In which Hobbes successfully intimidates another cat

One of the things that we really liked about this house when we first saw it was that it was cat-friendly: there is no way for the cats to get between the back garden and the road, no side passageways or accessible roofs over which they could climb. Instead there is a nice strip of green spaces (with the exception of our 'garden', which has a bit of growing to do before it can truly earn that name), with only low walls between them, backing onto more gardens at the end. It must be cat heaven, with fences, trees, decking, and all manner of other garden accoutrements for them to climb over, inside and under. And so it is - in addition to our two, we have seen at least five other cats, possibly six. There is a mostly white one with black splodges, which came to visit us quite early on and attempted sneaking inside to steal their food.






Of course Hobbes and Murphy can rely on each other to provide backing, and Hobbes sometimes waits when I let him out for Murphy to join him, and only then will he sally forth. (These photos were taken back in the beginning when our garden was still full of junk left by the previous tenants. Blog on that subject hopefully forthcoming).

There is a Murphy-lookalike, which actually hopped up on our kitchen windowsill the first day we were in the house, and I panicked because I thought Murphy had escaped. There is another fully black one, and a large fluffy ginger. There is at least one tabby, possibly two.


I saw Hobbes on our patio, and went out to say hi, when I noticed the tabby on next door's roof. Hobbes and it had obviously seen each other but were politely pretending ignorance. Once Hobbes had me, however, it was a different matter - he jumped up on the wall and positively stared.


The tabby didn't quite know what to make of this and so did the sensible thing and fled.


... and Hobbes was quick to press his advantage.