Tag: cat

July 16th – Hey, South Wigston has a station cat. With the close proximity of dense housing, and embankments and wastelands full of small, squeaky things, it was inevitable, really, but I’d never seen this young lad before.

He was doing monorail cat on the pedestrian barrier until I appeared. He hopped off when I got out my camera, but did pose for a few shots… a lovely lad, clearly.

Like pubs, every station should have a resident cat.

June 22nd – I spotted this young marmalade cat in Coulter Lane, Burntwood, at sundown. It had caught a bird, and was acting shifty. I took the photos hurriedly, as puss wasn’t happy with me getting near his trophy, which appears to be a housemartin.

I love cats, but all I could think when I saw this was ‘Bastard!’

As he disappeared under the gate to what I assume to be his house, I heard his owners shouting at him. It must be awful bringing your boss a quality gift and then being admonished for it…

April 1st – This journal is three years old today. Three years since Renee Van Baar cajoled me into doing #30daysofbiking. I’ve cycled every day in that three years except two days when I was too ill to ride a bike during about of food poisoning over New Year, 2012. That’s a 1094 days when I’ve been out and taken a picture or recorded a little video of the day’s ride. Thanks for joining me, and for all the likes, shares and retweets, as well as the excellent and knowledgable reader comments..

I have no idea why folk like this thing, but they seem quite fond of it, and I am too, for it’s made me look at something I do in a different way, and it’s also made me look more closely at what’s around me in my day-to-day life.

Cheers to everyone for being stoker on the tandem.

The cat isn’t impressed. He barely opened his eyes to display his utter contempt as I passed through Alumwell on my way back from work. I stopped to let oncoming traffic through, and he peered at me sleepily. I thought he was rather special, so disgusting him even further, I took a quick picture.

February 9th – I’d seen the little dog at Waitrose before – tethered to the trolley rail, he waits patiently and forlornly for his master. He’s a gorgeous little dog, but he does look so very sad. I could have taken him home.

The cat, on the other hand, clearly found me nothing more that a curiosity. Sat on a shed roof in Wall, he was surveying the comings and goings in the road below, and seemed a bit peeved that I’d spotted him. I think we met a couple of weeks before in the churchyard. He’s a lovely friendly boy.

There’s more than a hint of the Cheshire cat about the marmalade fellow, I think…

December 12th – I spotted him on the canal towpath in Pleck, Walsall. This large, curiously vocal calico cat. He saw me coming, and scrambled up the embankment, and stood, yowling and mewling at me from high in the scrub. I stopped. I spoke to him,. He replied. I spoke again. He replied. We had quite a long conversation. Then he got bored, and wandered off.

I suppose that was me told, then.

I will continue to talk to cats, dogs and passing wildlife until someone convinces me that the animals are not listening to what I’m saying.

November 28th – I don’t know who this cat is, but she has a look about her that suggests crossing her would be a very bad idea. I stopped in Hall Green to answer my phone, and she glared at me with evils from the opposite footpath. As I made my call I was watched very carefully, and I was hissed at periodically.

She’s in very good condition, and I guess her mum loves her…

November 6th – An absolutely lousy commuting day. It was raining for the entirety of journeys both to and from Darlaston, and the traffic – still stuck in autumn muppet mode – didn’t make it easier. There were lights in the darkness, though; at Green Lane, Shelfield, I stopped to take a phone call and felt someone was watching me – so beware eavesdropping moggies when out and about. The canal at Bentley Bridge still looked green, depute the murk. On the way home, the roads glistened and shone in the spray-sweep of passing traffic.

It’s not shaped up to be a great bike commuting week, if I’m honest… at least the forecast for tomorrow is better.