Well it's not quite raining cats and dogs tonight or raining stair-rods as we used to say, ( "whats a stair-rod Dad "I can hear Tom ask ) , as I sit and type this tonight, but it's blowing a gale ! The boats rocking ,occasionally violently , and I can hear things been blown around outside but i'm warm and cosy and definately not going to investigate !

              I say warm and cosy but to be honest it's to hot, in fact we've all had to change into thinner clothes tonight and it's not unusual it's often to hot . If you live on a narrowboat , one of the frequent questions that you're asked is " I bet it's cold in winter how to manage to keep warm ". We smile at each other knowingly and give our stock answer , " it's warmer than any house  that we've known , we get a sweat rash in winter! Of course with the recent ice we were asked the question alot !.

             Talking  of ice and getting back to cats and dogs , we had a bit of a scare when the ice was on the cut . It;s always a bit of a worry with cats , once they realise the waters gone stiff there's the danger they might wander on and  fall through a thin patch ! Our old cat Bosun went for a walk on the canal once and our hearts were in our mouths 'till he wanderd of again . Well the other night  there was a right commotion outside and it was obvious it was cats fighting . Cats are territorial and although we've told Tiny he lives in a very public area and he must learn to share , the concept seems to have gone over his head , well I suppose it would , he's only short ! Anyway Penny , whose on a boat down under the bridge has a cat thats in the habit of following her up to the carpark if she's going out and waiting for her return . Tiny and pennys' cat are enemies and often have a set to. This particular night it seemed worse than normal so Sue grabbed a torch and went to invesrtigate . She soon realised that pennys' cat was chasing Tiny over the ice onto the towpath opposite ! Both cats then ran down the path under the bridge, Pennys  cat was seeing our Tiny of ! Sue to the rescure , crosses the canal ,( over the bridge not the ice , ) and manages to get between the two cats because pennys cat would not allow Tiny back along the path . Managing to grap pennys cat she then took him back along the path back over the bridge and down along the path our side of the canal to Pennys boat where she left him with Pennys husband. then all the way back to almost opposite to where she was to find a rather scared Tiny. Happily I am able to report alls well that ends well and no harm done ! Tiny will have to learn to stick up for himself as well as learning to share ,he's got alot to learn!

              And poor old Poppys not been well. She suffers from kidney disease which she's had for about fifteen months . It's not caused her to much trouble  but last Sunday I got out of bed to discover she'd vomited up all her dinner sometime in the night and then walked into the carpet all up the boat ! Over the next two days she just got worse frequently vomiting , not eating or drinking . she seemed completely dis-oriented , and frankly not at all well , she's sixteen , which is of course ,old for a dog and we were all worried .A blood test at the vets soon comfirmed that it was indeed her kidneys that were causing her problems probably  exasabated by a bladder infection . The vet suggested that a couple of days stay , hooked up to a drip may well restore her to her former health ! It was worth a go and sure enough when we picked her up she looked a lot better. she's an old lady not in  the best of health but we all hope she'll be wandering around the wharf for a bit longer yet

             This time of year moneys allways tight , hoping we can last until Easter  when we get busier again .The cafe ticks over and we are gratelul for the business but sum weeks at this time of year we barely cover the costs so a big vets bill is all we need ! `you can take a sick animal to the vets but where do you take a sick wallet? Oh well, it never rains but it poors!