6 in the morning . Alarm call not needed . I weave my way downstairs between four cats , holding stair rail for security and note the guinea pigs shouting as I approach . No matter how quiet we are they are alert and twittering .
The coffee grinder is first on the list , pigsters second , dishwasher loading and then cats .
Today , fatally , I forget one final stage in the process ( ie to lift the bowls of cat food off the bench onto the floor ) and having returned to my book in bed with coffee , D gloomily though with a look of resigned amusment , returns later to report the outcome .

Pearl , pictured above has scored a direct hit , overturning her bowl of wet food into his shoe and the clean laundry ( piled neatly in a basket near the shoe at the back door) and waited his arrival in the kitchen to gloat . Normally seated on the window sill looking out at the yard , today she is grinning and facing inwards , and she watches his every move as he grimly scrapes and shovels .
Yuk ....One Nil to Pearl .