Saturday, December 30, 2006
My Christmas Presents
My mum is back from Cornwall. I am glad she is back because I have been a bit bored without her and also my dad wouldn't switch on the computer. Still, he did feed me and look after me and I have been mostly sleeping behind Devon Grandma's sofa or snuggling by her fire (we don't have a fire in London so it is nice on a cold rainy day).
Anyway, my mum came back last night. It was horrible weather, raining and blowing a gale, my dad had to drive to the nearest railway station (which is called Whimple) to pick her up and some of the lanes were flooding. Good weather for staying inside keeping cosy. When she walked in, I came out from behind the sofa and jumped on her and licked her hair and then her chin and her ears and her glasses, I think she enjoyed that. Since then I have been mostly sitting on her and purring.
I think she had a nice time in Cornwall but some of her clothes smell of d-o-g, because she has been fraternizing with Cornish Grandma's Scottie, Barney - I hate him! (My mum says she knows the US President has a Scottie called Barney too but ours was named first...) My mum weighed Barney and he is only 2 pounds heavier than me, I think I could take him if it came to a fight. Remind me to tell you some time about the dreadful stress I experienced at Christmas 2004 when I had to spend a week in the same house as this monster, he kept trying to lick me and sniff me, it was awful.
I am really enjoying my Christmas presents. Devon Grandma gave me some gourmet cat meals from Marks & Sparks, the kind of food my own humans are too mean to buy usually. My humans gave me some Sheba food, which I don't usually get either because I am on the d-i-e-t food. I got a new yellow feather stick from mum's sister to replace the one I destroyed a couple of months ago, I am very happy with that.
The only present I do not like is this annoying red dot thing that my mum thinks is very funny. I follow this red dot round and try to swat it with my paw but I can never catch it. I even got up and chased it quite energetically but I still couldn't catch it, so I went and sulked behind the sofa. Not fun.
Oh yes! Something amazing happened! While she was in Cornwall my mum and Cornish Grandma went into a pet shop looking for some breath-freshening dog treats (because the evil Scottie has serious halitosis) and guess what they found? Two packets of Feline Greenies! This is amazing because FG's are not normally on sale in the UK, which is why we always have to get some from Mericky. They only had two packets, which my mum bought for me, but Cornish Grandma is going to check and let us know if they ever get any more in.
So I am quite happy with all the stuff I have got, I am going to catch up on my friends' blogs now and I hope they are all having fun too. We have taken some nice photos but can't post any until we get back to London.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Boxing Day
Mmm...Christmas Day was full of diet-busting treats. Chicken...sausage...cheese...I kept following delicious smells round the house. I was so excited about it being Christmas that I jumped on my humans' pillows super-early going "Wake up, wake up!" until my mum got up and looked in my stocking and found a tin of Sheba Prime Cuts of Tuna (!!) and served me yummy breakfast. It was so good!
Later I helped to unwrap presents. I will tell more about the presents later. I really enjoyed the day except for in the evening when everyone laughed at me. I found a bowl my dad had carelessly left on the floor next to his armchair where he had been eating sherry trifle. There was some cream and custard in the bowl, so I had a sneaky lick, but it had this funny taste, so I wasn't sure I liked it. I was cleaning it off my whiskers when the humans started pointing and laughing and saying "Look, Eric's getting drunk on sherry trifle!" Then my head felt swimmy so I had to have a sleep, and this morning everyone keeps asking me if I have a hangover. Huh.
We are waiting for Cornish Grandma to arrive for Boxing Day lunch (and more present-opening). Then she is taking my mum down to Cornwall for a few days to see her family, but I am staying here with my dad and Devon Grandma. I am not sure if my dad will help me blog, but I will get mum to help me catch up at the weekend. Hope efurrycat is having a good Christmas with their families! I can smell some leftover chicken coming out, I'm off...
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Happy Christmas!
A furry Merry Christmas to all my friends. I have recovered from my dreadful journey and I am ready to join in the festivities. The readiness of Devon Grandma to slip me bits of turkey, ham and cheese when my diet-pushing mum isn't looking has helped a lot with my recovery. I have also discovered a lovely fleecy snowflake throw blanket which is very snuggly.It is 10pm on Christmas Eve here so Santa will be along pretty soon. The humans have just come back from the candelight carols in the village church. It is quite cold but the Fog has gone! And we are snuggly and warm indoors. Hope all cats and humans have a lovely Christmas. I have tried to get round all of my friends' blogs to send you a greeting, but if I missed you out, happy Christmas!
Purrs and goodwill to all.
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Traumatic Experience
I may never recover from yesterday. I knew it was going to be bad, what with being forced into the Evil Cat Carrier and trapped in the car to drive down to Devon Grandma's, but it was even worse than I expected.
We left home at 10 AM, which should usually mean that we get down to Devon Grandma's at about 3 PM. It was foggy, but there wasn't as much traffic as we were fearing, so we whizzed round the M25 and down the M3 in pretty quick time. I was quite loud for the first part of the journey, but then I got bored and concentrated on looking out of the window at the foggy trees going past.
Things went horribly wrong at about 12.15, when we had left the motorway and were heading down the A303 through Hampshire, Dorset and Somerset. Suddenly we were stuck at the end of a long, foggy queue. No one was going anywhere. My humans were listening to the traffic news on the radio. Something about a tanker lorry having jack-knifed and everyone getting diverted. We sat still in the traffic jam. I got bored and fell asleep. I woke up an hour later. We were still sitting in the same place. I went back to sleep. I woke up an hour later. We were crawling along a very foggy lane being diverted, somewhere in Dorset. I went back to sleep. I woke up an hour later. We were in a totally foggy lane and from what my humans were saying, we were slightly lost. Then it got even more foggy. Then it got dark...
Anyway, we did get back on the main road eventually and we crawled through the fog and the dark and we got to Devon Grandma's...at 6PM. We were all furry tired, furry hungry, furry cramped and furry in need of a litter box. My humans said that I'd been a very good boy, but I was traumatised, so after a quick snack I went behind the sofa and stayed there all night. Then I came out, found Scratchy Mouse, had some food and went and sat on my mum to loudly tell her how traumatised I was. I am NOT happy!
Christmas spirit? Bah, humbug!
Thursday, December 21, 2006
The Fog!
You might have heard on the news that there is a lot of fog round here this week. Lots of humans are stuck at Heathrow Airport because it is too foggy to fly. We have been fogged-in for the last few days. It's weird, I can't even see down to the end of the garden to check if there are any Evil Intruder Kitties on the shed roof. But my mum says that if they have any sense they are snugly indoors, because it is freezing as well as foggy. Winter seems to have arrived, finally. My mum didn't take this photo but she likes it because it says "London Fog!" so well.
My dad says we have got "a real pea-souper". I think he means the fog is quite thick. He says it is the perfect time to get out his favourite cartoon film to watch. It is a Russian cartoon called "Hedgehog in the Fog". Have your humans ever seen it?
I have found out what is going on tomorrow (Friday). We are going to spend Christmas with Devon Grandma (my dad's mum). This means I will be imprisoned in the Evil Cat Carrier for about 5 hours while we drive down to Devon. I suppose it could be worse, at least they are not leaving me in the kitty jail for Christmas and I like Devon Grandma's house (the last time I was there was at Easter). My dad says the forecast is for more fog so we will have to drive very slowly and carefully on the motorway tomorrow, but there is no fog in Devon so it should be all right when we get there.
Apparently I'll be able to post from Devon Grandma's computer, but I probably won't be able to post any pictures because her computer is old and sick, so I'll put up my Christmas photo now. Happy holidays!
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Tinsel Tuesday*
*My mum would like me to add that the tinsel was purely for photographic purposes, as tinsel is not a safe thing for cats to play with.We're getting in the Christmas spirit. My mum went out to a party with her colleagues last night and my dad is going to a work party tonight. Tomorrow my mum's school breaks up for the Christmas holidays. Something is happening on Friday, but no one will tell me what. Something to do with suitcases and bags of presents. I hope the Evil Cat Carrier isn't involved!
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Getting Ready For Christmas
I have been enjoying looking at my friends’ blogs and seeing their pictures of Christmas trees and decorations. We have also been getting ready for Christmas. I was furry helpful when my mum was writing Christmas cards last week…
…and I checked to make sure she had correctly addressed them all and put stamps on them.
Our Christmas tree is up. My mum is famous in our family for squeezing as many ornaments as possible on to every square inch of tree. She doesn’t like empty branches.
We have lots of ornaments from different places because my mum buys them when she goes on holiday. So we have ornaments from places like Munich, Salzburg, Stockholm, Sark, Scotland, New York, Seattle, etc. And some that Uncle Sim sent from Montana. And some new ones that mum bought this year in Boston and Cumbria.
There is only one cat ornament on the tree – this ceramic ginger kitty that mum bought one year in the cat shop in Windsor & Eton. He is quite jolly, don’t you think?
We have taken some lovely Christmassy pictures of me but I am saving those for nearer Christmas.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
My 100th Post
Yes, this post is special because it is my 100th post. I have achieved my goal of managing 100 posts before the end of my first year of blogging - yay me!I offered a prize for anyone who could guess why this post would be special, and Eric and Flynn were the first to guess the correct answer. (Derby also guessed correctly.) Eric and Flynn, there is a link to our e-mail on the Gorgeous Gingers page - if you would like to e-mail me with your address, I will get my mum to send off your prize. As we are in the same country, I don't think we will have any trouble with Customs this time!
I was planning to celebrate my 100th post by looking back over my blogging history and showing some lovely Christmas tree pictures. Unfortunately, I am too traumatised to do that now, due to the events of this evening. I was snuggling up in my cosy bed by the radiator for the evening when I was suddenly grabbed from behind and found myself heading towards the gaping mouth of the Evil Cat Carrier! I managed to break free and hide under the dining-table, but my mum pulled me out from under there. She started trying to post me into the Evil Cat Carrier - I wriggled, I dodged, I braced my legs, I made myself even bigger, but eventually she cruelly thrust me in and slammed the door on me. I was NOT happy! I wailed loudly as I was carried out to the car. I gave pitiful mews for help as the humans drove me away. I was worried that I might be off to kitty jail or some such place, but five minutes later we pulled up outside the v-e-ts. "Hello Eric!" said the v-e-t's assistant as I was carried in, still wailing. "He's very loud, isn't he?"
"I'm not ill! I don't need to be here!" I screamed as I was carried into the v-e-t's room. To make matters worse, my regular v-e-t is on holiday so it was some total stranger who lifted me up and made rude remarks about my weight. Without even asking me, he pulled at my ears, prodded at my eyes and tried to look at my teeth. I closed my mouth so tightly he couldn't prise it open! Then he got out a metal thing on a string (mum called it a stethoscope) and started listening to my heart. My mum was pleased when he said my heart and lungs are in excellent shape. When the v-e-t started trying to examine me in more intimate areas, I'd had enough, so I actually dived back into the hated cat carrier to get away from him. But he didn't play fair, as he took the roof off it and stabbed me with a needle! My mum said, "It's all for your own good Eric, if your vaccinations aren't up to date, the cat holiday camp won't take you next summer." (Like that's going to make me feel better about it?)
By the time we got home, I was so traumatised I had to cancel my special 100th post and have a large meal to regain my strength. I just hope my humans are feeling guilty about ruining my day!
Monday, December 11, 2006
Nice And Nasty Surprises
We put up the decorations. The tree looks pretty but I need to get my mum organised to take some pictures of me posing with it. I have been too busy lying on the tracks of my dad's model railway. He loves having my help really. (Heh heh).
Well. We have had some surprises over the last few days.
First surprise (nice) - My mum has been trying to phone her mum (Cornish Grandma) every night for about a week but all she ever got was the answerphone. We were starting to get worried about whether Cornish Grandma was OK. Then we got a surprise...a postcard from Cornish Grandma in Holland...then one from Belgium...then one from Germany! She decided to go on a tour of some Christmas markets and not tell us she was going but surprise us with postcards. Well, she certainly surprised us! (I wonder if she bought me anything on her trip?)
Second surprise (nice) - A big box arrived from Mericky with CafePress written on it! It had some stuff my mum ordered off CafePress, including the Cat Blogosphere Calendar! We were really looking forward to seeing me - I am on January, February and September! And all my cat friends look very handsome on it too.
Third surprise (nasty) - My mum got a card from the post office saying that they couldn't deliver the box from Mericky until she came down to the sorting office and paid a charge. When she went down there to get it, they told her that British Customs had decided she needed to pay £11.18 ($22) in Customs charges and VAT to receive this box of "valuable" goods from Mericky. (She had already paid the normal postage and packing).
She was NOT happy but she paid up so we have got our box of stuff!
P.S. This reminds us of the trouble Edsel had with Canadian customs a while back! We didn't know evil British Customs were going to charge us just to import 2 calendars, 1 mug, 1 tote bag and a car sticker! Boo...
P.P.S. My next post will be a Special One. Can anyone guess why? I might give a prize for the first correct guess!
Friday, December 08, 2006
I Told You So
Now I know that some cats live in areas where tornadoes aren't that uncommon, but it is pretty bloomin' unusual for houses in London to have their roofs ripped off by tornadoes...Luckily for us, it didn't happen in our part of London, but about nine or ten miles away. I was at home guarding the house, my mum was at work about a mile away, and dad was at work in central London. My mum said that at the time the tornado struck, she was in the school playground when suddenly the sky went from sunny to black. She went inside with the children and then there were some huge claps of thunder and the wind started battering the windows of her classroom really hard. They saw some branches breaking off trees but they didn't realise there was a tornado happening a few miles away!
Me? Well, I heard the thunder...well, no, actually, I admit it...I slept through the whole thing! It was very windy for hours afterwards, and my mum had to pick up some plant pots that got blown around the garden, but that's all. Luckily we got the loose slates on our roof mended in the summer.
I'm going to help my mum put up the tree and Christmas decorations tonight. One of my mum's friends sent her this picture of her cat Snowy helping to put up the Christmas tree. Here is Snowy - notice her odd eyes! She has a twin called Frosty, but Frosty has two yellow eyes. A handy way to tell them apart. 
I'm off to play help with the decorations. Have a nice weekend!
Monday, December 04, 2006
Weird Weather
There is some weird weather going on. I asked my mum to explain what was happening, but she doesn't understand it either.
Where some of my Mericky friends live, everything is covered in snow. Here, we have officially just had the warmest autumn since 1659. My mum and dad went for a walk in Epping Forest last weekend and took some autumnal photos like this:
You can see lots more forest photos here if you are interested. Part of the forest is about 10 minutes walk from our house, but the bit in the photos is about 10 minutes drive away. Now it is December, it is supposed to be winter, but it is not wintry yet. It is mild, wet and windy instead. The birds and animals are confused. The little hedgehogs are in trouble.
Even the plants in our garden are confused. Some of the roses think it is still summer, even though my mum cut them back and put them to bed for the winter a few weeks ago.
Some of the daffodils think it is nearly spring already!
And my mum wrapped up her favourite lilly that got frost-bitten last winter, but now she is wondering why she bothered, as there is no sign of frost yet.
It's all very confusing. My dad says it must be "global warming", whatever that is.
My mum has been too busy at school to put up any Christmas decorations yet. She came home all worn out and stressed today because the small people were being hard work. I had to give her lots of headbutts and purrs before she felt better.
Forget the weird weather, let's just cuddle.
