Guard Cats

Those of you who know my Basil know that he's..uh...special.  He usually looks something like this:

He may be special but he's not small.  Weighing in at 7.5kg, he "carries the weight well" according to our lovely polite vet.

Zari on the other hand is your typical girl cat.  The boss of Basil and the humans, enjoys pats when it suits her (but likes knowing she can get them anytime she wants) and acts like she meant to fall off the cat fort thankyouverymuch.  She's no lightweight either at 5.5kg.

Big fluffy Ragdoll cats need to live indoors because they are so precious placid and friendly that they don't tend to fight back when confronted with another cat or dog.  How overjoyed we were when we bought a house with a courtyard surrounded by a 6' tall fence!  Kitties could roam free out front and chase all the moths and snails they liked.  Basil soon discovered he could climb fences and subsequently got his ass whooped by a ginger cat not long after we moved here.  He lost a lot of fur and a bit of pride but was otherwise OK.  I lost the ability to leave them outside unsupervised.

All was going swimmingly until the neighbourhood bully - or Black and White Kitty - invaded their territory.

BWK had been taunting our darlings for months.  Rolling about on the footpath just out of swipey reach by the front gate or playing in the car port where they couldn't reach him.  One day Basil was fence climbing and found himself with gravity on his side.  He puffed up, put his angry face on, and shot down the fence at BWK.  Poor BWK was somewhat terrified, and frankly you would be too if an angry brown puffball three times your size had you bailed up in a corner.  I got there just as Basil was about to chase BWK across the road, nabbed him and let BWK speed off into the distance.  I praised Basil lots while Zari huffed and puffed from within the courtyard, clearly angry that she wasn't able to join the fun.

We hoped that BWK would return to stealing other cats' food instead of harassing our two.

But today BWK returned.  I opened the front door to wheel the pram out (Alex and I were off for a walk) and BWK was right on the doorstep!  The nerve!!  Zari spotted him first and bolted out the door before I could stop her.  There was a hiss and a spit and a black, white and grey blur bolted up the fence and across the road.  Again I found myself chasing angry cats, catching up to them while they were staring each other down across the street.  I grabbed puffy crab-walking Zari and brought her back.  I praised Zari lots while Basil huffed and puffed and...well...Basil was still inside sniffing the pram, seemingly oblivious to what had just happened.

I am Zari, hear me roar.