Special enough?

It’s been an interesting and unusual day. Aaron often asks, “is anything special happening today?”, and today’s answer was the typical “I don’t think so”. It started in the normal way, although abnormally I had done two loads of washing by 9 am as we were anticipating the workmen to be turning off our water supply to install new plumbing, but that didn’t happen. Anyway, we had settled down to school, and halfway through a tear-inducing spelling list I heard some loud and piercing meows. I went to investigate, and our little stray cat Simon (who we’ve always known to be a Simonette) had brought one of her kittens – a tiny little thing, unsteady on its feet, with vague eyes and very fluffy fur. We knew she had been expecting and knew she had had her kittens, but never saw any sign of them and assumed they had died as she spends most of her time outside our door and not tending her offspring. What a lovely surprise! We made Simon and baby comfortable with an old blanket and left them to themselves, with frequent peeps and visits. After lunch I had to get to town, as there was yet another course of antibiotics waiting for me at the dispensary (I had to phone the doctor during the morning for test results, and I have something between a fungus and a bacteria). When Aaron and I got home, Nick was holding a different kitten – this one a beautiful tabby, much stronger and stockier and a bit bigger and far more alert. Kitten #1 had gone missing though – vanished without a trace. That was sad, but kitten#2, who we shall call Tiger, was just lovely. Simon didn’t seem as interested in this one as she had in #1, but eventually the two of them connected and Tiger was fed. We got them settled in the storeroom instead of under the pumpkin leaves where the first one had been. Later in the afternoon, a coal black kitten appeared next to Tiger. This one was the same size as Tiger, which made us wonder why #1 had been so tiny – just runty? Still no sign of #1 though. Coal black, called Nina, and Tiger were very happy. The original Mother Cat, who is now Granny Cat and who we know also had kittens a month or two ago (but have never seen), had been hanging around all day, along with Uncle (black-white-black has now found a name). We were a little suspicious of Uncle and wondered if perhaps he had eaten #1, but somehow that didn’t seem possible. He was more protective in his demeanour towards the little one than predatory. After supper as Nick was about to leave for bible study, Sappho and Jayden appeared outside our house with two more kittens – these were of the tinier variety again, the mewling, shaky, helpless sort. They said they had found them in the bush. Where was the mother? To add to the confusion, Jayden’s cat had also recently had kittens and she wondered if any of today’s four might have been them. Meanwhile, Simon was anxiously looking at the two new arrivals. Nick had to go to bible study, I had to figure out what to do with the tiny things. I settled on putting them in the storeroom with the other two instead of back in the bush as there was a dog about and it just didn’t seem the right thing to do. Simon followed us, not taking her eyes off them. It was soon obvious that these were also her two, which raised the question of the sizes – how could she have two big rowdy ones, one of whom had the audacity to hiss at me, and two such young ones? When I went back to the storeroom later in the evening things became a little clearer. Simon came out to greet me; Granny Cat was suckling all four. I’m certain that the two bigger ones are Granny’s and the two smaller are Simon’s, and yet they are sharing the load between them, each of them feeding all four. How they worked this out between them is beyond me. Neither Granny nor Simon have been at all put out by our picking up and petting the kittens – months of feeding have won them over! It’s awesome to observe the circle of life…we knew Simon when she was just a tiny kitten when we used to visit the Williamsons here at Piccolo. And I think that one of the two small ones is really the missing #1, but will only be certain when I can see them in the light tomorrow, based on photos we took early in the day. And now for something completely different. This evening there was a knock on the door, and I opened it to a strange man (only strange in that I didn’t know him; not strange looking) who wanted to know if I would be interested in buying some fresh potatoes. WOULD I?? I must have sounded either desperate or stupid when I asked if he was kidding in what surely must have been a giddily excited tone. He was asking ₤2.50; I gave him ₤3 for a big bag full of lovely big potatoes. I’m over the moon. Potatoes are unavailable in the shops following the debacle in Cape Town before the ship went to the UK – apparently the potatoes were unhealthy or not up to standard and thus were excluded from the shipment. Tristan da Cunha have offered to send some potatoes over on the next cruise ship. Potatoes therefore are presently a hot topic and a valuable commodity! I would have paid ₤10 for the bag if that had been the going price.