When We Were Kittens. David Greagg

what happened was, I was just lying on our bed with my paws in the air feeling happy and she jumped up next to me. Even though I was feeling a bit annoyed about it I made some room for her. But then she just started to spread out, taking up more and more room until finally I snapped at her and cuffed her with my paw. So she hit me back and we finished up hissing at each other. So she went off and lay on the other bed and I went back to sleep. I love my sister but she's grown to be a very big and spreading cat. I just want my favourite bit of bed to myself for a while.

      5

      I have been noticing things lately about how we relate to our humans, especially when it comes to caresses and general scritches. I like it best when Man scritches the back of my neck. I can't stop purring when he does that.

      But Man likes to comb and brush me. I don't really like the comb but I'll let him do it every now and then. The brush is better because it's much more gentle, although it doesn't get out the tangles.

      Sometimes when I'm asleep and happy with my paws in the air he will sneak up on me with The Scissors. I'm scared of The Scissors but I know what they're for and I know he'll be as gentle as he can. So if I keep still and pretend nothing's happening he will snip off big clumps of my fur, especially under my leg near my shoulder. He doesn't do it to the others, but their fur is a lot shorter than mine and they don't need it.

      Shadow is a lot more obvious when it comes to soliciting affection. Sometimes she sits on the chair in the bathroom and looks up hopefully as humans go past. They rub the back of her head and she purrs a lot. If they stop too soon she will reach out and scratch them which, by rights, shouldn't work; but it does and she gets more caresses. I really don't think scratching is a good way to get more attention.

      Belladonna is the most subtle. She just sits patiently and waits, and sooner or later some humans will give her some head caresses. When that happens she purrs loudly like I do.

      Poor Shadow can't purr though, so she probably feels she has to make it obvious how much she likes it. She also likes washing her humans, which I don't get at all; but she loves it. It's very sweet watching her do it.

      Woman has been lying on the bed in the Moving Picture Box Room a lot lately, so Belladonna has been lying on Woman's pillow there. My sister then said okay, in that case I'm having the front room bed.

      Meanwhile I'm staying right where I am on our bed because it's mine. And I'm beginning to think if I want to call anything my own at all around here I'd better make it clear that this bed at least is my property and if anyone else wants it they can go where I'm not. Man seems OK with this. He snuggles down crossways so I get my favourite place next to the Big Warm.

      When she's here Shadow has taken to sitting right next to Man's pillow and telling everyone it's hers. Sometimes I go there when she's elsewhere, just to see why she likes it so much. It is OK there, but not as good as next to the Big Warm.

      My sister and I are not really speaking to each other right now but this is okay. Better than quarrelling all the time anyway.

      6

      Lovely walk last night. It was cold and blowy and my sister was very affectionate and kept running up to me and saying, Hi it's me. When we got back home she came in and licked my nose before going back to her bed. I think spending a little time apart is good for us while we're still cross with each other and the world.

      7

      Man wouldn't take us on our walk tonight. When he opened the door to show us the filthy weather, I was obliged to concede that he had a point. Instead my sister and I chased each other up and down the passage. As soon as Man went to bed we started playing bath-ball, which we hadn't done in ages. Then she pinned me down and washed me before going to her new room again.

      I love my sister and this sleeping apart seems to be going well for us. Then I snuggled Man for a bit and told him I loved him too and he played with my fur under my chin and I fell asleep feeling happy.

      8

      Why doesn't it hurry up and get warm again? I am FED UP! And dinner was a big disappointment. We have had a strange cat mopping up our food plates late at night. It's OK with me because he's polite and unassuming and doesn't harass my girl-cats. If he wants tonight's slop he is more than welcome to it!

      9

      Today it was a little warmer. Late in the day the most wonderful thing happened. I was lying next to the Big Warm with my eyes shut when I heard a gentle thump on the bed next to me. I could feel somebody there but I was still mostly asleep. And then I wasn't, but I just thought I'd pretend to be and see what happened. Then a little tongue started washing my face. Dougal it's me she said. I just wanted to tell you I love you, okay? So I started washing her too and this time I remembered not to get rough with her. She didn't spread at all and we just lay side by side together. Then we both slept on Man's pillow, feeling the warm. Life is good even though our dinner was not. We love each other and we love our humans.

      10

      What a night! We waited for Man to get back from his ride on his funny two-wheel thing, and he called us out early because we could tell it was going to rain. Then we had lots of cars trying to run us over, followed by far too many dogs barking and one completely off the leash! He tried to eat my sister but she stood up to him and his humans picked him up. My sister really is a very brave cat. Then it did rain and we ran all the way home and had another dinner. This one tasted better for some reason. I think we ought to wait until later for our walks because you don't get dogs out on the road late at night. Maybe dogs have to go to bed early.

      11

      Man was home very late last night but he seemed happy. I'd been waiting out the front for him and we had our walk anyway. He called Shadow and she ran the wrong way so we had to wait for her to catch up. I love my sister even though she's a bit silly sometimes.

      12

      Man has done something to his Picture Box, the one where he sits and taps away at things. If he doesn't do anything to it for a while then pictures come up one after another. Quite a lot of them are of us when we were kittens, but there's a few showing us as we are now. I know it's us because I recognise Shadow; and she says she recognises me. I think it must be from when he points his little silver box at us and the light goes on, but I don't actually know. Humans are so clever.

      What I do know is that Shadow sits and watches it for hours. I asked her why and she said it makes her feel safe to see all the pictures of us. Also there are absolutely no pictures of dogs. Not like on the Big Moving Picture Box, where dogs suddenly appear for no reason and start barking at us. Shadow says when the dogs come on you can touch the black thing with your paw and the dogs go away again. I wish there was a thing you could push to make dogs on the road go away.

      Oh, Belladonna has told us that the Big Moving Picture Box is called a TV and it is very important in our humans and we shouldn't sit right in front of it.

      Shadow used to chase the humans and animals on it but Belladonna told her not to be a foolish kitten. They're not real, you can't touch them, and you're just embarrassing yourself! So Shadow has stopped doing it.

      13

      There's still something funny about our dinners. They don't taste as good as they did when we were kittens. We keep looking at Man and Woman expectantly. They're doing their best to please us. I'm sure of it, and I can tell because there are lots of different tins and packets of wet food. But somehow it doesn't seem to help. Maybe they don't make cat food like they used to.

      14

      Woe! Tonight we just got stuff from a big tin. We looked at our humans. Come on, I said. You're not even trying to please us tonight are you?

      But Man and Woman sat in their chairs and ignored us completely. Then we looked up at Belladonna,