Project 365 day 52: Casper

Casper is our tailless rescue cat. He came to live with us almost seven years ago, along with Millie, a timid little long-tailed tortoiseshell who is supposedly his sibling. I was trying to photograph daffodils, and he was rolling on his back on the deck, demanding attention by molesting my ankles and waving his paws in the air with the appearance of a very cute, cuddly cat who just wanted his tummy tickled. He does enjoy tummy tickles - until the moment when he bores of purring and plunges his teeth and claws into the unwary hand. He is a neighbourhood delinquent, pestering neighbours to let him into their houses and feed him, breaking and entering through cat and dog flaps to steal food and sleep on beds, and attempting to take on a large German Shepherd in his own home. We have learned some of this since he returned home with a note tied around his neck, and more recently had his photograph posted on local lamp posts with a description of his behaviour. I let P make the embarrassing phone calls to claim him as ours and apologise for the intrusions. There is little we can do, short of donating preserves and keeping him in, which he hates - we did it for over a week, to try to break his bad habits, but with limited results. He has two acres of garden and orchard to roam, trees to climb, rodents and rabbits to catch and a whole valley in which to wander, but he prefers to live dangerously, crossing the road to other people's gardens and braving their dogs and water pistols. His lack of a tail clearly does not affect his infinite confidence in his superiority and the near-immortality conferred by his nine lives.