Pesty Jase gave me the time last night when I was resetting our alarm clock - an hour earlier than it really is! I can't believe it - up at 4.30am!

Oh well - guess it means I can get plenty done in the quiet (and dark) of early morning.

Today we are getting a cat - I havent had a cat in my life since my last cat died around 3 years ago - what a fantastic cat that one was - Pussy lea - I named this cat when I was about 7 - so I think he was alive for around 20years. We have a lot of good time on the farm, when I burried my nose into his fur he smelt like urea and oil. He would sleep in Dad's shed on the seat of a tractor or when it was hot under the truck.

He would meow at my window at night and I would let him in to sleep at the bottom of my bed. I love the way he would slide down my bedroom window wall, then pad across the donna ever so lightly to touch my nose with his then find a snuggy place for him to sleep.

He was a very hairy cat, so on the farm his long hair would get all caught up with grass seeds and other bits and pieces which on the rising of the sun he would love to pull out with his teeth and leave a neat pile of cat woolly debry on my bed.

We are a bit nervous about the new cat - our dog is really uncontrollable around cats and he will be really hard to manage - poor kitty. I am also worried about it making KD sick - but I lived very closely with a cat - although it had a big space to live in - we have a smaller space - but still big - we aren't living in a flat in a city.

Here is a poem my mum wrote about my cat after he passed away.

Cat Burial

This boy has blisters, a kind of hand weeping as he digs that rocky ground to find a cat-shaped coffin.

After seventeen years of mousing and possibly longer the cat needs the sleeping space

Now beneath a tree full of birds a tree trunked with test scratches a tree signing in the wind and rain the cat curls inot catdreams forever feeding from his milk bowl his tuna bowl forever sleeping on the couch when we are not looking.

Lorraine Marwood