Day 18 - Dog Day Afternoon

Détente?

Lazy day today.   Isn't New Years Day always a bit flat?  Or is that just me?

It was grey, wet, windy out...basically drizerable (drizzling and miserable) all round...so we spent the day huddled indoors, with the fire on, watching movies, reading, xboxing, and planning climbing adventures.

The animals like it when we stay in on a cold day.   Jazz likes to lie in close proximity, often under my chair, down by my side, or on the sofa with Anna.   Loz is always looking for a warm lap to sleep on.  

Loz and Jazz don't interact that much, and when they do, it's all one way.  Basically Loz gives Jazz a smack if he misbehaves, and Jazz totally ignores her.

This photo from this afternoon sums up their relationship. 

Jazz has always adopted a "don't-look-at-the-cat-under-any-circumstances" approach, since he got too close in the early days.   He was sniffing excitedly for a treat, a little too near to Loz.  She doesn't tolerate excitement in the dogs!   On this occasion, his attraction to the treat overrode his fear of Loz, briefly...and he paid the price.  A lightning claw strike from Loz across his face soon reminded him where he was.   We found out later she'd actually peeled back a sliver of the white of his eye - he was millimetres away from serious eye damage!

These days they hang out in the same room a lot, even though they don't pay much attention to each other.   Sometimes they'll both doze on the sofa, with Loz lazing in a patch of sun above him, on top of the back cushion.

In this photo (again, taken on my phone today, so it still counts!), Anna has caught Loz quite relaxed, but giving him that look that says "stay calm if you're going to be that close, or else...you know the rules."

And Jazz is giving Anna that slightly nervous "Don't even look at her...seriously...just don't..." expression.

Mostly Loz will tolerate Jazz, but if his energy levels start to rise, she will start watching him carefully.  If they continue to rise she'll begin to prepare her claws for action, and maybe make a couple of tentative feints towards him.   

Of course, generally when he's getting excited he forgets to watch out for Loz, so quite often gets a swipe on the rump or flank.    Fortunately she doesn't go for his face any more...

As it happens, we've just had to rush outside as there was a cat fight going on.   We feared it was Maisie getting beaten up again, but as Anna wrenched the front door open, Loz dashed in, just as I dashed out to see off the intruder.   

Saw neither hair nor hide of him, of course...dark out there!     

But we know a new cat has started coming in the garden and throwing his weight about.   He gave Maisie what for just outside our front door the other night, until Anna got there to intervene.  Maisie was quite upset, and wouldn't venture outside for the next few days.

So we were relieved to find that it was Loz tonight - she's well hard!   She seems none the worse for it, although she does look mighty peeved.   

We'll put Anna's motion-sensing wildlife camera outside the front door I think, see if we can catch the culprit.   We'll find out which cat it is, and if there's any pattern to his visits, which there often is.  

If there's a pattern, we can take some sort of action to deter him.

More as this story develops!