In the Dark

Columbo, resting before an exhausting day's sleep

I think I should post a short message on behalf of Columbo to his many admirers. He’s doing well, having perked up enormously over the past few weeks. When I first moved into my new house at the end of June this year he seemed a bit down, and I couldn’t work out whether it was the dislocation of moving or the non-stop rain that carried on throughout July and August that made him a bit less ebullient than usual. It was probably a mixture. But the fine weather we have been having over the last few weeks led to him spending a lot more time outside and he’s looking and acting like he’s in fine fettle.

Another factor he had to contend with was that when we first moved in we were visited a few times by a strange black-and-white cat who seemed to upset Columbo, although as far as I know they never fought. Columbo is a heavyweight (about 7kg), but such a softy he never wins no matter how much smaller his opponent is. Anyway, after a few visits this other cat obviously decided that there wasn’t much fun to be had at my house so I haven’t seen it again all summer. I think Columbo was glad to see the back of it.

Last weekend, though, another cat turned up and sat on my shed roof. Actually, it’s not really a shed. It’s the old outside toilet that belonged to this house. It no longer has a loo in it, but it’s a sold brick building and very handy for storing things. The only problem with it is a big hole in the roof, which I have yet to get fixed. Cats are smart enough not to fall into holes like that, so this cat was quite secure in his vantage point. He was a very handsome chocolate-coloured long haired cat, and he was one of those cats who just seems to love looking. I’ve met several cats of that type over the years; you can often see them looking out of windows when you pass people’s houses. They sit motionless like small statues, just looking.

Columbo has never been a looker in that way. I think he gets bored easily so a few minutes of watching things and he generally goes to sleep. In fact after a few minutes of anything at all he usually goes to sleep.

But this cat sat on the roof, looking, and for some reason he was driving Columbo to distraction, probably because he was on Columbo’s turf, metaphorically speaking (because there is no actual turf on the toilet roof). He normally doesn’t make that much noise, but he was practically howling in irritation as he paced around the garden. He’s not nimble enough to get onto the roof himself, which is probably just as well because he would probably have come off worst. The visiting cat sat motionless and just carried on looking. It could have been a deliberate attempt to provoke. If so, it worked.

I had to go out at that point, so I left them to it. Columbo has to look after himself sometimes. But when I came back about an hour later the cat was still there on the roof and Columbo was on the lawn, sleeping. Clearly he even gets bored with being annoyed. When I went into the garden Columbo woke up and my presence seemed to scare the invader away. I haven’t seen him since, although he may well have seen me. Cats that like to look are probably looking even when you can’t see them.

Anyway, next week I’ll have to take him to the new vets and get some more medical supplies and food. I hope they’re better than the old ones. I’m just glad that he seems healthy and enjoying life, even to the extent of playing quite a lot with his toy mice from time to time and chasing leaves around the garden whenever it’s windy.

I nearly lost him a couple of years ago when his blood sugar level dived, probably because of too much insulin, and I found him flat out on the kitchen floor struggling for breath. Remembering the stuff I had read on the internet I realised he was in hypoglycemic shock, so I found the bottle of syrup I had bought especially for the purpose and got as much into him as possible before running up to the vets. He was immediately put on a drip and the vet said he was very dangerously ill, but I had done the right thing with the syrup. He stayed at the vet all day and remained unconscious and then was transferred to a veterinary hospital for the night. I really thought he would die, and was even thinking about where I might bury his remains, but the next morning he seemed to be a bit better and I took him home the following night. He gradually recovered and hasn’t had any similar episodes since.

I know he’s old now and needs a lot of looking after. I’ll be very sad when he does pass away. I dread to think how much money he’s cost me or how many things I’ve been unable to do because of his requirements. But it’s worth it. Fellow cat-lovers will understand.

This entry was posted on October 18, 2008 at 12:03 pm and is filed under Columbo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.