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The dark nights are here again here at Tom Cat Towers. When I go out for a paddle round the garden, the human wakes Willi up from his slumbers and unceremoniously shoves him outside too as my minder.

hedgehog on patioWe have foxes and all sorts of things trooping through the garden which she thinks may view me as a snack as I'm so small and wobbly! I can fight my own corner. It's old ginger custard pants she should be worried about, he's scared of his own shadow! Clearly I am there as the great ginger wuss’s minder as he is totally frightened of anything that moves after dark. I really think a cat that size should get a grip!

He follows me round like a scared kitten clearly too skitty to set off on his own adventures.  I’m not about to appoint myself as his minder and wish he would just go away.

Lots of cats trot through the hedgerow in search of adventure or a free feed of the kibbles on the brick which are there for the blackbirds. Mice scuttle round, we have voles and badgers. We also have hedgehogs.

I love hedgehogs. When I was feral, they were part of my nightly routine. In fact I would share insects with them. Hedgehogs are another thing on the list of things the big ginger twit is scared of. When he sees one, he runs!

At night I sit at the French window and peer out into the dark watching the comings and going of the wildlife from the comfort of the carpet. Each night a family of hedgehogs appear on the patio. They come to eat the blackbirds’ kibbles. They make a heck of a noise as I sit and just watch them till the human rouses the ginger slug and puts us both out. I will sit next to the hedgehogs and just watch, quite enthralled, as their black noses snuffle out the kibbles, or they roll into a tight ball when they get spooked. Needless to say there is no sign of the ginger wusstard as he’s shaking with fear under a bush waiting for the human to call him back in again.

Dippi with her glowing eyesWhen I want to go back inside, I look in the French windows and the lamplight illuminates my eyes and makes them glow. Ginger twit stretched up the window and taps the glass when he wants to go in, although he's never too far behind me. He hates to be outside on his own – the coward!!

Willi’s version

I wish the human wouldn’t just wake me up and throw me out.

I need a good yawn and a stretch and get my mind round things before I venture out. I am put outside when Dippi goes out. Clearly my caring duties are being recognised if I have to go out and supervise while Dippi paddles and wobbles round the pond. I am always alert for danger, such as other cats, mice and the biggest danger of all in the gardens of Tom Cat Towers; hedgepigs. I really hate them and get very concerned when Dippi goes and sits by them on the patio. She also sniffs them and they seem to quite like her.

Wills trying to get in the patio doorsHedgepigs are incredibly vicious things. Many a time, I have patted one in self defence only to have my paw pads punctured by their nasty spikes.  In the spring we have tiny baby hedgepigs, but by autumn, having feasted on all the cat kibbles, raisins, slugs and snails the darn things are almost as big as me. Then it goes cold and they all disappear. Good!

In the Middle of a World...

"In the middle of a world that has always been a bit mad, the cat walks with confidence."

Roseanne Anderson