cats – Page 3 – Louisa Parry

Hard copy, a different cat, hidden colour

1. My free photos arrive. Each brings a new smile to my face: people, animals, places I’ve been.

2. Boron swaggers over to me and says he wants a hug. In one movement, I pick him up and roll him onto his back on my knees so his rabbit feet are in the air. I kiss his head and tickle his exposed fluffy belly. My wrists reverse, rolling him back upright and put him back on the floor. As he swaggers off again, content and purring, I remember how he once bit my finger through to the bone.

3. The spices are almost invisible in the flour but the fish turns a vibrant turmeric yellow on contact.

Boron

15/7/2010 / louisa / 3 Comments

Boron is asleep in between us, a light absorbing blur. I put my hand down to stroke his chest and he starts to purr. His head stretches back to maximise the stroking area and hanging above, his paws are floppy and soft, the claws so completely retracted that it makes it hard to believe they’re there.

Ten years ago, Boron bit my finger through to the bone. He was a stray then, a proper straggly semi-feral stray. It took months of building up his confidence before he’d approach us, months more before he dared to stay the night. He thought I was taking food from him – from him, the starving stray – when he bit me: I was taking a wooden skewer from him, a vaguely meaty skewer from a long-eaten cumberland sausage. I screamed, as you do, when his fang pierced my skin but I think he knew I wasn’t screaming at him. He jumped back about a foot but only a foot, and looked at me with a quizzical stare. Was I going to lash out at him? Would I cave and give him back the splintering stick? I didn’t want to undo our hard work socialising him so wrapping a piece of kitchen roll around my finger and wincing at the pain, I bent down and stroked him. He didn’t shy away so I found him a treat, and only when the bite and the scream was forgotten, did I leave him to tend to my deep wound.
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Mmm cheese, likes it there, cat love

13/7/2010 / louisa / 1 Comment

1. The risotto is cheesier than normal. On the fine line between sickly and perfect comfort food, I wouldn’t like it every time but for a one-off, it’s delicious.

2. Deposited there for the duration of our supermarket visit, Lily sits on the living room rug, tail wagging, and watches me say goodbye to Katherine. By the time we reach the store, just a mile or so away, Katherine sends me a photo of Lily on her back on the sofa, receiving a belly rub. She loves her auntie Katherine.

3. It’s cooler today so the cats are catching up on love. Carla attaches herself to me all evening until I go to bed, when Boron takes her place. He even snuggles under the duvet next to me – his winter spot – and we cuddle as I fall asleep.

Not at all alone with the moon – a day of company

28/6/2010 / louisa / 0 Comments

1. All of Team Peach is on the bed when we wake up and we sing the ‘Team Peach on the Bed’ song. (“Team Peach on the bed, fa la la la la. Carla on the bed, La la la la la. Boron on the bed, Bee bee bee bee bee. Lily on the bed, Lil alil lil lil. Team Peach on the Bed, Carla, Bee and Lil.” Yes.)

2. We cook together for the second night in a row – last night working together filling skewers then bbqing them, today working side by side on our own mammoth creations. Cooking is usually a solitary activity, it’s nice to have company for a change.

3. He washes, I dry and we both sing along to the music.

3BT – it’s working, always time for bread & jam, comfortable

19/6/2010 / louisa / 0 Comments

1. I spend the afternoon pottering in the garden – sowing more salad, potting on small seedlings and planting out their bigger siblings. Growing veg is such a waiting game – waiting and hoping – but when I see the first courgettes forming, it feels worth it.

2. John’s out all day at a friend’s stag do but pops home between the go-karting and the evening activities to eat some bread & jam.

3. Boron discovers a new place to sleep – my yarn stash between the sofa & the armchair. I hear rustling as he circles around, padding it into shape but by the time I turn around to look at him, he’s curled in a tight circle, his chin resting on a fluffy magenta skein.

3BT – funny, big & ugly; music to smile to; Boron’s blinks

18/6/2010 / louisa / 0 Comments

1. I run upstairs to get my phone and see cracks of daylight around his wardrobe doors. It jars me for a second before I remember: there is a window – a floor-to-ceiling window – at the back of the fitted wardrobes. I laugh out loud. This house is so funny, it’s perfect for us.

2. Music that’s made me smile today:
a) the Divine Comedy’s new album ‘Bang Goes the Knighthood’. The whole album (aside from ‘When A Man Cries’) is great perky-pop but it’s ‘At the Indie Disco‘ which leaves me grinning like an idiot: it’s my 1997 down to a tee. It’s like Neil Hannon stole my diary and wrote a fun tune from it.
b) I’m trying to find something for us to listen to while I’m gaming and John’s programming. “This is music to choose music to,” I explain when Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass’s ‘Up Cherry Street‘ starts playing. It’s impossible to keep still when that’s playing. Moronic head dancing a-go-go.
c) The music I pick is the first ‘69 Love Songs‘ album by the Magnetic Fields. I’ve listened to it so many times that the great lyrics wash past me while I’m Theme Hospital-ing but I smile as John laughs, hearing phrases for the first time.

3. Boron is dozing on the armchair – the fireside chair that’s been moved into the corner for the summer. When I look over at him, he half-opens his eyes and blinks slowly at me.

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