I’ve been concerned about Louis Catorze’s water intake lately. Cat Daddy broke the royal pint glass a little while ago so we’ve had to replace it with a wine glass, but we’re not convinced that our boy is using it enough. I agonised for ages about why this could be: could it be the size/height? Or perhaps the glass was in the wrong position? (Most cats aren’t dumb enough to allow themselves to disintegrate into dry dust rather than take a sip from a moderately unsatisfactory glass, but this is Le Roi we’re talking about.)

I changed the wine glass to one of those hi-ball tumbler things: no. I tried a smaller wine glass: also no. I even tried Cat Daddy’s special Hoegaarden beer glass, which didn’t make me very popular, yet Louis Catorze was still pretty blasé about it; sometimes he’d drink a few sips, but a lot of the time he’d just sniff it and walk away.

I was beside myself with worry and having nightmare visions of his organs shutting down one by one through dehydration. Then, this morning, I saw this:

Ugh. I don’t even know what’s in this bucket – and I’m too afraid to look – but I know that we didn’t bring it to Le Château. This means it was here before we moved in, and has probably been here for years.

WHY?

(Why would he do this, I mean. Not why has the bucket been here for years.)