Whilst I am on an animal theme….

Sometimes on holiday, animals have featured.

Memorably in Majorca, a lovely rabbit called Coco who used to frequent our apartment and was eventually ‘sent to the family farm’ because she had burrowed – unbeknownst to us until our last morning – into the bottom of our mattress.

And, some years ago in Portugal it was a dog called Graham.

Last year it was cats.

Not entirely unsurprisingly, given that we were on a Greek island.

A pretty little tortoiseshell and a handsome young ginger cat, adopted us.

They were well-cared for and certainly not feral.

We assumed they were doing what all locals do round here – making the most of the tourist season.

Nancy, as we called her, would weave in and out of my legs asking for milk.

Ginger, as we unimaginatively called him, would sit on the sofa to be stroked by the BB – until the fridge door opened.

All very nice and entertaining until they upped their game and went from supplication to demanding.

From an occasional visit to practically moving in. Not likely to go down well with the apartment’s owner.

They had both been firmly shown the door one night and the door shut, fly guards were across french windows, and we went to bed.

Imagine my surprise to wake up early the next morning to find Nancy asleep on the bed.

And imagine my further surprise when I found Ginger waiting, in a rather languid fashion, by the fridge.

I still have no idea how they got in – and they certainly were not going to tell me.

I decided to give them a splash of milk each and turf them out.

Ginger finished his first and then decided to take a swipe at Nancy to get the rest of her’s.

I aimed a thwack at him, of course I missed and anyway would not have really hit him, and he raced off round the apartment to avoid my, quite certainly, displeasure.

My new glasses fell off during the chase, and broke.

Imagine my delight in all this….

Mind you, they both shot out when I opened the kitchen door and demanded their immediate exit.

Nancy came been back to test the mood, but disappeared after a face-saving dust bath in the garden and Ginger, wisely, kept his distance.

Nancy, it turned out had eventually more winning ways.