The end of an era

A sad time has come to Tosca, our little black and white cat. Though she doesn't yet know it, she is getting too old (and hairy) to continue to leap up to the top of the cupboard in the corner of the kitchen to roost at night. Some time very soon, she is going to find her access blocked and her long time nest occupied by something else.

You might think this was a thoughtful plan concocted by her loving people to protect her from the dangers of such a leap for such a little old cat.
You would be wrong.
It's a sudden decision brought about by 'the annual cleaning of the house'. Of which I always blog round about this time of year since it's when most of both our families descend upon us for a weekend and Barney (who is a true romantic in the old sense of the word*) likes the house to look as though it's kept clean.
When Tosca first came to us we were enchanted, amazed and stunned by her ability to leap (fly?) to a height of about three feet across a similar depth (that gives you the perpendicular and the horizontal and clearly Tosca is a better mathematician than I, since she seems to calculate the hypotenuse with unerring accuracy and land up there every time without apparent effort). The return is almost more amazing since she has to land on a spot which is about eight inches square.
The problem is that she sheds hair. Probably in flight but certainly while she's up there. And annually I wrestle with handfuls and clothsfull and scrubby thingsfull of the stuff. I wonder about the hygiene implications. I watch it swirl around the plughole before inevitably creating a blockage somewhere in the drainage system. I curse the occasional handful that drifts down when she's having a particularly vigorous grooming session. And also the handfuls that collect in utensils that hang nearby and have to be cleaned before every use. It's got to stop. Tosca has got to stay below decks with the rest of us mortals. I only hope it doesn't send her into a decline!
Oops, she's just come in - I'd better stop before she gets wind of my dastardly plan!

Of course the big difficulty is going to be finding a suitable lot of objects to store up there and simultaneously creating a new place for her to sleep! I did suggest that Barney install spikes along the top of the cupboard but he refused point blank.

Meanwhile Blogger won't let me comment. I've visited though and babbled on.
Thinking of you all and oh bother, now it won't let me post pictures either!
Well Happy Tuesday to you all.

*As in liking to view life as a romance, which means, literally, a story. (If you go even further back in its derivation I believe it once meant 'a lie')