Sunday, April 30, 2006
Helping Out In The Garden
Mum, from up here I can see a few more weeds you missed over there...
Friday, April 28, 2006
The Cinnamon Trust
I was reading a post that Magoo, Smudge, Bella and Dolce's dad wrote about having a special day for the humans to remember The Cats Who Came Before. This post made some of the humans discuss how they would make sure that us kitties were looked after if anything happened to them. It is nice for us kitties to know that all eventualities are taken care of.
My mum and I thought you might like to hear about an organisation called The Cinnamon Trust. It is a charity which started in 1985 in Cornwall (where my mum comes from) but now they operate all over the UK. It was started by a lady called Averil and named after a woofie called Cinnamon. Averil knew that elderly people love having pets to keep them company but they worry about what might happen to their pets if they were not around any more. So she set up a charity to help elderly or very ill humans to make sure they would not have to worry about their pets.
My mum and I thought you might like to hear about an organisation called The Cinnamon Trust. It is a charity which started in 1985 in Cornwall (where my mum comes from) but now they operate all over the UK. It was started by a lady called Averil and named after a woofie called Cinnamon. Averil knew that elderly people love having pets to keep them company but they worry about what might happen to their pets if they were not around any more. So she set up a charity to help elderly or very ill humans to make sure they would not have to worry about their pets.
The Cinnamon Trust does lots of different jobs. It has about 10,000 volunteers who work for it and my mum is one of them. They go round to help elderly or ill people look after their pets. For instance, my mum can't do as much as some volunteers because she works full-time, but she walks a woofie for an old lady who can't manage much walking. Lots of CT helpers take woofies for walks. Also if an elderly or ill person has to go into hospital the CT arranges for their pets to be fostered by a CT helper until the owner is home again. Also lots of elderly owners have signed agreements with the CT which means that if they should die or have to move into a place that doesn't take pets, the CT guarantees they will find a lovely new home for the pets. Sometimes they find foster homes. They also have two farm Sanctuaries in Cornwall which are rest homes where very old pets can go to see out their days when their owners are gone. They are not like kitty jails with pens, they are like old people's homes for pets with sofas and cushions and windowsills and all the comforts of home. If an owner is still alive but can't keep their pet any more, the CT makes sure they get lots of letters and photos, and visits if possible, so they can see their pets are happy in their new homes.
This week my mum showed me her newsletter she gets from the CT. It has updates on all the animals they are looking after, which animals have arrived at the rest homes, who has gone to the Rainbow Bridge since the last newsletter, and so on. This month's big news is that the Queen just gave Averil an MBE for taking good care of the animals!
From what my mum tells me, the Cinnamon Trust does a good job of making sure kitties (and other fluffies) are well looked after if they can't be with their owners any more for some reason. It would be great if there were humans doing the same thing all over the world. Maybe there are.
I don't mind my mum taking a woofie for walks, (as long as she doesn't bring it home!) She likes chatting to the old lady who owns the woofie, too. The woofie is called Angie and she is a yellow Labrador who is very old and arthritic, so she doesn't walk very fast. I always know when my mum has been out with Angie because she comes home with yellow woofie hairs on her trousers and I sniff her legs and make a Stinky Face.
In other news, my dad is still poorly although he is a little bit better, he will have to take it easy for a while longer. He has got to the stage of lying on the sofa watching TV, while I continue to provide kitty nursing services. My dad is hardly ever ill, usually my mum is the one who gets germs because she often catches them off the little monsters at school. Luckily next Monday is a Bank Holiday so she gets three whole days off now to spend time making a fuss of me and doing gardening. I'm off to get in some quality lap time. Hope all kitties have a lovely weekend.
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Dad's Got The Lurgy
My dad is ill. He has flu. He has to stay at home for the rest of the week. My mum still has to go to work to earn money to buy my Stinky Goodness, so I have been left in charge of looking after dad. I think it is very nice of me to look after a human who is all festering and germy. He's not been much trouble today though, he's just stayed in bed groaning and drinking tea. Not a pretty sight, I can tell you. I offered to keep him warm by sitting on him all day, but that didn't seem to make his chest feel better. So I compromised and kept an eye on him from the other side of the bed. I'm sure snuggling with such a cuddly kitty as I am will make him feel better in no time. Don't you agree? (I just hope my mum and I don't catch the lurgy...)
Ahh, there's nothing so snuggly as a floofy duvet combined with a floofy cat...
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Farewell To A Friend
There is a lot of sadness around the cat blogs today. Our friend Silas has gone to the Rainbow Bridge. Our thoughts are with all of Silas's family at Caturday. Silas is with his brother Fergus again, and with my sister Hattie and all those other kitties who have gone on ahead to wait at the Bridge. We know they will be waiting to welcome him with their purrs, and hope that he and Fergus are playing and snuggling together again. We'll miss him.
Monday, April 24, 2006
New Friends
After that lovely sunny day we had on Saturday, it poured with rain all day Sunday, so my mum decided not to do more gardening. Instead I made her concentrate on fixing the Gorgeous Gingers page. All the pictures and links are working again, and she added some more Gorgeous Ginger kitties too - there are 24 members of our group now! And I know there are some other blogging ginger kitties around who haven't signed up yet, so we could have a few more.
I have recently met some more blogging cats for the first time. I have added links on my blog to Beezer and Zeus, recent GG recruits. They are both handsome ginger kitties. Beezer is a big cuddly boy. Zeus lives in Houston, USA, with his sister Isis. He is also one of us generous-sized kitties. He is very clever and I think he may take over the world one day. Another new GG member is Spike. He lives in Montana (quite near my Uncle Sim!) and his human writes poetry.
Now, I must tell you about the amazing e-mail I got the other day. It was from a kitty who was surfing the internet and found the Gorgeous Gingers and my blog. He got in touch with me to let me know that his name is...Big Eric! Yes, that's right, there is another fat kitty called Eric out there. Amazing, eh? Not only does Big Eric share my name, but he is also ginger and white like me and he is a British kitty like me. In fact, he lives in Devon where I have just been on holiday! If I had know he was there I would have dropped in for a chat! Big Eric doesn't have his own blog yet, but he told me all about himself. He is almost as heavy as me at 19lb, and like me he is on a diet. He has a brother called Flynn who is only 13lb and very good at catching mice. They live in the countryside and have lots of mice, squirrels and pheasants to look at. Here's a picture of Big Eric so you can see that all us Erics are pretty handsome:
I wonder how many other kitties called Eric are out there? I think Big Eric and Flynn should start their own blog because they sound like they have an interesting life. It's great to make new friends. Now I must go, got to help my mum mark all those test papers she has got spread out on the living-room floor. She's had another hard day teaching the little monsters, I'm sure she could do with some help.
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Lovely Sunny Day
What a beautiful warm day we have had in London today. It is the hottest day so far and it felt just like summer. My mum and dad drove into the countryside and went to lots of garden centres and had a pub lunch. I'm not interested in garden centres but wouldn't have minded sharing the lunch, especially as they had fish!
I am getting worried about my mum's plant-buying habit, it is getting worse and worse. She swears she hasn't got a problem and could stop any time she wants to, but I present the evidence - this was just one day's shopping!
I am getting worried about my mum's plant-buying habit, it is getting worse and worse. She swears she hasn't got a problem and could stop any time she wants to, but I present the evidence - this was just one day's shopping!
Maybe I could sign her up to Plantaholics Anonymous? I am just worried that if she spends all her money on plants she won't be able to afford my Stinky Goodness. And I don't know why she needed to buy all those new plants, our garden is full of them already. It is quite pretty and flowery at the moment.
Did you spot the handsome ginger flower there?
It was so warm today there were many sunspots to choose from. I found the warmest spot and had a great nap while my mum was pulling up weeds.
It was so warm today there were many sunspots to choose from. I found the warmest spot and had a great nap while my mum was pulling up weeds.
Some kitties said they wanted a Giant Scratchy Mouse like mine. You can get your very own Giant Scratchy Mouse here. (IKEA in the UK seem to have stopped selling them, which is a shame).
The Gorgeous Gingers page is broken at the moment. My mum is working on it but she has to do it all again because the template got broken, or something. Stupid Blogger. I will make sure she works hard on it this weekend instead of going out and buying more plants.
Hope all kitties are having a lovely sunny weekend too.
The Gorgeous Gingers page is broken at the moment. My mum is working on it but she has to do it all again because the template got broken, or something. Stupid Blogger. I will make sure she works hard on it this weekend instead of going out and buying more plants.
Hope all kitties are having a lovely sunny weekend too.
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Home Sweet Home
It's good to be home, although my holiday was quite interesting.
I had a good game with my humans yesterday morning when we were about to leave Devon Grandma's house. I knew what was coming this time (luggage packed, no breakfast for Eric, it was clearly only a matter of time before the Evil Cat Carrier appeared) so I hid behind Devon Grandma's big sofa and it took them quite a while to get me out (two people moving sofa while one person grabbed fleeing kitty).
Unfortunately the journey back took even longer than the journey down, due to all those queues of cars full of people going home after their Easter holidays. I got so bored with sitting stationary in traffic jams that I fell asleep and slept most of the way home, which meant that my mum told me I was a very good kitty for being so quiet.
When we got home and I was set free at last, I rushed to the kitchen and sat on the empty space where my food bowls should have been, screaming "FEED ME! FEED ME!" at the top of my lungs. My mum started unpacking my litter box first in case I needed to relieve myself after the trip. "NO! JUST FEED ME NOW!" I screamed, in ever more anguished tones. She quickly got the message and unpacked the food bowls and the kitty food, which disappeared in 5 seconds flat. Hey, it was 4 p.m. and I hadn't eaten ALL DAY, I was fading away.
(I should explain, since Max asked, that the reason why I don't get fed before I travel is because of what happened the first time Hattie and I went on a long car journey. We had had breakfast first and I protested at the travelling experience by pooping all over the inside of my carrier 10 minutes after we left home. Having been through that stinky experience my mum now never feeds me before travel, and always travels with an "emergency clean-up kit". There has never been any repeat of the Pooping Incident...)
Yesterday evening I helped my mum do some gardening. All the flowers are looking so pretty now, I will have to post some pictures of them. We also planted lots of new roses for the summer. My mum bought loads more plants in Devon, she is a plant-o-holic.
My mum tried weighing me a few times in Devon because my grandma's scales are not very reliable. (We don't have scales in our house). She finally worked out that I am either 21 or 22lb. I was 22lb at Christmas, so I have either stayed the same weight or lost 1lb since then. It's hard to tell. Just have to keep on with the diet, I suppose.
This picture might make you laugh (it makes my mum laugh). My best friend, the Giant Scratchy Mouse, came to Devon with me. But then he started getting over-friendly with me...I had to turn round and tell him to watch where he was sticking his nose!
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Eric's Observations About Holidaying In Devon
Yes, I am still here. We are driving back to London tomorrow, if my mum can wrestle me into the cat carrier, har har. Here are some of the good and bad things about being taken on holiday if you are a kitty:
Good Things
1. I get a change of scene and some exciting new smells.
2. I get to stay with my mum and dad and I can snuggle on my mum's lap just like I do at home.
3. I get to explore my Devon Grandma's house and leave hair in all new places.
4. My mum took me out to explore Devon Grandma's garden and it smelled very interesting.
5. There are millions and millions of birdies in Devon! In the house and in the garden and all round the village you can hear them all the time going tweet-tweet-tweet.
Good Things
1. I get a change of scene and some exciting new smells.
2. I get to stay with my mum and dad and I can snuggle on my mum's lap just like I do at home.
3. I get to explore my Devon Grandma's house and leave hair in all new places.
4. My mum took me out to explore Devon Grandma's garden and it smelled very interesting.
5. There are millions and millions of birdies in Devon! In the house and in the garden and all round the village you can hear them all the time going tweet-tweet-tweet.
6. I get my meals regularly just like I do at home.
7. I get to be admired by Devon Grandma and her old-lady friends who say I am fluffy and beautiful, but laugh at me for sleeping upside down with my paws in the air.
8. There is a very cosy sleeping spot behind the sofa here next to the radiator.
Bad Things
1. Getting here and back involves two long trips in the dreaded cat carrier.
2. I miss the smells of my own house.
3. Devon Grandma is following me around with a carpet brush complaining about hair being left everywhere.
4. My humans keep leaving me to guard Devon Grandma's house and going out enjoying themselves.
5. Devon Grandma says the sight of me looking out of the patio windows is putting her birdies off coming to her birdie table.
6. My mum gasped in horror when she weighed me on Devon Grandma's bathroom scales and says she is going to make my diet even stricter.
7. My dad was cross with me when I jumped on his head at 5 o'clock this morning - I know it was a little earlier than my normal wake-up call, but I was excited because it was Easter!
8. My mum was upset with me when I accidentally scratched her...um...chest...as she was evicting me from the bed at 5.10 this morning.
I will post some photos when I get home. Hope all kitties had a lovely Easter!
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Travellin' Eric
What a day.
Woke up this morning, same as usual, jumped on bed, licked my dad's head, but did the humans get up and feed me? No! They said, "Sorry Eric, no breakfast for you this morning." Well, I miaowed pretty loudly all over the house, but no joy. Then I was allowed out for a walk round the garden (still hungry). When they let me back in the house, I went straight to my food bowls, but they were gone! That's when I started to get really suspicious. I looked round, and saw the Evil Cat Carrier. I turned round to bolt right out the back door again, but it was locked. The next thing I knew I was being bundled into the Evil Cat Carrier (I put up a pretty good fight) and carried out to the house. When they were putting me in the car I noticed a lot of luggage so I realised this wasn't a quick trip to the v-e-t but one of those long trips - I hate being in that box for hours!
Between yowling very loudly and sticking my paws out of the carrier to play with the seatbelt, I listened to my humans talking and I learned we were off to spend Easter with Devon Grandma. I like Devon Grandma and I like her house, I just don't like the four and a half hour drive to get there (which turned out to be over 5 hours today owing to holiday traffic jams on the A303, gah). So I resigned myself. I miaowed all the way round the M25 just to mark my displeasure, then I fell asleep going down the M3 and woke up again later and yowled a bit more just to remind them I wasn't enjoying myself.
Anyway, we got there at last and I finally got fed (at 3.30 pm!!!) My bowls are here, and my litter box, and my giant scratchy mouse, and my toys, so it could be worse. I have made an inspection of Devon Grandma's house and rediscovered the comfy rug in her living room. I'm off now to catch up on my sleep and recover from the stress.
I'll let you know what Devon is like if Devon Grandma lets me get on her computer again.
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
This Doesn't Look Good
Uh oh.
It is only 6 days since my mum came back from her trip to Cornwall. Now she has got the bags out and is packing again. My dad's weekend bag is out too. And I heard him saying something about checking the car and getting petrol "before we go tomorrow". Go where??
Wait a minute. Now she's in the spare room getting the Evil Cat Carrier down off the top of the wardrobe and dusting it. What's going on? I'm not aware of any plans for me to travel anywhere!
None of this looks good. I shall await further developments while burying my head in my paws to avoid all the stress.
I'll keep you posted when I find out what's going on.
Monday, April 10, 2006
Eric's Wildlife Watch
This weather is weird. One minute it is sunny and we are planting stuff in the garden, the next minute it is freezing and there are reports of snow all over southern England. Weird. Anyway, the good news is that my mum is at home all day to play with me. Plus, the flowery carpet shampoo smell has faded and the house smells like me again.
Today my mum and I decided to copy Timmy and do some wildlife watching. We have a bird table down the bottom of the garden, which tends to be hogged by the fat wood pigeons who don't let the little birdies go there. So my mum made a feeding station for the little birdies in a tree nearer the house, with different kinds of food hanging up for them to try. Unfortunately, so far the little birdies have been mostly ignoring the feeding station, but today we saw some! We sat by the window with the digital camera this morning and we saw the following wildlife:
1. A tabby kitty with white paws who looked very like Bonnie Underfoot. My mum said she was a pretty kitty, I said she was an Evil Intruder Kitty because she was strolling through my garden.
2. A fox cub playing in next door's garden. We often get foxes in the gardens here but this was the first of this year's cubs we have seen out and about. Unfortunately it ran away before we could get a pic.
3. The fattest wood pigeons in the world scoffing feed on the bird table.
4. A magpie.
5. Two blackbirds.
6. A starling, and it came and started eating the fat ball on the feeding station, the first birdie we have seen there!
7. Two blue tits, and one of them also had a nibble on the fat ball, the other had a little peck at one of the seed feeders.
8. A robin, it came and pecked around on the ground under the feeding station.
9. A little bird the same size as a blue tit, we don't know what it was but it also nibbled the fat ball. (Having looked at bird book, think it might possibly have been a coal tit).
We are quite encouraged that some birds have found the feeding station, maybe there will be more soon. We have also seen the frogs and newts for the first time this year but they are sulking now because my mum disturbed them when she cleaned the pond out on Saturday (phew, that was a stinky job!).
OK, I have to go now because my mum wants to take over and show you some pictures she took of cute animals while she was in Cornwall. Aren't I cute enough to satisfy her?
Friend's guinea pig mum and fluffy baby
Wild bunny playing in the sand at Marazion
More of his bunny friends
Otters at the wildlife park
OK, that's quite enough of other animals being cute. Normal kitty blogging will shortly be resumed...
Friday, April 07, 2006
Strange Smells
Hooray, my mum is back from Cornwall. As soon as she put her bags down I rushed into her arms to lick her face, hair and ears all over and I didn't stop purring for hours and hours!
I was especially glad to see her as I had been through a bit of an ordeal in her absence. My dad decided to surprise her by having all the carpets cleaned. So he went out and hired this Huge Carpet Cleaning And Shampooing Monster. It was a hundred times worse than the Vacuum Monster, because not only did it make the Horrible Loud Noises but it also Made Everything Wet and Weird-Smelling. He did almost every room in the house with the Huge Carpet Cleaning And Shampooing Monster, I had to keep running into different rooms to hide from it. When he had finished, all the carpets were damp and the whole house smelled wrong. Instead of smelling like me, it smelt of this flowery carpet shampoo stuff. What's worse, by the time I had laid down on the carpet a few times, I smelt like flowery carpet shampoo too!!!
My mum was very surprised when she got home and found everything clean and weird-smelling. Then she picked me up and said "Ooh, Eric smells like carpet shampoo and his fur has gone all clean and floofy." The indignity. I have practically been carpet-shampooed!!! (But my mum thinks I didn't swallow it and she has given me a good comb so I don't groom myself so much).
The other thing my dad did was that when he was clearing the rooms to do the carpets, he picked up all my cat toys and now he can't remember where he put some of them! My mum did bring me a new toy though, it is very yellow. Here it is:
My mum was very surprised when she got home and found everything clean and weird-smelling. Then she picked me up and said "Ooh, Eric smells like carpet shampoo and his fur has gone all clean and floofy." The indignity. I have practically been carpet-shampooed!!! (But my mum thinks I didn't swallow it and she has given me a good comb so I don't groom myself so much).
The other thing my dad did was that when he was clearing the rooms to do the carpets, he picked up all my cat toys and now he can't remember where he put some of them! My mum did bring me a new toy though, it is very yellow. Here it is:
What the heck is that yellow thing?
Maybe I'll be safe if I just kill it between my paws.
I am NOT wearing a feather boa, I am far too much of a macho kitty!
My mum says the weather in Cornwall was sunny and lovely and she took some beautiful photos, mostly of cute animals, which she will post on my blog later, if I let her. Must go and catch up with all my blogging friends now...
Saturday, April 01, 2006
Just Us Boys
My mum is abandoning me. No sooner does she break up from school for Easter (she has two weeks off from teaching the little monsters) than she is taking off to go and stay with Auntie Joodes and see Cornish Grandma. She is flying from Stansted to Newquay tonight. I asked her if I could stow away in her luggage and go too, but she said I have to stay here with my dad. I suppose I should look on the bright side - my dad is not quite as good with the scritches and cuddles as she is, and he doesn't have such a comfy lap, but he is more generous with the food! (I think he has bigger "handfuls" than she does) So I will probably get some extra rations while my mum is away. She is coming back on Thursday night, and then she will still have a week off, so she will be at home to give me lots of fuss, which is good. My dad won't let me blog, so I won't be around blogging till Thursday.
I can't remember who started it now, but a while ago kitties were posting pics to show they could touch their noses with their tongues. My mum finally managed to get a pic to prove I could do it too, so here it is...
I can't remember who started it now, but a while ago kitties were posting pics to show they could touch their noses with their tongues. My mum finally managed to get a pic to prove I could do it too, so here it is...
