Last night I noticed they changed the Freddie 'blog title to We love you Freddie .
He wont get well .

This morning my solution focus emails offer the following , and though Im not sure why the posting it seemed to fit :

"God brings no man into the conflicts of life to desert him. Every man has a friend in Heaven whose resources are unlimited; and on Him he may call at any hour and find sympathy and assistance."

Robert Hugh Morris American stateman.

Is it ok to take out God for those who dont follow a religion and change to " No one is brought into the conflicts of life to be deserted " etc . Universal application ? I think its ok though there will be those who believe God's role is fundamental and its not ok .

I have my bone scan today .
Im changing my hours at the day job . The bone scan means the Dept of nuclear medicine , injection ( ten minutes ) , into town shopping for a while , back for the scan which will take an hour . I hope its not too claustrophobic in there .

Longsands beach
The beach looks amazing this morning and at the time of writing this there is one person walking there , no dog . Earlier , at 8am there were more , and dogs .

No cat calls this weekend , and one booked for May cancelled .

I am still much taken up with Freddie and what is happening with him . The blog is upbeat for a couple of days as the baby's pain relief seems to be fixed so he isnt in so much pain and is happier when he is awake . His parents decide to have him christened as time is running out and the service which they were dreading goes well . The move to a local hospital is on again and they now have to face saying goodbye to individual nurses some of whom have helped them care for F since they started living at the hospital last summer . Impossible to imagine coping with that but Im sure they do because they have to and there is no choice .

There are some wonderful photos of Freddie on the site , he looks peaceful and happy , but I find it hard to look at the pictures of his parents as their despair is there and cant be disguised .
Todays blog , of yesterdays events , sounds jaded . I dont know how his dad keeps on writing it day after day . But he does . Get Well Freddie


Thursday , I am offered a ticket to see petula clark at the city hall and despite my car blowing up ( water pump incident ) its fun to be out after so long at home . I get the giggles in the foyer at the prospect of seeing petula who is now in her seventies , and have to curb myself for fear of lynching during the performance . The city hall is not full by any means but those who have come along are very much in favour and clearly dont share my views of the poems and lyrics she has written (which she refers to as "The Lyric ") . Petula Clark Live reviews Guardian Unlimited Music

Thanks to the temporary demise of my car I am occasionally driving D 's automatic toyota . As I try to pull away I take note of all his advice and as I lift my foot off the brake it starts to nudge forwards gently . So far so good . Then it slides to a halt and Nat looks at me somewhat anxiously . Its way past her bed time and she has had to come out in her pyjamas with D to rescue me , whilst he tries to get mine home ( on the back of an AA truck , at the end ) . " have you broken this one too " says the look on her face . We sit for a while as I try to apply logical thought . Foot off brake , nothing happening after some slight movement . " I think you have to do something " says Nat and I twig .. oh yes foot off brake and onto accelerator . Whoosh , we' re off and we take off up the street .
I'm sure I ll get used to it .

Get Well Freddie ?

Another bright sunny morning and the get Well Freddie blog tells us that Fred has maybe two more weeks of life , maybe a bit more " before he goes " . Just impossible to imagine that in a different part of the country there is a hospital room where parents are watching their baby doing what he is doing while I contemplate getting out of the house into the sunshine , walking in the direction of the sea towards Amber's house , and that Amber will be chasing rubber bands and rushing at her food and out into the yard to tear around and make sure everything is as she left it in her world .
The news programmes stay full of Virginia tech and the student who shot 31 people . 32 including himself .

They were hoping that Fred would be able to travel to a hospital nearer home , Torbay , on Friday ,and then spend some of his time at home but it seems this is not possible . His parents are finding out that to continue the best care possible he will need to stay in the children s hospital in Bristol .

Deb is back and Im looking after Amber now . Ive known her for a while , shes a tiny ginger cat who eats for England , 3 pouches per day , amazing as she really is tiny . My own four , two of whom are large , share five or so per day and most of that gets scraped into the bin after they've examined the edges . But Amber flies to her bowl as soon as its down and pounces.
All in all shes a great cat to care for . She looks forward to visitors and whizzes around at speed to see whats happening next , bombing out into the yard then back again to see what Ive brought for her to play with . She has a thing about rubber bands so any spare time is spent flicking them for her to chase .

And all that was yesterday before I had caught up with the Get Well Freddie 'blog, life was going on much as usual , cats , foghorns , bikes and the sea in the sun .
I started reading Fred's dad s blog along with one or two others when laid up with chest problems , and found it compelling , wanting to know how the baby was progressing , how his parents were coping .
There had been mention of a rogue cell in the middle of last week but I found myself reading and re reading what was written late the night before last , picturing the parents having to face putting it in black and white , posting it for all to see. Once its said , no going back . No more hope of a cure , or of more time , another transplant , just facing the fact that his treatment hasn't worked and their time with him is a few weeks now .
A shadow over the day ........

No mice today and Miss Downstairs only appears when Im washing the food bowls and trying to work out where the plastic bags are , always a challenge in someone else's house . You learn from experience to bag up any leftover food if you want the house to smell fresh each day . No sign at all of Mr Upstairs ; I check under the beds and call a couple of times but he is clearly out already in the sunshine . The fohorns don't start till later today .
Miss D follows me around rolling in the sunny patches and I sit down with her for a few minutes . She s a friendly little cat who resembles an owl but the corpses tell a different story . Once there was what looked like a complete family on a cushion on the sofa , all tiny and perfect and only when I picked them up for disposal in a tissue did I realise they were all unharmed , too young to have died of fright , possibly . I placed them carefully back out in the garden and hoped for the best , though with a heavy heart .
D is waiting for me with the bikes and we ride round the coast along the sea front in the early sunshine .

The foghorns are quiet

The foghorns are quiet and the mist is gone . Tulips outside in pots at the first call of the season , April is here and the holidays are starting . We do get CatCalls in Winter , people go away at Christmas and for New Year and the odd February trip away , but the warmer weather is a sign of things to come . People packing their cars and off to visit friends , City break weekends , the occasional longer holiday .
Deb s house is quiet , ticking clocks and silent cats . An upstairs cat and a downstairs , with clear lines of demarcation . The downstairs cat hears my arrival and flies through to show her appreciation . Im already on my guard as she saw me here last night and , yes there it is , a tiny perfect field mouse presented on a shiny colour supplement . A protocol exists for all these visits , and an established way of doing things . For the mouse its a shroud of tissue and the compost heap and a few words in my head . Prior to the compost heap it was more of a coffin in the rubbish bin .
Catcalls was set up for people going away for short stays who didnt want the bother of putting their cats into a cattery and preferred them to be able to stay at home with people coming in to feed and take care of them . It suits families with " multiple occupancy " cats . We dont charge more depending on how many cats you have , unlike catteries and we dont inisist that you have your cats vaccinated either which is an advantage for some , especially with elderly cats who dont go out much now and are at less risk of infection .
Some also like the idea that their house is being taken care of too , a watchful eye cast over everything .


Later I call to feed and water and check on Deb s cats and the house , all quiet and both cats are out , hopefully not hunting for more gifts for my morning call .
I check under both beds as I sometimes text to let her know if both cats are safely tucked up for the night . Theyre not so unless she texts me to ask I will wait until I have seen them both in the morning .

The mist has settled again and the foghorns are much in evidence near the sea . Inland , where we 've been visiting , it was sunny and warm , cats playing on lawns . Quite a different outlook here .
Close the house up till tomorrow and back to our shouting cats and squealing guinea pigs .