Ben - a life with a minimum of standing up

Nothing new in 2002 or 2003

Thankfully, this year has been pretty much fight-free for Ben, except when it comes to terrorising tiny shrews, and his biggest injuries have been a few scratches on the end of his nose.

Of course he still spends vast amounts of time on his other favourite occupation, sleeping, along with demanding food and scratching up the carpets, so no change there.

Actually, I don't know why we refer to him as Ben, as we never call him that name to his face. He was named Ben by his previous owners (our next-door neighbours), but we just call him Puss, as in "What are you whinging about, Puss? You've had your breakfast; you've been out; you've come back in; we've given you a portion of biscuits; what else do you want?"

He's a funny old cat (aren't they all?) who goes through long phases of predictable behaviour, which will suddenly change for no apparent reason. For example, when he first lived with us, he would only ever sleep on an old two-seater settee in the front room. We even made up a sign saying "Bone idle cat's home" which hung down the back-rest. Then suddenly he stopped sleeping there, never to return, and started sleeping in the morning room. Also, for the first six months or so, he never ventured upstairs, and still rarely does, apart from a two month spell last year when he went up there every evening for a nap before going out for the night.

Dead Cat Alert!  He's never the tidiest sleeper.

We often wonder how, and most certainly why, he gets into the positions that he does.

He was never one for sitting on people's laps in the early days either, but when he moved out of the front room he also acquired a taste for lap sitting which lasted for the winter season until it warmed up the next summer. Then, for what was probably the next two years, he never set foot on another lap despite lots of encouragement, which we thought was rather a pity. In recent months, however, he's got a taste for it again, and it's more of a problem keeping him off at times like breakfast when you just want to sit down for a few minutes to eat your breakfast or have cup of tea. It's nice to have him back though, even if he does dribble a bit when he's hungry, and to be fair he's now more willing to jump off after five minutes, whereas first time around you had to be virtually standing up before he'd let go. Watch the video at the top of the page to see what I mean!

Enjoying a break from the pruning

Ben's Big Christmas 2000 Adventure

For some while we'd been wondering how Ben would get on with Martin's mother's cat, Lily.

When Thelma was with us on Christmas Day 2000, she too expressed her curiosity as to how they would get on. So, as we were getting ready to take her home, we bundled Ben into his travelling cage, more normally associated with short visits to the vet, and set off for what is probably the longest journey he's ever made (about 13 miles each way).

In the past he's shown himself to be not adverse to a short motorised excursion atop a vehicle. During the summers he often used to sit on top of our Rover saloon, and if I got in to drive off he would stay in place for the first 100yds or so until I was ready to turn out into the main road, at which point he'd leisurely take his leave. When we changed to a Renault Scenic MPV, he found (thankfully!) that it's not so easy to get up on the roof, as there's no real boot or bonnet to jump on to as a half way staging point. On the other hand it does have a large high-level parcel shelf at the rear from which should give him a good all round view out of the windows from within his cage, although thankfully we'd had no reason to take him anywhere yet.

So now, putting theory into practice, we set off with cat "on the bridge" and Kathie sitting nearby to keep him company. Apart from some of the bumpy bits which he didn't like, he did remarkably well and as often as not when I looked in the mirror I could see him looking intently ahead through the windscreen. On arrival, Lily was waiting at the back door as usual, so we locked the cat-flap and let Thelma get settled with her in the lounge before we brought Ben's box in. Lily eyed him suspiciously and growled a bit as he emerged from the box, but stopped short of attacking. It's not surprising, as it was her territory that was being invaded, whilst Ben seemed unperturbed and a little bemused by it all. After a while Lily ended up sprawled by Thelma's chair and Ben sat not too far away on Kathie's lap. So although there was no instant bonding, neither were there any fisticuffs, and with more time together I hope they might tolerate each other, should we ever need to look after Lily on a long-term basis. (UPDATE: Since Thelma's move to Lynwood Lodge, we've found a new home for Lily via the Cats Protection League)