Hedy's Houdini Escape

Originally, there were four kittens: two toms and two she-cats. Now (despite the low kitten survival rate) there are, well, several cats but only one of the Big Four is left: Hedy, so-called because she was the prettiest of the Big Four and also extremely clever. Just how clever has been demonstrated in the last twenty four hours. For various reasons, I wanted to keep the cats from straying from the grounds at the back of the house. Accordingly, I identified two points of egress over the high walls. The first was a low-hanging lightweight roof on beams over the water pump house and the second was the low roof of the gas-cylinder house against a main wall. So I spent yesterday removing the lowest part of the water pump house roof and raising the roof on the gas cylinder house. At dusk, when the bigger cats wake up from their sun-soaked slumbers, and start to run amok, I watched and waited from inside the house. For an hour or so no cats appeared in the usual places and I began vainglorously to wallow in having stymied them all. Then Hedy appeared outside the doors on the lower back verandah (which is at first floor level). I still have not worked out how she managed it. She stayed in the house last night and I let her out to be fed with the rest this morning. A few minutes after that she appeared at the front of the house and the picture shows her, just after I let her in again, sitting on my shoulder. Once more, quite how she managed this different feat, when none of the others can defeat my ploys is beyond me.