This Week With Charley: Possum Friends, Queen Elizabeth and Other Shenanigans

Hello, Dear Readers. It’s been another entertaining week here on Bluff Road with Baby Charley, and she continues to find the night-life outside the window very intriguing.

As I mentioned a few weeks back, she spends much of the night camped out in her cat bed on my desk, watching the bunnies enjoy their midnight snack around the birdfeeders. I leave the outside light on so she has a good view of what’s going on out there.

This week, however, we had new visitors. She was, as usual, hanging out on my desk watching the goings-on around the birdfeeder, when all of a sudden, she jumped up and raced over to the sliding glass door in the living room. She had spotted the two new guests from her desktop perch, and when they wandered around to the front of the house, she did likewise so she could follow them.

I looked out the sliding glass door and there they were – two gray and white possum meandering across the front yard. I didn’t get a picture because they crawled underneath Tim’s Triumph sports car that’s sitting out there. I just found it interesting that Charley realized she could come over to the living room to follow them around the yard.

She also has another new thing she’s doing. Every time I open the woodstove door to throw a log in, she’ll gallop at top speed from wherever she is in the house to participate – sometimes even in the middle of the day (she’s usually upstairs in her cat cave). I don’t know if she just likes the extra heat from the open door or what, but she’s pretty consistent with this fun new thing.

She usually curls up in my lap while I’m tending the stove, which is good because I worry about her getting too close to the fire. She seems pretty cognizant of the whole situation, though.

We are still watching the Hallmark Channel, because I still can’t handle anything scary or gruesome – you know, like the news. Right now, we’re about halfway through “When Calls the Heart,” the series that follows Elizabeth Thatcher as a new teacher in a frontier town who falls in love with dashing Canadian Mountie Jack Thornton.

However, we also discovered the “True Royalty” channel. So, in between frontier life, we’re learning all about the British Royals and their castles, scandals, etiquette and so on. Charley is particularly taken with Queen Elizabeth and her Corgis.

And, of course, she continues with her nocturnal shenanigans, hurtling herself around the house at her usual playtime – 4 a.m. It’s not uncommon to wake up to this scene in the morning – her cat scratcher tipped over, toys strewn about, blanket disheveled… While she has a ridiculous amount of toys for one cat, she decided that my headband is also quite fun.

On Thursday, she goes back to Oakwood Veterinary Hospital to have her labs checked again. I’m hoping her liver numbers have stabilized. After 20 years of watching Tim’s liver numbers, I’m really hoping I don’t have a cat with liver issues. Not amused, Tim.

I’ll also ask Dr. Mason about her crazy shedding. I acquired a couple of cat groomers – including one shaped like a glove, so she thinks I’m just petting her, which she loves – and it’s amazing she has any fur left by the time I get done grooming her. I guess that’s normal this time of year…?

I mentioned it to Becky Chown at the Town Board meeting this week, and she said she brushes all her animals outside so the birds can use the fur for their nests. That’s a fantastic idea, although Charley doesn’t seem in any hurry to go back outdoors after fending off coyotes out by the lighthouse for the first months of her life. In fact, any time someone opens the door, she dashes upstairs to her cat cave.

I think she’ll be an indoor cat, but I’ll definitely save her fur for the birds. Where should I put it, though? By the birdfeeders?