Tonkinese
Our second assignment is about 40 minutes walk out of a beautiful village in Surrey. The couple seem really nice and are totally devoted to Txiki (Chicky) and Arwen. So we are looking after two Tonkinese cats who are not ever allowed outside.
Anyway, they are nice cats, except when they meow really loudly in the middle of the night and frighten me from sleep! The male cat, Txiki, often gets a bit jumpy just after dark running from window to window looking out. Once I managed to get up quickly enough to see what it was all about, there was a fox running across the front lawn!
They are quite cuddly now they are used to us and often come for pats while they purr loudly or just
sit on our laps.They are amazingly agile and often play fight on a big jungle gym type of apparatus they have. One will run along underneath the top floor of it and pounce on the other one and around and around they will go!
The lady of the house gave us maps of lots of walks through woodlands that date back to about 1650, so each day we walk at least an hour and a half, either in these woodlands or in to the Market town to get supplies. Sometimes we walk on bridle paths in the woods on muddy paths and then will come out in little lanes with huge houses on them with a tennis court or beautiful gardens and even one which had a big lake with ducks on it. One walk a deer ran across the paddocks and in to the woods very near us. We also came across some huge plants outside a house, they were like triffids.
When we walked into town one time we stopped for lunch and had a cream tea each which comprised of two scones, strawberry jam and clotted cream. I couldn’t eat it all even though it was delicious!
We got a call on Friday from Animal Aunts to say that a lovely couple who live nearby have a funeral to go to way up near Wales and need someone to look after their two ten week old Scottish terrier puppies from 8am to 8pm on Monday. As there are two of us we can share responsibilities for the day. The lovely lady picked us up today to see the puppies and talk about what to do with them on Monday then took us back to Arwen and Txiki.
Brett and I got picked up again Monday morning and taken to their house to puppy sit. Oh it doesn’t seem like work playing with ‘Gus’ (Gustave) and ‘Mabel’, they like tummy scratches and flop onto their backs for it – ha ha. The client showed me a lovely country path to walk back so I did that and completed my domestic chores while the cats raced up and down the house. I walked back to Brett in the afternoon for more puppy play then back to Txiki and Arwen before dark. I am getting lots of walks which I love. Brett was dropped back there about 9pm.
The puppy owners are really lovely. He wanted two puppies, but I think she only wanted one. I can see why, the puppys’ routine is to sleep for an hour, wake up and get rushed outside for toilet, play for a while and fall asleep again. The trouble with that is..while you deal with one the other one is peeing and pooing where it likes! Terribly cute though.
We are watching the Americas cup on u tube when it is on, so amazing especially when our yacht tipped. After that we have been on the edge of our seats a few times. Great to be able to watch. The wind changes were pretty frustrating.
Cleaners came Tuesday so my domestic goddess role was on hold.
The owners came back after a great holiday and the cats were very chilled out and hardly stirred. I don’t know if that was a good thing, think they were a bit disappointed not to be missed more. We got a little present which was lovely.
We puppy sat Gus and Mabel another night about two months later and it was amazing to see how they had grown and their personalities had developed. They were very good at toileting where they should and walking beside us in the dark before bed! Just as well because they are very hard to see, even with a torch. Mabel has developed quite a little stubborn, mischievous streak so every now and then she just did her own thing instead of what she was supposed to do. I thought it was pretty cute and funny.
Filled under: Animal Aunts, Aunts, Cat sitting
