I believe this cat to be called Bailey purely from an overheard conversation in the post office quite a few years ago. He's not telling. But he looks like a Bailey's, doesn't he? He often lounges around in the garden, and occasionally plonks himself on my back doorstep: it's brick and faces south, so it's a nice warm snuggly spot for a cat to snooze; especially a confidently controlling one. When I turn up from the car, Bailey thinks about it then decides physical contact is not appropriate, so he slopes off a couple of yards away, sits down and challenges me with his eyes. He's the rule-maker.
Bailey is huge. When I first saw him from the bedroom window, I thought a white panther had escaped from a local zoo, until I realised that there aren't any local zoos around here. But that's not conclusive. Here near the centre of Reading, there have been sightings of deer, pheasants, parakeets, red kites and grey wagtails and, once (admittedly a few miles up the road) a wallaby.* Life is wild around here!
* Sorry, can't resist an old SIHAC definition: 'Wannabe: someone aspiring to be a kangaroo.'
Handsome though he undoubtedly is, I wouldn't cross him.
ReplyDeleteIn this village, we get marauding otters once in a while. But Philip Wayre lives here too, so they are looked on indulgently.
OMG what a gorgeous cat!
ReplyDeleteIf I were 20 years younger I would use my collected British Airway free miles to fly over to Reading and kidnap him.
Luckily for all of us, I am too old for such shenanigans. Take good care of him.....what a treasure.
That's Bill Bailey sure enough.
ReplyDeleteI've heard Reading is a magnet for Fat Cats.
ReplyDeletewhat a gorgeous looking cat and with that colouring Bailey certainly suits him.
ReplyDeleteI remember when I was a child a group of wallabies had escaped (from where I do not know) we as a family joined in the search for them in a woodland park in Sussex. Thinking about it I have no idea what we would have done if we had found them.
I will pass on your compliments to Bailey when I next see him. He doesn't belong to me, by the way. In fact I think the reverse is nearer the truth.
ReplyDeleteI made a mistake in the wallaby joke, which I have now corrected, although both versions work fine.
even if my comment didn't reflect it I did get the wallaby joke :)
ReplyDeleteby the way thanks for your visits to my humble blog
I'm not a fan of cats and the look on that one's face isn't making me like them any better.
ReplyDeleteThere were (allegedly) some sightings of a kangaroo hopping around in Ipswich earlier this week. The local paper sent a reporter but he didn't find anything. Some local residents (the ones without webbed toes) think it was more likely a hare.
I wonder what's in the barrel or tub, that it's so comfortable to lie in?
ReplyDeleteAnd I'd like to think you invented the name Bailey for him. Suits perfectly.
Far from the centre of reading, we see most of those but not wallabies, parakeets or Baileys.
ReplyDeleteWe do however have a cat called Tosca who is so big she has occasionally been mistaken for a black and white mouse.