Storms and Big Cats

As I write this, the storms that the weather men had predicted are battering the UK. Outside my window, the rain is lashing down onto the garden and the wind is 'wuthering' in the trees. It's a sneaky wind that has found its way in through any tiny crack or gap it can find and there are some fairly spectacular draughts, including on the just hits you as you get into the shower.

But in a way, I'm sort of enjoying that as tomorrow morning the men arrive to take out and replace every single window in the house. Two/three days of chaos but then I hope the end result will be wonderful. So I'm noting the draughts and thinking -'End of the week and that'll be gone- - and it makes me smile. And that feeling will get me through the chaos. I'm not sure how I'll manage to keep Flora the Floozie indoors with great holes where the windows should be, but I'm sure it'll all come right in the end.

But these storms are predicted to be really vicious, particularly around the coast, with huge waves whipped up by the high winds, so I hope that everyone stays safe and warm while they rage. And I'm sending the same message to all my friends and readers in America who have been enduring heavy, feezing snowfalls. I hope you and all your loved ones keep safe.

I realised that although the home cats have had plenty of exposure on the blog recently I hadn't mentioned my adopted Big Cats - Roque the tiger and Achee the lioness. These two have been joined now by the adoption of Zeudy the beautiful female tiger that was a Christmas gift to me from The Offspring. I recently has an update letter from the Born Free Foundation about all these wonderful creatures and was delighted to know they are all thriving.

Sadly, Zeudy's mate Royale lost his battle with kidney problems last year, but she is now very intrigued byher new neighbour, Masti. Masti was rescued from a poacher's trap but as a result he has had to have the lower part of his left foreleg amputated. He is now living well and happily in the Tiger Sanctuary in India.

It's stories like this that reinforce my delight in being able to help even in such a little way. Particularly when I read on the Born Free web site of the rescue of two small lionesses who were found abandoned, starving and dehydrated in Romania and are now recover

ing in Guernsey until they can make the journey to the Shamwari Wildlife Reserve in South Africa. But perhaps the most powerful point is made by the before and after pictures of Brutus, the lion from a French Circus who had been held in one cage for four years without ever coming out. But who now can run free for perhaps the first time in his life under the African sun.

These photos say it all, really - don't they?