A few things to report
Another week in the country
That went very well - Binks settled down to being very much a rural cat. The weather (it was over Easter) was glorious and he spent most of it outside. The builders were next door but he has found a spot in the dell, a disused gravel pit to one side of the drive. This is always the spot that we thought he's inhabit. It is pretty much a wilderness in that it is virtually impossible for humans to reach it, so overgrown is it with gorse and bramble. Nevertheless there are spots of clear ground and rabbit runs are evident.
On the catches front, he had two voles, two mice (one of each survived) and a baby rabbit. The bunny was petrified but seemed to be unharmed but I'm not optimistic about its chances. I released it on the common and it hopped away but didn't seek cover - I have a feeling it was too young.
One thing; there is a lot of dry dusty ground around the house and Binks delights in rolling in it - he does this as soon as we arrive. What's he trying to do? Cover up his city cat scent? Is he happy to be there - it looks like it - or is he distressed?
Frank
I heard a squeak on the stairs. 'Oh no - he's got a bird'. Except he hadn't - he was on the landing with a dark marmalade cat.
Who naturally fled as soon as we approached. He was lost and bolted into the front room and proceeded to rush around, attempting mainly, to scale the book cases bring down small avalanches of books. He cowered. We got closer until he bolted out the door and ... up the stairs. Now it became a case of closing all the doors to rooms as we ascended until we had him cornered in the top of the house. More trashing the place. Eventually, he hid behind some stored furniture and sat on the radiator, panting and shaking.
I began to feel quite sorry for him. Some while back I remember the surgeon who fixed my shoulder having his hand in bandages. He had tried to get a feral cat out of his house and it had attacked him. The resulting wounds were infected and his hand blew up. His visit to casualty was 'the first time he had been in hospital' he said, fortunately he made a full recovery. Not thinking of that I tried to make friends and over a period of about 15 minutes, eventually he allowed me to pick him up. My guess is that he was once owned and is now living rough, he had lots of scars around his neck. When we got to the stairs he began to struggle and he rushed down with nowhere to go but out (the back door had been open). Binks was released and proceeded to sniff everywhere compulsively. He seemed to take it quite well.
'Frank'? I reckoned he was about the same colour as Frank Cooper's Oxford Marmalade. We saw him on the rooftops a few days later; he seemed to be quite friendly towards Binks - tail highish and with that lifting head behaviour that's usually seen between co-operative cats. Binks wasn't interested however and hunkered down so we thought it wise to make an appearance before a fight started.
Birds
He doesn't often catch birds - which is good. I feel much worse about them than rats and mice - even rabbits. But he had a blackbird a few days ago. This morning they were giving him the full works - the alarm call was being strident as Binks walked across next door's car park.