A Jaded Princess Gets A New Throne.

Will she ever conduct her business on it, after yesterday?

Bob and Albert have laboured for weeks to get an outside area established. You know, one of those where it's fun to sit, watching the world go by while sipping ever so casually on a chilled glass of Grüner Veltliner. Don't be alarmed, I can also sip a glass of our local specialty inside our house...

It seems that while we can now sit and watch the cars drive by ( Friday evenings seem a real traffic jam with at least 10 cars passing by during the evening... ) our little princess, princess Tigger of Eisenberg, had watched Bob and Albert slave away to create this new bit of scenery.

At one stage Bob and I went to the local quarry to get a ton of stones and from her little hiding hole, Tigger must have watched with cat glee while Master Bob unloaded wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of various little stones. I can just imagine a cat thought flitting through her mind:

" Finally they are doing something for me and building me a place to while the time away waiting for food. "

Some finishing touches must still be done, but it is divine and ever so comfortable. Complete with recycled pig troughs which were in one of the barns and are now being used as flower beds. All around the sitting area is a moat of tiny pebbles for anchorage and also to give it pizzazz.

Well, did we get a note of pizzazz yesterday. Bob was out working somewhere and I took a quick break out on this deck. My feeling of contentment with the world got a slight shake because all of a sudden the strongest whiff of a not-so-pleasant aroma accosted my nostrils. Good grief, what had she eaten?

On closer inspection, I realized that our Tigger had decided to make our deck into her own personalized throne and had left a little cat sausage lying prominently on the outer ring of pebbles. Either she was lazy or she didn't bury it on purpose. Let's face it, she was staking her claim or marking her territory!

When Bob came back, I did the only thing I could:

" Bob, come and have a look what your cat has done."

and even before he got close enough to see it, the wall of smell hit him straight on. Bravely he did the deed and took the offending bit away. But now we had a conundrum. Cats are creatures of habit and our princess Tigger even more than most. As we can't sit there all day watching out for her in case she ambles by with a newspaper in hand, we had to come up with a plan.

My Mum kindly offered us some mothballs to put there, but no offence, I would rather smell Tigger's offerings than a mothball's pungent aroma. As animals are not so overly fond of pungent smells, Bob and I tried a new idea. We have so much lavender growing outside our front door and we broke off some twigs to lay them on the pebbles. It actually looks rather pretty and contrast nicely with the grey hue of the pebbles.

So far so good. No smelly cat poo yet. Of course if that doesn't do the trick, Bob and Albert will have to create a smaller version of our deck, and right outside Tigger's lair too.

Biggi