First

It's been a day of firsts. Little Fish managed her first (almost) solo button feed.It's hard work squeezing that syringe without spreading water everywhere.Especially when there's a kink in the hosepipe.

A first for the Woofcats too - after days of watching them do thisand begging, pleading, to be let outside, we decided the day was too good to miss. A quiet house so nothing scary to keep them from coming back in again, and a quiet garden, no lawnmowers or motorbikes outside to spook them. So we opened the back door. Goway was first out, and crept stealthily across the concrete keeping a close eye out for snipers scary things. He ran to the flowerbed and hid under the bushes for a while, before being seduced by the sight of sun-warmed concrete. This made him happy. Very happy. He basked, he rolled, he wiggled, he slept, he wiggled and rolled some more, and then he washed. Then he ran at the wall so fast that he climbed six foot high before falling over, but it would be undignified to mention that. Then he rested. (Above photo taken by Little Fish. She likes the rake.)

Comeback was less impressed. He stayed inside to begin with, then ran outside, hit the gate opposite the back door, and ran back into the house. Five minutes later, having waited long enough for us all to agree he had indeed meant to do that, he strolled out again.This time leaving us in no doubts at all that he was far too cool to get excited about anything at all. He did sadly lose his dignity by getting entangled in a clump of bindweed and needing to be rescued. Ah well. Then he went back inside to use the litter tray.

Meanwhile I put the slaves to work the girls and I did a spot of garden tidying. I did mention that Little Fish likes the rake, didn't I?
It's a shame she seems to be scared of the grass; hard to get much raking done when you won't move your chair off the deck. It's also hard to get the cats to come back inside when there's a small child whizzing around waving a long heavy spiky pole, but these things somehow happen anyway. Foil sachets of fish in gravy bribed the cats back in, they didn't have the same effect on the girls for some reason.

Mog and I collected the apples.
Little Fish scattered the apples over the grass again. I asked her why. Normally when I ask her why her response is either "why?" or "yes" or "that green car?" This time she said "I pick it up, I put it down, I pick it up, I put it down. I pick it up, I put it down, and oh dear". It's nice to know she's understanding the "why" now; and I think I understand her explanation - a longer winded version of "these things happen".

Tia