Meeting Niffy

I have made a friend! Yes, I realise that you'll all think this is a new experience for me, but it does happen.

My new friend is not human, he's feline. A cat to be precise. Not just an ordinary housecat, felix domesticus - no, he's a church cat - felix ecclesiasticus - and a well-travelled one at that. Like many cats, he can't be herded or really controlled at all. He wanders where he will - in and out of places, wherever and whenever he wants to. He does, being a church cat, have a special affinity for things ecclesiastical, and he's often to be found in churches, or church meetings and events. He's very clever at getting in without being seen, and finding a place where he can observe everything that's going on without people ever being aware that he's there. He's a bit of a ninja cat in that way, I suppose. And while I've never seen him in my car, or on a train or bus, he does seem to go to the same places I go and tell me things about what he's seen. I think perhaps he has a secret compartment in my backpack about which I know nothing - but which he can use for transport on his endless quest to experience the church and try to make some sense of it.

I was talking to Niffy this morning (that's really a nickname by the way - his full name is Magniffy Cat, but he thinks that sound a bit grand for an ordinary church cat like him, so he prefers Niffy) and he was asking me why I'd done a little blog for Travelling Sweep when he went on holiday to Cornwall recently but had never done a blog for him? (By the way, while we were in Cornwall, Niffy had gone off on his own trip to Egypt to see some relatives of his). I hadn't realised Niffy would like a blog, but of course I said I'd do him one, provided he told me what he wanted to share with you all. He was very excited about that. So excited in fact, that he allowed me to feed him.

So, tune in for news and stories about what Niffy has been up to - I'm sure he'll have some very interesting things to share with us!