Charliecat, much to the disgust of the Flower Girls, likes to avail himself of the cat friendly and enticing garden that we have developed for humans and felines alike.

Lately he's been sunning himself on the bench in the sunniest and most sought after corner of the garden; totally oblivious to anything around him and acting as if he owns the place. He is one big bounder of a ginger tom and fully stretched, from front paw to back paw, he completely fills the length of the standard size bench! He has huge ‘paddles’ for paws, which are suitably armed with razor sharp claws that look as though they could tear through, not only flesh, but steel!

Naturally, the Flower Girls are somewhat shy at confronting Charliecat (although they seem to hate him) and hide behind me, growling and hissing in a most aggressive manner, but never quite taking the plunge for a face-off.

In a bid to promote peaceful and harmonious relations between the resident and 'trespassing' felines, I've been trying a new tactic. Instead of shooing the gorgeous Charliecat away, I've been stroking him and sitting next to him in a bid to desensitise the Girls' reaction to his presence.

All seemed to be working fine and even Poppy - who is absolutely terrified of Charliecat - was brave enough to sit in the sun just two feet away from him, instead of cowering behind the patio doors. I really thought I was on to something here... "I should be an animal behaviourist" I distinctly remember muttering to myself!

We had an interesting development last week... Charliecat was becoming too big for his paddly paws and leapt off the bench at frightening speed to chase one of the Girls across the garden and in through the patio doors. Of course, the little blighter had to pick on poor nervous Poppy!

A few days’ later it seemed as though they were all settling down and that the incident was just a slight blip in the Charliecat feline therapy. Oh, how naive!

This week, Charliecat has become more cocksure and possessive than ever and simply refused to leave the garden on Tuesday. Feeling sorry for the Girls, who had now confined themselves indoors after Charliecat’s energetic outburst last week, I decided to encourage him to leave the garden after giving him a cuddle, thinking that he would oblige. Instead, the bounder insisted on jumping back into the garden no matter how many times I carefully and lovingly placed him on top of the fence.

Whilst this human-feline wrestling match ensued, Lily and Daisy had crept up behind me and were now in full control of their vocal cords – cats’ chorus is a more accurate description – and they were becoming braver by the minute. Charliecat, like a slippery fish, managed to jump down again, raced along the path and then attacked Lily. “Lily!” I shouted, but before I had time to stop him, he’d darted back out through the shrubs he’d propelled Lily into and then did an about turn on Daisy, bolting down the garden and chasing her through the patio doors at lightning speed. As soon as he raced in, he was back out through the doors and into the garden (probably because, by now, I was following and shrieking at him!) and then by a remarkable feline feat, he chased Lily up on to the fence and continued in her pursuit – without a pause for breath – totally ignoring the howling and shrieking that Lily was doing! It ended up with poor Lily, half way up a tree trunk, trying to protect herself from his swipes and giving some back, too!

By now, we were well and truly into a full-blown cat-fight, and even the vase of water I hurriedly splashed over them didn’t break up the situation. Several vases of water later, Charliecat left Lily and nonchalantly began strolling back along the fence with his eye on the prize – the sunny bench. “Oh no you don’t, you little bugger!” I yelled, and then raced in and armed myself with a water pistol! Incredulously, the water pistol was far more effective than the vase of water and after several frantic squirts, Charliecat eventually made a hasty retreat.

The Flower Girls – eventually - ventured back outside, but only if I was present. I spent some time out there and shared a catnip plant amongst them in a bid to promote solidarity and calm them down through play. They were pretty shaken up, though, and spent the rest of the evening twitching through the curtains to see if their nemesis had made a reappearance.

So that’s it, Charliecat has now blotted his copy book and we’re back to the water pistol routine to keep harmony in our garden. Funnily enough, while the fracas was underway and I’d run in to grab the water pistol, I glanced at the clock and noticed that it was midday!
So that was ‘High Noon’ in the Flower Girls’ garden!

Let's hope we don't get a repeat of the situation... I’m certainly not looking forward to ‘Gun water pistol fight at the OK Corrall!!!