Another dimension, another dimension....

Cats generally are quite odd. Cooper - my present cat takes odd to a whole new level of oddness. I have spoken of Cooper before of course. The description of bandy legged, slightly camp serial killer still stands but since his recent adventure (which involved him going missing for a week, sparking a full scale village wide state of emergency) has meant that he's become even odder. He was found, on some steps just down the road, covered in coal dust, skinny and pretty traumatised. It later transpired that he had dislocated his tail, its true I even saw the Xrays and I had no idea how far a cats tail went up into his spine but ouch. I was pretty traumatised too, by the size of the vet bill.

Am pleased to report that the tail now seems almost normal and Cooper is on sparkling bird chasing, mouse molesting form (oh the joy of wrestling mangled mice in varying states of disrepair from him).

He has also decided that home is actually quite a good place to be, even with the building work his comfy chair by the fire seems appealing. Now he's recovered he likes to check up on the builders, a self appointed quality control inspector. He also appears to have strong views on power tools, specifically that they shouldn't be used when he wants a sleep and screeches at the builders to explain this to them.

In his self appointed Site Inspector role he prowls daily and so far he's been

1) rescued from a skip, thankfully before it was en route to Doncaster.

2) relocated to the house from his attempts to investigate the cement mixer (yes it was on at the time)

3) extracted from having a kip on the scaffolding lorry

Oh yes and then there was the whole incident with the wall tie drilling where Cooper appeared wholly convinced that he could stare Al out and the annoying noise would stop. It's enough to drive a girl to drink, even that Elderberry wine stuff that our Adie's mum makes.Ssh don't tell my consultant.

The upshot of Cooper's new home obsession took on an interesting new twist recently with the builders breaking through from the new extension to the current house. As I said on Twitter a bit like the Berlin wall coming down only with more cups of tea and hob nobs. That night you see Cooper came upstairs to investigate with us ( I suspect all day he'd been thinking "WTF, why is my house vibrating" and it was as I say as though Cooper had found a secret new dimension.

His sense of wonder was not dissimilar to the kids in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when they found aforementioned wardrobe. You could almost see him pausing and pondering the new dimension sort of like "OMG how did I never notice this bit before" debating whether he could really have missed a whole area of house to hide in for all this time or was it, oh yes far more likely, a portal had opened up to a new world, very Doctor Who. (he likes Doctor Who, except for the Daleks, he thinks they need to be terminated and is convinced there's a doorway at the back of the TV where he can get in and do for them and one day he'll find it , oh yes)

A full investigation of the new world was needed, which involved lots of panther like stalking around and sniffing. Of course I supervised and intervened where appropriate which interjections including "Cooper don't snort the cement" and "Cooper leave the cabling alone". then slightly more forceful "Cooper get the hell out from behind the bath".

I know what you're thinking "He's a cat, he won't know what you're saying" and yes I know that, I do, but I still talk to him the way my friends speak to their kids when they're being bratty. The investigation of the new dimension took some time of course because Cooper likes to be thorough. So I must confess on the third or maybe fourth stalk around the circumference of the room I reached breaking point, in need of a cup of tea and a nice chocolate digestive I stomped off and left him to it.

It wasn't that long, I promise, I'd finished the tea and the biscuit, well maybe three or four actually and then wondered where he was. So went to check and nope, nowhere to be seen not in the extenison, not in the bedrooms (not even under the beds),hadn't gone to dribble on my clothes in the wardrobe either and wasn't cuddled up with the printer (don't ask it makes him happy).

And then I heard a little cry, a Cooper whiny, "help me" sort of cry. Thing was where the hell was it coming from??. In the end I traced the sound back to the extension, not behind the bath or in the cement bag. There was nowhere else was there? Er oh yes a new built in wardrobe type thingy (yes I do have ideas above my station) and in there was a pile of wood, (well I suppose they sort of tidied up) and the cries came from there. Cooper was retrieved and scuttled of squeaking, presumably about the dangers of weird rooms that appear from nowehere and wood piles left therein.

Ever since then he views the new rooms with great suspicion and peers at them a lot through the new hall. He has also decided that I can't possibly take the risk of being left there unattended, so whenever I go for a bath now he stalks up to check on me. It's quite unnerving to be happy in your bubble bath and a squeaking thing appears, clambers onto the side of the bath an peers at you) Oh the glamour.

I am confident that the builder will put some doors on though soon as I know that "It'll be reet". Well at some point, hopefully this year even.

And here he is, in black and white, very reportage don't you think?. Best pop off now I hear the sound of approaching builders best make sure Coopers not trying to rob their breakfast bacon barms.Though his present obsession is the compost bin, don't ask I have no clue as to why. TTFN.x