Cannelloni al carne with cherry tomatoes / aubergine bake

This morning I woke up before my alarm, which I set to make sure I was awake when Cats Protection called for me to pay the adoption fee for Suki. I tried to go back to sleep, but mum got up the moment she heard me stir, and immediately started talking, so I gave up and got up.

After coffee, breakfast, and a nice chat with someone from Cats Protection, I decided to put together the new cat tower I bought for Suki. An hour later, stage one of four was completed, and mum and I were bruised and fed up. And then the driver arrived with Suki.

To my immense gratitude, he stepped in and finished the build, with an ease that made me feel a little stupid. He confirmed that, as a volunteer at a cat shelter, he has built a fair few cat towers in his life!

Then he brought in a carrying box that meowed insistently all the way to the kitchen. Suki let me stroke her through the bars of the box but, the moment I opened it, she was gone under the kitchen cupboards to hide. And there she has stayed,tucked up so tightly in a knot of pipes that the anxious part of me is a bit worried that she’s got herself stuck.

The rest of me is sure that, as I keep assuring mum, she’ll be fine. She’ll spend the night shut in the kitchen, with food, water, her litter tray, a box with a blanket from her old home, and a ridiculous toy fish that makes me smirk every time I see it.

Hopefully tomorrow Suki will be a bit more relaxed, and might even emerge from her pipey hiding place. Hopefully seeing Suki is OK will help mum relax, and prevent a replay of today’s curling up in bed, crying that she’s ruining everything and is a terrible person. 😬 (No prizes for guessing where I learned my own low self-esteem.)

Tonight, to minimise the amount of activity in the kitchen, I cooked a couple of ready meals. Mum got aubergine bake, I got beef cannelloni, because I wasn’t going to waste the rare opportunity to eat something mum dislikes with minimal push-back.

Now, as usual, it’s tv, and decaff coffee, and “she’ll be fine, mum, she just needs time”. I really hope I’m right.