I’d like to share with you today the happenings of the past fifteen hours. After a busy day I was enjoying another chapter of “Queen of Swords” by Sara Donati, until driven by hunger, I had to close the book: her writing is so addictive.
Pumpkin the tortoiseshell Queen of the House, who had been mooching around all day, suddenly ran into the conservatory and relieved Charlie Moonbeam of the mouse he was staring at. I grabbed the mouse life saving kit, a plastic pot and sheet of cardboard, but before mouse rescue could begin, there was a crunch and the little mouse was no more, as Pumpkin enjoyed her tea. Saying a prayer to speed the mouse’s spirit on its way, I then resumed ordering my Indian takeaway.
To fill in the half hour before the food arrived I went out to check on the hens; ZoZo unusually was in the garden on her own and CoCo, at 7 o’clock on a sunny evening was in the nesting box looking spaced out, very spaced out. No, not dying, but broody. (By the way, it is not true that hens only go broody if they have access to a cockerel: think of bitches and phantom pregnancies.)… in the space of ten minutes CoCo had gone into the broody shut down mode but she was safe and warm.
Meanwhile the phone was ringing, I ran back to answer it, neatly sidestepping the now regurgitated mouse which Pumpkin had deposited on the sitting room carpet. After redirecting my wayward curry delivery, I was almost through clearing the mouse remains when my dinner arrived. Rubber gloves are never a good look when opening the door, as I now know.
Bedtime arrives, only by now Pumpkin is in chatty mode. She sits on a pillow next to me, commenting as I endeavour to do my book justice. Each page I turn brings a comment from my chatty cat. She then starts on a tour of the bed selecting the most comfortable place to sleep, lucky her. I’m still awake; it’s 2am and oh, is that Charlie Moonbeam I hear? Yes he wants to go out. Up I get, he goes out, and I go back to the book, any excuse.
At 6am Pumpkin decides to join him, up I get again, let her out. Charlie comes in, uses his tray to show me he has cystitis, an occasional problem for my lovely boy, which invariably coincides, or synchronises, as I prefer it, with some unseen energy event.
Bingo! All is explained, there is a solar eclipse today and the animals are reacting to it, as if they are on “fast forward”. It is true that they can’t see the eclipse any more than we in UK can, this time, but I can see their behaviour and understand how they are feeling.
There is nothing intrinsically wrong with any of them they are responding, totally naturally, to unseen forces and reminding us of our natural connections too.