Well, At Least They'll Have Good Teeth!

That's it! That's the last time I take pity on our putty tats and let them sleep inside when it's raining...

Why? Well, I came through this morning, wondering why they weren't begging for their breakfast as usual - and then I saw this:

That is what is left of the tub of Whiskas Dentibit treats that we bought them yesterday! They'd only had half a dozen or so out of them yesterday afternoon, and now it's empty!

I can't even give them a row, because I don't know if it was Leia or Gizmo to blame, or if it was a joint effort.

Naughty, sneaky putty tats!

Like Son, Like Mother...

Yes, I know that saying usually goes the other way around... and I know it's usually "Like FATHER, like son", but it's not such a good title like that!

Do you remember on my photo blog that I had posted photos of when Gizmo the cat followed Viki & I round to my brother's, and just made himself at home?

Well... now his mother, Leia, has been a visit... or TWO visits!

It all started one Thursday night... now, she's taken to sitting at the corner of the street just down from our house, and waiting for us to come home... but this night, we were heading away from the house... round to David, who was going to take us to Tesco. And the damn cat followed us! We were in a hurry to catch Tesco, so all we could do was leave her sitting outside his gate, and go off in the car.

When we got back, she was nowhere to be seen, so we assumed that she had gone home... Except we didn't see her when we arrived back at the house, and it didn't look like she had been home the next day when we came back after work.

We went out, had some food, had some (okay, a lot of) drink, and we were back at David's with him and another guy when David & Viki went out for a smoke... and who should they find sitting on David's gate? Leia!

Into the house she marched, scoffed a slice of his corned beef, polished off his tub of cream, and just sat there happily washing on the mat and lapping up all the attention!

She's been back a visit again another night when we obviously didn't come home early enough ourselves! It appears that if we're not back by 11pm, she's going to come looking for us.

Who does she think she is? Our mother!?

Cat With A Deathwish

Yesterday I was telling you about the sheep that kept trying to get into the road when we were out a run... and then that we had met Leia, one of our cats, coming along from where she'd been partying in the oil tanks...

Well, I got up this morning and, as I was getting ready for work, I realised that Gizmo was out. So I opened the back door and shouted on him. After a minute or two, I heard him miaowing, but couldn't work out where from... until I looked up...

The house above us stands perpendicular to us, and is 2 storey, whereas ours is only single storey... and here was Giz coming wandering along their roof!

The house is empty at the moment, being renovated, and there is scaffolding at the back of us, so I guess that's how he got up there...

I'm starting to think we might have mogs that are just a tad sneaky!

Collared!

Let the cats out for the first time last Sunday... and, almost immediately, Gizmo found the entry hole cut in one of the neighbours' lean-to porch / greenhouse, and invited himself in for a natter with one of their cats over some of its cat biscuits... before sneaking through the door into their actual house!

Then a bit later, after I warned them about the dangers of traffic and how they were NOT to go near the road, I lost Gizmo... Went to look for him, and found him - yes, you guessed it - across the road in another neighbour's garden. Damn thing just sat there looking at me watching him through the guy's gate.

Monday I went along to the pet shop to pick up the identity discs for their collars, and then I put them on at night. Leia was so easy to do, and has no worries about her collar at all... But Gizmo? For a start, Gizmo had to get the collar I intended for Leia (red tartan) because the black leather one I bought for him was too short to go round his neck! Got it on, with him struggling all the way, and then promptly had to take it off again... The little bell on it freaked him out something dreadful! He spent about 10 minutes running around like the proverbial scalded cat trying to run away from the "jingle, jingle, jingle" sound, obviously without success. Cut the bell off and then had to pin him down and get the collar back on again. He sulked for a while, but then calmed down a bit. All good... or so I thought...

Until I came through on Wednesday morning to find him sans collar... eventually discovered it half tucked down the side of their bed (which they never use, seeing as they've claimed the armchair). I swear I'm going to superglue it to him! Maybe he's trying to tell me that red tartan clashes with his ginger bits? But it's his own fault for having such a big neck.

(Cat)Nip It In The Bud...

Or, "Why Drugs Are Bad"... Or, "Time To Have The 'Dangers Of Drugs' Chat With The Cats"...

Yesterday when I was at the pet shop getting the identity discs for the cats' collars, I decided I would try them out with some dried catnip, see if they liked it or not (Harriet and Minnie weren't interested, but Thomas, the cat I had before them, went demented for it). Took a small box home, and just left it lying on the table in the living room, but at the back...

Came through this morning, and in the half dark, I could see what looked like a wet patch on the carpet... "Oh, no", I thought, "One of the cats has peed on the floor... I guess it had to happen sooner or later"...

But on closer inspection, it was a clear plastic bag, torn open... and then there was a cardboard box, shredded, lying nearby... THE CATNIP BOX!!!!!

The little buggers must have smelt the stuff through a box AND a sealed plastic bag last night, and temptation was just too strong... So they resorted to theft for their fix.

The whole box of catnip was scoffed... apart from a thin covering on the carpet. And I had a couple of slightly stoned moggies looking at me sheepishly... before Gizmo set about shredding the box further to try to dispose of the evidence.

I did, however, manage to get some photos of the crime scene:

Exhibit A: The Shredded Box
Exhibit B: The Empty Bag
Exhibit C: More Bits Of Box
Exhibit D: Drug Residue All Over The Floor

And a video of prime suspect, Gizmo, trying to dispose of the evidence before realising he's being watched!

I'm a bit worried now... How long will it be before they decide they want their next fix? And, if I don't buy it for them, will I waken up some morning with a half-crazed, withdrawal-suffering cat holding a kitchen knife at my throat...? Or, will I come home some day to find the telly sold for a score of 'nip?

Cat-owners, I beg you... keep your puddy tats safe... warn them of the dangers of trying catnip...!

A Moment Of Calm...

... in the otherwise frenetic lives of our new puddy tats, Leia and Gizmo:

Don't let their cuteness fool you... most mornings they (er... mainly Gizmo) start rampaging round the living room at about 6o'clock, play-fighting and attacking socks, carrier bags, or whatever other unsuspecting "prey" happens to be lying around. Then, just when I'm heading out at 9o'clock, they get something to eat (their second breakfast, because Viki has to feed them when she gets up, otherwise she gets no peace) and then collapse like this in what has become THEIR armchair (the one that gets the sun, of course).

But don't they look cute like this? Not as cute as Minnie was... I don't think any cat could be as cute as she was... but they're growing on us.

Leia Goes Exploring

It was a nice day today, so we decided to take the risk and let the cats out for the first time.

Both had a good time... Leia just having a sniff around the gardens and lane at the back of us, and she came back fine... Gizmo meanwhile invited himself into one of the neighbours' conservatory / cat area, sitting on the food shelf with one of their cats... before disappearing into their house for a look around! (Er... if you're that neighbour... I can only apologise for the manners of my puddy tat!). And he wasn't in such a hurry to come back in... quite enjoying exploring in the sunshine.

Didn't manage to get a photo of him, but here's Leia doing her best prowl along the wall...

As Promised... Part One...

...here are the terrible twosome (or, at least, here's Leia)...

She has one or two little ginger & black markings on her, but for a tortie, she's got a lot of white...

Yesterday I Saw A Little Worm...

Wriggling... well, I won't tell you where it was wriggling, but suffice to say, I felt more than a little queasy... and a quick trip was made to Tesco to get some dewormer for the 2 new moggies!

They used to live by fields just outside the town, and there were rabbits and, I guess, rats, and all sorts of things that they could have been eating - a veritable smorgasbord of roadkill and things that had died of natural causes (and I'm sure being killed by cats could be classed as a natural cause) for a couple of feline epicures to dine on.

So they got some organophosphates stuck on the back of their necks last night... Hopefully that should see the little blighters (the worms, not the cats) bugger off for a couple of months at least!

Don't tell them, but the indignity will be repeated in a couple of days when I'll dose them with more DDT to deflea them!

I guess that's the downside to taking the cats directly from their home... If they had been taken into the Cats Protection centre, they would have been wormed and flea-treated before we took them home, and I wouldn't have had to witness that.

Still, it's done now... just the carpets at home to treat now... which will be done after payday, when I can afford one of the sprays to do it!

Yuk! What a lovely topic to share with you on a Monday morning...

Enjoy your dinner!

48 Hours Later Than Planned...

... the cats have arrived!

We couldn't take them on Monday night, because we only had one cat carrier until I could borrow one.

Then it wasn't possible (for reasons I won't go into) to get them on Tuesday.

Then we arrived to get them last night... to be told that the male cat (the son), who "never went wandering" had... er... gone wandering! He was nowhere to be seen, and didn't come home when the owners were shaking the food box... so we left empty-handed, with the woman saying that she would phone us if he appeared later in the evening. But the phonecall never came.

I gave her a ring after work tonight, asking if the wanderer had returned yet... and was told that he was still AWOL! At this point, she said she was a little worried, because he wasn't in the habit of going wandering, and they'd been all over the fields looking for him. She feared that something bad had happened to him... but again, she would phone us if he appeared.

Just after 8pm, we decided that we would take a run out just in case.

Arrived there, and he still hadn't come home. The woman said now she was really sure that something had happened, and we were just arranging to take his sister (a black and white cat) who was also being re-homed, instead. His mother was in her cat carrier, and we were just about to put the other cat in, when the woman suddenly exclaimed "Gizmo!" - and there he was, sashaying up the road like the new gunslinger in town, tail aloft.

So, we had a choice... him, or his sister. And we decided (although secretly, both of us really liked the other cat... even though maybe being black and white, and with a similar name to Minnie, I don't know how I would have felt about having her around) to take Gizmo with his mother, because they really did seem close and cuddly, with a very strong bond.

Got them in the boot of the car, and took them home. Got them in, opened the carriers, and both made for the sofa! Barely 5 minutes after they arrived, they were both stretched out on MY seat on the sofa, washing each other and looking like they owned the place!

Now, Leia is asleep in her bed, after eating half her weight in biscuits... and Gizmo? Gizmo is lying across 2 seats of the sofa, farting contentedly, and smelling like a rhino that's been dead for 3 weeks! Typical male!

But please - PLEASE don't think that this means that I am over Minnie, or that she didn't mean anything to me... Minnie was my bubba, along with her mummy, Harriet, and I'll never, ever forget her - THEM - and I don't know if I'll ever love a mog like I loved them. It hurts every time I think of her, or look out the back door and see the spot where she was lying when I came home last Thursday afternoon and found her in such a bad way... and it'll hurt for a very long time to come.

I'll post photos of the 2 new arrivals soon.

Thursday 16th April

... was the day I had to make the hardest decision of my life - I had to make the decision to have my beautiful and funny and cute cat, Minnie, put to sleep.

On Wednesday morning she seemed fine... she had something to eat, she was limping a little on one front foot (but we put that down to the fact that she had been sleeping on the bench the day before, and we thought she must have landed badly when she jumped down), but she was more or less her usual self.

But when we came home Wednesday night, she didn't want to come in to eat or sleep... but again, it wasn't unusual for her to spend a bonny night outside.

Thursday morning, Viki went out the back for a cigarette before going to work, and Minnie was lying outside, under some scaffolding the neighbours have up at the back of my house. And she wouldn't come in to eat. Viki said she was really worried about Minnie, cause she didn't seem able to get up.

So, when I got up, I went to see if she would come in... but she just laid there, curled up, and was shivering a bit. And she seemed to be in a bit of pain. But I had to go to work.

Came home at lunchtime to check up on her, and there was no sign of her where I had left her. I thought she had got up and gone a wander.

But then I saw her... She had moved all of a few yards and was lying curled up in the grass where the sun was shining... and was clearly not well. She was unable to even lift her head, and when she tried to move, she was in great pain.

Went up to where she was, and I almost thought I was too late... her mouth was a little open, and she hardly seemed to breathing.

So I got my brother along to have a look... and he said she was in a really bad way.

Took her straight to the vet, and the vet examined her. Poor Minnie had no control or strength in her back legs... just couldn't stand or walk... could barely lift her head. The vet said that there was a number of things it could be:

Maybe she had a blood clot somewhere that was cutting off the blood supply to her back legs... because the pulse in her abdomen was barely there.

Maybe she had eaten or drank something toxic.

Maybe there was an electrolyte imbalance in her blood.

Maybe she had been struck by a car or something, but there didn't seem to be any injury or obvious trauma.

But without extensive tests, she didn't really know what was causing it... and Minnie was deteriorating before our eyes in the short time I was there. Within about half an hour, the vet said that she seemed to be having some kind of seizure, because her eyes were glazed and didn't respond to light stimulation.

So, rather than pump her full of painkillers to try to keep her going another night so they could do more tests, I chose to let her go. I couldn't stand the thought of my beloved baby spending a night alone in the vets, in pain and distress... maybe even dying alone... so I told them to end her suffering.

It was the hardest words I've ever had to say to tell her goodbye. I stroked her head, told her I was sorry, that I loved her so much, that Viki loved her, and that I would miss her forever. And somewhere in her pain, I think my baby heard me, because she purred.

But coming home without her was horrible. And the house is so empty...


Which is why I've taken the decision that I've taken.

Less than a week after her going, tomorrow I go and collect 2 cats that were on the Cats Protection Orkney website for rehoming. Leia and Gizmo are a mummy and her grown-up son who required rehomed together. Was along to visit them in their current home tonight, and they are so lovely. Gizmo is 2 and a half, and is described as a "bit of a mummy's boy" - and that was clear when we arrived and they were lying cuddled up together. Leia clearly still loves her "baby". Gizmo is ginger & white, and Leia is mostly white with tortoishell markings.

See their photos here.

This doesn't mean I've forgotten Minnie, or that I didn't love her... I loved her with all my heart... but my heart needs a cat to love.

R.I.P. Minnie... and I'll see you again someday... you and your mummy.

And there is now officially an embargo on April 16th for me... that day was also 2 years to the day since my father died.