Otty's Bad Eye Experience

Otty is the toy otter who always used to sit on TJam's Grandma and Grampy's bed.

He used to hold a silver fish, and when TJam and family stayed at their house, he used to come in the spare bedroom to keep the children company. Otty has bushy eyebrows like Grampy. When Grandma and Grampy died, TJam inherited Otty. By then, the fish was lost, but the rest of him was intact. In fact he was looking pretty good for an otter of at least 40 years. However, one day when TJam came home from work (not long after Chips and I went to live with her, and in the old days when we were allowed upstairs) poor Otty was lying on the kitchen floor. I could not possibly tell you exactly what had happened to him, for fear of incriminating myself. Otty was damp and his eyes were missing.

TJam managed to locate one of the missing eyes in the corner of the kitchen and she stuck it back on. So far so good.

Hearing of his plight, Brazil sent Otty a nice eye patch for the other side. He won't be able to drive any more cos of his distance judgement, but apart from that he's as good as new.

Carlsberg's Story

Unusually, TJam decided we would go for a walk the same way as that fateful night with Jump. As we got to the first pathway, we heard a mew and saw a skinny little kitten dart into the undergrowth. We couldn't see anyone/thing around, so TJam reached it and pulled out the kitten... a skinny little thing that sat in the palm of TJam's hand. No one around and not a house in sight ... so we about turned and brought it back to the house. There is a teacher at TJamchool who was looking for a kitten so TJam said we could give it to her. TJam phoned the RSPCA - no kitten reported missing, and anyway, this one was skinny and covered in flea eggs, hardly well looked after--so TJam eventually tracked down the phone number of the teacher at school.. rang her... but they bought a kitten today.

Meanwhile, the kitten was making herself at home in the Carlsberg box, had eaten some food, had a drink and seemed quite the cat about the house. Even when I barked at her, she didn't flinch. Chips kept licking her. TJam had kind of decided that this is fate; homeless kitten not 50m from the spot where Jump was hit by a car ... was this meant to be?

TJam has emailed Bamgee to confer… will this be our cousin in residence?

Chips welcomes Carlsberg to her new home.

Carlsberg sits in front of TJam's favourite sandals that I condensed for her.

Gravelling the Drive

TJam was getting sick of mowing the front lawn. This year her neighbour called round twice and did it for her. Obviously she was not as embarrassed about the state of the front as the neighbour was. Anyhow, so she decided to gravel it and we decided to help her.

When the white stone arrived, we helped TJam shovel it. We played in it and rolled in it. Luckily, it was raining too, so we got the white colouring all over us. Beanz liked being grey. TJam did not like a grey inside of her house.

Futon

One day when TJam was at work the other day, Chips had a little nibble on the settee. At first, TJam didn't know whose handiwork this was, and she thought it was me! But she set up her video camera just in case and caught Chips redpawed. Now the humans have nowhere to sit, except a wooden futon base. Chips is very very popular.

Beach

Chips and I have been to the beach for the first time. I have to say I was pretty nervous about all that water at first. It was ENORMOUS!

Once I got used to it, Chips and I had a great time running round the beach, digging in the sand and trying to eat starfish. TJam was not all that impressed about the starfish thing.

Verdict on the beach: 10/10