8th May

Boycie must have heard my complaints about him because today he did something very clever.

I have a feeling I have mentioned before the cats we encounter when walking the dogs over the railway line. Most notable are Pickles and Chino who live next door to each other in the new houses whose gardens you can see straight into when you cross the railway line.
 Pickles is a huge long haired ginger Tom nearly as big as a fox and Chino is a Blue Point Burmese.
Now I am no cat lover but I do appreciate 'character' in any animal and these two are awesome. I swear Pickles spends his days curled up on his owners sofa but at night he is running with the fox pack, and Chino would lie on the tracks or under the wood of the crossing.

Yesterday afternoon when Dave returned from walking Khan and Lexus he said Chino's owner had spoken to him and said Chino was missing. He had not returned for two nights which he never did.She asked us to keep an eye out as she knew we were always out there walking the dogs. She said she was not worried by the railway line as he was wise to it but thought a fox or badger may have attacked him!
This morning she came into the Post Office when I was in there. She had a missing cat poster and asked to photocopy 50 copies, she also had the microchip papers.  I thought 'this is one much loved moggie.' Once home I took  Boycie a walk so we set out keeping a look out for missing moggies.
 I scanned the railway line as we crossed, nothing. Nothing on the walk either, then as we crossed back over the line Boycie began sniffing at something at the top of the steps and when I looked closer I saw cream coloured fur and between the tracks some gut. (Apologies if you thought this was heading for a happy ending, or if you are eating your lunch.) I wasn't sure about the fur though it looked too coarse, maybe fox or badger.
I couldn't decide what to do. I could hardly knock on the ladies door and say 'I've found some fur and gut on the railway line, do you want to come and see if it's your cat?' Or ring up and say, 'Hi I think I may have found your cat ... it's dead.'
However, when I took Khan out later I met her looking for him and I was able to show her. Poor lady she took it well but seemed unconvinced.
When Dave got home we went to have another look taking Boycie with us.  Whilst we were there the ladies husband came out. He said he was sure that what we suspected had happened and that he had taken some of the hair and compared it  to some at home and it did match and that he had seen Magpies there.
 Although sad he said they felt better knowing what had happened
Poor Chino and poor them but clever Boycie to draw our attention to it, it was barely noticaeable otherwise, perhaps he could get a job as a search and rescue dog, had he found the cat alive it may have made it into the papers ...