Walky round the garden

 Walky round the garden

It is a quarter of a year since the Belt household when fully into Lockdown. By household, I mean my husband Stephen and myself plus our formerly stray cat who after we had tried several options, finally started to answer to Birdy. The three of us have been behaving as though we are a family for well over a year, and so having put so much time into getting her to behave like our cat we took her into LD as well.

We bought a litter box, a scratching post, and enough cat food to last until Christmas. She didn’t take kindly to it at first but has now more or less got the idea that she is not free to come and go as she pleases any more. Once or twice a day she still sits at the back door and makes a racket for a while but then gives up and asks for treats instead. 

I had the bright idea of buying a cat harness. We sit together once a day and put the harness gently on, talking to her calmly and keeping the treats packet in sight. At first she simply lay down and played dead for a few moments during which time we quietly stroked her. She got the message that the treats were a reward quickly.

The next step was to get her to walk in the flipping thing. That was done by one of us at one side of the room and one at the other holding treats. This has been a slow process, won only with kindness and love. Now there are no claws and no resistance to putting the harness on.

Today after fitting her into it, Steve picked her up and attached the lead for the first time. We went out into the garden and took her to a point where she has caught several mice in the past. Steve put her down at that point and stayed by her. She stayed close to the ground for a couple of minutes, then moved closer to the corner she likes so much.  Having had a good old sniff around, we then slowly lured her away and across our tiny garden, with one treat after another until we were back inside.

I have no indention of letting her out free to roam again at least until all trace of this killer virus has gone and maybe not even then. Walky round the garden, will be the best there is for the foreseeable future which is a lot better than looking out of the window sitting on a cushion.

Long ago I had a cat that liked to go out with me and would walk by my side without a lead but he was a very intelligent pedigree Cornish Rex cat. If I wanted to take him to the vet, I simply put him inside my coat where he would happily stay as quiet and still as could be. He would even come with me for a short run snuggled inside my jacket.

I don’t see that happening with Miss Birdy, because she was after all, a self reliant homeless creature, who moved in with us like a squatter, acquainted with kill or be killed law. At this moment she is sitting just behind me on my bed. She follows me around the house, talking to me often and settles where I am and waits for me to move again. A peaceful and companionable arrangement. 

By the same token I am fully at ease with my lock down life, but look forward to my once in forty eight hours drive out to run in the woods and on the downs. The future still looks unlikely to change for a while although I have plenty of plans that are simply on hold. Of course I am not in the first flush of youth so it seems more serious to me to have my dreams slashed into obscurity. We all think that though, young or old. 

Patience if not a gift that everybody can practice and my advice to anybody I have spoken to on the phone, or written to, or emailed is, simply to keep busy. Fill every moment in an attempt to be productive and make sure you keep your body and mind in shape. My dear old dad, who used to play the cornet in the Salvation Army band in his home town in Yorkshire, often used to assure me that, ‘The devil finds work for idle hands’.