Day to day musings of a cat minder/ sitter in North Tyneside and Newcastle upon Tyne . For details of services go to http://www.catminders.biz

Welcome to CatMinders

Welcome to CatMinders


Thursday 24 June 2010

Spooks at Four AM

A very bizarre thing .
More migraines this week , putting me semi out of action for a day and a half though with medication I had spells where reading was possible . Mostly in between bouts of nausea and during those hours when the rest of the world is peacefully sleeping . I watched three am go by . And four . And then stayed up for five and six and seven .
The birds were shouting outside by this time .
We have re- visiting seagulls in our back lane . My friends Deb and Sallie , who know a thing or two about seabirds from their Salcombe connections, tell me that seagulls and their nests are not to be encouraged , as the gulls will dive bomb anyone in proximity to the nest,  but we in this street are all that is ridiculous when it comes to sentimentality and the animal world .( Alice has however already been threatened by the adults, as has D with his camera) .
 We watch in fascination as the three fat fluffy seagull babies perch on the edge of the chimney and the parent birds clamour and chack and shout and scream at passers by . As evening falls , the voices quieten too and from behind a screen of our flowers and guinea pigs , the babes can be seen settling and a single parent watching from on high. The street in turmoil earlier that day as one of the babies landed somehow in the lane. Stalked by curious cats and perhaps later by the nighly foxes, it was all too much for Sam and she packed him or her into her cat travel basket and delivered him up to Mary our local BirdWoman who advised "They are quite robust" indicating a garden full of baby seagulls already in her care.
Sam already has a number of responsibilities and said she had two cats . "I myself have ten" said Mary but kept the new baby nontheless.
We were grateful the baby was still alive. After his disappearance and before we heard Sam had made her rescue a sadness hung over the back street.
Enough of birds .

During the night last night as I read "The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce" I was struck by the incredible quiet . No birds . No sounds . Even the dog silent .
At four twenty am I headed to the bathroom and as I sat in there thinking my thoughts I heard what sounded like  a tv playing loudly, all out of the blue. Its not unusual for N to leave her tv playing but I had not heard it as I passed by her room. I also realised she was out , sleeping over at a friends. I listened at the wall near to the next door house. Were they up late celebrating the England win?
The noise, louder than N would usually have her tv, was coming from N's room .
I felt my heart beating faster and wondered if something had happened and N had come back home without my knowing . A problem? I pushed open the door, fearful without knowing why. Bed unmade but empty . Otherwise nothing out of place. Tv on at fairly high volume . I switched it off and returned to my book .

This morning when I returned home with N and mentioned the tv she pulled a face . We definitely have a ghost , she said . I was half was downstairs and ran back up to switch the tv off when I left the house yesterday afternoon . I have a thing about leaving the tv on .
I confessed to her I had been perplexed about why I hadnt heard it earlier in the night when I had been up and down . I had been to the bathroom earlier when it was equally quiet .
Today is the anniversary of my Grandmother's death . Do you know anything about this Grandma? Sixteen years today.

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