More Kitten Stuff...

I've been writing a lot of cat-related posts of late, but people have been asking me how Monsignor Furretti is getting along, so here's the latest...

I'm not a fan of allowing animals into church - guide-dogs excepted. However, I always get important things blessed - especially my cars (well, the way I drive...) and important books. I happened to ask if it was possible to get animals blessed. His Hermeneuticalness informed me that there was indeed a blessing for animals in the Rituale... admittedly, it was for flocks and herds, but...

He also told me that St. Martin de Porres had founded a hospital for sick cats and dogs. On the strength of that sort of saintly example, I asked if, on the Feast of St. Martin, Furretti could be blessed.

It nearly didn't happen - the night before, Furretti had a rather upset stomach, and I wasn't sure if a car journey would be a good idea. However, on the Wednesday she seemed a bit better, and so I popped her into the cat carrier and drove to Mass.

I didn't take her into the church, but left her in the car. After Mass, I brought her into the Small Hall, and gave her a saucer of water. Fr. Tim then blessed her - surprisingly, she didn't object to being sprinkled with holy water - but I couldn't take a photo, as I was busy ensuring that she didn't find her way into the vestment cupboards. Fr. Tim did manage to get a photo of her afterwards.

Since then, Monsignor Furretti has been making steady progress.

Sylvester was too big to climb onto small shelves, and he was getting arthritic, so didn't tend to jump onto anything higher than my bed. Anything (other than food) which I didn't want him to get at would be safe left up on a shelf. Now, however, no matter how carefully I put things away on shelves (often behind other, larger things), she manages to climb onto the shelf and hook the objects out. Pens, memory sticks, rosaries, alarm clocks... Yesterday, she sat on a bookshelf and deliberately hooked out three books from the middle of the row and pushed them off the shelf onto the floor.

Strangely, despite the many statues I have on my shelves, I haven't found any of them on the floor... yet.

Furretti also has her appetite back.

Note to self: even though prawn crackers bear no resemblance to prawns, Furretti likes them. Despite the Chinese takeaway packing them in polythene bags, Furretti will open the bag with a single swipe of her claw, and she will then proceed to hook out a cracker and commence chewing...