Peaches

I love Peaches with all my heart but there's no denying the cat has a huge problem with flatulence. Imagine my horror then to wake up the other morning and find she'd moved position from sleeping halfway down the bed to my pillow. The first I knew about it was when I turned over and found my face buried into a hairy posterior.

Last night I put Mishka out for the last time at about 9.30pm and was trying to entice Demelza into the cottage when Peach ran outside. I always try to keep her in at night so felt quite sick to the stomach at the thought of trying to catch her. Finally I went out with a box of cat biscuits and by rigorously shaking them managed to get within grabbing distance. Of course she knew what I was about and darted away at the last minute plus Demelza decided to pick a fight so every time Peaches came near me. Finally I went down the driveway and as she went to dash past made a running grab at her tail. Realizing the gig was up Peaches didn't put up much of a fight as I brought her inside.

Then of course Demelza didn't want to come inside as she was certain her nemesis was still roaming around in the dark. I finally caught her by scattering dried biscuits up into the house. Not a good way to find sleep so I read till 10.45pm.

The weather has cooled down slightly with misty drizzly days. Makes it easier on the rest of the animals and I'm not so exhausted either. Only two months till I have to move now. Rang one place out at Maraetotara and the landlady said there was no grazing with the cottage. Had just hung up from her when the phone rang and it was the lady who owns the jack Briar went to visit two years ago. I had left a message asking her to keep her ear to the ground about a rental. She hadn't heard of anywhere but told me she's staying in Wellington over the winter and I could mind her property for six months from the end of April. She is way way out in the countryside and of course I'll have to put my possessions in storage but at least it's somewhere to live. She said if I was willing to look after her animals we would come to some sort of arrangement.

The following day a woman rang from west of Hastings after seeing my advert in the Thursday Trader. She had a cottage to rent but my mentioning my cats and the dog seemed to curb her enthusiasm as she's had bad experiences with previous tenants' animals. I did assure her that Mishka is not a sheep killer but that didn't seem to help. She said she had other tenants to review and she'd keep my details but I won't hold my breath. A real estate agent I know is marketing a place outside Hastings at the moment and said she'll ask the eventual buyer if they'd consider renting it out so that's another option. Also John has spoken to farming friends of his who have their finger on the pulse out at Puketapu. The whole summer feels taken up by the worry of finding somewhere to live and trying to convince total strangers to trust that I would look after their property.