It’s not only Kevin’s birthday today, but also that of Grabbity, Sir Izacat Mewton and their siblings Emo, Davina, Bob, Loki, Pancho & Mowgli, who are two years old. Hare to believe we’ve had so many years of wonderful furry purry madness, and that’s just Kevin!
Still, happy birthday to all three other lifeforms in this flat!
Grabbity doesn’t need a book to win her arguments. She uses pure kyewt instead.
Mewton doesn’t entirely fit in the hat, but is giving it a damn good try!
My wonderful husband at the House of Trembling Madness in York, shortly before trying the Brewdog Tactical Nuclear Penguin weaponised stout (but that’s a whole different story).
My Dad made us a cat wheel so that Mewton and Grabbity can burn off a little energy – energy that they would otherwise burn off at 2am by jumping up and down on our heads. This is a prototype, made of steel, hardened woven kevlar and, yes, duct tape. The wheel is whisper quiet and spins incredibly smoothly (possibly a bit too smoothly!).
I picked the wheel up from Dorset yesterday and we unpacked it and pretty much left the kittens to just get used to it being around. They don’t seem overly bothered by its presence, so we tried to introduce them to the idea of running on it today, using the age old tactic of bribery and corruption. Our attempts met with a modicum of success, but I think it might take a while for them to build up the confidence that they can just jump on, run for a bit, and then jump off again, but I’m pretty sure they’ll get there!
The next prototype will be prettier and if anyone wants one, we’ll sell it at cost plus a wee bit for labour. (This one cost udner £150.) Just get in touch if you’re interested.
I’ve had cats all my life, including some kittens, and I’ve never caught one in the act of getting their adult teeth. Usually kittens teethe, swallow their milk teeth and the new ones are there to fill in behind so there’s nothing much to spot. But I was surprised to see Grabbity – who has been chewing on everything in the flat she can wrap her teeth around – has two sets of fangs in her upper jaw.
I first spotted them on Friday, so I’m going to keep an eye on them and if the deciduous teeth (that’s milk teeth to you and me – I had no idea that deciduous applied to anything other than trees! does that make her permanent teeth ‘evergreen’?) don’t fall out within the next week I’ll be talking to the vet to see if they need pulling.
Meantime, they do look rather impressive!
The Lacemaker
My new short story, The Lacemaker, is out now! Here's a taster:
All the threads looked the same to the innocent eye, but Maude could see the black heart running up through one strand as it wove its way through the lace roundel.
“How on earth do you manage it?” the woman asked, as she looked at the mats on the craft fair stall. Maude chose to treat the question as a rhetorical one and busied herself with tidying her bobbins as the woman browsed.
“I’ll take this one,” the woman said, holding up a square piece, twelve inches across. Maude winced, picked up the piece she had just completed and held it out to the woman for her consideration.
Read Argleton now!
Matt is fascinated by the story of Argleton, the unreal town that appeared on GeoMaps but which doesn’t actually exist. He persuades his friend and flatmate Charlie to drive them both down to to find the non-existent town. And when they are standing on the very spot, at the exact longitude and latitude that defines Argleton, Matt sets in motion a chain of events that will take him places he didn’t know existed… and which perhaps don’t.
