Barney

Barney is sometimes portrayed as being somewhat subordinate to his Machiavellian brother due to being a "sangwich" short of a picnic in the smarts department and being rather timid

But Lucy loves both of her furry brothers equally.

Lucy Loves Barney

Lucy is giving Barney a stroke

And a cuddle

Lucy and Barney are friends

Barney

Even though Boo is the alpha male in the Porter clan, he sometimes needs to wander off to do some plotting. So he leaves Barney his hench cat in charge.

Barney tries to rules the roost with a paw of steel and his laser eyes ...

But the truth is we just ignore the soppy old stripy fool

Barney the Jigsaw Cat

Lucy is doing a jigsaw with Barney.

Barney is taking quite a passive role.

Yes. That looks finished.

I'm off. My work here is done.

Red Suit

Even though it is a fine day, Lucy insists on wearing her red waterproof suit and ladybird welly boots. It makes her look like she is about to inspect a nuclear reactor.

Not that you eat ice lollies whilst doing inspections.

Lucy and Barney decide to inspect the front garden instead.

That fringe is looking a bit suspect!

Better go and chase Barney.

Box: Boat? House? Takeover!

This must be a warning for Christmas. Lucy's favorite toy at the moment is a cardboard box! So I suspect that quite a few Christmas presents may be slung casually to one side as Lucy plays with the box and wrapping paper.

When the box is on the ground like this Lucy calls it her boat.

When it is on the side she call it her house. This is a particularly versatile box.

In order to make the box even better and evoke maritime feelings Mummy and Lucy decorate the flaps with pictures of octopuses and sharks.

But they didn't recon on the pirate Captain Barney capturing Lucy's ship.

Barney's new friend

Despite the recent thawing of relations between Lucy and Barney, he has seen fit to hire himself a guard dog to make sure Lucy cannot attack him in his sleep. (Alternately Mummy might have got Lucy this cute dog as a present and Barney has adopted him).

Could this be a truce?

Lucy's ongoing torment of Barney the cat has been pretty well documented on this web log. The combination of Barney's nervousness and Lucy's "elephant in a china shop" demeanour had cause a little friction between the two siblings. But what is this we see? Lucy offering Barney a gentle stroke?

Barney's fight or flight impulse momentarily kicks in but then he must have detected a change in Lucy.

It looks like these two little characters could be firm friends.

Mummy and Barney

Looks like Mummy running after Lucy and Barney running away from her has taken it our of them both! They share a snooze while Spoink has a nap.

Barney's ongoing torment

Barney is getting a bit more confident around Lucy. Perhaps she hasn't spotted him having a wash behind her.

Could it be that Lucy has stopped her mission to stroke "Barbie"

No.

Barney does his normal disappearing act when he slopes off under the TV table in the hopes that he has foiled Lucy's tormenting plans. But this time Lucy tries to reverse under the table to join him in his little den. As luck would have it, Lucy's bottom is a bit to big to get under.

Fortunately they end up playing nicely together.

Barney's ongoing torment

Poor old Barney assumes that sitting on the garden chair in the back garden will keep him safe from Lucy. He was wrong.

For ages Lucy just called her victim Boo since that is the name she associated with cats but she has now started calling him Barbie. Close and strangely appropriate.

Barney's ongoing torment

Barney's tactic of hiding in plain sight suffers a setback.

But his old hiding place isn't much better!

Barney's ongoing torment

Lucy spots the long suffering Barney. Is she going to torment him again?

Or is Barney too clever for her having found a smart hiding place under under the TV?

Barney too clever? I think not. Lucy has found him.

Lucy continues her crusade to torment Barney

As has been previously reported, Barney has been getting a bit of a hard time from his little sister Sprock. See here, here, here, here and here. However, until now his torment has been limited to when he is in the house. When he was outside he was safe. Or so he thought. Now Sprock got wheels.

He never expected to see her charging down the back garden.

Lucy is very pleased with herself.

The ongoing torment of Barney

A new development in Lucy's ongoing torment of Barney the cat. He has started taking quite an interest in some of her toys.

However, this does rather leave him open to hostilities from his "favorite" sister.

Barney's ongoing torment

Barney braces himself for another bout of Lucy Love. She adores him but isn't yet very good at distinguishing between a gentle stroke and a handful of fur.

First Step ...

Becoming a parent is a lesson in understanding motivation. Virtually everything a baby does is motivated by something - be it crawling to reach a desired toy or crying to gain attention. One of the greatest motivations in Lucy's world is her mission to catch and generally torment Barney the cat. The latest result of this being when Barney thought he had discovered the perfect place to hide or at least remain out of prodding range from the Sprock. Or so he thought.

Barney has started offering us money towards a stair gate.

Barney's ongoing torment

Lucy is never happier then when she is playing with one of her fine educational toys.

Except of course for when she can sneak up on poor old Barney and give him a good prodding.

Barney Baiting

Lucy loves her furry bothers Barney and Boo. They are somewhat more suspicious of their enthusiastic and grabby sister. Barney is especially jumpy but he knows that she cannot reach him if he sits on the arm of the chair.

Of course this wasn't factoring in the fact that Mummy is helping Lucy doing her standing practice.

Hello Barney!