June 25th...

It continues to be exceptionally hot - the thermometer in the conservatory is going to blow this year I am convinced of it!  We are now woken in the early hours of the morning by an alarm clock that sounds like a kitten crying - that is because it is the sound of a kitten crying!!!  This in turn wakes Chivers who looks somewhat confused before he registers that it is the annoying little creature that follows him round all the time and who we have shut in the spare bedroom overnight!

Charlie clearly ADORES Chivers and follows him round like a love-sick puppy (if that is possible - him being a kitten!) Chivers has adopted the role of Elder Statesman and views Charlie as an irritation that needs putting in its place.  He bats Charlie on the head but without claws fortunately and Charlie just comes back for more but at least now he has the good grace to cower a little in front of Chivers by way of acknowledgement of Chivers' superior status.

Charlie's constant pursuit of Chivers has resulted in his first dip in the pool - fortunately we had put the cover on so he didn't get his feet wet this time - he would have been soaked otherwise.  Chivers was running along the narrow bit under the bedroom window and Charlie never quite cornered properly and had a blow out failing to take the racing line and one minute he was on terra firma and the next NOT!

He went missing this morning - usually he is pretty good at coming back to call but I could hear him but not see him.   I was amazed to find that he had shinned up the big Solanum and was in two minds as to whether or not to follow Chivers out into the field beyond.  In the end he decided to come back down the tree but he knows absolutely NO FEAR - I think he is going to be a handful - like a child with ADHD.

We had to find him to get him settled in the house for the afternoon as both John and I were going down to Paphos.  John had a list of things he wanted to get done and I was going to play Pickleball for what turned out to be the final time before a Summer Break.  We all agreed that it was far too hot to continue playing indoors even with the ceiling fans.  I am not too unhappy about it because it will leave me free to help Mum and Dad with their move and to spend time with our visitors when they come in July and August.  We are planning to resume playing in September and hopefully it will be cooler then!

John managed to do most of the things he wanted to get done.  We have had it confirmed that to have the air conditioning sorted on the car we will need to find about €400.  For the time being we will use the open window method but with it being so hot we really need to get it sorted at some point it is just that having had the fascias etc done we haven't got the cash at the moment.

On our way back home we had a phonecall from Running John to say that he had discovered that the water tank on his roof had a small leak and needed something to try and repair it.  The only trouble was that the hole was way down in the tank and it meant he was going to have to drain away a lot of water. We stopped at the DIY shop at the bottom of Peyia and once we got back home John disappeared off to help Running John sort out the problem.

Poor John and Susan have had a terrible week.  Their lovely little puppy was rushed to the vets having eaten some foam.  On arrival at the vets they thought it might have the deadly parvovirus and it was very very poorly indeed.  Susan was beside herself with worry. 

The good news today was that Zac had improved enough to come home so it looks unlikely that he had the virus after all.  I had taken this photograph of him and had been going to give it to Susan earlier in the week and was glad that I hadn't.

John took it down with him in a frame as a present now that the panic is over - for the time being at least - and then he and Running John concentrated on the water tank issue.

On the subject of pets we are delighted that the vet has managed to provide us with some antibiotic that Charlie actually quite likes so we dont have the tablet down the throat battle of wills that we had with Minnie.  This stuff is called Felexin and is sticky sweet and shocking pink.   John has perfected squirting it down his throat so we have very little waste and he actually licks his lips afterwards (Charlie not John)  It would appear to be doing the trick as there are less fraught visits to the cat litter in the mornings.  Let's hope so as we would like him to be vaccinated next week.