Fish, Beef and Rabbit

I have a confession to make. Yesterday I bought a couple of tins of cat food. This may not appear to be a particularly revealing confession, or even one that can have the merest modicum of interest to anyone. But to anyone who by chance may be reading this who knows me, it will come as a surprise. After many years of skilful evasion by which I managed to rebuff any request for a pet by my children with a sometimes sympathetic wife, I ventured into my local Leclerc supermarket and purchased the two above mentioned tins. I bought two because, astonished by the array of flavours and musing if cats actually had a preference for one or the other, decided to play it safe and go for a tin of both fish and beef. The reason for all this of course is Tom. Since rescuing him, I have felt like one of those chaps in a film who saves a strangers life and as a consequence the stranger stays close to him forming a bond, a little like Morgan Freeman in Robin hoods prince of thieves from a few years back. He’s fussy though. In the last few weeks he slowly approaches the food I leave for him near the caravan door, nervously sniffs it before taking increasingly smaller bites before hardly touching it now. Cathy might not be surprised, knowing the limitations of my cooking, but feeling sort of responsible for him now, and to be honest, enjoying his albeit limited company, I found my way into the pet aisle of the supermarket with its array of all things pet friendly and a faint whiff of Zoo. I decided to go with the fish, and crikey, did it make the caravan smell like a North Sea trawler. As usual, I put the bowl out before it gets dark, which now is disarmingly around half past eight, and sat down in my spot near the window to see if he likes what I imagine must be his first taste of tinned food. My Grandmother often used to say that you have made ‘a rod for your own back’ when you have done something that will cost you time or money, and I could almost hear her say it as Tom tucked the food away, licking his lips as he finished the bowl for the first time. Oh well, I am not exactly snowed under with friends at the moment, so I will pop off to the supermarket tomorrow and try the rabbit.