The Black Cat

Black cat, cross my path
Good fortune bring to home and hearth
When I am away from home
Bring me luck wherever I roam

- Old English Charm

As the year slips by, the garden has taken on a colourful autumnal hue

as red, gold and yellow leaves;

 deep red crab apples

  and pink Rowan berries decorate the trees in a seasonal display.

The nights are drawing in and the bright sunny skies during the day make way for clear starlit skies at night. 

The harvest moon has become a witching moon as it bathes the garden in a pool of white light.

Cobwebs stretch between the Verbena, 

sparkling and shimmering in the early mornings.

I have however detected a change of ambience in the garden recently. 

Freddie’s languid blissful life at the side of the trough was apparently short lived and he is still missing - now sadly presumed dead.

Other happenings alerted me to disturbances in the garden – such as pots knocked over on to their side. I sensed that something had changed.

Then..... Evie – my little friendly garden companion also disappeared; very concerning considering the terrible incident that occurred last year.

Evie has been part of the garden since my arrival at La Petite Maison; her sweet little presence bringing as much life to the garden as do the birds, bees and butterflies. 

Like me she is a herb lover and indulges herself by sniffing delicately at the cat mint before rolling around in a state of escatsy, (a Freudian typo which should read ecstasy!)

She is a talking cat and converses freely to me in rather human sounding mews.

In Feng Shui cats are drawn to harmony. Therefore a happy cat is the sign of a happy, harmonious home. So when she was no longer there, following faithfully at my heels, watching my activities

 and catnapping on the lawn as I worked close by in the flower beds, I missed her dreadfully and worried as to what had happened.

Enlightenment came one lunchtime, when a black shadow crossed the lawn

 and slipped stealthily down the lavender and nepeta lined path towards the back door.  

The shadow materialised into a lithe young black cat nonchalantly making its way along the path, before coolly and calmly stopping to sit on the top step staring audaciously at me as I stood at the back door.

The green eyes held my gaze challengingly. The cat showed no fear and did not attempt either to run or to come closer. This cat was a stranger to me - I had never seen it before, although I was acquainted with most of the cats in the area – none of whom with the exception of Evie show any real interest in me and use the garden only as a short cut to get to where they are going.

As it sat motionless on the step, I realised it was staring me out, but when I made a move towards it, the cat silently slipped by me and melted away along the side of the house before vanishing under the hedge.

I saw the cat again several times over the next few days; again it made no attempt to befriend me and stayed slightly elusively out of reach, just staring intently at me as though attempting to read my thoughts.

On one occasion as I looked out of window, I found the cat peering into the newly constructed pond (inspired by Charleston, although not yet finished) in the front garden.

 Slowly it stepped on to the granite rock that is submerged just below the water as a stepping stone for any unfortunate creature that accidentally falls into the pond.

Cautiously it lapped at the water and

for a moment perched gracefully on the rock with all four paws in the water,

and then slowly pivoted and climbed out of the pond.

From a neighbouring garden I heard the faint sound of a woman's voice calling 'Belle..." The cats ears pricked up and I voiced the thought aloud as to whether the cat could in actual fact really be called Beltane! The cat turned it's head at the sound of the word and intently fixed almond shaped green eyes upon me.

Of course a more obvious name for this cat would naturally be Salem.

Here in the UK, as in Australia and other parts of the world where black is a protective colour, black cats are though to be lucky. It is believed that their colour gives them the power to ward off negative forces. So any superstition of black cats and bad luck did not bother me.

However what did bother me was that there was still no sign of Evie. 

A full week went passed after I had last seen her, until late one afternoon when I caught a glimpse of her in the front garden. 

Relieved and overjoyed I called to her. Quite unlike her normal happy self, she was as nervous as a kitten and shied away from me, tongue-tied and not uttering any of her usual chatty little mews. Eventually, after a lot of coaxing she came close and I was able to pick her up, stroking her soft fur and cuddling her.

I carried her to the summer house where she has spent many happy hours sleeping or curled up in the dry as she watched the raindrops fall with a splash into the pond.

For a few minutes she sat on my lap and then…. her manner changed, she froze for a moment before jumping off my knee, ears back and on high alert. A sleek black shadow emerged at the side of the summer house.

Evie hunched down outside the summer house and began to make a noise like an old barn door creaking in the wind.

I waved my hands ineffectively at the black cat. It ignored me and walked elegantly along the top of the trellis; executed a neat pirouette and returning to the top of the fence dropped lightly to the ground below and began to circle Evie. I watched semi-hypnotised as the cat silently approached us. I clapped my hands in an attempt to break the spell, but suddenly the cat sprang like a panther and chased Evie across the garden and around the house.

Running after them, I found Evie crouched beneath a car parked on the opposite side of the road. As I called to her from the bottom of the drive and attempted to coax her out, I was aware of a presence immediately behind me. It was the black cat – staring at me. It remained beside me and made no attempt to leave the driveway to pursue Evie.

My intuition tells me that this cat is on a mission. It is intent on driving Evie away and moving into the garden in her place.

What to do? I cannot drive cats away if they choose to come to me; it is just not in my nature, but I simply cannot have Evie driven out and the tranquillity of the garden disturbed. I have a feeling too that this back cat may know something about poor missing Freddie!!!!

xxx