Cat

I like it sitting here. I can look down the garden to the house and watch the birds, other cats and the humans who live there. Sometimes, when they see me, the man will put down a small plate of biscuits, or the woman will put down treats. I prefer the woman to the man, but I don't trust either of them. I don't trust humans.

My name is Rex. I am a white and black cat. I'm meant to live in a small terraced house on the outskirts of town. I'm an outdoors cat. I like my territory, and I patrol it every day to make sure that everything is as it should be and that the humans haven't damaged it. I have places where I feel safe and can sit or sleep and rest from the threats around me, like where I am sitting now. I am sitting in the undergrowth at the back of this garden. It's a squeeze to get in here, cats only, no humans, but the view down the garden is uninterrupted. I can sit and listen to the birds, watch the magpies, the pigeons and the other cats that cross my territory. It's my territory, but it's not my garden. I don't live in the house at the end of the garden.

I'm not comfortable at home. I'll go there to keep out of the rain, to get warm when it's cold, to get fed, and sometimes I'll snuggle up to the woman who claims me. My earliest memories are of living in a small cage, being fed and watered and occasionally being taken out of the cage and cuddled. Apparently, I am a rescue cat, and I was rescued from the cage by the woman who claims me. Home was good for many years, but then she brought in two younger cats and built a cage in the garden, the human calls it a catio. The younger cats were happy in the cage, but I refused to go in there and insisted on patrolling my territory. Worse was to come: a couple of years ago, she brought a dog into the house. That was too much for me, and whilst I pop in occasionally, I live outside now. I don't trust humans; they want you to live in cages and live with dogs.  

I like it here, on my throne at the back of this garden, but my favourite place is next door's garden. Next door shares a fence with the hated catio. It has comfortable places in the sun, a couple of benches in different locations and a shed roof, so there is always somewhere warm to sit when the sun is out. The door to the shed is left open, so when it rains, I can pull it further open with my paw and shelter. I'm very wary, though; I don't want the door to shut and to be stuck in the shed without any way out. That would be scary, although I'm sure the woman who lives in the house would find me. She leaves food out for other animals. I tried some raw chicken that she left out for the foxes once, but I'll never do that again. My tummy started aching, and I was quite ill for a day or so. She puts food down for me, but there are three cats who live in this house, so I am careful that they are not around when I eat it. The two female cats leave me alone; I rarely see them because they give me a wide berth. The male cat is generally friendly, and we often settle in the same sunny part of the garden and look out for each other. Sometimes he is grumpy, and we end up in a stare-off. After a while I'll go back to my throne where I am now.

There is one cat that I need to be wary of. The humans call him Bengal for some reason. He wanders up to them and lets them stroke him and, no doubt, purrs for them. Maybe he wants to live in a cage or with dogs. I don't like it when he encourages the humans to pet him. It encourages them to try to pet me, and I am not that type of cat. I don't know where he lives, but he doesn't like me, and I don't like him.  He wanders through my territory at will, as if it's his, so I have to challenge him, and we sit facing each other, yowelling, until he withdraws and slinks off backwards, out of my territory. Occasionally, I have to chase him off.

I can hear my name being called. The woman who claims me is calling me, but I'm an outdoor cat now, so I shall ignore her. There's the risk of the cage and there's the dog. I'm not going there. Although there's food and warmth, and I can handle the dog if I must. Maybe I'll go and see her when the sun goes down and it gets cold.