Since Felix the feral tom cat has gotten back from the vets without his bollocks things have started to change in the garden hierarchy. The other night we heard a fight. Felix has taken to sleeping in a different position in the garden. All the animals enter through the big three metre tall hedge.

Yesterday I noticed, just outside my office, a dead rat. It had rigor mortis and was not fully mature. There is a “pissing” tree approximately three metres from my left hand. Gandalf the now neutered feral female has the habit of leaving me vole noses and entrails, on the window sill about a metre from where I sit.

Last night I set up a trail camera on the patio outside my office. At ~3:45 AM a hefty striped cat appeared. It sniffed the tree and started to piss on it. This is something like the eighth cat to visit. It is possible that the tom brought the dead rat.

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Felix who probably got Gandalf up the duff before they were operated on has started rubbing himself against our legs. The vet suspects that he might have feline AIDS. Before he would not let me get within a couple of metres. Gandalf has been angling to get in the house. She is becoming a trip hazard. They have started sitting on the back door mat. Waiting impatiently to be fed. This behaviour was hers and has been copied by Felix.

I am starting them on a course of aromatherapy. I have applied some malt vinegar to the mat. It keeps Gandalf at bay but Felix seem more immune to the smell. He even sniffed some blue roll soaked in ammonia. He is often snivelling and has a near perpetual cold. I know by experiment that neither cat likes the smell of petrol

If I can break Gandalf’s habit Felix will follow suit.

Is the new cat a regular visitor? Will it attempt to acquire more territory like Israel in the Golan Heights and West Bank?

We shall see…