Try as we might, we couldn’t resist this very charming chap and have adopted him as one of our own. Well, you knew we would didn’t you? It’s now been ten days since we’ve had "Monsieur Le Pussy Cat" with us; sadly no-one came forward to claim him.  He has been an absolute trouper and shown himself to be a truly lovely and very affectionate cat. As you can imagine, while we tried hard not to, we have fallen in love with this very charming chap and have adopted him as one of our own. Well, you all knew we would didn’t you?

This morning it was time to return with him to our vet for a check up. Over the past three to four days we had noticed a marked difference in him. A definite twinkle had returned to his eyes, his salivating had stopped and a shine was slowly returning to his handsome coat. Thankfully he received a complete, clean Bill of Health from our vet. Apart from his tongue ulcer she was worried he might have Leishmaniasis, Feline Aids and Feline Leukemia Virus and told us to keep him well away from our other cats for the duration of his treatment. However, tests taken proved negative and he can now meet our other furries (and the terrible three) and slowly become integrated into our menagerie.

His fur had also become densely matted around and under his chin and part of his tummy due to his salivating which made him look terrible as well as smelling a wee bit. As she whipped out her electric shaver and proceeded to shave off all this ugly mess he just sat there and purred, sensing it was all for a good cause. Hmm. As I write this he is presently lying full-length on Nigel’s desk glaring at the dogs. They have yet to learn who are the Supreme Beings of the animal kingdom.

Now that I’ve uploaded most of the Christmas edition of AMB I found myself with a little free time and so re-acquainted myself with the washing machine, vacuum cleaner and dish washer. Sadly, my re-acquaintance with our oven didn’t go quite so smoothly as I somehow managed to blow all the fuses in the house when I switched it on. So there goes our Christmas turkey!

Mind you, as luck would have it I received Alain Llorca of Moulin de Mougins fame Christmas and New Year Menus through the post the following day. Quickly flipping through the pages I came across his magnificent New Year’s Eve menu. Yum Yum I thought and what perfect timing . . . until I saw the price. Yikes. 700 Euros per person. Crestfallen it looks like beans on toast for us for our Reveillon meal . . .