I’ve been chuckling away to myself like a mad woman this afternoon. That’s not so unusual in itself, I have to admit, but here’s why. The Man of the House was looking up some information. He wanted to find out the name of the shrub you can plant in your garden to deter cats. Now don’t get me wrong, we adore cats. We have our own big fluffy cuddle bundle and all the neighbouring cats are welcome to come round to play, be fussed and fed. However, we have this one visiting cat who we’ve nicknamed Fluffy Tail (no prizes for guessing why,) who visits our very small patch of lawn in the front garden. Our cat, BC, never goes out the front. She lives under a bush in the back garden in fear of car noises, and bolts if the front door so much as opens. Fluffy Tail likes to come down the street and stake out the front garden while he watches the two magpies that live in our eaves.
When little “gifts” started appearing on the lawn, The Man of the House said it had to be Fluffy Tail. I was not so easily convinced. One of our neighbours has a very small Jack Russell and when they are too lazy to walk the poor little blighter, they let him run down the Street to the nearest patch of grass, which happens to be our garden. I caught him in the act of wiggling through our gateposts while I was standing at the front door about a week back. He tore off when he saw me and his owner looked very red-faced and ashamed of herself, and so she should.
Back to the hunt for information. Apparently there is a bush/shrub that lets off an unattractive odour if cats rub against it, thus discouraging them in a safe manner. The Man of the House came upon the necessary information on a web site which also suggested another, even better tip, to deter cats from dumping in your garden. You know what that was? You’ll never guess!
Lion manure. Yes. LION manure. Hilarious! Is it just me? I could just picture it, The Man of the House arriving back from the local zoo (if we had one,) with a steaming shovel of lion manure (that he'd risked life and limb to obtain, of course, him being such a hero and all.) Fluffy Tail would appear only to be confronted by the biggest, most territorial cat dump in the world. Sure, I do believe it would work. Of course I also believe that the Jack Russell would probably ignore it. :-) I pointed out to the Man that (funnily enough,) the “gifts” have ceased this last week, since I spied the Jack Russell squirming through the gateposts. I wonder why? Guilty owner, perhaps....hmmm.
And on that note, I’m off to watch SLEEPY HOLLOW. For what has to be the tenth time. What can I say? It’s Johnny Depp, and it's a terrific fantasy. Have fun!
