Sunday 12 December 2010
Siblings
Jura and Tobermory came from a litter of six. Their mother had fallen on her feet after a tragic start and had the kittens in a nice warm home where she was loved. The Kittens all found homes we became the proud owners(servants) of two glorious bundles of fur and the friend who had told us about them had one of their brothers. Their Brother also a whisky fan was named Talisker. The breed that they belong to is a very intelligent breed great at working things out for themselves. For example Tobermory has worked out that water comes from the tap and that if he pushes the tap he will get water out of it, the only thing is he hasn't got the strength to turn it on and is so far frustrated. Talisker their brother is also very intelligent as you will see. Jura and Tobermory keep in touch with their brother Talisker and his new feline brothers and sisters via email, catching up with their latest adventures and escapades. The emails below show just how ingenuious they can be. Character list Jura ..................... Our little girl Tobermory ............ Our little boy Talisker 1 ............ Our white and totoishell female Talisker 2 ............ Tobermory and Jura's brother living with mum and dads friends Salem.................. Talisker 2's new feline sister with extra toes Tornado ................ Talisker 2's new feline brother Pipestrelle ............ Talisker 2's new feline brother Tadpole ................ Talisker 2's new feline sister Dearest brother Tobermoray and Sister Jura, together with your feline helpers Oban, Sprocket and Talisker1, I am writing this with the help of Salem, she being a reasonable scribe, and having an understanding of computer things. She is blessed with the additional 8 toes so puts herself in a higher class of underling. My female human tells me that your female human is writing a 'blog' - according to Salem, this is something like a scratch pole, but where you can air your opinions. My female human was in fits of laughter over that most dreaded of events - the application of flea medicine. As if the process itself is not enough of an afront to dignity! Anyway, I have found myself to be in a bit of a 'situation' and wonder if you have any theories. The story goes like this: Last week I woke up in the middle of the night feeling hungary. (Salem - are you sure that that is how the feeling is spelt?) I know the female human puts biscuits down for us at night - but I really felt like something a bit more substantial. And heree I just know your are going to critisise me, and I know all the books say you should not let your human share your bed - but she is good to snuggle up to in the night, and she looked so peaceful sleeping, I decided to go on a food finding expedition of my own. Between the food bowl room and the back door room there is, high on the wall, a cage full of ready meals (she calls them Zebra Finches). I can jump up and hang on the bars looking at these, but for some reason I cannot work out, the sliding access door is always kept shut. Remembering I did not want to wake my female human with requests for meat, I resourcefully jumped on the cage bars, and with one from paw holding on, my two back paws braced against the bottom of the cage, I managed to use my left paw to push up the door. The ready meals then started bouncing about the cage and I was able to catch two of them. How clever is that? The feathery wrapping was a bit of a nuisance, it gets up your nose, but the ready meals themselves were most delicious. Starting to feel sleepy after the excertion and the big meal, I just had time arrange the feather wrapping and the bones so that the female human could get the full impact of my resourcefulness, before I went back upstairs to bed and to a well earned sleep. Now comes the strange bit, when she got up and went downstairs she was not one little bit grateful!!. In fact she seemed quite cross and, would you believe it, upset!! I just do not understand it, it, it is quite unfathomable. She seems to have calmed down a bit now as she has bought me a new bed. It has four tall carved posts at each corner, a tall carved headboard and a carved high foot board. Oooh all that lovely wood!! Only problem is it is very shiny and very hard - not all that suited for scratching at all! Oh well, I suppose she is trying to be nice and butter me up. Butter, now there's an idea, I am pretty sure I saw a pat being defrosted in the back door room, taking Salem to investigate further. Bye for now............... Talisker2 xxxxx Hello Bro How are you and your family doing? We are great although I am a bitmiffed with my owners. They won't let me out of the bedroom window anymore. I tell you Bro its amazing, I can get out of the window onto the bathroom roof then onto the main house roof. The views are great I can see the street out at the front or see across into the big posh house gardens at the back. Okay I am a bit accident prone and have been known to fall of the pattern in the carpet but that was no reason to stop my fun. I am not that clumsy, the bruise from when I jumped into the bathroom sink and missed is fading, I just don't know what all the fuss is about. Tobermory our Brother is turning into a heavy weight. He was weighed the other day and he weighed in at 5 kilos and he is still growing, where as I only weigh 3.5 Kilos. I am getting close to Socks the oldest cat, he is not very well, Mum and Dad have taken him to the vets but the vet says he is just getting old. Mum wants to take him back to the old vets because she thinks its more than getting old. I have to admit he doesn't seem like his old self. I have been having a mad dash around the house this morning. We have a string curtain at the back door and I love dashing in and out attacking the last string. Mum has been telling every one about your predeliction for Zebra Finches and everyone is amazed. Mum wanted to know if you would mind her cutting and pasting your taleabout the Zebra Finches into the next blog. So we can boast about what the rest of the family are up to. I have taken up collecting. A few gardens away the small humans have some balls which I really like. I keep collecting them and bringing them home. There are pink ones green ones. Mum and Dad call them splat balls and keep throwing them back, how mean is that. Lots of love Jura and all the other cats and Mum and Dad Hi Bro, Hi Sis Mum is now sorting home and contents insurance on the phone so we have full access to the computer. I promised you the next step in the tale of the zebra finches if you remember. After I had had my supper feast, various attachements appeared on the cage. ie, several lengths of green garden twine to keep the door fastened - this was easy to get rid of though, in fact the ready meals themselves helped by pulling and fraying it from the inside! Then a padlock appeared on the door - this was not so easy, but, where there is a will there is a way - the key was left in it one day, so I sprang to my usual position on the front of the bars and removed the key and hid it in one of my hidey places. A fair amount of swearing and cursing came as a result of this and my plan flourished as the bolt cutters came out and the pesty padlock was removed! Unfortunately another one has replaced it, and, a really stupid bell hung just where I land on the bars! The humans went off one Sunday, to something called a garden centre and returned with three boxes that smelt of bird. These were emptied into the cage, and behold - there are now three more ready meals available. But, and this is the best bit, the humans couldnt get zebra finches, so the new ones are English finches!! How about that - none of that foreign muck, proper natural food! They are cheeky little sods as well - they hang on the bars on the inside, whilst I am hanging on the bars on the outside! Damn bell gives me away though. I can hear mum on the phone, tallking to the insurance person, she seems to have finished the covering my hunting and play area, and is saying she does not want any other cover, but I think they are being a bit persistent......... car - not due till next year, no we don't have any dogs (wonder what they taste like?) but have six cats, five rescued ones and me, ages? errr, 3 are ten years, 1 at 3 years, 1 at 2 years and 1 at just over one if it lives any longer - don't like the sound of that!! Hey guys we have had a birthday!! mum worked it out to be 28 August, although I did not turn up here till the same time you guys got home. I wonder if the Finches were bought for us for our birthdays and she forgot? Might find a way to drop that into a conversation. Another thing, and this is for Tobermory, so Jura just tune out for a moment. Not so long ago I went for a trip in the cat basket to a strange smelling place called 'the vets'. I am really not sure what happened there, I think somebody slipped me a roofie in my drink, cos when I woke up 2 significant parts of my anatomy were missing! What's more, according to the other boys, Tornado and Pipistrelle, they also had this experience. ALso, in each case, the food magically disappeared the evening before! Tadpole has this conspiracy theory going on about alien abduction - she looks like an alien with her enormous ears and eyes, and she says my 'parts' were taken by alien-vets! She says you can tell because they wear masks and long gowns. The food abduction is just the first sign! Well, mum is off the phone now, and is looking like she wants the computer back. Now that the house is all nice and insured I suppose I had better go and test the new cover by trashing something. Come on Salem............ take care Talisker (and Salem). xx
Tuesday 10 August 2010
A Sad Story
Warning this is a sad story of love and loss and for those of you who don't like sad stories don't read any further.
Part of this story you will already be familiar with but I will start from the beginning.
We had a lovely old Cat called Wispa and after the death over the years of her best friends we decided to get a kitten to join the family to be a companion to Wispa. We found a suitable litter and choose the only female a beautiful girl with a white body and tortoiseshell tail and cap. At 8 weeks we collected her and she joined the family.
Her and Wispa never did hit it off but she settled in fine with the rest of us and we had 4 great months full of fun with a kitten. Then came the signs that she she was growing up and she was on heat. We made an appointment for her to visit the vets to be neutered. In the meantime we locked her in the upstairs office where she could be with us, she had company her litter tray and food at her disposal while we curtailed her freedom. We had upvc windows and could open them a little bit so she could sit on the windowsill and breathe the fresh air but couldn't get out.
Down below in the garden was a male tom cat he had obviously picked up on her scent and was there to follow it up. He was a good looking chunky black cat with a devil may care attitude. He decided the best way to catch the imprisoned female was to sing to her. The cauterwaling started and despite much boot throwing and yelling the black male was not detered. I knew Tally was safe because the window was only open a fraction it was on the second floor and even if she got out of the office door the other doors between her and freedom were also shut.
One morning I was pottering around the garden doing some jobs when a strange odd coloured cat turned up. Rolling around on the floor miaowling and wanting attention. The coat was a murky greeny brown colour I had never seen a cat that colour before and was intrigued. The cats behaviour was reminiscent of Tallisker and as the cat drew nearer it turned and looked at me, as soon as I saw the eyes I recognised them. It was Tally and she was absolutely covered in mud your could not see the tortoise shell head and tail and certainly not her snowy white body. She was taken to the bath room and showered down it took about half an hour to get all of the mud off her. She then had to be towelled and dried off with a hairdryer meanwhile she was telling us about the wonderful adventures she had had and the wonderful male she had met. How kind he was and how he had promised her the earth and anything she ever wanted.
We worked out how she had got out. Where theres a will there is a way she had managed to push her nose into the gap of the open window until she forced the window open and then proceeded to jump from the 2nd floor into Black Toms open paws.
We had to crush her dreams and tell her that she would probably never see him again he was probably a philanderer and he had been interested in one thing only and now he had got it he would be off looking for the next female. We told her to stay away from him males like that were bad and he would break her heart.
We needed to know how far the meeting had gone and if he had had his wicked way, so off to the vets she went, it was a few weeks before it could be confirmed either way and when the news came it was to find that Black Tom had been doing more than promising her the earth.
There was no need to keep her in any longer the horse had already bolted. We let her out and off she went straight into the paws of her beloved Black Tom they became as thick a thieves. Despite our dire warnings we were proved wrong he seemed to be devoted to her. They wandered round together playing in the haystacks across in the barns. The corn barn was a favourite place, they would go hunting mice together very successfully. We would find them sunbathing together on the decking in the garden. Black Tom was wary of us and didn't come too close and though we tried not to encourage him and told each other we were not to become fond of him, but we would catch each other sneaking out and giving him cat biscuits.
The only blot on the horizon was he fought with Socks our oldest cat and we would shoo him off when we caught him doing this. Socks would chase after him and would come back with a bloody nose. Black Tom was bigger than Socks and when Socks started to avoid going out we has to get serious about chasing off of him. This didn't deter Tally she just went and met him were ever she could and we would often see them across the fields together.
Tally got fatter and fatter and started nesting, after curtailing several of her unsuitable nesting sites she opted for under the bed. She had three beautiful kittens of which she was very proud. Tally went out very little at this time but the Black Tom was always some where to be seen if only off in the distance. When the kittens were old enough Tally took them out and proudly introduced them to their father and to our amazement he seem to be quite proud of them. Until they moved on to new homes the kittens used to play and scamper around their mum and dad while they basked in the sun. Tally was whipped off to the vets to be neutered so that she wouldn't become a mum again. When she recovered from the operation she was let out again and she was off to join Black Tom. We began to see less and less of Tally and was worried that she was becoming wild like her Black Tom. Sometimes she would dissapear for a a few night and days we would only see her when she came in to sleep. The two of them were inseperable. We think she tried to smuggle him in a few times but there would be fights between Sock and Black Tom.
Then Black Tom dissapeared. We wondered if he had deserted her for another female maybe he had smelt a scent and had gone to follow it. Tally was a very unhappy cat and we worried about her. Before she had been going out for whole day with her Black Tom and now she was spending days looking for him. We didn't know what to do for her she was becoming wilder by the day. It was no good telling her "I told you so". She seemed to be desperate and began to loose weight she was not a happy cat and no matter how much we tried to comfort her she carried on her searches to no avail.
At the other end of the village lived the inlaws and it was a chance comment when visiting them that let us know what had happened to Black Tom. We had stopped giving him food and chased him off so that he didn't fight with Socks but he remained solid and chunky he was a wild cat and could fend for himself and we wondered if anyone else fed him as well. It had turned out while Tally was looking after the kittens he had taken to wandering up to the farm further up the road from us and he used one of their sheds as his home. The farmers wife used to leave food out for him because he was good at keeping the rodent population down. When tally was out and about again he spent most of his time with her but when Tally came home he would wander back to the farm. It was summer and the farmers wife liked to leave the door open to allow the summer air in but often would find Black Tom in the house ensconsed in a comfy chair. Whenever she tried to chase him out he would try and swipe her legs. This was not good because the farmer had had to have a serious operation on his legs and she didn't want Black Tom to swipe the farmers legs.
The farmers wife was in a dilemma he was a good mouser but if he swiped her husbands legs there could serious health complications for him. she knew he was a wild cat and called the Cats Protection League they had a scheme whereby they rescued wild cats neuter them and find farms where they would be welcome. The Farmers wife called them and they came along and trapped Black Tom and took him away. The intention was for him to be treated for fleas and worms, be neutered and returned to a willing farm to be a farm cat, he was a known mouser He would have yearly checkups to check he was in good health but before any of this is done the cat is taken to the vets to have a checkup blood tests are taken and their general health checked. Black Tom was in good health but his blood test was not good. Black Tom had feline Aids there was nothing that could be done and to prevent further spreading it was decided that Balck Tom would be put down.
When we found out we were devasted, as much as he was a problem for bashing Socks up we would never have wished him to be put down. How do you tell a love lorn cat that the cat she is searching for hasn't left her and probably would never have done so and no matter how much she searches she will never find him.
It took Tally a long time to settle back down. Even when we moved house 16 miles away Tally went missing for a month and we suspected she went back to the old house to look for him. It was a hard time for her and us. We tried to comfort her and tried to keep her occupied. Time is a healer and three years later she is a much happier cat and has settled down to a plump and contented life. Occasionally she seems far away and we wonder if she is thinking of her Black Tom and remembering the happy days in the sun.
Part of this story you will already be familiar with but I will start from the beginning.
We had a lovely old Cat called Wispa and after the death over the years of her best friends we decided to get a kitten to join the family to be a companion to Wispa. We found a suitable litter and choose the only female a beautiful girl with a white body and tortoiseshell tail and cap. At 8 weeks we collected her and she joined the family.
Her and Wispa never did hit it off but she settled in fine with the rest of us and we had 4 great months full of fun with a kitten. Then came the signs that she she was growing up and she was on heat. We made an appointment for her to visit the vets to be neutered. In the meantime we locked her in the upstairs office where she could be with us, she had company her litter tray and food at her disposal while we curtailed her freedom. We had upvc windows and could open them a little bit so she could sit on the windowsill and breathe the fresh air but couldn't get out.
Down below in the garden was a male tom cat he had obviously picked up on her scent and was there to follow it up. He was a good looking chunky black cat with a devil may care attitude. He decided the best way to catch the imprisoned female was to sing to her. The cauterwaling started and despite much boot throwing and yelling the black male was not detered. I knew Tally was safe because the window was only open a fraction it was on the second floor and even if she got out of the office door the other doors between her and freedom were also shut.
One morning I was pottering around the garden doing some jobs when a strange odd coloured cat turned up. Rolling around on the floor miaowling and wanting attention. The coat was a murky greeny brown colour I had never seen a cat that colour before and was intrigued. The cats behaviour was reminiscent of Tallisker and as the cat drew nearer it turned and looked at me, as soon as I saw the eyes I recognised them. It was Tally and she was absolutely covered in mud your could not see the tortoise shell head and tail and certainly not her snowy white body. She was taken to the bath room and showered down it took about half an hour to get all of the mud off her. She then had to be towelled and dried off with a hairdryer meanwhile she was telling us about the wonderful adventures she had had and the wonderful male she had met. How kind he was and how he had promised her the earth and anything she ever wanted.
We worked out how she had got out. Where theres a will there is a way she had managed to push her nose into the gap of the open window until she forced the window open and then proceeded to jump from the 2nd floor into Black Toms open paws.
We had to crush her dreams and tell her that she would probably never see him again he was probably a philanderer and he had been interested in one thing only and now he had got it he would be off looking for the next female. We told her to stay away from him males like that were bad and he would break her heart.
We needed to know how far the meeting had gone and if he had had his wicked way, so off to the vets she went, it was a few weeks before it could be confirmed either way and when the news came it was to find that Black Tom had been doing more than promising her the earth.
There was no need to keep her in any longer the horse had already bolted. We let her out and off she went straight into the paws of her beloved Black Tom they became as thick a thieves. Despite our dire warnings we were proved wrong he seemed to be devoted to her. They wandered round together playing in the haystacks across in the barns. The corn barn was a favourite place, they would go hunting mice together very successfully. We would find them sunbathing together on the decking in the garden. Black Tom was wary of us and didn't come too close and though we tried not to encourage him and told each other we were not to become fond of him, but we would catch each other sneaking out and giving him cat biscuits.
The only blot on the horizon was he fought with Socks our oldest cat and we would shoo him off when we caught him doing this. Socks would chase after him and would come back with a bloody nose. Black Tom was bigger than Socks and when Socks started to avoid going out we has to get serious about chasing off of him. This didn't deter Tally she just went and met him were ever she could and we would often see them across the fields together.
Tally got fatter and fatter and started nesting, after curtailing several of her unsuitable nesting sites she opted for under the bed. She had three beautiful kittens of which she was very proud. Tally went out very little at this time but the Black Tom was always some where to be seen if only off in the distance. When the kittens were old enough Tally took them out and proudly introduced them to their father and to our amazement he seem to be quite proud of them. Until they moved on to new homes the kittens used to play and scamper around their mum and dad while they basked in the sun. Tally was whipped off to the vets to be neutered so that she wouldn't become a mum again. When she recovered from the operation she was let out again and she was off to join Black Tom. We began to see less and less of Tally and was worried that she was becoming wild like her Black Tom. Sometimes she would dissapear for a a few night and days we would only see her when she came in to sleep. The two of them were inseperable. We think she tried to smuggle him in a few times but there would be fights between Sock and Black Tom.
Then Black Tom dissapeared. We wondered if he had deserted her for another female maybe he had smelt a scent and had gone to follow it. Tally was a very unhappy cat and we worried about her. Before she had been going out for whole day with her Black Tom and now she was spending days looking for him. We didn't know what to do for her she was becoming wilder by the day. It was no good telling her "I told you so". She seemed to be desperate and began to loose weight she was not a happy cat and no matter how much we tried to comfort her she carried on her searches to no avail.
At the other end of the village lived the inlaws and it was a chance comment when visiting them that let us know what had happened to Black Tom. We had stopped giving him food and chased him off so that he didn't fight with Socks but he remained solid and chunky he was a wild cat and could fend for himself and we wondered if anyone else fed him as well. It had turned out while Tally was looking after the kittens he had taken to wandering up to the farm further up the road from us and he used one of their sheds as his home. The farmers wife used to leave food out for him because he was good at keeping the rodent population down. When tally was out and about again he spent most of his time with her but when Tally came home he would wander back to the farm. It was summer and the farmers wife liked to leave the door open to allow the summer air in but often would find Black Tom in the house ensconsed in a comfy chair. Whenever she tried to chase him out he would try and swipe her legs. This was not good because the farmer had had to have a serious operation on his legs and she didn't want Black Tom to swipe the farmers legs.
The farmers wife was in a dilemma he was a good mouser but if he swiped her husbands legs there could serious health complications for him. she knew he was a wild cat and called the Cats Protection League they had a scheme whereby they rescued wild cats neuter them and find farms where they would be welcome. The Farmers wife called them and they came along and trapped Black Tom and took him away. The intention was for him to be treated for fleas and worms, be neutered and returned to a willing farm to be a farm cat, he was a known mouser He would have yearly checkups to check he was in good health but before any of this is done the cat is taken to the vets to have a checkup blood tests are taken and their general health checked. Black Tom was in good health but his blood test was not good. Black Tom had feline Aids there was nothing that could be done and to prevent further spreading it was decided that Balck Tom would be put down.
When we found out we were devasted, as much as he was a problem for bashing Socks up we would never have wished him to be put down. How do you tell a love lorn cat that the cat she is searching for hasn't left her and probably would never have done so and no matter how much she searches she will never find him.
It took Tally a long time to settle back down. Even when we moved house 16 miles away Tally went missing for a month and we suspected she went back to the old house to look for him. It was a hard time for her and us. We tried to comfort her and tried to keep her occupied. Time is a healer and three years later she is a much happier cat and has settled down to a plump and contented life. Occasionally she seems far away and we wonder if she is thinking of her Black Tom and remembering the happy days in the sun.
Friday 6 August 2010
The Maurader
Theres something up!!
Toby keeps running through from the kitchen miaowing at us Jura follows as well and both look back with concerned eyes at the kitchen. Oban tends to spend most of the day out so he is only here for the evening through to the morning so we can't gauge him for a reaction to whatever spooked the others in the kitchen. Socks just miaows whatever the occasion. Talisker takes everything in her stride and the only reaction from her is to avoid the kitchen every so often. So what is the problem?
Then there was the bells, "dear can you hear a bell" "No dear" the other one would say with a look the intimated that maybe it was time for the men in white coats.
The cats are fed in the morning and at night they have two tins of cat food a day and an unlimited supply of cat biscuits. At feed time they are all ready and waiting, they eat what they want and eat the rest throughout the day and night. Suddenly they seem to want more, the plates are licked clean and theres not a cat biscuit in sight. Its not even winter when we would understand them wanting more. We are having to stand firm and say no, no matter how pleadingly they look at us. "You will be getting fat and then how do you think you'll get over the garden wall"
The bells again, I am sure it came from the kitchen. I go and investigate, no there is nothing in the kitchen or the utility to make this sound am I losing my marbles after all.
It was playing in the back of my mind, bells in the kitchen it can't have been the cats because we removed the bells from their collars after being woken up night after night by the tinkling in the wee hours of the morning when one of them would decide it was time for an all over scratch for ten minutes.
Again Jura and Tobermory come in to fetch me, I followed them through to the kitchen when I got there they both hid behind my legs and this time I definitely heard the sound of bells I was not imagining it, but there was nothing there. I spent the next day or two listening out for the bell.
Aha was that a tinkle, very quietly I headed to the kitchen and caught site of a ginger tail dissapearing out of the utility window. Suddenly it all became clear the cats wanting extra food and being upset about something in the kitchen, we had a marauding cat!
There are a variety of ginger cats in the area so we had to catch him in the act. The next few days were quiet, then we both heard it. I sneaked out the back door and shut the utility window, my other half headed to the utility room admitting to me they would have to cancel the visit from the men in white coats that had been arranged. The cat was cornered and picked up and told in no uncertain terms that he wasn't welcome. All of our cats were standing in the doorway to the living room jeering and yelling general abuse about him for stealing their food and telling him what they did to theives. Their bravado was ten fold because we were there. The cat was escorted off the premises and sent off over the wall into the field.
The cats all patted themselves on the back for a job well done, and all went for a well deserved snooze.
The bells again, did the telling off, not work. Aha there are two ginger brothers who look alike. We have no idea which one we told off and don't know if it is one of them marauding or both. We are now planning to take photos next time, so we have a criminal line up to check them against.
"Hey up Bro, what you up too?"
"I got caught in the act of having an extra supper at the house down the road. I won't be going in there again I got a right telling off and I was stunned by the flashing lights"
Did you Bro, I was in there tonight and I am stuffed, ate until I couldn't fit through the window had to use the door. I think they got a photo of my tail. You know what your problem is, its that stupid bell you've got round your neck. Lose it and life will be a dream".
Toby keeps running through from the kitchen miaowing at us Jura follows as well and both look back with concerned eyes at the kitchen. Oban tends to spend most of the day out so he is only here for the evening through to the morning so we can't gauge him for a reaction to whatever spooked the others in the kitchen. Socks just miaows whatever the occasion. Talisker takes everything in her stride and the only reaction from her is to avoid the kitchen every so often. So what is the problem?
Then there was the bells, "dear can you hear a bell" "No dear" the other one would say with a look the intimated that maybe it was time for the men in white coats.
The cats are fed in the morning and at night they have two tins of cat food a day and an unlimited supply of cat biscuits. At feed time they are all ready and waiting, they eat what they want and eat the rest throughout the day and night. Suddenly they seem to want more, the plates are licked clean and theres not a cat biscuit in sight. Its not even winter when we would understand them wanting more. We are having to stand firm and say no, no matter how pleadingly they look at us. "You will be getting fat and then how do you think you'll get over the garden wall"
The bells again, I am sure it came from the kitchen. I go and investigate, no there is nothing in the kitchen or the utility to make this sound am I losing my marbles after all.
It was playing in the back of my mind, bells in the kitchen it can't have been the cats because we removed the bells from their collars after being woken up night after night by the tinkling in the wee hours of the morning when one of them would decide it was time for an all over scratch for ten minutes.
Again Jura and Tobermory come in to fetch me, I followed them through to the kitchen when I got there they both hid behind my legs and this time I definitely heard the sound of bells I was not imagining it, but there was nothing there. I spent the next day or two listening out for the bell.
Aha was that a tinkle, very quietly I headed to the kitchen and caught site of a ginger tail dissapearing out of the utility window. Suddenly it all became clear the cats wanting extra food and being upset about something in the kitchen, we had a marauding cat!
There are a variety of ginger cats in the area so we had to catch him in the act. The next few days were quiet, then we both heard it. I sneaked out the back door and shut the utility window, my other half headed to the utility room admitting to me they would have to cancel the visit from the men in white coats that had been arranged. The cat was cornered and picked up and told in no uncertain terms that he wasn't welcome. All of our cats were standing in the doorway to the living room jeering and yelling general abuse about him for stealing their food and telling him what they did to theives. Their bravado was ten fold because we were there. The cat was escorted off the premises and sent off over the wall into the field.
The cats all patted themselves on the back for a job well done, and all went for a well deserved snooze.
The bells again, did the telling off, not work. Aha there are two ginger brothers who look alike. We have no idea which one we told off and don't know if it is one of them marauding or both. We are now planning to take photos next time, so we have a criminal line up to check them against.
"Hey up Bro, what you up too?"
"I got caught in the act of having an extra supper at the house down the road. I won't be going in there again I got a right telling off and I was stunned by the flashing lights"
Did you Bro, I was in there tonight and I am stuffed, ate until I couldn't fit through the window had to use the door. I think they got a photo of my tail. You know what your problem is, its that stupid bell you've got round your neck. Lose it and life will be a dream".
Monday 12 July 2010
Curiosity killed the Cat
Never has there been a truer saying, the messes cats get themselves into are hair raising. Here are just a few of the catastrophes we have encountered.
Smokey one of the childhood kittens was fascinated by the gold fish in the fish tank in the front room and would spend hours looking at it, following the fish around the tank with her eyes from the arm of the settee The fish tank was was cat proofed and placed on the middle shelf of a shelving unit. The space above the tank was enough for an adult human to comfortably put the fish food in but not big enough for a cat. The fish tank was surrounded by books on either side, so there was no room for a curious cat to sit and scoop out any fish with their paws either. The tank had been pulled to the front of the shelf so there was no room for her to sit in front of the tank.
Where there is a will there is a way.
Smokey had spent many an hour on the arm of the chair eyeballing the fish and plotting how she could get them, she had come up with a plan. The family were going out and would be gone for some time, now was her chance. No Member of the family would be able to stop her, the fish tank was her oyster.
When the family came home as usual through the front door into the living room they were greeted by the sight of Smokey in the the fish tank doing the doggy paddle with the fish swimming in and out of her legs. If she put her feet on the floor of the tank her head went under water. She was alternating the doggy paddle with the sinking changing as she got tired or ran out of breath. When the family found her she was tired and struggling to keep the doggy paddle up.
How she got in there we can only surmise. She would have had a real struggle to get in but there was no way once she was in that she could get out. If the family had arrived home later she may have drowned. As it was they had a very wet soggy and grumpy cat to extract from the tank.
Smokey mentioned above was one of a brood of kittens born to Kato and we think the litter may have been blessed with the stupid gene. One of those kittens Smokeys sibling was very accident prone. There used to be a problem with the coal fired boiler that heated the radiators and the water. Often the hot water had to be run off from the tank before it reached boiling point, running a bath was a good way of doing this. One of the family had decided to run a bath and had turned the hot water on to fill the bath but hadn't turned the cold water tap on. The kitten eager to see what was going on came springing up the stairs, ping ping ping it hopped into the bathroom ping ping across the floor and ping on to the side of the bath and before they could stop him he had pinged into the bath. The poor little thing rocketed out of the bath. Unfortunately he had burnt himself and had to be treated for burns his fur came of his legs and he looked very much the worse for wear. After that it became the family rule that cold water went into the bath first.
Once the poor little kittens fur had grown back and he was fully recovered he was allowed to venture out of the house into the garden. Dad this particular day was having problems with his car and was working underneath. He was draining the Sump oil out of the car into sandwich box. Kitten seeing dad went ping ping ping across the lawn under the car and pinged straight into the sump oil. Covered from head to toe the kitten had to be washed with washing up liquid to remove all the oil this took many washes and one irate kitten. Afterwards the kitten refused to wash itself anymore and hence forth had to have baths every so often.
We had purchased a new swing bin for the kitchen ( need I go on). Wispa was fascinated she could see us put things in and the top swing back. She could smell the aromas that only a cat could love and wanted to get at them, which was why we bought it in the first place. Our old bin had no lid and keeping the marauding cats out was a nightmare. If we put a lid on we couldn't get in easily but it kept the cats out and without the lid we would have a kitchen festooned in the morning with the detritus of the week.
Like all the other cats she waited till we had gone out to investigate. We had emptied the bin before we went out and had thought no more about it. When we arrived home again there was a plaintive mewing coming from the kitchen. We located her in the bin but she must have been in there some time. The bin was saturated with condensation and we hauled out one very soggy cat. Needless to say she gave the bin a very wide berth after that.
Fortunately although curiosity has hampered, scared and wounded the cats curiosity has never killed any of our cats.
Smokey one of the childhood kittens was fascinated by the gold fish in the fish tank in the front room and would spend hours looking at it, following the fish around the tank with her eyes from the arm of the settee The fish tank was was cat proofed and placed on the middle shelf of a shelving unit. The space above the tank was enough for an adult human to comfortably put the fish food in but not big enough for a cat. The fish tank was surrounded by books on either side, so there was no room for a curious cat to sit and scoop out any fish with their paws either. The tank had been pulled to the front of the shelf so there was no room for her to sit in front of the tank.
Where there is a will there is a way.
Smokey had spent many an hour on the arm of the chair eyeballing the fish and plotting how she could get them, she had come up with a plan. The family were going out and would be gone for some time, now was her chance. No Member of the family would be able to stop her, the fish tank was her oyster.
When the family came home as usual through the front door into the living room they were greeted by the sight of Smokey in the the fish tank doing the doggy paddle with the fish swimming in and out of her legs. If she put her feet on the floor of the tank her head went under water. She was alternating the doggy paddle with the sinking changing as she got tired or ran out of breath. When the family found her she was tired and struggling to keep the doggy paddle up.
How she got in there we can only surmise. She would have had a real struggle to get in but there was no way once she was in that she could get out. If the family had arrived home later she may have drowned. As it was they had a very wet soggy and grumpy cat to extract from the tank.
Smokey mentioned above was one of a brood of kittens born to Kato and we think the litter may have been blessed with the stupid gene. One of those kittens Smokeys sibling was very accident prone. There used to be a problem with the coal fired boiler that heated the radiators and the water. Often the hot water had to be run off from the tank before it reached boiling point, running a bath was a good way of doing this. One of the family had decided to run a bath and had turned the hot water on to fill the bath but hadn't turned the cold water tap on. The kitten eager to see what was going on came springing up the stairs, ping ping ping it hopped into the bathroom ping ping across the floor and ping on to the side of the bath and before they could stop him he had pinged into the bath. The poor little thing rocketed out of the bath. Unfortunately he had burnt himself and had to be treated for burns his fur came of his legs and he looked very much the worse for wear. After that it became the family rule that cold water went into the bath first.
Once the poor little kittens fur had grown back and he was fully recovered he was allowed to venture out of the house into the garden. Dad this particular day was having problems with his car and was working underneath. He was draining the Sump oil out of the car into sandwich box. Kitten seeing dad went ping ping ping across the lawn under the car and pinged straight into the sump oil. Covered from head to toe the kitten had to be washed with washing up liquid to remove all the oil this took many washes and one irate kitten. Afterwards the kitten refused to wash itself anymore and hence forth had to have baths every so often.
We had purchased a new swing bin for the kitchen ( need I go on). Wispa was fascinated she could see us put things in and the top swing back. She could smell the aromas that only a cat could love and wanted to get at them, which was why we bought it in the first place. Our old bin had no lid and keeping the marauding cats out was a nightmare. If we put a lid on we couldn't get in easily but it kept the cats out and without the lid we would have a kitchen festooned in the morning with the detritus of the week.
Like all the other cats she waited till we had gone out to investigate. We had emptied the bin before we went out and had thought no more about it. When we arrived home again there was a plaintive mewing coming from the kitchen. We located her in the bin but she must have been in there some time. The bin was saturated with condensation and we hauled out one very soggy cat. Needless to say she gave the bin a very wide berth after that.
Fortunately although curiosity has hampered, scared and wounded the cats curiosity has never killed any of our cats.
Monday 5 July 2010
Dogs and Cats
One of us grew up with dogs and cats and they all got on very well, often causing great mirth with their antics. The traditional role of cats and dogs is considered to be that of mortal enemies and while many do live up to this role often cats and dogs do get on. Here are a few examples of both.
We used to live in in Lancashire in a stone terraced house it had a path that was ran along the back directly outside the back doors and beyond the path was the garden of each house. This path was a right of way as far as our house where it ended. We eventually put a fence and gate up which encompassed the path into our property but until that happened anyone could wander down including animals. This particular day an unwary Alsatian wandered down, little did he know what was going to happen to him. Bramble was our dark tortoiseshell girl, sister to Wispa. It was a hot day and she was cooling down on the kitchen floor when wandering past the door came the dog, the dog hadn't spotted her but she certainly had seen him. In the blink of a eye she was up and out she flew at the dog and dodged under the Alsatian rotated 180 degrees and dug four sets of claws into his undercarriage. The dog was completely shocked he didn't know what to do other than yelp. The poor dog hopped from one foot to the other in the hope he could dislodge her. The cat was hissing and digging in and the Alsatian was yelping and dancing on his tippy toes. We tried to help but there was little we could do to get her off. The dog was in pain and wasn't letting us anywhere near in case we had another cat who wanted a piece of the action. Finally she decided he had been taught a lesson to last him a lifetime and dropped off. The dog realising his freedom ran yelping down the path never to be seen again, Brambles sauntered back into the house and lay down on the kitchen floor to get cool again and went to sleep safe in the knowledge of a job well done.
Max was the neighbours Jack Russell a puppy who was curious and wanted to see everything and sniff everything. Max used to come out with me around the farm and did a lot of ratting burrowing into the haystacks and chasing everything he could. As I always collected him from the neighbour he rarely ever came into our garden so didn't come into contact with the cats. After some particularly bad weather the fence was blown down allowing him access to our garden so we thought we had best introduce him to the cats, he was at the stage where he could be taught to get on with the cats. Unfortunately we had not taken into consideration what the cats thought of dogs. Two of the cats were sunbathing on a chair outside of the back door and we took max along to meet them. Max thought they were great and was friendly with them he wanted to be friends. He put his front paws on the chair wagging his tail and lolling his tongue out at them he wanted to sniff them as he came in close Beeswax our oldest cat took one look at him and slashed poor max across the nose. Immediately max decided these were the enemy and must just be big rats. We had to drag him off and from that day forward max hated cats, chasing them for revenge whenever he saw any.
Sandy the golden retriever and Smokey the cat grew up together with one of us as a child, the family had been out for the day and the cat and the dog had been shut up in the house all day. When they arrived home the animals were crossed legged and dying to be let out. Smokey shot out first and found somewhere convenient to do her wee next to the pole for the washing line. Sandy shot out after her to his regular spot the washing pole and weed right over the top of Smokey she was drenched and because she was mid wee there was nothing she could do and was very unhappy, her face was a picture as Sandy let go all the liquid he had been holding in all day.
This infamous duo used to get up to alsorts of tricks, back in the seventies you could buy boiling chickens in a large cylindrical tin. Mother had put this chicken in a pan of water with a lid on to boil for tea and left it to itself. The kitchen was situated off the dining room which in turn was situated of a small hall and on the other side of that was the front room. The family had settled down in the front room reading and watching telly. When they heard a crash. One of the family went to investigate to find that Smokey had knocked of the the lid then used her claws despite the scalding water to hook the chicken out of the boiling water and knock it to the floor for Sandy to eat. Who despite the heat was trying to eat it before anyone could take it off him.
Many years later when Sandy and Smokey where quite old the family moved to a new house. Smokey on her first foray out went and investigated the new yard it was a lovely sun trap where she and Sandy would be able to lounge together and enjoy themselves. Suddenly a huge tom cat appeared and let Smokey know that this was his territory and she would have to fight him for it. Smokey immediately ran off back inside, the tom cat was satisfied here was a cat who was not going to give him any trouble. Smokey when she went back inside miaowed to Sandy who was lounging in front of the fire he got up and followed Smokey out. Sandy went up to where the cat was and barked loudly and scared the living daylight out of the cat it decided it was too dangerous to stay around and shot off never to bother Smokey again.
Charlie our friends cat lives with two Labradors when taken out for a walk the cat joins in and goes with them. Charlieis often found sleeping with the dogs in the dog basket. The older dog Gizmo can be in an awkward mood sometimes and will get in the dog basket and squash himself right up against Charlie till Charlie has the smallest space imaginable and Charlie will still refuse to move. Often they can all be found in the same basket all lying on their backs with their tummies exposed to the world showing their contentment.
So although cats and dogs can be mortal enemies they can make the best of friends.
We used to live in in Lancashire in a stone terraced house it had a path that was ran along the back directly outside the back doors and beyond the path was the garden of each house. This path was a right of way as far as our house where it ended. We eventually put a fence and gate up which encompassed the path into our property but until that happened anyone could wander down including animals. This particular day an unwary Alsatian wandered down, little did he know what was going to happen to him. Bramble was our dark tortoiseshell girl, sister to Wispa. It was a hot day and she was cooling down on the kitchen floor when wandering past the door came the dog, the dog hadn't spotted her but she certainly had seen him. In the blink of a eye she was up and out she flew at the dog and dodged under the Alsatian rotated 180 degrees and dug four sets of claws into his undercarriage. The dog was completely shocked he didn't know what to do other than yelp. The poor dog hopped from one foot to the other in the hope he could dislodge her. The cat was hissing and digging in and the Alsatian was yelping and dancing on his tippy toes. We tried to help but there was little we could do to get her off. The dog was in pain and wasn't letting us anywhere near in case we had another cat who wanted a piece of the action. Finally she decided he had been taught a lesson to last him a lifetime and dropped off. The dog realising his freedom ran yelping down the path never to be seen again, Brambles sauntered back into the house and lay down on the kitchen floor to get cool again and went to sleep safe in the knowledge of a job well done.
Max was the neighbours Jack Russell a puppy who was curious and wanted to see everything and sniff everything. Max used to come out with me around the farm and did a lot of ratting burrowing into the haystacks and chasing everything he could. As I always collected him from the neighbour he rarely ever came into our garden so didn't come into contact with the cats. After some particularly bad weather the fence was blown down allowing him access to our garden so we thought we had best introduce him to the cats, he was at the stage where he could be taught to get on with the cats. Unfortunately we had not taken into consideration what the cats thought of dogs. Two of the cats were sunbathing on a chair outside of the back door and we took max along to meet them. Max thought they were great and was friendly with them he wanted to be friends. He put his front paws on the chair wagging his tail and lolling his tongue out at them he wanted to sniff them as he came in close Beeswax our oldest cat took one look at him and slashed poor max across the nose. Immediately max decided these were the enemy and must just be big rats. We had to drag him off and from that day forward max hated cats, chasing them for revenge whenever he saw any.
Sandy the golden retriever and Smokey the cat grew up together with one of us as a child, the family had been out for the day and the cat and the dog had been shut up in the house all day. When they arrived home the animals were crossed legged and dying to be let out. Smokey shot out first and found somewhere convenient to do her wee next to the pole for the washing line. Sandy shot out after her to his regular spot the washing pole and weed right over the top of Smokey she was drenched and because she was mid wee there was nothing she could do and was very unhappy, her face was a picture as Sandy let go all the liquid he had been holding in all day.
This infamous duo used to get up to alsorts of tricks, back in the seventies you could buy boiling chickens in a large cylindrical tin. Mother had put this chicken in a pan of water with a lid on to boil for tea and left it to itself. The kitchen was situated off the dining room which in turn was situated of a small hall and on the other side of that was the front room. The family had settled down in the front room reading and watching telly. When they heard a crash. One of the family went to investigate to find that Smokey had knocked of the the lid then used her claws despite the scalding water to hook the chicken out of the boiling water and knock it to the floor for Sandy to eat. Who despite the heat was trying to eat it before anyone could take it off him.
Many years later when Sandy and Smokey where quite old the family moved to a new house. Smokey on her first foray out went and investigated the new yard it was a lovely sun trap where she and Sandy would be able to lounge together and enjoy themselves. Suddenly a huge tom cat appeared and let Smokey know that this was his territory and she would have to fight him for it. Smokey immediately ran off back inside, the tom cat was satisfied here was a cat who was not going to give him any trouble. Smokey when she went back inside miaowed to Sandy who was lounging in front of the fire he got up and followed Smokey out. Sandy went up to where the cat was and barked loudly and scared the living daylight out of the cat it decided it was too dangerous to stay around and shot off never to bother Smokey again.
Charlie our friends cat lives with two Labradors when taken out for a walk the cat joins in and goes with them. Charlieis often found sleeping with the dogs in the dog basket. The older dog Gizmo can be in an awkward mood sometimes and will get in the dog basket and squash himself right up against Charlie till Charlie has the smallest space imaginable and Charlie will still refuse to move. Often they can all be found in the same basket all lying on their backs with their tummies exposed to the world showing their contentment.
So although cats and dogs can be mortal enemies they can make the best of friends.
Monday 28 June 2010
A typical day in the words of Oban
A typical day varies according to the season and the day of the week. At the moment we are progressing nicely into the summer season with the hot weather and short sticky nights. Most of us sleep in the bedroom with the humans. I sleep on the bottom corner of the bed the side depends which human moves around the least. Jura and Toby sleep in the bunk bed which is really the cat carrying basket Toby inside and Jura on top, human mum put blankets up on top for Jura and she spend the night quite comfortably there. Toby spends his night between the bunk bed and between the humans. Toby likes to try and push them out of bed by taking up the most room, as yet he hasn't succeeded making the humans fall out but he still has some growing to do. Talisker sleeps on the window sill and watches the world outside plotting her hunting strategies and which cat she is going to box next.
The day usually begins at about 4am when one of us cats decides it is now light so it must be time to get up. ( a note to the reader here this is only on a weekend, during the week don't wake up until after the alarm has gone off then play dead making it hard for them to get out of bed) The first step is one of us cats will bounce up an down on the human to see if they can get it up to feed them. This usually results in a bad tempered push of the bed and the human will burrow down deeper into the bed covers. The cat will then decide it is probably better if it waits and lull the human into a false sense of security maybe 20 minutes or so and try again. Each of the humans have a soft bit in the middle if you sit on this towards the lower end the human usually gets up and runs to what they call the toilet, muttering something about cats and deliberately. One of the humans sleeps like the dead and you can jump up and down on its head without it stirring, so it it better to wake the other human up. The human will try and ignore you pushing you off the bed or turning away from you. Persevere it is worth it eventually the human will get out of bed and put on their dressing down and come down stairs.
It is a good idea at this point to run in front of the legs as they walk down the stairs humans like this. Weave your way in front of them until you reach the food bowl sit in front of bowl and look pitiful. If this does not result in your human feeding you, weave in front of them again. Miaowing is a good way to get food. If you get really good at it, a groggy human will automatically feed you whenever you make this noise often without realising it. When the other human gets up repeat process if we play it right we can be fed twice.
Once fed we all have a good wash and wander in and out the back door, check all is in order in the back yard make sure there are no mice and other rodents around if so it is your duty to either chase them back into the field or show them the error of their ways. Another job that needs to be done is to check there have been no intruders about, If its the cats from 3 doors down then you can go and sort them out, their smaller than us. If its the dog from the field make sure you can run faster than the cats from 3 doors down and beat a hasty retreat indoors.
The humans at this time of the morning will then make their way to the bathroom. I take this opportunity to chase any naked toes, they are so tasty plus I can get them to do a jig. One of the Humans wears special clothes so many days a week and won't let us go near them when they have them on. Little do they know we score points for how much hair we can get on them without knowing, Socks is winning at the moment he is shedding and the human usually has more fur on than Socks. The human with the clothes goes out the front door after breakfast and doesn't come back in again till tea time when we get fed again.
The other human stays with us. Once we are all fed washed and have been out and done our duties we settle down for our morning nap. Talisker sleeps on top of the filing cabinet on a cushion but not if I can get up there first, just to prove I can. Jura or Toby sleeps on the human knee Socks sleeps on the couch. Toby if he is not on the knee sleeps on the couch with Socks or has the whole bed to himself. About mid morning the human goes into the kitchen and prepares a drink. We use our cat wiles on the human to get tit bits during the day but it tends to be a strict human and we only wheedle extra food out of them if they are making something for their food in the middle of the day.
If we feel in need of particular attention we go and sit on the desk in front of what they call the computer. If you block the screen they will pick you up and put you on its knee. Don't push your luck if you do it too many times the home human will make loud noises and put you on the floor.
I particularly like chewing cables although when humans see me doing it they start flapping and making loud noises at me. If they want to chew cable let them get their own. Apparently according to my humans I have chewed through several pairs of head phones. Although I must admit I have gone off it a bit since the last few times my mouth has gone all tingly and got a uncomfortable buzz right down to my feet actually it was more than a buzz it flipping well hurt owwwwww.
Then its outside for the a couple of hours for the afternoon, Socks tends to sunbath on the bench. Toby and Jura lounge on top of the wall. Talisker and I go off hunting in the field at the bottom of the yard. There are lots of mice and trees. I love trees I can climb ever so high and I can see everything. I can climb the tree in the yard but its such a stubby little thing one leap and a few branches I am at the top so I go for the big ones in the field. They are quite interesting at the moment there are a few nests up there. Although I have to be careful Mum and Dad Magpies have a very good aim and the four chicks that have fledged are learning fast how sharp their beaks can be. I try to chase them when humans are not watching me because they start flapping and making loud noises if they see me. We think they do this because they think they are birds themselves. Its no good telling them no matter how much they flap they won't be able to fly.
Towards the end of the afternoon it is nap time again, if it is warm we all nap outside if cooler we nap all over the house. It's getting nearer to the time the other human comes home we all nonchalantly make our way towards the front door. As soon as we hear the key in the lock there is a mass rush for the kitchen. The human puts down all its clutter and heads to the food cupboard and gets the food out. Too slow, too slow, we all weave in front of it to hurry it up. If we trip the human we can help ourselves, unfortunately it manages to stay upright and shouts a lot. We have a great variety of bowls, plates and troughs in which the human manages to spread the food around. Followed up with some dried biscuits. We let the human go and all tuck in. We have to stay out of the way of Talisker if any of us get too near her food we get cuffed around the ear. Occasionally we get treats such as tuna and then its every cat for himself. One by one we are satisfied and all go off to have a wash. It is now time to hang around because the humans now make their own food and if we look cute one of the humans will give us tit bits from their plate. There are different ways to do this, miaow at them, try and sneak in why they aren't looking and grab something but if we get caught we have our nose smacked, look cute, head butt them, cuddle up close and hope.
Then its time to sleep again. The humans after eating and tidying up then sit in front of what they call the television if we feel like it this is the best time to sit on their knees they don't move around as much. The humans tend to spend their time between the television and the computer. We drape ourselves over the furniture and have a good wash. It is best to do this on a clean surface. You can deposit all of the hair that you have groomed out on this surface. The humans obviously like us to do this because they get the big whooshy thing out that sucks up all the hair and stores it in a cylinder why they want to collect the hair we don't know but we like to oblige them and make sure there if plenty of hair for them to collect, humans are odd things. Occasionally through the evening the humans can be caught heading towards the kitchen it is always a good idea to follow to the kitchen in case there is anything tasty to be had.
Towards the end of the evening one of the humans goes up stairs and gets ready for bed. I follow upstairs after them, there are usually naked toes that I can bite mmmmmmmm. When the human gets into bed it takes a book with it and the human will stroke me with their spare hand while reading. If both humans come to bed at the same time they both have books and if you lie between both you can get them to tickle and stroke you until you purr yourself silly but often there is a crush of us hoping to be stroked at the same time and tempers can get a bit short between us. Before the light goes off I get a cuddle and then a pat on the back and the lights are out. We cats then all go playing outside in the dark off into the field if we can hunt anything we will. After a good hunt we take our catches and go and enjoy it on the bed. We leave a bit for the humans they don't seem to be able to hunt so that when they wake up they can have breakfast in bed. They must like it they make enough noise when they find it in the morning. Then we start the day all over again life is good.
The day usually begins at about 4am when one of us cats decides it is now light so it must be time to get up. ( a note to the reader here this is only on a weekend, during the week don't wake up until after the alarm has gone off then play dead making it hard for them to get out of bed) The first step is one of us cats will bounce up an down on the human to see if they can get it up to feed them. This usually results in a bad tempered push of the bed and the human will burrow down deeper into the bed covers. The cat will then decide it is probably better if it waits and lull the human into a false sense of security maybe 20 minutes or so and try again. Each of the humans have a soft bit in the middle if you sit on this towards the lower end the human usually gets up and runs to what they call the toilet, muttering something about cats and deliberately. One of the humans sleeps like the dead and you can jump up and down on its head without it stirring, so it it better to wake the other human up. The human will try and ignore you pushing you off the bed or turning away from you. Persevere it is worth it eventually the human will get out of bed and put on their dressing down and come down stairs.
It is a good idea at this point to run in front of the legs as they walk down the stairs humans like this. Weave your way in front of them until you reach the food bowl sit in front of bowl and look pitiful. If this does not result in your human feeding you, weave in front of them again. Miaowing is a good way to get food. If you get really good at it, a groggy human will automatically feed you whenever you make this noise often without realising it. When the other human gets up repeat process if we play it right we can be fed twice.
Once fed we all have a good wash and wander in and out the back door, check all is in order in the back yard make sure there are no mice and other rodents around if so it is your duty to either chase them back into the field or show them the error of their ways. Another job that needs to be done is to check there have been no intruders about, If its the cats from 3 doors down then you can go and sort them out, their smaller than us. If its the dog from the field make sure you can run faster than the cats from 3 doors down and beat a hasty retreat indoors.
The humans at this time of the morning will then make their way to the bathroom. I take this opportunity to chase any naked toes, they are so tasty plus I can get them to do a jig. One of the Humans wears special clothes so many days a week and won't let us go near them when they have them on. Little do they know we score points for how much hair we can get on them without knowing, Socks is winning at the moment he is shedding and the human usually has more fur on than Socks. The human with the clothes goes out the front door after breakfast and doesn't come back in again till tea time when we get fed again.
The other human stays with us. Once we are all fed washed and have been out and done our duties we settle down for our morning nap. Talisker sleeps on top of the filing cabinet on a cushion but not if I can get up there first, just to prove I can. Jura or Toby sleeps on the human knee Socks sleeps on the couch. Toby if he is not on the knee sleeps on the couch with Socks or has the whole bed to himself. About mid morning the human goes into the kitchen and prepares a drink. We use our cat wiles on the human to get tit bits during the day but it tends to be a strict human and we only wheedle extra food out of them if they are making something for their food in the middle of the day.
If we feel in need of particular attention we go and sit on the desk in front of what they call the computer. If you block the screen they will pick you up and put you on its knee. Don't push your luck if you do it too many times the home human will make loud noises and put you on the floor.
I particularly like chewing cables although when humans see me doing it they start flapping and making loud noises at me. If they want to chew cable let them get their own. Apparently according to my humans I have chewed through several pairs of head phones. Although I must admit I have gone off it a bit since the last few times my mouth has gone all tingly and got a uncomfortable buzz right down to my feet actually it was more than a buzz it flipping well hurt owwwwww.
Then its outside for the a couple of hours for the afternoon, Socks tends to sunbath on the bench. Toby and Jura lounge on top of the wall. Talisker and I go off hunting in the field at the bottom of the yard. There are lots of mice and trees. I love trees I can climb ever so high and I can see everything. I can climb the tree in the yard but its such a stubby little thing one leap and a few branches I am at the top so I go for the big ones in the field. They are quite interesting at the moment there are a few nests up there. Although I have to be careful Mum and Dad Magpies have a very good aim and the four chicks that have fledged are learning fast how sharp their beaks can be. I try to chase them when humans are not watching me because they start flapping and making loud noises if they see me. We think they do this because they think they are birds themselves. Its no good telling them no matter how much they flap they won't be able to fly.
Towards the end of the afternoon it is nap time again, if it is warm we all nap outside if cooler we nap all over the house. It's getting nearer to the time the other human comes home we all nonchalantly make our way towards the front door. As soon as we hear the key in the lock there is a mass rush for the kitchen. The human puts down all its clutter and heads to the food cupboard and gets the food out. Too slow, too slow, we all weave in front of it to hurry it up. If we trip the human we can help ourselves, unfortunately it manages to stay upright and shouts a lot. We have a great variety of bowls, plates and troughs in which the human manages to spread the food around. Followed up with some dried biscuits. We let the human go and all tuck in. We have to stay out of the way of Talisker if any of us get too near her food we get cuffed around the ear. Occasionally we get treats such as tuna and then its every cat for himself. One by one we are satisfied and all go off to have a wash. It is now time to hang around because the humans now make their own food and if we look cute one of the humans will give us tit bits from their plate. There are different ways to do this, miaow at them, try and sneak in why they aren't looking and grab something but if we get caught we have our nose smacked, look cute, head butt them, cuddle up close and hope.
Then its time to sleep again. The humans after eating and tidying up then sit in front of what they call the television if we feel like it this is the best time to sit on their knees they don't move around as much. The humans tend to spend their time between the television and the computer. We drape ourselves over the furniture and have a good wash. It is best to do this on a clean surface. You can deposit all of the hair that you have groomed out on this surface. The humans obviously like us to do this because they get the big whooshy thing out that sucks up all the hair and stores it in a cylinder why they want to collect the hair we don't know but we like to oblige them and make sure there if plenty of hair for them to collect, humans are odd things. Occasionally through the evening the humans can be caught heading towards the kitchen it is always a good idea to follow to the kitchen in case there is anything tasty to be had.
Towards the end of the evening one of the humans goes up stairs and gets ready for bed. I follow upstairs after them, there are usually naked toes that I can bite mmmmmmmm. When the human gets into bed it takes a book with it and the human will stroke me with their spare hand while reading. If both humans come to bed at the same time they both have books and if you lie between both you can get them to tickle and stroke you until you purr yourself silly but often there is a crush of us hoping to be stroked at the same time and tempers can get a bit short between us. Before the light goes off I get a cuddle and then a pat on the back and the lights are out. We cats then all go playing outside in the dark off into the field if we can hunt anything we will. After a good hunt we take our catches and go and enjoy it on the bed. We leave a bit for the humans they don't seem to be able to hunt so that when they wake up they can have breakfast in bed. They must like it they make enough noise when they find it in the morning. Then we start the day all over again life is good.
Wednesday 23 June 2010
Cat Names
Can you imagine yelling out of the back door late at night for your cat "Bubasti". It sounds very much like something else and has the neighbours saying "What are they shouting? Are they swearing at someone?" that was the name given to one of our cats by my Grandfather, A very very clever man, huge IQ but no common sense. Apparently the name was that of an Egyptian Cat Goddess.
Names can be very emotive things, quirky, unique, common place. The reasons can be many and varied. They for some reason have caught the owners fancy. Others can be for obscure reasons, for example we knew a family who named all of their cats after supermarkets. Not entirely sure why, maybe they got vouchers for advertising.
We have told you about naming our cats after whisky but where? do I hear you ask does the name of our eldest cat Socket come from? Socket spent his first 4 weeks of life in a cardboard box that had housed a television set. We named the kittens from words on the box. Socket and Tv where used. When we found we were keeping Socket and his brother we changed them to Sprocket and Tuvok. Tuvoks name stuck, we where very much into our Sci Fi and Tuvok was a character out of Star Trek. Socket wouldn't take any notice of sprocket and it slipped back to Socket.
We have had quite a few cats over the last few decades, Beeswax one of the loves of our life was named after a cat in a film with Tom Selleck in. Beeswax was our beautiful long haired tabby who was magnificent.
Chantilly was named after the lovely pattern of her fur coat, she was a cream and brown tabby with the most amazing yellow eyes.
Lillipud was our very first cat, we cannot remember where her name came from but one of us loved the sound of it and that became her name, she was more often than not called Pudding. She was a lovely Tabby who turned up at Grandmothers house very young and very pregnant. She lived in their caravan on their driveway until we were married and could provide a home for her. Sadly she died of Leukemia a few years later.
The older cat that Talisker was to be companion to was called Wispa after the chocolate bar which has now been reintroduced. Wispa was a tortoiseshell in browns oranges and blacks and her coat looked like a mass of fine bubbles Actually originally she was called William because of the straight red blaze she had down her nose reminiscent of William the Conqueror and the helmets the Normans soldiers wore. It wasn't until we found out it is virtually impossible to get male tortoiseshells that we looked and yes she was a girl.
We may seem to have a problem sexing our cats but it is not because we cannot tell the difference it is because we believe what people tells us. Its like the Grandma of one of us told us the moon was made of Cheese and hence always has their packet of Jacobs Crackers ready for when samples are brought back.
Some people are quite contrary about the naming of cats, I know of a cat called Rover and another called Rex. Language can play a role in naming such as the Latin word for cat is Cattus and there have been many a cat called Cattus. There are names that are derivitves of the word cat I have know cats called Kato, Kat, Catkin and Cattakins. Some names are a play on words, I heard of someone naming their cat Ceefer, when asked where the name came from they said it was C for Cat.
One of the first cats we ever had was a bad tempered Calico Tortoiseshell. We looked for a name that would describe her character all we had that had a list of names in was an old tatty family bible that had a list of all the names therein, we came across Meribah which meant strife and contention and to be ironic it was shortened to Merry.
Then there are traditional cat names such as Felix, Tibbles, Tabitha, Tigger, Fluffy, Marmalade, Tinkerbell, Smudge, Charlie, Blacky etc.
Some people take their cat names from famous cat both real and fictitious such as Bagpuss from the same named children's program who was a pink and cream striped cat with magical abilities or Orangey who played the role of Cat in Breakfast a Tiffany's. Snowball was the name of Lisa Simpson's cat and of her many subsequent cats, Garfield who was a great big orange lump of a cat whose ethos was sleep and Lasagna, which may owners feel relates to their own cats. Nelson was one of Winston Churchill's cats who used to sleep on a chair during cabinet meetings, who in turn was named after Lord Nelson. Winston Churchill had many cats and particularly loved ginger toms, His last cat before his Death was called Jock. More details on Jock can be found at http://www.flippyscatpage.com/churchill.html
Do you remember the cartoon series of the seventies Top Cat, obviously many do because often owners can be heard calling for their cat TC.
If you are looking for a cat name here are a few from our many friends and some of our own
Bobo .................an enormous ginger and white tom
Tuppence ..........a dark brown tabby with handy claws
Charlie ..............a chunky marmalade Tom
Mo ...................The smallest fully grown cat we ever knew
Schnapps..........an apricot ginger boy
Malibu...............a calico tortoiseshell
Anes.................a black oriental
Mimi......... ........a Portuguese silver tabby
Sebastian .........a black and white Tom
Brambles...........a tortoiseshell
Blondie..............a fluffy white cat with one blue and one green eye who isn't deaf
Levi ..................a grey Havana
Petrinka ...........a black long haired male moggy
Paddy ..............a black and white male from Ireland
Names can be very emotive things, quirky, unique, common place. The reasons can be many and varied. They for some reason have caught the owners fancy. Others can be for obscure reasons, for example we knew a family who named all of their cats after supermarkets. Not entirely sure why, maybe they got vouchers for advertising.
We have told you about naming our cats after whisky but where? do I hear you ask does the name of our eldest cat Socket come from? Socket spent his first 4 weeks of life in a cardboard box that had housed a television set. We named the kittens from words on the box. Socket and Tv where used. When we found we were keeping Socket and his brother we changed them to Sprocket and Tuvok. Tuvoks name stuck, we where very much into our Sci Fi and Tuvok was a character out of Star Trek. Socket wouldn't take any notice of sprocket and it slipped back to Socket.
We have had quite a few cats over the last few decades, Beeswax one of the loves of our life was named after a cat in a film with Tom Selleck in. Beeswax was our beautiful long haired tabby who was magnificent.
Chantilly was named after the lovely pattern of her fur coat, she was a cream and brown tabby with the most amazing yellow eyes.
Lillipud was our very first cat, we cannot remember where her name came from but one of us loved the sound of it and that became her name, she was more often than not called Pudding. She was a lovely Tabby who turned up at Grandmothers house very young and very pregnant. She lived in their caravan on their driveway until we were married and could provide a home for her. Sadly she died of Leukemia a few years later.
The older cat that Talisker was to be companion to was called Wispa after the chocolate bar which has now been reintroduced. Wispa was a tortoiseshell in browns oranges and blacks and her coat looked like a mass of fine bubbles Actually originally she was called William because of the straight red blaze she had down her nose reminiscent of William the Conqueror and the helmets the Normans soldiers wore. It wasn't until we found out it is virtually impossible to get male tortoiseshells that we looked and yes she was a girl.
We may seem to have a problem sexing our cats but it is not because we cannot tell the difference it is because we believe what people tells us. Its like the Grandma of one of us told us the moon was made of Cheese and hence always has their packet of Jacobs Crackers ready for when samples are brought back.
Some people are quite contrary about the naming of cats, I know of a cat called Rover and another called Rex. Language can play a role in naming such as the Latin word for cat is Cattus and there have been many a cat called Cattus. There are names that are derivitves of the word cat I have know cats called Kato, Kat, Catkin and Cattakins. Some names are a play on words, I heard of someone naming their cat Ceefer, when asked where the name came from they said it was C for Cat.
One of the first cats we ever had was a bad tempered Calico Tortoiseshell. We looked for a name that would describe her character all we had that had a list of names in was an old tatty family bible that had a list of all the names therein, we came across Meribah which meant strife and contention and to be ironic it was shortened to Merry.
Then there are traditional cat names such as Felix, Tibbles, Tabitha, Tigger, Fluffy, Marmalade, Tinkerbell, Smudge, Charlie, Blacky etc.
Some people take their cat names from famous cat both real and fictitious such as Bagpuss from the same named children's program who was a pink and cream striped cat with magical abilities or Orangey who played the role of Cat in Breakfast a Tiffany's. Snowball was the name of Lisa Simpson's cat and of her many subsequent cats, Garfield who was a great big orange lump of a cat whose ethos was sleep and Lasagna, which may owners feel relates to their own cats. Nelson was one of Winston Churchill's cats who used to sleep on a chair during cabinet meetings, who in turn was named after Lord Nelson. Winston Churchill had many cats and particularly loved ginger toms, His last cat before his Death was called Jock. More details on Jock can be found at http://www.flippyscatpage.com/churchill.html
Do you remember the cartoon series of the seventies Top Cat, obviously many do because often owners can be heard calling for their cat TC.
If you are looking for a cat name here are a few from our many friends and some of our own
Bobo .................an enormous ginger and white tom
Tuppence ..........a dark brown tabby with handy claws
Charlie ..............a chunky marmalade Tom
Mo ...................The smallest fully grown cat we ever knew
Schnapps..........an apricot ginger boy
Malibu...............a calico tortoiseshell
Anes.................a black oriental
Mimi......... ........a Portuguese silver tabby
Sebastian .........a black and white Tom
Brambles...........a tortoiseshell
Blondie..............a fluffy white cat with one blue and one green eye who isn't deaf
Levi ..................a grey Havana
Petrinka ...........a black long haired male moggy
Paddy ..............a black and white male from Ireland
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