Willow, Maggie and the Puddle Ducks -Providing tailored options other than cat boarding & catter

Willow and Maggie live on a beautiful mountain in a beautiful and unusual little home. At our meet n greet Willow was curled up on her pizza box on top of the fridge and Maggie was no where to be seen... Their dad Simon told me he doubted I’d see Maggie and that wouldn’t be unusual for a shy cat.

Day 1 Was a wet, dreary day and went as planned, sloshed around the duck pen with the puddle ducks, plenty of Willow and No sign of Maggie. Day 2 The conditions were much the same, sloshed around with the ducks, plenty of Willow time and Maggie made a special guest appearance , sitting on the stairs, out of my reach, observing, before high tailing it back upstairs. Day 3 Drizzly and muddy in the duck pen.. AGAIN.. Willow and I had a date with the brush, she rolled around on the floor under the coffee table, while I brushed her. Maggie kind of darted around behind us with intermittent breaks of sitting out of reach and watching. Day 4 Ducks wernt just wet… there was a frosting of ice on them and in the garden around them BRRRR. Maggie decided it was her time, she rubbed her way along the cupboards until she reached me, where she allowed me to pat her briefly, before moving away and sitting by the front door wanting to be let out… I explained to her I understood she wanted out but it wasn’t happening, she seemed a little miffed, that I didn’t understand what she wanted, Willow, thudded her way down the stairs and came for pats and chat… but mostly food. When dinner was served, they both remembered the real reason they’d come down to see me.. FOOD... Day 5 So I pulled up and I thought a duck had escaped and was scratching around tossing wet leaves all over the garden by the house, I panicked briefly… then realised it was a Lyrebird… initially it ran away from me, but when it realised I wasn’t that interested in it ( PRETENDING I WASN’T) it went back to its business of messing up the house yard… Maggie was keen for a pat again, or maybe escaping out the front door…. But No Willow :/…. Day 6 Plenty of drizzle and 2 lyrebirds today… Did the ducks and spread around a bag of leaves to help dry up the pen a little.. No more back stroking to collect eggs… at some point SOON… I have to plunge my arm into the freezing depths of their pond and pull the plug… UH OH… I mean CAN’T WAIT.. Meanwhile back in the house..Miss Maggie is waiting by the internal door, pretending shes coming for pats and running to the locked front door… (I think she’s trying to tell me something)…..NO WILLOW today, I’m wondering if she was insulted by our grooming date… If she doesn’t show up tommorow…. I may need to ascend the wooden spiral staircase… ( with permission of course, thank gawd for emails). Day 7 Emailed mum and dad last night, just to let them know Willow was MIA… but Maggie was all over me… I was concerned because it was meant to be the other way around. Willows prized possession (the pizza box on the fridge, was looking like she no longer loved it… she didn’t descend the stairs so, with permission I went up… On my way up I envisaged loads of horrifying things, that I never want to have to tell a fur parent :/…. But low and behold I stuck my head above the floor and there she was… sitting on the bed, leg in the air, having a wash… I gave her a bit of HHH… HHHMMM… she looked down at me… and I left her… behind me I heard “THUD” and a patter down the stairs… we had another hairbrush date, Maggie kept dashing past us and sitting by the front door. Day 8 It was a lovely 18 degrees at the bottom of the hill and a nice , balmy 15 at Willow and Maggie’s… needless to say I was very excited about plunging my arm into the duck pond to pull the plug and empty it. Loads of duck maintenance today, Raking leaves cause they love them, changing their bedding and tossing that around to break down , stupidly I wore a woollen jumper so when I replaced the hay in their bed I looked like a scare crow and had to take my jumper off before I went inside to the cats. Maggie decided she too would partake in the brushing session, but she had an ulterior motive, she managed to lead me all the way to the front door inbetween strokes. For the next week and a half, the rest of my visits with Willow, Maggie and the ducks were uneventful.. they included drizzle and fog, they included me picking up the brush and Willow rushing off and laying down under the coffee table, where I had to brush her, while she rolled about from side to side and I banged my elbow a lot and Maggie getting brushed and running to the front door, she kept my steps up… These two little girls were just darling once they got over their disappointment that it was me coming through the front door and not mum and dad.