Tala Cats

I am pleased to report that my friend Sheri managed to get to Tala Cats to see her sponsored feline Ishtar.  After the rain everything was all a bit soggy around the cat park but she persevered and took down a massive bag of cat biscuits as a donation before locating Ishtar who is a big black cat who is blind in one eye and who stole her heart some time ago and she has sponsored him ever since.  She has always wanted to be able to take him home with her but currently she has around 10 cats in and around her home in Paralimni.

She was thrilled to find Ishtar looking well and she said that after some initial hesitation he was soon winding around her legs and looking for some affection and that, even after the heavy rain, there were still other people visiting the cat park and bringing contributions for the upkeep of the residents which I think now number in excess of 800 and I don't think that includes those that chose to live outside on the periphery in the car park.

I would like to think that after the 10 years we have been living here the situation with cats and dogs has improved but I don't think it has - there is a constant problem and shelters and charities are inundated with requests for help.  The Cat Park regularly say that they cannot take in any more and then catch people on CCTV leaving cats and kittens at the gate and not only that sometimes dogs and other animals.  I would like to think that they do so thinking that they are giving these poor animals some sort of better start in life than they would otherwise have had but sadly I do not think this is the case.

Above is a bit of video of some of the cats she saw today.  How is it that there are all these masses of different cats living together and they are not trying to kill one another?  Today I had to separate Boris and one of the cats from up the road which we call Ugly Bugger and who once had a go a John!  Boo and UB were nose to nose wailing and spitting at one another on the fence next door so I got the hose and decided to despatch UB with a quick squirt of water before he got the better of Boo.  I pointed the hose at him and no amount of water was going to put him off - I stopped and he looked at me and shook his fur and then looked at me again as if to say "is that the best you have got?" - sneeringly (if cats can do that) he turned slowly round and sauntered back up the road.

It was lovely to be able to invite Sheri round to see where we live and having heard that she had a liking for Stifado decided that is what I would cook.  She said that the food at the Hotel had been excellent and even though she has a good appetite she had had to ask them not to give her so much scrambled egg in the morning after her first breakfast.  She laughed that they simply replaced the missing egg for extra rashers of bacon!!

Anyway the stifado went down well, I served it with rice and some roasted vegetables and we had some pannacotta afterwards.  Bless Sheri she said it was restaurant quality so I reckon she must eat in some fairly dodgy places normally!!!

We spent a couple of hours reminiscing about school and I managed to find some old photographs for us to have a laugh over and try and remember all the names of the faces on them.  

I didn't know that at school Sheri had been friendly with my friend Sally Parsons because I didn't think they were in the same class for lessons but apparently they came from the same town and traveled to school together hence the connection and she had tried to find her again on social media but was finding it difficult because she thought she had remarried and didn't know her name.  It took me about 10 minutes to find her much to Sheri's excitement and she now plans to get in touch.