as FUD). She also brought some lunch. We bumped into our local Matriarch Mamma in the street just after I met Anna stepping from the bus.
‘So where are MY groceries?’ Mamma asks. She’s always bold with her jokes and interrogations. Anna’s heard several stories of Mamma and this is their first meeting. Mamma walks up the street with us, commenting that my hat makes me look like a cowboy. She goes over the road to pick up her slab of VB and we turn toward the house.
Anna offers to take some of my washing home as she has a dryer.
‘I think I can get the essentials done with a bit of sunshine,’ I say.
God bless daughters!
So on Sunday, with the washing flapping in a sunny breeze only slightly ice tinged, I wander across the road to the pub. Halfway through the Sunday newspapers, it’s as if a shadow has fallen. Roscoe runs outside, returns with eyes popping:
‘It’s a storm, it’s a huge storm, I reckon it will be on us in fifteen minutes!’
‘O No, I was going to work on the computer all afternoon!’
Then, ‘O NO, my washing!’
‘Come and see, great clouds!’
We are at a high point in the Sydney basin, so there’s good outlook.
(I should have looked out from the verandah as I usually do, but the brain was sifting words and thoughts.)
Having taken only cat pics and people portraits recently, it takes awhile to change the settings on my camera. I miss the shot I really like. They are snow clouds such as I remember from living on the Monaro as a child.
Later I see on the news that there’s snow in the northern suburbs, only they say that it’s ‘soft hail’. Yet kids are building snowmen and chucking snowballs.
Hmm. Glad Anna brought extra litter. It looks like we are going to have an ‘inside cat’ situation for a time.
The blog book says that we shouldn’t go back and correct, but having only recently learned crucial factors, I will do corrections for the time being. It still takes forever to organise pics. I’ll add the shot of the clouds intensifying over Sydney's northside soon.
By the way, although part of the purpose of my blog is to find homes for some of my tribe, I must suggest to Sydney-siders who love cats that they check out the Cat Rescue site at kd@catrescue.com.au. Whereas other organizations may be so overloaded by unwanted pets that many of the creatures who come to them are put down, these people have a ‘no kill’ policy.
At present they are looking for foster homes for some charming felines who had terrible lives until found and cared for by these people.
I recommend that cat lovers check the cat rescue site and support them however they can.
I have too many cats because of illness. They are lucky to have had the help of Anna and her friends. They have a large, warm and caring home and plenty of space. It’s difficult in particular to think of an animal who previously had a home who is outside on such freezing nights.
Remembering how close I came to homelessness very recently, I worry about all who have lost their way. When I was waged, I donated to the Wayside Chappel. I hope to be waged again once health and dental situations and I certainly will help the cat rescue folk in any way I can.
