Magic Graffi meets a playful Leopard called Zouma

Recently, on a cold and windy afternoon, my friend Hiccup and I were curled up together in his basket, which is near our front door, when I received a sharp nudge in my ribs that woke me up. If you haven’t met Hiccup yet, he’s Serge’s springer spaniel who, a long time ago, found me almost dead in a snowy forest, after I’d been abandoned there. (See Book 1 - The Adventures of Magic Graffi: https://www.magicgraffi.com/s-projects-side-by-side)

Opening an eye sleepily, I spied Hiccup sitting beside me, almost fully upright, one ear sticking straight up, with just the very furry end of its flap bent over at right angles. This gave me the strong impression that it was ready to suck in sound, so I gave H a nudge back and asked him why he'd woken me up.

‘I think that Serge is about to call us over to his office, Graffi,’ Hiccup said, looking down at me, with his ear still in its listening position.

‘Why?’ I asked, having a bit of a stretch to help me wake myself up.

‘Well, I've got the impression that he's got something important to tell us.’

‘Like what?’ I asked with some cautious curiosity.

‘I'm not sure,’ he replied. ‘I heard him talking on the phone a short while ago, although I didn’t hear exactly what the conversation was about. But I’m sure we’ll find out sometime soon.’

And sure enough, just as Hiccup said this, we heard Serge call out from his office. ‘Hiccup, Graffi. Please can you come down here for a moment? I've got some unexpected news for you both.’

Chasing each other playfully down the corridor, it took us no time at all to arrive in front of the office door. I whizzed in immediately and hopped onto Serge's desk, while Hiccup jumped straight up onto his lap. Looking at Serge eagerly, we asked him simultaneously. ‘What have you got to tell us that’s so special then?’

‘Ah ha! I have a truly unusual surprise for you both,’ said Serge. ‘A few moments ago I was on the phone with my godfather, Pâqui. You know, he who is an actor, an author, and a racing driver of old automobiles. What's more, you may remember too that not only is he an African adventurer, but also an amazing aviator, who at one time was the world aerobatics champion. And to add to all of that, he was an Olympic medal winner quite some while ago in the world of showjumping.

Now, I have to admit to you that this was rather a lot to take in all at once, and while I was still trying to do so, Serge added:

'And, you may be surprised to hear that he spends about 6 months of each year living out in the wilds in East Africa - or in the bush as they call it out there - accompanied by his pet leopard, Zouma. For the rest of the year they live together in a flat in Paris.' (At this point, Hiccup and I turned our heads to look at each other in surprise.) 'Anyway, what's special is that Pâqui and Zouma are coming to visit us here a bit later this afternoon, which I thought you’d enjoy! Apparantely she's lovely and very playful, but you'll have to be on your best behaviour of course. Oh, and if you look over there, on the bookshelf, you'll find a book that Pâqui wrote about her which has lots of photographs in it. Have a look sometime, as I think it'll amuse you.’

Dumbfounded by this news, the two of us padded back to Hiccup's basket and spent a considerable amount of time discussing what having a 'lovely and very playful leopard' around the house might be like. But, despite our best efforts, eventually we came to the conclusion that neither of us had a clue. Not until I had a brill idea that is!

'Hiccup,' I said excitedly. ' I'm going to go out into the garden to find Jeep. My logic for this is that, as he's an Africa tortoise, perhaps he's already had experience of dealing with leopards, which could be useful for us.'

'Great idea, Graffi,' said Hiccup, wagging his tail, and, boosted by his encouragement, off I scooted down the passageway at top speed, and charged out into the garden.

I'd no idea at all where I was likely to find Jeep, as often he's well hidden away amongst the bushes, nor what to expect when I did find him. But, what I did find - and to use an unusual expression in this context - was enough to knock my socks off. Because, there was Jeep, plonked out in the middle of the lawn, rubbing heads with a leopard - obviously Zouma. It was a super sight seeing them sharing the alignment of some wonderfully, peaceful and positive energies. Let's call it, a Zouma Zen moment.

'Hello Zouma,' I said. 'Lovely to meet you.'

'You too, Graffi,' she replied, giving me a gentle head bump, and a funny tickle with her tail. 'I've just been finding out a little bit about Jeep's life in Africa; of how he got to be here, and also how he gradually became the village philosopher.'

'Oh! Then you must already know much more about him than I do,' I continued, smiling at Zouma. 'Something we need to catch-up on sometime soon, Jeep,' I added, giving him a wink and a swat on the top of his head with the tip of my tail. After this, I shared a hug with them, which I have to tell you was a really special, magic moment.

Before too long, Pâqui and Zouma had to leave us again, and after saying goodbye with a heavy heart, I went and curled up in Serge's office feeling rather empty. Not long afterwards, he arrived and, while giving me a comforting stroke from my nose down to the tip of my tail, he whispered in my ear. 'Graffi, I've got a really special surprise for you. Have a guess what it is.'

This made me perk up immediately and, even though I'd no idea what the surprise was, I pretended that I was deeply in thought on the subject, which seemed ot impress Serge.

After a little while I said, a bit lamely, 'I give up,' which brought a broad smile to his face, and he replied.

'Well, next week we're going to fly to Africa to spend some time out in the wild with Zouma and Pâqui.'

This made me jump so high with excitement that I banged my head on the ceiling and fell into Serge's arms, feeling rather woozy.

'Tomorrow we'll talk about getting ready for the journey,' he said. 'But now it's time to go to bed.' This I did without hesitation, and I have to tell you that I had some absolutley amazing dreams about bouncing around in the clouds. You can't even imagine!

So, just that you, the reader, knows, my fun adventures with Zouma will be starting in the next blog. Definitely not to be missed!

Your friend,

Graffi

www.magicgraffi.com

Copy by Serge Cantsper

Illustration by @flowoolgarbarrington

Magic Graffi’s Aurora Paw-realis

Aurora Paws

My first 'energy cat' adventure.

Hello, and it’s good to have you here with me because I have a question for you. Did you see the aurora the other evening? You know, when the night sky lights up and shows off all sorts of beautiful colours.

You may be aware that this happens because of monster, magnetic energy storms on the sun’s surface, which are called sun spots. And sometimes the energy from these is so powerful that during a really severe storm, the invisible particles around our earth vibrate, and even glow. Normally I would have been fast asleep that night and so missed the aurora, but as luck would have it, I got a fascinating and unexpected surprise that evening. Let me tell you more . . .

Do you remember that I have a marvellous friend called Marmalade? She’s a small, orange marmalade coloured cat, who’s absolutely extraordinary. Why? Because – no kidding – she’s an intergalactic expert in Light, Energy and Colour (LEC). And after the Honky Donk Ball (in Book 3), it was she who joined me in the Woods of Wisdom and Wonder, when we went looking for Tina Turnip. (You’ll find the story about our search for Tina in Book 4. Once it’s published that is!)

During that particular adventure, something truly unexpected happened that led Marmalade to explain to me that the two of us are extremely rare and highly unusual magic creatures. ‘Energy cats,’ was her description. In this blog, you’ll find out about how being an energy cat lead to extraordinary things happening to one.

On that lovely, warm Friday evening several weeks ago, Marmalade and I were lying, stretched out on the red brick, garden wall at home, chattering away while staring up at the lovely twinkling stars. We were talking about the forthcoming arrival of a comet in the sky this month, when, all of a sudden, I got the urge to have a really relaxing stretch. (You know, like when you really want to have a big sneeze!) And, just as I’d got up onto my four paws and was easing myself gently backwards, Marmalade asked, ‘Graffi, can you feel a strong, tingling sensation in your body right now?’ And it was as if, by saying this, she’d turned on a vibration switch within me.

‘Strange that you should ask that right now,’ I replied in a wobbly way, as I started to feel one of those long and unbelievably trembly stretches coming on. ‘Because, I was just about to ask you exactly the same question. Yes, is my answer to you, and now I'm feeling all tickly around my whiskers, my tail and my paws.’

‘And just look at your paws, Graffi,’ Marmalade said. ‘Can you see, they’ve turned a bright orangey colour. And that your tail and whiskers have become sparkly yellow, while your fur is now almost entirely electric blue?’

Looking down at my paws, and then at Marmalade, I replied, ‘They feel all hot and are vibrating, as if they’re rocket motors. And my fur, tail and whiskers have a strange sensation of wiggly waves running through them.'

‘And do you know why?’ she asked, pointing a paw up towards the sky, and laughing. ‘Have a look up there.’ And, following her gaze, I realized, to my astonishment, that I was lifting up off the wall and rising upwards towards the different colours of the dark, night sky, which seemed to be shivering around me.

Looking down at Marmalade, I noticed that her paws and whiskers had suddenly turned a bright mauve, while her nose was a sort of flashing orange, like a roadworks warning light. And then she lifted off too, flying upwards to join me. Not only was this fascinating, but it was really fun as well!

'Can you now feel how light and magic it is being an energy cat, Graffi?' she asked. 'And can you sense the power and amazing energies that we're getting from the sun, even though we can't see it at all right now? You could say that, with our own bright and changing colours, we are Aurora Paw-realis cats up here. And if my predictive energies are correctly aligned right now, I think that we can expect this to happen to us again quite soon. I can sense it in me, like mini-tingles. Can you too?'

And strangely, it was true. I could feel some minute vibrations, but only in my claws. This was really odd and made me giggle quietly. And, once Marmalade had come close to me, we wizzed off together, down and around the field next to our garden, like two coloured drones. But what was was incredible was that while over the field, our eyes had become like very bright spotlights, seriously surprising the bunnies and brighten up their evening no end! After this, with a fireworks-like, fizzy-energy-feeling coming from our paws, we landed happily back on the wall, two contented and colourful, energy cats.

This was my first ever true, energy cat adventure and I can tell you that I've had many more extraordinary and exciting ones since, which I'll tell you about over time.

Your friend,

Graffi

www.magicgraffi.com

Copy by Serge Cantsper

Illustration by @flowoolgarbarrington

MAGIC GRAFFI’S WALKING ON EGGSHELLS BLOG

Hello and welcome to my post-Easter holidays blog.

I don’t know what the weather’s been like with you over the past several weeks, but here it's rained off and on for days and days . . . and days. So much so that I've got really fed-up with not seeing the sun and so have been sleeping-in rather later than usual in the mornings.

Anyway, yesterday morning, when I opened my eyes, all of a sudden there was good news. The sun had poked its nose out, probably thinking about getting ready for the forthcoming eclipse. And, in support, this morning started out with more good news. Not only was the sun shining brightly, but also, when I went downstairs for my brekky, I found myself face to face with a fun surprise . . . Two of my best mates – Samson and Jeep – were sitting together on the lawn just outside our glass kitchen door.

However, after Florence opened the door a few moments later, the joy of seeing them faded a bit. Why? Because I noticed that Jeep, who, as you will see from the illustration, is a three-legged tortoise with wheels, was looking decidedly uncomfortable. And Samson – who’s a really large, urban cat – was licking his lips as if he’d got a seriously nasty taste in his mouth.

Studying them carefully, I had the feeling that there was bad news around the corner. But, as it turned out, I’d got this wrong, because the bad news wasn’t around the corner at all. In fact, it was only when I ask the two of them what the problem was that I discovered that the bad news was to be found just behind them. Right there in the garden, which was absolutely stuffed with pesky snails. A rout of them in fact! (In case, like me, you didn't already know the word ‘rout’, in this context it means a mass of snails. And what was particularly puzzling to me was, how was it possible for so many snails to have invaded our garden in such a short space of time, meaning just overnight?

They were, everywhere: hidden away in the grass, creeping around in the flower beds and hedges, and even climbing way up to the tops of our fruit trees to eat their flowers; not to mention, clinging precariously between sharp thorns on many of the rose bushes. As soon as I started talking to Jeep, I learnt that during the night, while he was fast asleep, a number of the snails had crept up into his shell to join him. This was something he'd never experienced before, and it was their rough-shelled presence, rubbing on his skin, that was the reason for the decidedly uncomfortable look on his face.

As for Samson, I learnt from him that as he was crossing our lawn a short while ago, he ended up getting several snails caught up in his thick, furry trousers. And, as soon as he realised this, he sat down so as to use his paws and claws, to remove the clinging pests as quickly as he could. However, once he’d done this, he did what is completely instinctive to us cats, which was, slowly and systematically, to lick his fur back into place. Well, in doing so, poor Samson got loads of what we call, snail-trail gunk, stuck in his mouth. This is really thick, slimy stuff which tastes simply disgusting. Think of revolting, gunky gum!

Seeing my two friends suffering made my brain move into ‘solutions’ mode: this ranging from simple solutions, to serious solutions. The simple one was to help sort out their immediate problems; while the serious one was working out how to get rid of the snails as soon as possible. With all of this in mind, immediately I invited Samson into our house and offered him my bowl of yummy milk. The idea here being to enable him get rid of the terrible taste in his mouth. Then, so as to help Jeep, I asked him to walk out onto the lawn, saying that I'd follow him. (By doing this, I hoped to avoid any problems with the snails, myself, which I'm happy to tell you was the case.)

Once Jeep and I were on the grass together, he asked me to use my paws to reach inside his shell and remove the gastropods. (In passing, perhaps you don't know that the word gastropod is a technical term for a snail? It sounds like a nasty tummy bug, or something, doesn't it?) Anyway, the problem was that, because Jeep’s shell was so close to the ground, the angle was all wrong for me to be able to put my paws inside it. So, solving this problem forced me to rummage around in the magic side of imagination, to find a really special solution. (I think you humans call this thinking out of the box, whatever that means, because I don’t often see you rummaging around in boxes.)

Then, out of the blue - this being the colour that signals the activation of my magic, you'll remember - I had a really cool idea . . . To turn Jeep over onto his back, so that I could then reach inside him easily and remove the snails. (Sounds good, doesn’t it, but, to be honest, the reality was quite something else. For a start, how many upside-down tortoises have you ever seen in your life?)

After considerable reflection, I realised that the only way I could achieve this objective was by using a clever but complicated, two-stage solution. First of all, I'd have to raise Jeep up off the ground, using levitation. Then I'd follow this up with an ingenious, inversion manoeuvre. (It sounds complicated, doesn't it, and as you can imagine, this required some truly EPIC magic. Remember? EPIC stands for Energy Powered Intense Concentration.)

In preparation, I explained to Jeep that I had a solution for removing the snails, telling him that, in order to succeed, I needed him to stay perfectly still and meditate for a while, imagining that he was floating in the air. This he did, and soon he was snoring peacefully as if floating happily on a cloud. After centring my own energies at the same time, I spent a few minutes in a state of deep concentration. As a result, my tail kinked, which instantly activated my magic. This resulted in my whiskers tingling, as well as my tail twitching, which turned a sort of lightening blue, while emitting starry flashes.

Fully energized, I then waved my tail several times backwards and forwards over the top of Jeep’s shell and, as the energy built up between us, gradually he started to rise up off the lawn. (Think of him being lifted by a drone.) Once he was properly airborne, I positioned my tail underneath him, moving it along the lefthand side of his shell. The magic from this movement made him roll over in the air slowly, until he was fully on his back. Once done, I moved my tail away from his side and waved it above him again, and, supported by this special, magnetic-type energy, Jeep began to descend slowly, until he had a soft but slightly wobbly landing, ending fully upside down on the grass. (Can you imagine how intense my concentration had to be to keep a large tortoise safely inverted in the air for quite a few minutes?)

‘Are you alright, Jeep?’ I asked. ‘Yes,’ he replied with a smile on his face. 'And ‘I've had a good kip too. But I have to admit that it feels really rather odd lying on my back and wiggling my head, legs and tail around freely.’ Even my wheels are now wondering what to do!

‘Yes, I’m sure,’ I replied, giving him a wink. ‘So, are you happy if I now try to remove the snails?’

‘Of course,’ he answered, nodding his head. 'I can't wait.'

But, to my astonishment, as soon as I put my paws inside Jeep, he got the most terrible giggles. Not only did this make me laugh too – it’s quite something to watch a large tortoise rolling around on its back giggling - but, just as Samson came back outdoors, licking his whiskers and looking much happier after the milk, I had a brilliant idea.

‘Samson,’ I said, ‘Please will you go and ask Honky Donk, who I heard honking in the field early this morning, to take you down the road on his back to the bakery. I want you to bring us back a couple of big bags of dried eggshells. In case you don't know, the baker puts them aside every year after the Easter cooking rush, and stores them as future garden fertiliser for clients. I’ll tell you more when you both get back.’

‘No problem,’ he replied, and after a huge stretch, off he padded, not over the lawn this time, but through the house and out onto the road. Like this he was sure to avoid any possible run-ins with snails. (Not that snails do any running, of course!)

After Samson had gone, I told Jeep that I was going to leave him upside down for a bit so that I could track down the head honcho snail. ‘He calls himself Shultan,’ said Jeep, having some difficulty with talking clearly while upside down. 'You’ll most probably find him in the middle of the lawn somewhere, busy directing what the other snails are doing. Or so the snail you can see on my foot suggests. ’

And, sure enough, not far away, behind a black plant pot, was a very large snail shell, with a bulbous head and two long tentacles, protruding from the front. And, underneath this was  a thick, spongy mantle, which was followed along by a strange, narrow tail.

'Hello, and who are you?' I asked the snail, a bit sharply. 'I'm Sultan, the senior snail,' came the reply. 'Oh really,' I replied, 'And what may I ask are you and your mates doing here, squatting the whole of our garden?'

'We're having a marvellous, Monday munch,' he said casually.

'And, out of interest, how did so many of you manage get into the garden so quickly?'

'We didn't get in here quickly at all,' he responded. 'We've been living under the soil for quite a few days, waiting for the rain to come. However, once it rained buckets last night, we all popped out almost instantly, both to avoid drowning and also so as to benefit from the yummy, scrummy, sunny food everywhere.'

'OK,' I said rather pensively, scratching an ear. 'So if I understand correctly, you're all here, totally uninvited, gobbling up our garden - fruit, flowers, vegetables and grass - just because you fancy munching on a Monday? Is that correct?''

Staring me straight in the eyes, as if he'd every right to do whatever he wanted to do, whenever he wanted to do it, Sultan said, 'Yes.'

'Right. So, now that we've got that quite clear,' I replied, 'I want you to know something important. I am now asking you to make sure that all of you leave our garden by lunchtime today, and not a moment later. Not only because you are occupying the whole of someone else's garden without their permission, but also because you've just admitted openly that you are stealing from them too.' Completely ignoring what I'd just said, Sultan crept forward a little and started munching again.

At this point, just as I was about to get cross, Samson arrived with 2 large bags of dried eggshells. These he plonked down on the lawn carefully, just in front of Jeep. 'Super, and well done Samson,' I said, giving him a paw pat on the shoulder to thank him. 'Let's get busy.' And with this we started to empty the eggshells onto the lawn as best we could, pushing them up under the sides of Jeep's shell. Then, when we were ready, I gave him another tickling under both armpits, as I tried to get the unwelcome snails out. This made him laugh even louder and longer than before. And the more he giggled, the more his shell wiggled and wobbled about. Naturally, as I'd expected, this movement had the effect of crushing the eggshells in a higgledy piggledy way, meaning that in no time at all there were masses of cracked and crushed shells of all sizes, spread on the grass around Jeep.

As if pre-programmed to do so, Samson began to pick up bits of shell in his front paws and then, with a spritely shake, he sprinkled them happily all over and around Sultan. This Instantly gave the head snail shell-shock - now you know where the expression comes from - ha, ha - and quickly he became a very agitated large snail indeed. This agitation lead to him making, horrible, high-pitched, snail-snorting noises, which the other snails understood immediately was from pain of the eggshells getting stuck onto his mantle while he was creeping. In no time at all, en mass they headed off down a multi-snail-trail lined pathway, out of the garden and into the field. Watching this contentedly, I could see that this was definitely 'a rout', although, in this sense the word means, being 'chased away'.

And, as soon as Sultan had moved off, Serge pushed Jeep back over, so that he was now back on his feet again. Full of energy, excitement and with eggshells stuck to his shell, in no time at all, my friend began to chase the snails down the pathway himself, making the best of his wheels for extra speed. (I'm sure that you'll agree that the word 'chased' here is a bit of an exaggeration, because how many high-speed tortoises have you ever seen in your life?)

Yours, Graffi

www.magicgraffi.com

Copy by Serge Cantsper

Illustration by @flowoolgarbarrington