Cat-astrophy

I went to bed and was slumbering blissfully when suddenly I was awoken due to huge excitement at the rear of the van. Skinny had jumped out of the back window to join in with the excitement which was going on near the gate from the camping to the compound. Oskar joined Skinny and was the one who removed the corpse of the cat which had stupidly decided to come and see the dogs.

Oskar spent the remainder of the night guarding the deceased feline whilst Skinny came back to the van and went inside. Luis and Fido missed all the excitement and had to content themselves being spectators only. I was awake and hoped that Oskar might tire of his prize and come inside. I sat outside and admired the moon for a little while until it was evident Oskar was not about to relinquish his prize. Charlie wandered back to his post by the gate into the field, Obi to underneath the decking and Isabella plonked herself down to munch on some carobs. I went back to bed and fell asleep.

To my surprise, I found the cat, in one piece, in the same position the following morning. The night was still and remained charged with the excitement of the unexpected visitor. Surprisingly, Oskar was more interested in coming for a walk than staying with the deceased feline. I closed the gate to the field as we left and had to later intercept Oskar who’d decided to cut short the walk to go back to the cat.

A car was leaving the beach car park as we arrived at around 05:15. One just has to ask questions as to what they were doing. The dome tent which I thought had left had relocated to one of the favourite spots and I’d just not seen it.

The full moon provided plenty of light and Kostas was hard at work gathering salt as we wandered by in the darkness. We later met up with him by the water’s edge at the Big Beach.

There were still strong gusts as we walked to Plakaki but I was wearing my T-shirt around my neck as it wasn’t cold. Looming out of the darkness just past the beach bar, were two young men who were gazing at some distant swimmers. They seemed surprised to see so many dogs but eventually sat down to watch the swimmers as we passed. We went onto the rocks at Plakaki so I could get a photo of the beach in moonlight.

We walked back for the second circuit of the Promontory which was when Oskar decided to slope off back to the camping until remotely intercepted by me. He came trotting back obediently.

The wind was feeling cooler so I put on my T-shirt for the last part of the walk. We sat on the rocks and looked at the sea, munched some doggy kibble and walked back to the Big Beach where Kostas was just preparing to leave after a swim. This must have been the reason why his 4×4 was parked on the beach the other morning.

We bumped into Dexter and his mistress so we stopped for a chat and the dogs pottered around looking for interesting things for a while. We parted and went back to the camping where I put all of the dogs into the van whilst I picked up the poo as well as the dead cat. I transported both to a distant location in the field leaving the cat in a shrub out of the way. I don’t expect it to remain there for long. The poo got scattered around discreetly to eventually return to nature.

I made some dough as I needed bread and wished to try out my new, ceramic-coated, bread tray. I have an exciting life!

I got on my bike for a ride up through Panorama to the pass and down through Paleochora, including the port but without any stops except for a brief swim from Alonaki.

Interestingly, when I let them out, the dogs didn’t go racing off to try to find the cat and so it was business as usual. Incidentally, I was relieved to discover that the cat was not one of the Grammeno community and most likely just another stray.

The sun blocker remained down all day as the wind was still gusting strongly and the forecast is for more of the same. I’ve not been terribly active other than tending to my dough which is hopefully transforming into a loaf in the oven as I write. I found time to clean the oven, replenish the cat food containers from the large bin in the storeroom and to pet the cats when I fed them. The dogs have spent much of the day asleep in their preferred locations.

Oskar became a little noisy when some punters were setting up outside so I invited him to come into the van. Later, Luis and Fido voluntarily joined him when I was washing up and preparing the Doggy Rice for their supper. This makes life much easier as the other dogs remain quiet outside so the pre-supper period is less stressful and calmer.

The bar/restaurant doesn’t look terribly busy although Georgia and Michaelis seem welded to the chairs at the usual table. More punters were arriving and setting up earlier as I went for a little wander to check on the water. The pressure had been low since the morning but it was the same all over so must have been a fault somewhere.

Tonight is looking calmer although tomorrow is forecast to be consistently windier than today.