We share our home with four adopted cats. All strangers, who choose our home as their base, and us as their slaves.

When the Bassets, Hastings and Inch, arrived, the limits of the cats’ ownership of our land changed. Three of them looked for the safe side of life and made their beds in the shed. But not number four.

His name is Herr Flick, the same as the Gestapo officer character in ‘Allo ‘Allo!.

He owes his name to the fact that he is very bossy and what you call . . . a bit dominant.

He also suffers from a war wound, an injured leg, incurred when catching a very stubborn rat!

So from the first day the dogs arrived, giving-in to them was not an option! He went for equal partnership, and to prove that he was worthy he pampered the Bassets by supplying freshly caught mice, direct from the fields.

They appreciated this gesture, but did not eat his prey. What a relief!

He took his job as caretaker of Basset Hounds very seriously, and waited for them after their walks. Then, he started to wash and clean them very thoroughly and waited for his reward in the form of a nice nap against their warm fur coats.

He has now reached the respectable age of twenty years and is still up and about, and the very proud overseer of two Basset Hounds who respect him and treat him as one of their own.

What a little manipulation can do with good-hearted Bassets Hounds!

Photo courtesy of Huguette Vanden Weghe ©2015

(Ed: Herr Flick on the sofa with Inch. To me, the cat looks like he’s plotting something evil).

Winnie’s Wheelbarrow ☞