Maddy's Musings 3

Christmas is the time of the year when one indulges the Servants and I indicated to mine that they could have a few of their family and friends over for a Christmas meal.

Horror of horrors, their visitors stayed over for the whole 4 days of the Christmas Period  … in my room!!! Fortunately, I didn’t have to vacate my chair or my igloo although there were a lot of comings and goings including the installation of a Tree complete with lights and baubles. I felt these were a bit unsafe and had to take it upon myself to test whether they had been fitted correctly. It was fortunate that I did because several of them hadn’t been, and fell to the floor with just the gentlest of taps. One or two of them ended up under the sofa and were very difficult to retrieve, I must say! The Servants were suitably chastened and reattached them to the tree properly this time.

The Servants were busy in my room making preparations for the Christmas Feast and very thoughtfully placed an eiderdown in their own accommodation for me to use for my afternoon siesta.

The Manservant’s parents very kindly brought over a large box of Christmas goodies and as they are, in their turn, Servants to three felines, the box contained some very interesting smells which had to be thoroughly investigated by moi!

With my many years experience of entertaining, I took it upon myself to check the table settings, and walked the length of the table narrowly avoiding knocking down wine glasses which had been placed in quite the wrong place. Other than this small error, I found that the table had been set perfectly but unfortunately I neglected to put my carpet slippers on and discovered after the event that I had enhanced the setting by leaving a few paw prints along the way.

The cooking went fairly well with a little help from me especially with regard to the freshly baked baguettes, which I had to thoroughly sniff before being able to pronounce them fit and ready for consumption by the Servants and their friends.  It goes without saying that I had to have a few slices of the roast before it went into the oven, just to make sure that the meat was of the correct quality, happily this was the case but, it did take three platefuls before I could be sure.

The Chamber Maid is shortly going on holiday to warmer climes for a few weeks which means that I shall have my time cut out making sure that Rick the Footman not only continues to do his duties but undertakes to do hers in a satisfactory manner, something which I doubt very much.

Maddy's Musing 2

Well, it has been a busy week.

What with all the heavy snow we have been having my staff haven’t been able to get fresh supplies of Organic Smoked Salmon, Steak or Chicken so I have had to exist on Feline Ready Meals !! Fortunately during this cold weather, my chambermaid has been providing me with a nice warm wheat bag to keep me from being chilly on my daybed although the heating is on 24 hours for my comfort whilst it is snowing.   They did suggest putting a wheat bag in my igloo but it made it too humid and claustrophobic and I was having none of that thank you very much. I had to vacate my igloo until they removed it.

Sharing the house with me is an obnoxious little bear called Bubba Bear - you can see him in the photo - and when I am in the mood he shares my armchair and occasionally I sleep with my head on his lap. What a privileged little bear he is!! 

The toilet facilities have been greatly improved and I have a chamber pot upstairs for the odd wee and an earth-closet in the downstairs basement for bigger jobs.

The servants have finally managed to unearth the Christmas tree and assembled it in the sitting room and proceeded to decorate it on their own initiative. Unfortunately they did this very badly and I had to indicate my utter displeasure at the way it had been done and although they tried hard, it was extremely difficult for me to communicate my wishes as to how the tree would appear and I must admit I lost my temper and had to knock a few of the baubles off before they got the message.

Lost Breakfast

As you all know, the Servants have to prioritise in this household which means that the moment the alarm goes off I leap out of bed, go straight to the kitchen, past the previously filled kettle to flip on the switch and to put Maddys food on a plate and present it to her as she walks out of the sitting-room, blinking sleepily.

This morning the Man Servant managed to get out of bed at a reasonable hour so breakfast for us was going to be a bit early and he cut a couple of slices of left over roast beef for me to enjoy with my fried egg. Maddy of course got her fair share of sliced beef after her own breakfast and then I took her out to do her toileting. It was dark and foggy out at that time of morning and I usually go out first to make sure the coast is clear for her and then she will venture out by the light of my torch, taking her own sweet time.  I stood there in the dark and cold with my torch lighting up the toilet area for her pleasure - there was much scrabbling under the bushes but Maddy whipped past me whilst my back was turned and slipped back inside. I was left standing there like an idiot.   Eventually I gathered that I had been  fooled....  and came in to find her in the kitchen partaking of my piece of breakfast beef, stolen off my plate.  As you can see in the photo ... she had almost finished it by then!

Her Majesty's daily routine

Maddy has re discovered her Igloo now that the weather has turned chilly … she blends in and is difficult to see but when she looks up, we see her “headlights” flashing ! She has always slept on her "chosen " chair but a couple of days ago I went into the sitting-room to call her for breakfast which in itself is most unusual and I couldnl't find her. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a movement in the Igloo and there she was all warm and snug!

Maddy has a routine  in the mornings, in which  we are now fully trained.  First and most important … Foooood, followed by a long brushing and out to the garden toilet area … nothing else will do. I have to stand outside in pj’s, thick woolly dressing gown, boots and torch in hand … thank the lord it is still dark ….  poking around in the undergrowth to make sure there are no marauding cats around before she will come out for her ablutions. Depending on the urgency, this can take a while as there has to be much snuffling around to find the right place and of course sending and receiving P-mails.

Of course when she comes back inside she tells The Man Servant, (who by now has just about managed to get out of bed), with a straight face, that the “Woman”  has neglected her morning brush and she wants it NOW!!

Maddy's Chair

I have come to the conclusion that Maddy has been spoilt rotten and the Man Servant is the biggest culprit. Maddy comes into the kitchen and chirrups until she has been given another portion of wet food ... which , if it's not to her liking, she ignores with a disdainful look. Today the Man Servant was called into the sitting-room. He stupidly assumed that she wanted her 5th brushing of the day but this was not the case, what she actually wanted, was for the fire to be put on ... and she showed both her Servants in no uncertain terms  what she wanted. Naturally the fire was put on for her ... who could deny her that!!

Maddy sleeps on her “own” chair which she selected shortly after arriving here and which  is positioned in the sitting room in such a way that she can see everything going on down the passage. The chair is of course, equipped with a cushion and a sheep-skin rug for her comfort.  Needless to say, it is the most comfortable chair in the sitting-room and used to be the one that visitors naturally gravitated to but that is a thing of the past.

When her female servant has come in from her duties, the first job is to prepare a mid-morning snack of a few pieces of cheese and this is taken in to her, walking quietly so as not to unduly disturb her. The snack then has to be carefully positioned in such a way that she doesn’t have to get up off the chair in order to eat it.

Maddy's Musings

I have managed to get my Servants trained in my morning routine. First of all I am served breakfast at 06.30 and I am then escorted to the outside commode and as these facilities are a little primitive, I hope that they will improve before the onset of winter.

After that, I have a pampering session being brushed in turn by each of my Servants and then I settle down for my morning nap accompanied by some gentle classical music.

The new Servants seem to be settling in well, so much so that the Woman Servant, who knows that I have a sofisticated palate, insisted that the Man Servant down tools and rush off to the butcher just before closing time to purchase a Free Range Chicken Breast for my enjoyment. This was very thoughtful of them but for some unknown reason they kept serving it to me and to be quite honest, I got quite bored after the third plateful and I would have preferred a portion of succulent steak, after all, if one eats lobster every night, one does get a little bored. However, one mustn’t grumble, they are doing their best and they try hard!!

Evenings are always a pleasure as they ensure that there is a fire in my room making it warm and cosy which is somewhat spoilt by the fact that they have been granted my reluctant permission to come in and watch a bit of TV.  I will have to put my paw down about this before they start taking it for granted and getting too familiar. After all who’s TV is it??

Now that Maddy has settled in, we have started parking the car under the carport which seems to have met with great enthusiasm as she feels "safe" squeezing out besides the car and being able to survery the garden before venturing out.

She had "the wind up her tail" the other day and was rushing backwards and forwards in the garden when she suddenly discovered that there were some birds high up in the tree.  No problem to 12 year old Maddy .. she dashed at least 8 feet up the tree to try and get to the birds who, of course, were having none of it and flew off. Maddy was blissfully unaware of this and sat waiting for them on a rather thin branch.  Rick had to called out to be "caretaker" of Maddy and the tree as I was afraid she was going to fall.

She then went further up the tree and onto the adjoing flat roof where, unbeknowned to her, lurked one of the neighbourhood cats. This resulted in a 3/4 hour discussion as to whose garden it actually was. As no consensus was reached, Rick had to climb up the tree and whisk Maddy home much to her annoyance.