Cat Flu takes it's toll

Just an update on what has been happening here.

A few weeks ago all the cats got cat flu, starting with Pickles. Both Kashka and Tugger managed to pull themselves through it but Pickles has succumbed. In the middle of one night, she took herself off and didn't come home.

The children found it difficult to understand why cats take themselves away to die, when it is warmer and cosier inside. We are so pleased that the kitten recovered, as that would have been so much harder to come to terms with.

It was lovely yesterday watching him run round the garden with next door's kitten, chasing the rabbit. She is still bigger than him and chases him too.

I want company

Even being on the computer will not keep Tugger away. If he can't get to my lap, he'll sit on my arms. At least he is still too light not to press any of the buttons when he walks over the keyboard! It is quite amusing teasing him with the pointer on the screen though.

Can we all join in?

Here is Tugger deciding if the bath is a good place to swim! Yes it was full, and occupied, and the water far too hot for a little kittie.

I think we have found ourselves another cat that likes water. I just hope when he does jump in, the water will be cool enough not to burn him.

You know it's cold when...........

The cat has to wrap herself in the duvet!

And no, this wasn't set up for a photo. Kasha took herself off this morning and this is how D found her when he came home at lunchtime.

Just what has she got under there

The other night it was a bit chilly before I went to bed, so I made myself a hot water bottle. Then I decided there was something on television I wanted to watch first, so it I put it under the blanket. Tugger was not sure what to make of it at all!
There's something strange under there, it moves and makes a gurgling noise?

Wonder what happens if I jump on it?

It's warm, and wobbly, and it's gurgling!

Shall I kill it or help her with her cross stitch?

My new toy

We had to go and get food supplies for our animals the other day, and I was feeling generous. I bought Tugger a new toy.

It is a furry mouse, filled with catnip and has feathers attached near the tail.

It was an instant success. He managed to knock over the clothes airer in the process of "killing" this mouse.

He throws it up in the air and pounces on it. Within twelve hours, it had lost one of it's feathers. This morning, he was sat under the table growling at D's foot to make sure no one was going to take away his toy.

A renaming ceremony

Well, yesterday the boys were given a biology lesson in the anatomy of a cat.

I was enjoying a cuddle with Bella, our new kitty, yesterday and my suspicions of the week were confirmed. Bella wasn't a Bella at all and has lived for three months with a mistaken identity. She was most definitely a he.

When I informed D, he asked how I knew. Nothing like real biology.

After an evening of shock, we spent this morning trying to think of another name for it-I didn't want a boy cat! I've had a week to fall in love with this cat so we did get a name and he will be staying.

Bella has now become Rum Tum Tugger, or Tugger for short. How can you tell my son's favourite video is Cats the Musical.

My favourite waste of time

Do you think someone is telling me to stop knitting?

I must admit, sitting stroking or playing with her is taking up quite a bit of time, but who can resist.

Nipper Shedding

This is the first time we have witnessed Nipper shedding. He has always buried himself before and it was a most fascinating thing to watch. This picture shows him on his back, pulling his legs out of the old skin. For a very long time, he was just laying on his back, so long in fact, we thought he had died. All of a sudden, he drew back his legs, and flipped himself right side up. It was just like a spring.

He is not fully mobile yet, he is still "drying" out and getting the stability and colour back to his limbs.

There has been noticeable growth to his hairs and the colour is fantastic. As soon as he comes out of his hammock web and moves around, I hope to get a picture of him in all his new splendour.

Uneasy Truce

These pictures were taken when Bella had been in the house for less than twenty four hours. At first, Kashka wasn't at all happy, but after a while, she settled and even purred.

I have even had both cats on the bed at night time, though Kashka is not entirely happy with being pounced on when she's trying to sleep. I can't say I am either.

We even had all three cats feeding from the same tray last night, all at the same time. Each have their own bowls, although Bella tends to go from one bowl to another.

I like yogurt

After this she had to wash her eyebrow whiskers as they were covered in yogurt.

She couldn't resist going back to check if she had missed some.

In fact, she liked it so much she got her head stuck in the pot. She wasn't impressed that the three of us burst out laughing at the sight of the pot walking around the room.

Grizabella

We have a new arrival to our family today. This is Bella (short for Grizabella from Cats). I am pleased to say she was very well mannered whilst I was stitching.

Well, almost... but I suppose no kitty can keep it up forever. Here she is getting ready to grab with her paws.

She is absolutely adorable, has really striking markings especially on her legs, and is so affectionate.

Who's been on my bed?

This was the site that greeted me when I went upstairs yesterday morning. I had made the bed and it was all smooth when I went down earlier. What was strange, there was no sign of a cat in the bedroom. She had obviously jumped on the bed and walked straight off the other side.

Now, there could be a story to this, I wonder what.

Do you think it is cold in here?

There has been a sudden drop in temperature here, dropping as low as minus 2 degrees centigrade. Pickles has spent her sleeping time curled up on top of the bookshelf with here paw wrapped over her nose.

She can't quite get her tail to fit! Once she is sound asleep it falls down, twitching as she dreams.

The Wheel Will Rattle No More

The last of our dwarf hamsters died yesterday. The nice thing about this one was that he died peacefully in his sleep.

You would think the boys would be upset, but the very philosophical response was, "one animal closer to a greyhound!"

The boys have wanted to get a dog for a long time, but I have told them that the animal population in the house has to reduce a little before we can even think about it. In particular, the cats! Don't think they would appreciate a dog coming into the house at their great ages.

I suppose I should be grateful they can cope with the short lives little animals have.

Hehe, I'm not the pincushion

I like to get up in the morning and enjoy a bit of peace and quiet before the boys get up. The other day, D got up at the same time as me which is unusual and there definitely was no peace.

I was catching up with emails accompanied with "ow", "eeee", "aaahhhh" and "ouch". Pickles was the cause. She was up on his lap and sticking her claws in, kneading them on his knees. Unfortunately, mum was giving him a lot of sympathy, in fact she was doing everything to make Pickles more excited.

Well, I don't see why I should be the only one in this family to get chunks shredded from her legs by over excited cats.

He was eventually rewarded for his patience as Pickles eventually settled down and curled up, with claws back in their sheaths.

This doesn't happen very often at all. Pickles isn't a lappy cat and will only sit on you on very rare occasions, and even rarer does she sit on one of the children.

Another One Gone

Yesterday morning to woke up to find that one of the hamsters had died in the night. After we had removed the body, D cleaned out the cage and put fresh bedding in for the remaining hamster.

We are not sure how he will react to being on his own, these two had been together since birth. I had to explain to D that he would need more rather than less bedding, as he no longer could cuddle up to his brother.

This morning the boys went to feed him and shouted to me that the other hamster has died. When I came in to find out what had happened they said he's not moving and they had tried everything.

I removed the bedding to uncover the poor little hamster curled up in a ball, his eyes tightly shut as if to say, "leave me alone, I'm trying to sleep."

He was definitely awake later running around in his wheel.

Time for a cuddle

As I went passed my bedroom this afternoon I caught sight of Kashka out of the corner of my eye. She was sat on my Teddy's lap. She was washing whilst this photo was taken, but she spent the afternoon curled up asleep on his lap. At least he doesn't try to knit or cross stitch while she is sat there!

Misty

Thought it had been some time since Misty has made an appearance. She had us laughing this afternoon. I was sat on the bed and J came up with her and sat with me.

Here she is sat between us having a wash. When she heard the click of the camera, she stopped mid wash and looked up, then carried on. She can roll up to get to all those hard to reach areas too! Some mornings she is sat like this in her cage asleep. We think it must be to keep warm.
She had a good explore all over the bed, including my cross stitch which I was attempting to do. I did try to take a photo, but she moved so quickly, she was just a blur.

A Helping Paw

Why is it that whenever you want to do something, the cat has to sit on it.

This was the second mat I was trying to make. Kashka had already sat on the first one, so I moved it out of the way, then spread the fabric to cut for the second one, and lo and behold...she sat on it while I was cutting.

And if I dared complain, she looks up all innocent, but I got my revenge. She moved pretty quickly once the sewing machine was running!

It didn't stop her trying to help with my knitting later though!

We've moved

Well this week seems to be the week for animals moving home. We found last week, with the direction the weather was coming from, that the wind was blowing the rain straight into the rabbit and guinea pig cages. This made for a very soggy home and with the winter coming we needed to move them.

It was all made a little bit easier as our landlord moved his bike out of the garage last weekend so we had some more space.

Yesterday afternoon, J and I sorted a space just inside the back of the garage and got rid of some more rubbish-where does it all come from? Once that was done, we were able to move the hutches.

The back of the garage is open, so this means the rabbit and guinea pigs will get plenty of fresh air, but they are protected from the wind and rain by the side of the house. Best of both worlds.

The Dusty had a lovely couple of hours hopping around the garden, and Lucy and Megan enjoyed a bit of indoor time whilst the hutches were cleaned out and fresh bedding put down. I think they are all happy back in their clean and dry homes.

Now every time I open the back door I can see them, and the guinea pigs take great delight in squeaking at me. They boys are happier too, they won't get wet when they have to go out to feed them.

Awkward Tarantula

Leaving Nipper to move home on his own didn't work. I had to help him on his way this morning. I'm not sure who was more frightened, him or me. I hate spiders and this one is big and can move very quickly.

Armed with a small paintbrush and a piece of paper I was ready to begin. The paper was used to stop Nipper from returning to his old home and I used the paintbrush to move him in the right direction. I am sure if I had been using my fingers, I would have felt his fangs.

With a little encouragement we managed to get him out and quickly took out the old tank and replaced the lid on the new tank.

By the time I had finished, my hands were shaking and I was well in need of a cup of tea which J made for me. It was a great relief that he hadn't escaped like he did the last time he moved home.

Here you can see Nipper in his new surroundings with plenty of room to grow. By this evening he had webbed behind his "rock" so he seems as happy as a spider can be.

Nipper has a new home

Last week we bought Nipper a new tank, but the reptile shop didn't have the compost we needed. We went back Wednesday and bought the compost, a resin rock for Nipper to hide in, and some crickets.

D soaked the peat block in water. Once all the water had been soaked up, he crumbled up the peat and spread it over to cover the base of the tank.

Nipper was so tied up in his web, we decided we would let him crawl from one tank to another himself. After putting in some fresh crickets, we placed the smaller tank inside the larger one and then replaced the lid.
We left Nipper overnight to make the move. Generally he is more active at night so we are hoping he will explore the new surroundings on his own. We will then take out the smaller tank.

New Bed

Pickles seems to have found a new bed. I found out by being given the shock of my life.

As the boys are away, it is very quiet here. Last night, I went to make myself a cuppa, and as I turned to the bin, Pickles jumped out of the washing machine. To say she made me jump is an understatement. I didn't quite scream, but it wasn't far off. After being fed, she was back in.

Computer Literate Kitty

Twice I had to throw Kashka off last night. Not sure if she was sat there to stop me from going on the laptop, or if it was somewhere warm to sit. Not much fun when she changes all the settings.

George

George can't fit through this tube, but he has taken to sitting on the top.
He looks lovely perched up there, right at the top of the cage, but once he falls asleep......
He quite often falls off.
George is quite a show off. Once I took the photo of him sat here, he came down and stuck his face right in front of the camera. Maybe he thought there was food in it for him.

Approval given

Well, it didn't take long for Kashka to stake her claim on this chair.



This is a Parker Knowle chair I inherited from my mum. Not long before she died, she took off all the old varnish and rewaxed the wood. Then she recovered the cushion and reupholstered the back.



I is a really comfortable chair to sit on, and especially with a bad back, it gives support in the right places.



I was only reunited with this chair Saturday afternoon, and as soon as she came in, Kashka was up on there and treating it as her own.



I beat her to it tonight, yippee!

Curious Bedfellows

This morning Pickles was making the most of the sun shining in through the window. She was having a funny five minutes dragging herself around the floor and miaowing at anyone that would listen.

That must have been so exhausting, as when we were eating breakfast we noticed her with the tarantula! It looks as if she is watching him, but her eyes are closed.

Since we have moved the furniture, she seems to have made this her chosen sleeping place. I am just worried that one morning she will have stretched out and knocked Nipper off!

Tickle my chin

Sometimes a cat just has to have attention. I was trying desparately to get this jumper knitted but Kashka wasn't taking no for an answer. She was going to sit on my lap, no matter what.

As you can see from the photo, they way she sat on me meant that the yarn was running under chin

The automatic chin tickler was created. Every time I knitted a stitch and the yarn pulled, it tickled her chinAfter a couple of minutes though, she grabbed hold of my hand in her paws to give her proper attention. Cats like children, just have to have undivided attention!

Olympic Opening Ceremony

Well, the boys wanted to watch the opening ceremony to the Olympics today. I'm not sure they were expecting it to last the four hours that it went on for.

This was the effect it had on Misty the rat. By the time the parade of the olympians had taken place, she was curled up in a ball fast asleep in the crook of D's arm. She didn't even wake to the click of the camera.

A New Ornament

I have a glass display cabinet for old china and other treasures. Last night there was a new treasure on display.

This time, it was a living ornament. Kashka decided it was a good place to nap. Of course, as soon as I went to take a photo. she sat up for a tickle under the chin.


In truth, I think it gives her a feeling of superiority over everyone else as she is on a higher level. It's a cat thing!

Mexican Red Rump

Nipper is certainly beginning to live up to his name-Mexican Red Rump Tarantula. This is the view we get when he is hiding. Now with the size he is, sat across the other side of the room, we see this rump backing out of his hole. It looks really comical.

This last shed has made a big difference to his colour. This is the most pronounced the red has ever been.

D has put in a request that I embroider a picture of Nipper. Not sure I am up to that challenge yet.

Not for Arachnophobes!

As promised, here are some pictures of Nipper after his shed. Here he is in his tank and as you can see, he is going to have to move to bigger premises.

I have been looking on the internet and have found him a new tank and within a couple of weeks we hope to move him. Any volunteers to help?



This photo is not very focused, not helped by trying to take it through the side of the tank. You can see how hairy he has become. These hairs are getting redder with each shed and he is now living up to his name-Mexican Red Rump. This photo is a lot clearer. I can't get over how thick his legs are getting. Or over how big the crickets we have to buy for him now!
Nipper can move extremely quickly when he wants, but he looks really comical when he is slowly backing himself out of his hole.

And he looks so sweet!

You always expect that when the phone rings, and you pick up the handset, that you will be able to speak to the person on the other end of the phone. However, the other day, the phone was dead and I had to run upstairs to answer the phone before it stopped ringing.

Upon investigation, this is what we found...

And the culprit?
He is now banned from the front room if he is out. We shut the doors and let him run in the hallway and up the stairs. No hidden wires there.