Cute Cat Friday 2016-01-29: Celebrating Belle

One thing about Belle, she is a beautiful cat.

Here she is in the Blue Cross shelter in October 2013, just before we adopted her. She is back there now and still listed for adoption, but we are hopeful she will find a new home soon.

Below the fold are some more pictures of the very lovely Belle. Particular highlights are confronting her mortal enemy, the printer; and studying the life of the Dowager Empress of China, for ways of commanding her human servants. We hope she and her next humans are happy together.

Election Stories 2: The Labour Party

Part One looked at the narratives of the big winners and smaller losers in the 2015 general election. We now turn to the Labour party.

So, what was Labour's story in the last election? As far as I can tell — and I'm trying to be generous here — it was:

Mumble mumble squeezed middle burble rail fares something utility bills.

Ed Miliband thought a manifesto was a substitute for a story. There were some worthy policies in there, but no inspiring narrative.

When Miliband condensed his offer down to six bullet points, they were positively embarrassing, even before he had them carved onto a big lump of rock. Campaigning for a strong economy isn't a story; it's like saying kittens are cute and chocolate is delicious. That's very nice, but it's no reason to give away the keys to a whelk stall, let alone 10 Downing Street.

Cute Cat Friday 2016-01-22: Joni

Empty wine rack repurposed for cat storage.

Joni is enjoying having the run of the house, and she and Zach are getting along beautifully. It was hard deciding to rehome Belle and we miss her, but we are sure we made the right decision.

Belle is now listed for adoption at the Cambridge Blue Cross. We hope she finds a good home soon. If you are interested in adopting her, please contact the Blue Cross directly.

Farewell to Belle

I never thought I would write this sentence: We have decided to rehome Belle.

We did this reluctantly and with heavy hearts, but after much thought we decided it was the right thing for all of us, including Belle. I took her to the Blue Cross animal shelter on Saturday.

Regular readers of this blog will know we adopted another cat named Joni in November, and hoped she and Belle could live together peacefully. Belle is very much afraid of other cats. Joni is considerably smaller, and her body language was not at all aggressive; but Belle responded with hissing, growling, and pointing her ears back whenever Joni was nearby, occasionally swiping at her with a paw.

We knew Belle had lived happily with Dexter, so we persevered and hoped she would calm down. It was going very slowly, but we believed we were making progress. Then one morning there was an incident, Belle struck hard at Joni, and Joni was bleeding heavily on our kitchen floor. Thankfully there doesn't seem to be any lasting injury, but it was clear we could not continue. One of the cats had to go.

Cute Cat Friday 2016-01-15: Belle

Regal lady in her cat bed.

We've had a major setback in relations between Belle and Joni, and I'm afraid this will not work out. More details to follow when we know what is happening.

Election Stories 1: Winners & Losers

Very few people vote for a detailed manifesto; we vote for stories.

Any major party's election manifesto makes for deadly dull reading. It's an earnest, detailed description of actions they would take if they get into power. It's important to have one, so the government can be held to account for what it promised.

However, no normal person would read the whole thing. Anyone who studies it closely is being paid to do so, or is an obsessive political anorak, or quite possibly both. I take a closer interest in politics than most people, but I've never read a manifesto in full and seldom read them at all.

Instead, we vote for a story. Pundits like to call it a narrative because that sounds fancier, but really it's a story. It needs to be short and simple, because we're easily distracted, and the stories on Game of Thrones are more entertaining. Successful political parties understand this.

Cute Cat Friday 2016-01-08: Joni

Lap dwelling cat (slightly angled).

Introductions are still making progress. Belle is now able to sit in the same room as Joni for short periods without hissing, running away, or otherwise freaking out, which is definitely a good sign.