[joglynne]

Ben the cat who came to stay with us about a month ago has aged me considerably this morning. John and I have worked hard with him since he arrived scared and traumatised so to-day we decided that he was ready to be allowed to explore the great outdoors. He was a tad overwhelmed to begin with, stuck close to me as I cleared some leaves from our gravel garden, became a little more confident when he spotted a squirrel, then took off running. Over our fence, over our neighbours fence and out of sight.

We knew we had to let him run free but the two hours he was out of sight were horrible.

Well he is back with us and sleeping off the largest lunch he has so far eaten so I guess we are now his family .... and .... I can't stop smiling. Riley certainly sent us a little smasher to fill the huge gap his dying made in our hearts.