Protecting her demesne

One of the neighbouring cats desperately wants to be Urchin's friend. On one memorable morning he actually let her out of the cat flap (which was set to ingress only - he pushed it from the outside and she shot out). Unfortunately, she isn't having a bar of it. Her home is her castle.

Paul got this wonderful series of photos demonstrating how she sees him off.

After assessing the threat (and correctly judging it to be much smaller than her) she gets into slinky attack mode and starts nipping at his heels. It is possible she thinks she is a sheepdog.


She follows him right down to the back of the garden and doesn't come back until she is totally satisfied that he is gone.

Then she looks very smug about having defended her home. This is also how she looks when she has been protecting us from squirrels.

New Catnip Mouse

Urchin's Aunty Irianwen very kindly offered to make her a catnip mouse. She has access to fresh, homegrown catnip and a goodly supply of felt and thought Urchin may be amused by such a thing. I think the video shows that Urchin was very much impressed by this kind thought! She fell on it as soon as she saw it and gave it a good kicking.

I feel a bit irresponsible, letting my baby cat have access to drugs like that, but she does enjoy the occasional nip.

Birthday Girl

Today Urchin is 2. A fine figure of an adult Maine Coon! She has quite a bit more growing to do, we think - rumour has it that they keep growing for much longer than other breeds of cat.

All chairs are my chair

It's amazing how far a cat can stretch out to stake her claim on prime seating.

The Shadow Knows

For me?

This is one of my favourite pictures of the fuzzbeast. It makes me laugh every time I see it. She was helping Paul repot his oak sapling in February (it was very root-bound), but I just think it looks like she's rubbing her paws together with glee.

Urchin and the new fishing rod

Paul has a new fishing rod, which Urchin is helping him test. She's very generous with her assistance that way.