Travels with my camera

Today, I decided to do another job from my list, one that I have been wanting to do for months, or actually more like years. Cut a hole in the shed door of my aviary and put a sliding window in, so that it lets more light in for the birds, and so that I can leave the door shut in winter during the day, but also open just the window so that the birds can come in and out.

So I finally got in the right mood and set to this morning removing the door from the shed, bringing it down to the house and getting out the drill, the jigsaw, the piece of perspex to be cut down etc. As I mentioned before, Diddy Boy won't come outside now unless I am nearby, so he was pecking around in the sunshine on the grass. I was busy trying to cut out the hole with the jigsaw, the blade broke twice, but I kept surprisingly calm for me, didn't swear too loudly, didn't get wound up. So I am unscrewing the broken blade (the second one) when I heard Diddy screaming. I ran up to where I thought it was coming from to find that sodding cat had him cornered behind the shed, it was crouched down, tail swishing and about to pounce. I am really seriously pissed off with it now. If I hadn't have stopped sawing I wouldn't have heard Diddy, and he would probably now be dead. I don't know where the cat comes from, it jumped the fence and was away again as soon as it saw me. I really don't know what to do now. It means I cannot, under any circumstances, let Diddy outside without supervising him at all times from now on. It also means that I can never let my guinea pigs out again like they have been for weeks during the summer, in the big open pen, having a great time running round on the grass and under the bushes. Why should my life here and the life of my pets be ruined because of a cat? In the 8 years of Diddy's life, I have lived in three places, all of which had a cat or cats living next door or nearby, and none of them have ever threatened him in any way. Why now? The only idea I have at this time is to see whether I can hire a humane trap and catch it, take it to a rescue centre a long way away as a stray. My friend had to resort to this once when a cat kept coming into her garden and seriously beating up her cats, resulting in several hefty vets bills for treatment to their injuries. What a bloody nightmare. I am so fed up, what with that and the sparrowhawk has killed another collared dove today, two days running for that now, hundreds of feathers all over the grass up near the bird table. I feel like maybe just giving up completely now feeding the birds, then if there are no birds here, maybe the cat won't come anymore. The hawk certainly won't and I will be spared that upset. What my head tells me to do is get rid of the aviary too and all my birds, get the council in to deal with the rats, and then no more worries about things outside. My heart won't let me do that though.

Another bit of bad news, I don't think it was the chicken that Emma was allergic to after all. Haven't mentioned it before, but she has started ripping herself to bits again this past few days, culminating in manic scratching during the night and me getting interrupted sleep for the past three nights, consequently feel like crap myself. This morning she was going berserk trying to scratch at her rear area and couldn't reach. I bathed her again in the shampoo this afternoon, so hope she will get a bit of rest for a few days again. It must have been that easing her before. I have one other possible theory, the only other thing that coincides with her starting all this itching again. The lakes/reservoirs that I have been taking her to. She goes in the water there. She's been in twice this week again. Just maybe there is something in the water. It may be worth getting a sample from there and getting it analysed to see what's in it. I really can't think of anything else it could be. If it doesn't stop this week, I have to go back to see Damien on Friday, so it's not all bad news I suppose....;)

Ryan didn't appear on the cam before I went to bed last night, which was about 11.30, but the dish of food was gone this morning, so I guess he came at some stage. Still not using the box though, still at least he's sticking around.