Friday 28th April 2006

I didn’t sleep very well last night thinking about not being able to have my den. I did so like the idea of having my own place and being able to get away when I wanted to. I could ask my mistress and master whether I could build one in the corner of the garden but it really wouldn’t be the same. Somehow it is hard to feel independent when you have someone else’s fence separating you from the outside world and you can’t open it without help. Squirrel just climbs over fences and doesn’t see them as a problem but I can’t see me ever getting to that stage. I can jump onto and over things that I couldn’t a month or two ago but there are still limits. There aren’t any oak trees actually in the garden anyway so my acorn collecting device, that was going to be such a feature of my lounge, would all be rather pointless. Squirrel seems much more philosophical about it all but then she already has a little home of her own. Unfortunately her little home is way too small for me to get inside. I have been out to try and make sure the pile of leaves I have offered hedgehog is nice and big and protected from the surrounding area, but it won’t be as much fun without a fireside to sit next to next winter. I would invite him in to sit by our fireside at home but I am not sure that my master and mistress would be quite so keen.

When I did finally come inside to see if I was missing anything my mistress seemed to be absorbed in what style of shoes she should wear for the wedding so I went back outside as quickly as I could before I risked her asking my opinion.

I have no idea where they have gone but the mole guerrilla army seems to have retreated from their reconnaissance mission to the back gate. I don’t know whether that means they have decided our garden is a bad place to attack and have gone off to find some other poor unsuspecting family or whether this is the quiet before the storm. They may have gone off to get reinforcements with a view to completing a ‘spring offensive’. I have decided to set up a sentry position by the hedge to watch out for them whilst dozing in the sunshine. They will never get past here without me noticing. Unless of course they pick one of the brief periods when I have a nap in which case it depends how long it takes them to tunnel through.