Winter Escapades of the Fickle, Fairweather Feline.

Today was the first day of winter in Heavenly Beverley. This morning was rather nippy, down to 1.6 degrees. We were cocooned in our warm bed until almost 10am. Yes, I know we were slack. But we have good excuses. I didn't sleep through the night, once, for six years, due to two night wakers in a row. Michael worked all hours of the day and night for decades. Both of us go through the five stages of grief before we climb out of bed each morning.

I've digressed. Ruby the tabby cat, otherwise known as "Catelle", so as not to confuse her with Ruby the Beagle, rules the inside of our house during the winter months. In summer, she is the alley cat, lean, secretive, cunning and active. Not that she ever catches any other creature apart from mice. Ruby the cat would have to be the worst hunter on the planet. The birds tease her, next door's chooks ignore her, the goanna moves without any harassment through our garden and the dogs chase her.

In winter, the roles are reversed. Ruby the cat stalks into the house, eats, settles on the couch, moves to our bed, scowls at the dogs and demands to be fussed over and stroked. When she curls up on our bed, all four kilos of her, she seems to take up an inordinate amount of room. There is always a preamble of kneading the doona or blanket with her claws whilst giving us the hairy eyeball before lying down.

She has a habit of swishing her tail expressively whilst regarding us with an exceeding sour expression. We obviously do not live up to her expectations. And due to her increased food intake and less activity, she definitely gains weight during the cooler months. The dogs are delighted with this change. By winter's end, she doesn't fit through the dog barricade spokes without pulling the entire barrier over. Without even a thank you, the dogs will saunter past her in order to take up residence on the couches in the living room.

However, the funniest aspect of Ruby the cat's winter appearance is when she isn't is the house, she attempts to find somewhere cosy to snooze during the day. This inevitably is a secret space with lots of spider webs. Hence, she will then rock up to the front door, with her most dignified expression, with cobwebs hanging off her ears, her nose, her whiskers or her tail.

Poor Ruby. She spends most of winter having us laugh at her. Her only highlight is that the dogs tend to hassle her less than in summer.

Before Ruby knew dogs were the enemy

...the look of love

...Hello!

...and typical winter expression whilst practising being hover cat.