Bazyl (cuddly cat)

After a hectic few weeks that included multiple sets of house guests (feline and human), cat

visits on a bicycle whilst recovering from a broken foot and the general kerfuffle that is part and parcel of running your own business, I have been looking forward to the quieter period that falls between end of summer and the insanity that signals the start of the Christmas period.

On Thursday the perfect antidote to my stress arrived in the form of Bazyl, a beautifully soft and fluffy grey pussy cat. He is as large as he is soft and his perfectly round, permanently startled orange eyes flitted around his new accommodation as he sniffed his way around my apartment. After quarter of an hour Bazyl decided he’d had quite enough and hopped back into his carrier, looked up at his owners quite ready to return home. They left quietly so as not to upset him while he was occupied sniffing inquisitively at the corner of the rug. When Bazyl realised that they had gone he rushed to the front door, dramatically flinging himself at it and like an opera singer singing his final aria, he threw his head back and wailed.

Luckily this didn't last long as curiosity soon got the better of Bazyl and he was compelled to circle the apartment following his little nose around and disappearing every now and then into a space that he happened upon. Every noise would startle him, and then he would brush past me nervously his tail in the air and his eyes, for just a second, wild with panic.

Bazyl spent the evening crouched comfortably in a cupboard watching the world through a crack in the door but coming out intermittently to check up on me and have another look around. As the evening wore on he became increasingly confident and would surprise me by appearing somewhere unexpectedly, popping his head out for a second and then just as quickly dissapearing.

When I woke up the next morning Bazyl was staring up at me licking his lips, so I picked him up giving him a cuddle and carried him into breakfast.He spent the day hanging out on the balcony and when guests arrived. instead of hiding as I suspected he might, to their delight he came and said hello, brushing his fluffy tail past them and giving a surreptitious sniff just to check it wasn't his owners returning in disguise.