Fat Eric and Friends

A Year At The Bridge

2011-08-16T20:29:00.002Z

It's a year since he went to the Bridge and we still miss him so much. RIP sweet ginger boy. xxx

Fat Eric - A Photo Memorial (Part 2 of 2)

2010-09-18T20:13:00.007Z

I have so many photos of Fat Eric, it was hard to choose the right ones for this final tribute. He was usually happy to pose for the camera, whether at home, in the garden or on his travels. Eric was a well-travelled cat. He made regular trips not only to the kitty jail and the v-e-t but also to his Devon Grandma's house.

He objected to being put in the Evil Cat Carrier and didn't particularly enjoy being put in the car, but once the journey was well underway he would resign himself and usually slept most of the way. His Scratchy Mouse always accompanied him on his travels.

Scratchy Mouse was a combination of scratching pad and best friend, often used by Eric as a pillow or a foot rest. His other favourite scratching post was our wicker laundry basket, the state of which remains a memorial to his claws!

He also enjoyed snoozing in his fleece bed next to the radiator, but only in the winter months.

He was a very snuggly mancat who liked to be close to his humans.

When I broke my leg last year, Eric was happy to spend hours on my lap administering purr therapy.

Eric liked spending time in his garden if the weather was fine. He never tried to visit neighbours' gardens, but would potter round his own and sunbathe on the patio. In the winter he tended to prefer to stay indoors in the warm. This was one of his favourite spots in the garden.

Eric's one problem with enjoying his garden was the constant arrival of Evil Intruder Cats. He hardly ever tried to fight them, since most Evil Intruder Cats would take one look at the huge ginger cat advancing towards them and then they would turn and flee. His arch-nemesis was Marmite, the black intruder who likes to fish for newts in our pond. Eric was non-plussed by the fact that Marmite tended to hang around instead of running away.

Eric did tolerate the visits of Skinny Ginger, although they once had a punch-up.

In the last few months of his life, Eric spent quite a bit of time with our neighbours' new kitten, Leo.

Leo liked to follow Eric around - probably looking for a mentor to tell him how to be a Ginger Mancat - and Eric seemed to get used to his presence.

Since Eric has been gone, Leo has been on several excursions into our house, apparently looking for him. I think he misses him. We all do.

I would like to share a few photos of Eric I never used on his blog. These are photos from my phone. This one is a funny one - Eric trying to see what I was doing one day when I was fiddling with my phone...

and this one is a beautiful profile shot.

Getting to the end of this tribute to Fat Eric, I would like to thank Ann at Zoolatry for all the graphics she made for Eric over the years - birthdays, Christmas, special occasions, etc. These two she made to honour his passing.

And finally, this is the last photo of Eric ever taken.

Thank you again for visiting Fat Eric's blog. He was a special boy and it's been lovely sharing him with all of you for nearly five years. I am hoping to continue visiting all his friends, and I have just started a new blog, Between Cats, which I am going to use to keep up with the cat blogging world until I am adopted by another kitty. Please come and visit me there, and thank you again for being Fat Eric's friends.

Fat Eric

1995-2010

Fat Eric - A Photo Memorial (part 1 of 2)

2010-08-31T21:11:00.008Z

Since Eric went to the Bridge a few weeks ago, I have had an unbelievable number of comments and tributes on his blog, plus e-mails, Facebook messages and even cards, for which I need to say thank you. Eric was such a lovely, cuddly, purry floofy boy and Gorgeous Ginger. We miss him very much, and it's clear that lots of you loved him and will miss him too.

I wanted to do some memorial posts with pictures of Eric, which has proved difficult as I have to choose from nearly 500 photos, some of which were never used on his blog. I hope you like the ones I have chosen and they show him at his floofy best!

Eric and his sister Hattie moved into our new house on October 26th, 2003. They were 8 years old at the time and had been waiting to be rehomed at the Chestnut Cat Sanctuary. They settled in immediately and acted as though they had been running the house for years. These pictures were taken about 3 days after their adoption.

Unfortunately we only had Hattie for a few months, as she developed cancer and had to be helped to the Bridge in March 2004. From that time onwards, Fat Eric decided to adopt the role of Spoilt Only Cat, and he discovered the possibilities of cat-blogging in January 2006 with his first post. He was inspired to blog after reading about the adventures of other early cat-bloggers such as Max the Psychokitty, Scooby, Shaggy and Scout, the Crew, William of Mass Destruction and the Big Piney Woods Cats. Eric enjoyed cat-blogging, although sometimes he found using the computer rather tiring...

He soon found that the internet was the perfect place for sharing pictures of his immense floofaciousness...

and for showing other kitties exactly how relaxation should be done...

The friends he made in the Cat Blogosphere helped Eric to discover some of his new favourite things. Darling Millie's mum made him his very own personalised Gizzy Quilt...

...and good friends like Derby kept him supplied with Feline Greenies, which were Eric's most favourite treat right to the end. Since Greenies aren't sold in the UK, many times Eric was in danger of running out, but thankfully the supplies from Mericky always arrived in time in avert a crisis!

Still to come in the next part of Fat Eric's Photo Memorial - tales of Eric's travels across the UK, stories of his constant battle against Evil Intruder Kitties and pictures of him in his garden. I'll try to complete it in a few days.

Fat Eric Has Gone To The Rainbow Bridge

2010-08-18T03:18:00.002Z

This is Kate, Fat Eric's mum, here.

This is a very sad post for me to write. I have been in America and Canada for the last two weeks and I am in Montana now where Eric's Uncle Sim lives. I have been in touch with the cattery where Eric has been while we were away and I knew on Friday that he was going to see their v-e-t as he was not eating well again and didn't seem to be feeling well. Unfortunately I then spent this past weekend in the mountains where there was no phone or internet, so I have had to wait several days to find out how he was doing. When we got here tonight I had several e-mails and a phone message from Kathie at the cattery, who gave us the devastating news that her vet diagnosed Eric with a tumour on his kidney which had become very large very quickly. He consulted with our own vet and did some more blood tests which confirmed that Eric had begun suffering considerable pain. He was unable to stand up properly at that point. These symptoms had come on very quickly. Kathie and her staff were terribly upset and Kathie had stayed up with Eric nearly all night before he went to the vet. I had told her that I authorised her and the vet to do what was best, and the vet strongly advised that Eric was now suffering and there was no effective treatment at this point, and at his age (nearly 15). They took the decision to send him to the Bridge and put him out of his pain yesterday, Monday. Kathie then had the horrible job of letting me know what had happened today, Tuesday.

Thank you, everyone, for your good wishes to Eric. I am so sorry that I don't have good news to share with you. We will miss him so much. I have told Kathie that she did the right thing and, although I wish I had been there with him at the end, I am glad that he did not suffer for longer than necessary.

When I get home to the UK, which won't be for another week, I will post a proper memorial for Fat Eric with pictures. I know it's going to be so hard when we get home to a house filled with his stuff. Thank you all again for your love for Fat Eric. He was a great character and we will all miss him so much. I have had more than one cat in my life, but he was special, and all his friends knew that.

Kate

Am In Jail, Please Send Purrs

2010-08-03T13:49:00.004Z

Well, I tried to make my mum feel as guilty as possible about putting me in kitty jail when I have just been poorly, but I still had to go. My humans are going to Mericky tomorrow (to Seattle, then to Victoria, BC, and then to Montana where Uncle Sim lives) and this morning I was packed up with all my special food, my comb, my Scratchy Mouse, my Greenies, my kidney pills, my Gizzy quilt and all my luggage and taken to the kitty jail.

This is the same kitty jail I have been to several times in the last two years, and it is not too bad as kitty jails go. It is attached to the the cat rescue centre where my sister Hattie and I were adopted from seven years ago. The people who work there are always very nice to me. My mum spent ages this morning explaining all about my recent ailments and my medicine and my food and my likes and dislikes. I sat in my jail cell and looked at her as if to say "How could you abandon me here?" and then I got distracted because one of the ladies who works there offered me a dish of sardine and mackerel stinky goodness and I started eating it, and when I had finished, my mum had left. I know she feels bad about leaving me and she wants me to keep eating and try to put some weight back on, so I will try. I am here for a long time, until August 26th. I am sorry I won't be able to get round the blogosphere to visit my friends. Please send purrs for me to eat well during my time in kitty jail and for a happy reunion with my humans in three weeks. I wonder if Leo will miss me?

Purrs to all. F.E.

Fur and Flowers

2010-08-01T23:59:00.004Z

Well, once again I have to thank all my friends for their concern over my health. Things have been going along quietly here. My mum is on holiday from school so we have been spending lots of time together while my dad is still at work. I am still being quite a picky eater so she has been tempting me with different flavours of stinky goodness. I am eating every day but still not as much as I once used to. Actually I was out in the garden the other day with my mum and I sort of ate a slug just to see what it tasted like. Then I yakked all over the hall carpet. That wasn't very much fun at all really.

I am getting a kidney pill every evening now. I am napping a lot too. I still have some tangles and knots in my floof, even though the v-e-t shaved some of the matted bits. I used to enjoy being combed but I don't like it any more and I run away when I see my mum coming with the comb; I remember it hurt when she tried to comb out the mats before. She is hoping I will get back to liking being combed again because it is all a bit stressful at the moment. I am still happy to have some cuddling and some laptime, though.

It has been quite warm here. I am mostly choosing to stay in the house and nap when my mum goes out and does sweaty things like gardening. Leo does a good job snoopervising because he is so nosy he can't stand it if people are doing gardening without him. Here are some pictures of his snoopervising techniques.

The flowers on our patio are looking very pretty at the moment. They were supposed to be all yellow and white this year, but some of the white ones my mum bought sneakily came out blue instead. Can you spot some of the rogue blue flowers?

We also had a jungle of potato plants but most of the potatoes have been dug up and eaten by the humans now.

I am worried about something - yesterday my dad went up in the loft and got the two big suitcases down. Why do you think he did that? They wouldn't, would they?!

Good News And Bad News

2010-07-23T22:27:00.003Z

I'm overwhelmed by all the purrs and good wishes from all my friends since I have not been feeling too good and had to go to the v-e-t. I'm sorry I have kept you all waiting this week for an update, but it has been a bit hectic here. It was my mum's final week at school and today was the first day of her summer holiday. She doesn't have to teach any sticky little people again until September. However, she has spent the last week going in early and running round madly packing stuff into boxes and moving furniture (she is moving into a different classroom next term), throwing away rubbish, saying goodbye to her class and doing all that end-of-term stuff. And the rest of the time she has been devoting herself to my well-being, obviously. So our time for getting on the computer has been very limited.

Anyway, now she is on her holidays and can devote herself to me full-time! That is, unless my humans have any dastardly plans for going away which they haven't told me about yet. And I know they would feel bad about leaving me when I am poorly. The good news that I am already feeling a bit better. I haven't had to go back to the v-e-t yet but the v-e-t has phoned my mum twice and they have had long chats about me. The Loud Australian V-e-t, who is my regular v-e-t and knows all about my history and my diabetes, came back from his holiday in time to go through my blood tests. He made the lab redo a couple of the tests because the results weren't very clear, but luckily I didn't have to go and have any more blood stolen because they just used the blood they already stole from me before to do the new tests.

Apparently I did have an infection so it is a good thing the Quiet Calm V-e-t I saw gave me some antibiotics straight away. I have been taking them for six days and they have definitely helped me to start feeling better. I was hardly eating anything before and now I am eating about two bowls full of food per day. My mum would still like me to eat a bit more to put some weight back on, but it is a good start. Also I have been given all my favourite foods and some gourmet varieties to tempt my appetite, and it is working! My mum has to be careful when she is picking out different kinds of stinky goodness and read all the ingredients because of my diabetic diet. I can have stinky goodness with jelly but not with gravy because the gravy stinky goodness usually says "with sugars" on the ingredients list and that would be bad for me. And some flavours I won't eat now at all, like beef or lamb or turkey. I like tuna, salmon, mackerel, sardine and chicken flavours.

I am being very good about taking my antibiotic pills. The v-e-t said my mum could either give me the whole capsule or open the capsule and put the powder in my food. But I won't eat any foods with hidden medicine in them, so I just get the whole capsule posted down my throat. My mum says I am very easy to pill, compared to my late sister Hattie, whose twice-daily pill-taking sessions (before she went to the Bridge) involved two humans, wrapping in towels, thrashing, scratching, yowling and much stress for all involved. I pretty much just open wide and swallow! It helps that my mum bought a tube of one of the most yummy things ever - Deli Soft Cheese With Smoked Salmon!!!! Just for me!!!! And every time I swallow a pill, I get to lick up some of the delicious Deli Soft Cheese With Smoked Salmon immediately afterwards! It is so worth it!

Unfortunately, even though I am feeling better with the antibiotics and have started to eat more, the blood test results weren't all good news. Most of the tests were fine, but my kidney values were not great and also I am becoming a hyperthyroid kitty. The Loud Australian V-e-t wants to start me on a daily pill to help my kidneys, and maybe later on I might need to have some thyroid medicine too, but he wants to manage any medications very carefully so that it doesn't upset my diabetes, which has been under good control for the last three years. So my mum is going to see him tomorrow to talk about me and pick up some kidney pills. He is also going to keep an eye on my teeth, but he doesn't want to send me to sleep for dental work unless he absolutely has to, because of my age and my health. My mum says I shouldn't worry about all this medical stuff, because it's just something that often happens to senior catizens like me, and I know my humans and the Loud Australian V-e-t will take good care of me. My mum says all I have to worry about is eating as much as I can and trying to get a bit fatter again because she doesn't like being able to feel all my bones under my floof. I think I will make her happy and go and have a snack now, I think I can smell tuna!

(This is an old picture because I don't want any pictures of me with the shaved patches all over where the V-e-t shaved off my mats last weekend!)

Thank you again for all the purrs and the well-wishes, my furriends. May you all get Deli Soft Cheese With Smoked Salmon whenever you have to take pills! Yummy!

V-e-t Update

2010-07-17T23:37:00.002Z

Thank you so much for all the purrs, furr-iends. I got tossed into the Evil Cat Carrier this morning and taken to the v-e-t. There were four other cats there in the waiting room, some of them meowing VERY loudly, but I just gave a very little mew or two. I got treated like a VIP because I got seen first so I didn't have to wait for ages. The Loud Australian V-e-t is on holiday so I got the Quiet Calm V-e-t instead, which I really prefer. He was very impressed by how laid-back I was on the v-e-t table. I sat there and let him examine me so as to get it over quickly, and I tried to give him some schlurpy hairlicks when he bent down. I got weighed to see exactly how much weight I had lost. Last time I was weighed at the v-e-ts was in January and I was 7.1 kg (15.6 lb). Now I am only 5.8 kg (12.7 lb). Maybe everyone will start calling me Skinny Eric. Six years ago I weighed 21 lb!

Anyway, the v-e-t had a good look at me and he wasn't sure why I was losing my appetite and getting skinny. He noticed I had a bad tooth at the back of my mouth and my lymph glands in my neck were a bit swollen. That could be for several reasons, maybe even the bad tooth is causing a bit of an infection, or it could be something else altogether. The v-e-t took me in a back room and stole some of my blood to send to the lab for tests. They are going to test for thyroid disease, kidney problems and some other things which the v-e-t wants to check. He also gave me an antibiotic injection (in case I have an infection) and some antibiotic pills for my mum to give me at home for a few days. He shaved a patch on my neck when he was stealing my blood, and he also shaved off a few mats I had on my bottom which my mum hadn't been able to comb out. Now I look moth-eaten because of my shaved parts! And I smell like the v-e-t's office! Then he charged my mum £175 and sent us home.

Now we have to wait a few days for the results of my blood tests to come back. As soon as we got home I went and ate nearly a whole bowl full of food because I thought maybe if I ate more they wouldn't make me go back to the v-e-t again. Then I went and hid under the yellow chair in the spare room for a while to get over the whole traumatic experience. After that, my mum had to go and do some of her funny Morris dancing this afternoon at a festival, so my dad and I kept each other company and napped most of the the afternoon. Tonight my humans had Chinese takeaway and I was allowed to have a couple of prawns which were yummy! It seems to make my humans very happy when I eat stuff these days.

Thank you again everyone for all the purrs. I will let you know what the v-e-t says about my blood tests. Tomorrow I am going to chill out at home and maybe give Leo some more Mancat training if I feel up to it. Purrrrssssssss.

Purrs Please

2010-07-16T22:07:00.003Z

I overheard my mum saying I have to go to the v-e-t tomorrow. I haven't been feeling completely myself for a few weeks, and I don't have my usual hearty appetite. I am still eating a little bit and using my litter box, and I never turn down Greenies, but I can't seem to eat more than half of my dinner or breakfast. My mum talked to the v-e-t recently but at the time it was very hot here and they thought maybe it was just that I was so hot and uncomfortable in my floof that I had lost my appetite. But now it is not so hot and I am still not really hungry and I have lost quite a lot of weight lately, so I have to go and see the v-e-t tomorrow morning. My mum is worried about me. Please send purrs that it turns out to be nothing serious.

Wednesday Is Gingersday

2010-07-07T00:01:00.000Z

So, Leo, here's the deal. I've been feeling a bit off-colour lately with all this hot weather. You're young and energetic, not to mention hyperactive. If you keep patrolling the garden on my behalf, and pounce that Marmite whenever he shows his face, I might even let you do your own post on my blog...

...Wait, did someone open a bag of treats behind us?

Multiple Mancat Monday

2010-06-14T20:46:00.003Z

Marmite, if I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times, GET OUT OF MY GARDEN!!!

If I turn my back on him, maybe he'll go away...

Of course, what he doesn't know is that at this very moment my mini-ginger sidekick is lurking in the lavender, waiting for a good opportunity to pounce - PREPARE TO BE POUNCED AGAIN, MARMITE!

Heh, heh, heh.

Checking In - With A Funny Story To Share

2010-05-31T23:48:00.005Z

Thanks to all my friends for your concern over my health. It really freaks my humans out when I don't finish my meals, because they are used to me cleaning my bowl. I have continued to be very fussy about which flavours of stinky goodness I will eat now, but I think I have reached an agreement on my menus with my mum. I am pretty much back to my old self and my diabetes is still under good control, so that's OK. My mum did some yakking herself last Friday and spent a few days sitting around feeling seedy, so I was a good lapcat and cheered her up. We are both fine now.

I have been an extra-cuddly kitty lately. I like to spend as many hours as possible plastered over the front of a human sleeping on them and keeping them warm with my floof. Drooling on them is good too. My mum has a week off school now for the half-term holiday, so I should get some extra opportunities for cuddling. We are planning to do some gardening together too if the weather is good enough. It's gone all chilly again, just when we thought it was summer.

Something very funny happened this week. I was snoozing inside the patio windows and I noticed that Evil Intruder Kitty, Marmite, sitting by my pond doing his usual favourite activity of looking for newts. Here's an example of what he looks like when doing this:

Anyway, there he was just sitting there thinking about newts when, all of a sudden, BAM! A sort of small ginger Scud missile launched itself through the air and POUNCED him!

Of course it was Leo, the hyperactive kitten from next door who seems to think he lives here most of the time. He has been practising pouncing things a lot recently - mostly butterflies, flowers, birds, that kind of thing. He leaps around the garden like a maniac. I never saw him try to pounce Marmite before though! Marmite nearly jumped out of his fur with shock (shame he didn't fall in the pond!) and then ran off down the garden at top speed. I was still inside the window going BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! as I watched all this. My mum saw it too, she thought it was pretty funny. I may have to consider rewarding young Leo in some way for this legendary Marmite-pouncing. He'd better not try pouncing me though!

Uneasy Like Sunday

2010-05-16T22:16:00.005Z

Sorry, I haven't blogged for a while. I haven't been feeling too well for the last week or so, and my mum and dad have been worrying about me. I have had an upset stomach and some smelly litterbox problems and there has been some yakking. Plus I suddenly decided that I no longer like the brand of canned food I have been eating for the last three years which helps to control my diabetes so I went on hunger strike and lost some weight. My mum has tried a couple of different brands and found one I will eat, but I am being very picky about which flavours I will eat now, so she has had to experiment with the different flavours to tempt my appetite.

However, don't worry about me too much, I have started eating more again and my litterbox problems seem to have sorted themselves out. And I never stopped wanting to eat Greenies, cheese or tuna, even when I was turning my nose up at different flavours of canned food! I am acting more like myself again after a few days of being sad and just wanting to curl up and take quiet naps to forget about my stomach ache. With a few purrs from my friends I am sure I will be back to normal in no time.

My Cornish Auntie (mum's sister) has been visiting us for a few days but my humans got up at 5 a.m. this morning (on a Sunday!) and took her to Heathrow airport so that she could go on holiday to Mericky. She is in New York now, so if any of you Mericky kitties see my Cornish Auntie, please take care of her for me! Then she is going to Toronto. I wonder if she will see any Canadian cats?

Of course, while I have been feeling under the weather and entertaining my Cornish Auntie, I haven't been able to do my duty in keeping those Evil Intruder Cats out of my garden - there is an infestation!

Saturday Caturday - Captions Please!

2010-05-01T12:21:00.001Z

Spring In The Garden

2010-04-28T22:38:00.006Z

Remember back in January when our garden was all frozen and covered in snow? This is what my pond looked like then:

Now it looks like this. We are enjoying some great spring sunshine and I get to go out in my garden.

Here's a red camellia which has had lots of flowers on this year.

Here are some yellow tulips. And here is my mum's favourite flower, the Great Floofy Gingerflower!

Deserted!

2010-04-18T23:54:00.003Z

My mum is deserting me first thing Monday morning and going to Norfolk with a bunch of children from her school (she does this every year!) to sleep in bunk beds and do lots of activities and NOT be here giving me laptime and cuddles and fuss and treats! My dad and I are being left to look after each other until she gets home on Friday evening.

I am going to sulk now.

Hanging Out In The Holidays

2010-04-15T11:24:00.005Z

So, my mum's been on holiday from school and she's been lazing about, spending quality time with me, which is good. We've had some sunny days and she's been doing a lot of gardening. Sometimes I like to go out there with her to snoopervise and lie in the sunbeams, if I can find any.

But often I just let her get on with it and I prefer to stay indoors, napping on my blue chair.

It looks like she's getting plenty of kitty help with the gardening these days, anyway - I'm getting too old for all this PLAY! PLAY! PLAY! kitten stuff, but she seems happy to go along with it...

Wordless Wednesday

2010-04-07T23:28:00.002Z

Signs of Spring...And Introducing Leo

2010-04-01T23:47:00.006Z

It's starting to look quite flowery around here. The weather hasn't been very good this week, it's gone cold again. But our flowers are still coming out. We have bulbs out in pots on the patio...about time my mum got out there and did some weeding! She has two weeks' Easter holiday from school starting today, so I can help her do some gardening. This photo below was taken this time last year. The flowers are almost the same. That pink camellia isn't quite out yet, we think the cold weather has put it off, but the forsythia is very yellow again. The birds have been tweeting like mad. Last week there was a fox in my garden. It sat on the patio for ages and stared at me through the window. I stared back. Then it left.

Of course, it's not just foxes and birds who visit my garden. My friends will remember that my garden is infested with Evil Intruder Cats, such as that pesky Marmite who tries to catch newts in my pond. Well, we have a new Evil Intruder Cat. Or maybe he only counts as half an intruder, because he's still pretty small. I will explain.

Our next door neighbours have a tuxie kitty, Juliet. I showed a picture of her a long time ago. She is quite a shy kitty but can often be seen sitting on my wall, like this.

A few weeks ago, Juliet's humans got her a little brother. His name is Leo. Soon after he arrived, he escaped out of their house when they opened the door, and ran into our house. He was a tiny little ginger furball and made my mum go SQUEEEEEE very loudly as she was returning him to the neighbours. (I made her take him back, there's only room for one ginger mancat in this house!) After this adventure, Leo's humans kept him indoors, but now he is a bit bigger he is starting to explore their garden...and our garden! He comes and pesters my mum when she is out in the garden and lies on her shoes and plays cute. He is a lot bigger than he was, but still quite small.

Here he is trying to get MY mum's attention by playing cute.

Even though he is small, I will admit he has a good pair of lasers on him.

I think our neighbours' garden is too tidy, he likes coming over to play Jungle Kitten in ours.

I'll admit he is a friendly little dude, but he needn't make himself too comfortable in my garden, even though he is a fellow Gorgeous Ginger I will still chase him off if I need to! But he's still little, so I've been nice so far. After all, he's a Mancat-In-Training and could probably benefit from listening to my advice...

What's Happening?

2010-03-26T23:39:00.003Z

Well, lots has been happening around here. Actually, something terrible happened.

I RAN OUT OF GREENIES! Yes, completely! This was, of course, a major crisis, because they don't sell Greenies here in the UK and I had eaten all the ones I got for Christmas from Mericky.

Then I got a package! From my good friend Derby! I was very keen to get it open because it smelt very interesting!

You'll never guess what was inside...TEN WHOLE PACKETS OF GREENIES!

I had a good look and there were all kinds of flavours...including several of my absolute favourite, Tempting Tuna!

Thank you so much Derby! (and his mum and his little brother Ducky). My mum thinks it will be some time now before I run out of Greenies again! Phew!

Lots of other things have been happening...I need to post again soon and tell you about my spring flowers...and the fox in our garden...and the latest adventures of that Evil Intruder Cat, Marmite...and the new little ginger invader from next door...so much going on!

Oh yes, and it is my mum's birthday tomorrow. I will be waking her with licks and purrs...but maybe not too early! Have a great weekend, everycat!

Floofy Friday On The Blue Chair

2010-03-19T22:21:00.002Z

As you can see the blue chair is mine now. Sometimes I let my mum share it with me. The blanket is supposed to stop the whole chair from being turned ginger and white with my floofy furs. It works a little bit but it is no match for the amount of floof I can shed!

At Devon Grandma's

2010-02-28T00:38:00.007Z

Well, once again my mum has been hopelessly negligent about helping me to blog. Even though she had a week off school. And so much has been happening that I could have blogged about. First we all went for another short trip to Devon Grandma's house. Then I had to snoopervise while there was a lot of house cleaning going on. And there has been a LOT of Winter Olympics watching. I like sitting on my mum's lap watching the curling.

I love my Devon Grandma. She gives me treats (she can't resist my pleading eyes!). Devon Grandma said she'd like to keep me but my mum said she couldn't spare me.

This time the weather was a little bit better so my mum let me go out with her for a walk around Devon Grandma's garden. I walked around and had a good sniff. It smells different from my garden. There are lots of rabbits who visit here so I could smell them.

We found lots of snowdrops, so that's a sign that Spring is on the way.

I didn't stay out for long because I wanted to get back to Devon Grandma's cosy sofa.

While I was snoozing on the sofa, my humans went for a walk round the village. This is the view looking over towards Sidmouth, where Milo and Alfie live.

There were lots of new lambs in the fields. Maybe Spring really is on the way!

Dad's Birthday

2010-02-13T00:34:00.003Z

Today is my dad's birthday - I'm not sure how old he is, about a squillion years old, I think - but I will be giving him lots of extra hair licks to celebrate the day. Here we are doing lots of manly bonding together...

My mum has a week off school now for the half-term holiday, so we will be able to spend lots of quality time together and she might be able to get rid of the cough and the croaky voice at last. There is one disturbing thing though...I just saw her dusting off the Evil Cat Carrier...why? She wouldn't do that to me on dad's birthday...would she???

Floofy Friday - And A Missed Blogoversary!

2010-02-05T23:12:00.004Z

My human has been pretty rubbish at helping me blog lately. OK, so she has been ill a lot (first with the throwing up and then with the coughing and the lost voice) but that is NO EXCUSE!!!

What is worse, we forgot that it was my Blogoversary on January 24th. My fourth Blogoversary, I have been blogging for four whole years!

In honour of my Blogoversary, I have been looking through all my old pictures and choosing some floofy highlights for a truly Floofy Friday. Have a good weekend, my friends.

No Sleeping On Sunday

2010-01-24T22:09:00.003Z

The trouble with weekends is that my humans like to stay in bed later and this always seems to lead to my breakfast being served much later than it is on weekdays. And when a cat is hungry, this is NOT ACCEPTABLE!

If I am really hungry, I start by meowing at the foot of the stairs. Then I head upstairs and scratch the laundry basket on the landing, very loudly. Then I jump on the human bed and walk around on my mum for a while. If that doesn't get her up and moving in the direction of the food bowls (it often doesn't - she is very lazy!), I have one tactic that never fails. I get on my dad's pillow and ruthlessly lick his hair.

It never fails. He can only take a minute or two of this before he is forced to save his hair by getting up and feeding me. He reckons his hair is getting thinner on top and it is all my fault. My mum says he is imagining it.

I think he kind of enjoys the attention really...

P.S. Our snow is all gone.

Frozen

2010-01-15T00:11:00.005Z

We can't believe how much it has snowed here this winter. Usually in London we might get about two days of snow each winter and it will melt pretty much soon afterwards. But we had some before Christmas and now we have had over a week of snow. Today it has finally started to melt because it is raining.

Last week my mum's school got closed by the snow (see previous post) and stayed closed for two and a half days, so I got to have a nice long weekend with her and lots of lap time.

I have hardly been outside in my garden because I do not like snow. It is too cold and wet. I only went out to investigate it once. That evil intruder kitty Marmite has been visiting. The snow doesn't seem to bother him much. Our back garden is covered in pawprints. You may remember that in the summer Marmite is obsessed with hanging around my pond trying to catch my newts. Here's a picture of my pond to remind us what summer looks like! This is what my pond has looked like for the last week: See those pawprints? Marmite has been walking around on top of the ice trying to see if there are any newts under it! The ice on the pond is quite thick, but he's crazy, that Marmite.

Wonder how long it is until summer?

Snow Day And Holiday Pictures

2010-01-06T22:38:00.004Z

Things have been quite exciting around here. There has been a lot more of this snow stuff falling out of the sky than we normally get in London. My mum went to school through the snow this morning but hardly any of the sticky little people she teaches turned up and the school got closed at lunchtime, so she got to come home and spend the afternoon with me! (She may have also spent some time playing in the snow in the back garden with that well-known pest, Marmite, but we won't mention that). This afternoon we had some more snow and now her school is closed tomorrow too so she gets to spend even more quality time with me! This is all quite strange since she had only just gone back to work after the holidays, but I'm not complaining.

I promised to show some more of my holiday pictures from my trip to Devon Grandma's. Here I am opening my Christmas stocking and looking at some presents...all edible. Greenies from some cat cousins of mine in Idaho and yummy luxury foods from my humans - mmm!

On Christmas Day my humans left me with Devon Grandma and went to Cornwall to see Cornish Grandma and Cornish Auntie. While they were there they went to the beach near where Cornish Auntie lives. It was sunny but cold.

Unfortunately they also spent time with Cornish Grandma's woofie. (He and I have met and we don't get on - I don't like woofies and he kept trying to LICK me - urgh!) Here he is looking disgusted at being made to wear tinsel, heh heh. When she came back my mum's trousers smelled of woofie, which I didn't like.

Meanwhile at Devon Grandma's house I saw this squirrel. He looked very tasty but I wasn't allowed to go out and meet him.

On the day before we went back to London, something very exciting happened! My Devon Grandma only lives a few miles away from those famous blogging cats, Milo and Alfie. Last year my humans went to visit Milo and Alfie. This Christmas, Milo and Alfie's humans came to have tea with me at Devon Grandma's! They were very nice and even brought presents. Here I am being cuddled by Milo and Alfie's dad. And here I am hanging out with Milo and Alfie's mum. She was very generous with the treats so we got on well together! I made sure I put plenty of floofy ginger furs on her black top so that she could take a souvenir of me back to Milo and Alfie. You can see some more pictures of their visit on Milo and Alfie's blog here.

Finally, here is me finding out that my holiday in Devon was over. I am giving my mum the laser eyes!

Oh well, it doesn't feel like the holidays are really over when tomorrow is a snow day! I wonder how many more snow days we will get this winter. Stay warm, every cat!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-02T00:16:00.004Z

Happy New Year to all my friends!

I am home in London now, after having lots of fun at my Devon Grandma's house. I made full use of her comfy sofas and warm radiators. Here I am enjoying her big red sofa. You can see how stressed out I was by travelling far from home.Devon Grandma also recovered well from the shock she got on the morning when I jumped on her pillow and licked her head. There is always lots of delicious food around at Devon Grandma's house and she finds it hard to resist my pleading eyes when I am begging for treats. Here I am thinking about all the food at Devon Grandma's house (and no, I was not interested in eating that plant!)

I was having such a good time at Devon Grandma's house that I was most upset on Wednesday when my humans started packing all our stuff into the car. I went and hid behind the red sofa but my mum cheated and used a trail of Greenies to lure me out. I crept out very cautiously from behind the sofa to eat the delicious Greenies, and the next thing I knew I was being picked up and thrust into the Evil Cat Carrier! I actually managed to get out again but not for long. I meowed piteously to Devon Grandma to save me, but next thing I was in the car and we were off home. Well, it is not so bad being home. I have rediscovered all my favourite places. My humans stayed home last night and saw the New Year in with cheese, crackers and champagne, and I got cheese! Any year that starts with cheese must be good, right?

I have more pictures of my Christmas holidays for my next post, because lots of stuff happened (I even met the humans belonging to some other blogging cats!) In the meantime, hope every cat has a very Happy New Year!

Boxing Day Update and Belated Happy Christmas!

2009-12-26T23:46:00.003Z

Well, here I am at Devon Grandma's house. Sorry I couldn't post yesterday to wish my friends a Merry Christmas, but hope you all had a good one. My humans and I drove from London to Devon on Wednesday. It was a slower journey than usual because of the weather and my humans got very tense because of the snow and the freezing fog and later the torrential rain - lots of cars were having accidents but my dad drove very carefully and we got to Devon Grandma's house safely in the end. I fell asleep in the Evil Cat Carrier and slept nearly all the way and my humans said I was extremely good and quiet.

I remembered Devon Grandma's house and I am happy to say that she still has all the cosy sofas and that there is still a very warm and comfy napping spot behind the red sofa next to the hot radiator! I have been spending a lot of time there.

On Christmas morning I checked my stocking and I found some tins of tuna and some other luxury foods for treats and a packet of Greenies sent from Mericky just for me! Edible presents are my favourite. Then my mum and dad went off to Cornwall to have Christmas dinner with Cornish Grandma and Cornish Auntie (who live about 2 hours' drive away). Devon Grandma went next door and had Christmas dinner with 12 other people and I looked after Devon Grandma's house for her. My humans stayed in Cornwall for the night so I was in charge of looking after Devon Grandma. She remembered to feed me at the right times so that was OK. This morning (Boxing Day) I woke up and I remembered my humans had gone to Cornwall so I found my way into Devon Grandma's bedroom and I jumped on her pillow and started licking her hair just like I do to my humans and I went "Meow, meow, breakfast please!" Devon Grandma got a bit of a fright because she is 80 and apparently she isn't used to large floofy cats on her head in the morning, but when she had calmed down she served my breakfast, so that was good! Then at lunchtime she was eating a turkey sandwich and I sat in front of her chair and looked really, really pleading and I got some TURKEY!!! After that my stomach was happy and full of turkey, so I had a nap until tea-time, when my humans arrived back from Cornwall and there was much hair-licking and happiness.

We are staying here until Wednesday when we go back to London so I will have lots more chances to try out the napping spots at Devon Grandma's house. My mum has taken some lovely Christmas photos of me but we can't upload them until we get back home. Hope everyone else is having as much Christmas fun as me!

A Christmas Journey

2009-12-21T23:48:00.004Z

Hmm. There are bags of presents in the living room. Bags of clothes in the bedroom. My dad is fretting about de-icing the car and my mum is making lists of Christmas items. I thought something was going on. Apparently tomorrow we are going on a long road trip to visit Devon Grandma for Christmas. This has happened before and you can read about my travels here and here and here. This means I will be thrown in the Evil Cat Carrier and put in the car along with a ton of luggage and presents, and will have to spend hours on the road. At least once I get to Devon Grandma's I know where the comfy sofas and the food bowls are at her house. Here is a map I made a while ago to show you where I am going:

On Christmas Day my humans are going a bit further down to Cornish Auntie's (mum's sister's) house for Christmas lunch, but I am staying at Devon Grandma's because it is more peaceful for me. Here's a picture of me on one of her sofas, I hope she still has this one!

We are not quite sure if we are going tomorrow because it has been snowing again and the roads are very icy; if it snows again we might have to wait till Wednesday to drive down. My mum sometimes has trouble getting an internet connection at Devon Grandma's, but I will blog when I can to let all my friends know when I have arrived. Wish me luck with all that travelling!

The Christmas Tree and the V-E-T!

2009-12-13T22:32:00.005Z

Last weekend I helped my mum to put up the Christmas tree and some decorations in our house. She had to get dad to stand on chairs and put up some high decorations because she is not allowed to stand on stuff like that any more in case she falls off and breaks her leg again.

I sniffed all the Christmas tree ornaments as they came out of the tins in the big box from the loft. My mum is a great one for buying tree ornaments in all the different places she visits, so they remind her of places she has been. We also have quite a few cat-themed ornaments. Here is our finished tree: And here are some of the cat ornaments we have. Guess which one is my favourite? I keep looking at this robin ornament. He looks quite tasty. Shame mum has put him so high up on the tree. (I don't have the figure for tree-climbing).And here I am doing a final inspection on the tree. I don't think she should buy many more ornaments or we will have to get a bigger tree. Not everything this week has been as much fun as tree decorating. On Friday evening I was peacefully dozing under the Christmas tree when I was picked up, thrown into the Evil Cat Carrier, put into the car and driven round the corner to see the Loud Australian V-e-t. It was that time of year again when I have those annual injections in the back of my neck. When the Loud Australian V-e-t tipped me out on to the table I climbed straight back into the Evil Cat Carrier again, heh heh heh. He did all his checks and said that I am in good shape and he was very impressed that my diabetes is still under good control. I have lost some more weight - when he weighed me a year ago I was 17 and a half pounds and now I am down to 15 and a half pounds, which is the lightest I have ever been since my humans adopted me 6 years ago. The v-e-t doesn't think I am qualified to call myself Skinny Eric yet, though.

Luckily the trip to the v-e-t did not take long, and I was soon back at home catching up on some naptime. There is one more week to go before my mum finishes school for the Christmas holidays. She has all sorts of stuff going on like Christmas shows and parties and card making with her class, but the v-e-t said she shouldn't forget to give me lots of grooming so that my floof is at its best for Christmas!

The Hard Stare

2009-12-06T23:46:00.002Z

The humans think I don't know that they've been out stuffing themselves with cream cakes while taking a break from Christmas shopping. I can smell the cream on their breaths! And did they bring any cream cakes home for me? NO!!! This is why I am giving them a very Hard Stare.

In other news, today I helped my mum to decorate the Christmas tree. Pictures to follow!

Easy Like Sunday

2009-11-29T22:23:00.003Z

Today it has pretty much rained VERY hard all day without stopping. A good day for staying indoors and keeping snuggly. My humans just had to go out once to go to the supermarket to buy food (including stinky goodness, very important!) - they came back very wet and grumpy and didn't go out again. My mum and I have had some good laptime this weekend, even though she has had lots of planning to do for school. She has a busy week coming up - important meetings, important people coming in to watch her teach, and she is taking her class on a trip on Thursday so she is really hoping it doesn't pour with rain on that day. But I am not accepting her busy-ness as an excuse to ignore my blogging requirements, of course!

Next weekend we are probably going to put up the Christmas decorations and my mum is starting her class Advent calendar this week. She has promised to help me to write all my Christmas cards. I have some excellent new cards this year with a picture of handsome ME on them. If I sent you a card last year, you will probably get one from me again this year (unless you have moved since then and changed your address without telling me!) If you've never had a card from me and you would like one, send me your address - there's a link to my human's e-mail on the Gorgeous Gingers page.

Quick check - yes, still raining outside! Might as well go back to sleep...zzzzz....

Annual Purr-furr-mance Review!

2009-11-23T23:34:00.003Z

Thanks to my friends at Zoolatry for passing on the Review Form for me to do an Annual Purr-furr-mance Review on my human. I have two humans but have decided to do the review on my main human, my mum.

1. QUANTITY OF OUTPUT: LOW

I can't help but feel that my human has got a bit lax about helping me blog lately. She's full of excuses about being busy doing work for school, or being tired, but that's just Not Good Enough. In fact, do you know that it is EIGHTEEN WHOLE DAYS since she last helped me to blog??? Outrageous! Especially since she's too lazy to help me blog but I notice she still has time to play on Facebook or other websites. I think that next year I may have to lay down some rules about how many blog posts I expect per week.

2. QUALITY OF OUTPUT: HIGH

Even though my human is lazy, let's face it, usually she is posting pictures of me and all pictures of me are always gorgeously ginger and fabulous.

3. CLIENT PAWTICIPATION: HIGH TO MEDIUM

I am happy that lots of my friends still come and visit me even though I don't get to post as often as I would like to. And I had lots and lots of comments on my recent birthday post which was lovely. But I still think my human needs to make an effort to help me post more so that all my friends can see more pictures of me and hear what I am up to! Plus she has been pretty lazy lately about making sure I get to join in Blogsphere events - she never got round to sending my picture to the Cat Blogosphere Calendar this year and I'm sure I've missed out on some good house-trashing parties.

4. CLIENT SATISFACTION: MEDIUM

Everyone likes to see pictures of gorgeous me, but my human needs to spend a lot more time making sure I get to visit all my friends' blogs. I haven't been to visit some of my friends for ages!

5. OVERALL RATING:

I am issuing a warning to my human that I expect her to put a lot more effort into taking pictures of me, posting said pictures for all my friends to admire, making sure I never again go EIGHTEEN WHOLE DAYS without posting anything, and making sure that I get to go and visit all my friends on a regular basis. This is in addition, of course, to her providing her usual services of feeding, litter box cleaning and long periods of providing laptime on the blue chair. Also I get to lick her hair whenever I feel like it. And get more tuna and shrimp. If she manages to keep to these conditions, I will give her another chance, but if there's no improvement, I may have to get myself another human assistant! She has been warned...

Remember Remember...

2009-11-05T21:37:00.003Z

...the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason and plot!

I see no reason why gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot!

I always like to post on Bonfire Night to remind everyone that here in the UK it is a special night when all the humans set off loads of noisy fireworks to remind themselves how Guy Fawkes failed to blow up the Houses of Parliament about 400 years ago.

It is a good night for fireworks tonight, dry and cold. My humans didn't go out to a fireworks display, they watched the big display at the Town Hall from our upstairs windows, we have a good view from there.

There are lots of bangs going off all over London. Some kitties get very scared by all the fireworks banging but I am not too bothered, I have been asleep most of the evening while all the bangs were going off. Zzzzzzz.....

Slim Eric?

2009-11-02T20:50:00.003Z

A big thank-you to all my friends who stopped by and left purrthday messages for me. I really appreciate it, and I am in the process of getting my lazy human to help me visit all of you. Even though she has just had a week's holiday from school, and I did get some extra lap time, she has spent very little time helping me blog. She has lots of different excuses - first we had a French friend to stay, then Cornish Auntie came (mum's sister) and they were off having fun and doing excessive amounts of shopping, plus she has been redesigning her school's website and thus hogging the computer...excuses, excuses!

Finally I made her take me out in the garden for a little photo session. Our garden is looking very autumnal but there are still a few summer flowers out. All our visitors lately have commented that I look like I have lost some more weight. Maybe soon everyone will be calling me Slim Eric instead of Fat Eric? What do you think?

Don't worry, I still have a healthy appetite and my diabetes is under good control. The v-e-t says I am very healthy and that sometimes plumper kitties do slim down a bit when they get older. Besides, it depends what position I am sitting in. In this photo, taken the same day, I don't look that slim at all!

Of course, as soon as my mum got the camera out in the garden, you can guess who turned up and started posing, hoping to get his photo taken too.

He's such a camera hog, that Marmite.

It's My 14th Purrthday!

2009-10-26T11:42:00.003Z

Yay! Do you know, last night I was wondering if my mum had forgotten it was going to be my purrthday today, but when I got GOURMET TUNA AND SHRIMP for breakfast this morning I realised she had remembered! She says we will celebrate properly with my presents this evening when dad gets back from climbing Snowdon.

Thank you to my friends who have already left purrthday wishes for me. I am officially 14 years old today, I think that qualifies me as a Geezer Kitty, don't you? My friend Derby sent me a fun e-card, thanks Derby! Milo and Alfie wanted to know why my Purrthday and Gotcha Days are celebrated on the same day - well, it's because my humans don't know my real Purrthday, because I was already 8 years old when they adopted me and Hattie from the cat sanctuary. So today is my Gotcha Day because it's exactly 6 years since I came to my forever home, but we celebrate it as my Purrthday too. Since my mum is on holiday from work today, I'm planning a full day of sitting on her lap and demanding Greenies. Come over for treats, everyone!

Farewell Beezer

2009-10-25T21:56:00.003Z

I had a post lined up today all ready to tell you stuff that's been going on - my mum is on holiday from school for a week, so lots of quality time with her lined up, my neighbour kitty Lofty is doing really well running round his house on three legs, my dad has gone off for the weekend with one of his French friends to climb Mount Snowdon in Wales, my Cornish Auntie had a birthday and that Evil Intruder Kitty Marmite is back and more of a pest than ever.

But I'm changing my post because I am sad today and so is my mum. We found out that my good friend Beezer has gone to the Rainbow Bridge.

Beezer was one of the founder members of the Gorgeous Gingers and he was one of the best ginger kitties I knew. We are very sorry that he got ill and had to go to the Bridge. I am sending lots of purrs to his mum because she is really sad.

Also today we heard that Kimiko and BG have gone to the Bridge too. It is a sad day in the Blogosphere. Give your humans a few extra purrs today.

Purrs Needed Please!

2009-10-16T20:43:00.003Z

We need some purrs for a kitty in trouble.

You've probably heard of my Uncle Andrew. He's a neighbour of ours and a friend of my humans. Sometimes when they abandon me and go away they leave Uncle Andrew in charge of coming over and feeding me, and he is pretty good at it (except for that time he forgot and I nearly starved but we don't talk about that...)

Anyway, Uncle Andrew has two kitties of his own at home. Lofty is a black and white tuxedo kitty and Panther is a black kitty. They have a cat flap in their door and they like to go out and roam about people's gardens, unlike me because I only go out in my own garden and then only when I am with my humans.

Something sad has happened to Lofty. One night recently he didn't come home at dinner time with Panther, and then he turned up very late that night injured and dragging his left hind leg. Uncle Andrew thinks he might have been hit by a car. Lofty was rushed to the emergency v-e-t and over the last week he has spent a lot of time first having surgery and then recovering. Now he is home being fussed over by his humans and given lots of treats, but poor Lofty had to have his leg amputated and part of his tail too. Although Uncle Andrew says Lofty has already learned how to run around the house on three legs when he is supposed to be resting. So far Uncle Andrew has paid £1300 in v-e-t's bills (that's about $2120 for my Mericky friends) but he doesn't mind the cost, he is just glad that Lofty is still with his family, even though we think he might have used up a few of his nine lives. Uncle Andrew says Lofty and Panther are grounded to their own garden for now, too.

Please send purrs to poor Lofty for a swift recovery as he learns to get around on three legs and purrs to his family who have all been very worried about him.

Autumn

2009-10-11T23:07:00.003Z

The nights are drawing in. The evenings are getting chilly. The leaves are falling. The caretaker at mum's school is muttering as he uses his leaf-blowing machine daily in the playground. Yes, autumn is definitely here.

Which means that in our house my humans are now seeing much less of this:

And, for the first time since May, more of this:

Yes, mum has started turning the radiators on in the evenings, which means it is time for me to rediscover my radiator bed. Mmm...cosy!

P.S. Thank you to all those who congratulated my dad on his 10k run. He is being good and keeping up his training even though he has done his big run. He is talking about doing a half-marathon next!

Dad's Big Weekend

2009-10-05T21:07:00.003Z

Well, there were good and bad things about the weekend just finished. The bad part was that my humans left on Saturday morning and didn't come back till Sunday evening. Once again I was left to rely on Uncle Andrew to come and feed me and keep me alive. I showed my displeasure by throwing up on the kitchen floor.

My humans spent the weekend in Brighton & Hove because on Sunday morning 2000 people were running 10 kilometres along the seafront to raise money for Cancer Research UK. My dad was one of them. He finished in 1 hour 10 minutes and raised about £400. Altogether the humans running 10k in Brighton this weekend raised about £130,000. I guess that is a good thing.

Even if it does mean abandoning the kitty for the weekend.

Waiting on Wednesday

2009-09-30T00:31:00.001Z

This picture tells a sad story.

All those weeks this summer that my mum was stuck in this blue chair with her broken leg up, playing with her laptop, watching daytime TV and providing a lovely comfortable lap for Dr. Eric to help heal her leg through the power of purrs...

And what do we see now?

The blue chair is still there. The other chair she was using as a footstool is still there. The laptop is still there. And the loyal kitty is still there. But no mum.

She is off at school, hobbling around on one crutch and ranting at her new class all day until she gets them trained up to her satisfaction. She is off out all day, failing to provide me with a lap. It's just like the bad old days before the Summer of the Stay-At-Home Mum with the Broken Leg.

Suppose I'll just keep the blue chair warm until she gets home...sigh.

Meow Like A Pirate Day!

2009-09-19T21:33:00.005Z

Arrrr...it be Meow Like A Pirate Day again, ahoy there! Wi' a yo ho ho and a bottle o' rum to all me shipmates...

Paws It Forward!

2009-09-13T20:54:00.005Z

My mum is just not making the effort to help me blog as often as I want to. And I'm not accepting her excuses about having to train her new class and getting tired by hobbling around on crutches at school, etc, etc. The least she can do after maiming me with the scissors (see previous post) is to help me blog! (And give me treats, obviously).

Anyway, the good news is that my injury is healing up nicely. I nearly had to go to the V-E-T because I kept licking at the cut on my hip and making it bleed again - in fact my mum had actually phoned and made an appointment at the V-E-T's! Of course, when I heard that I immediately stopped licking it and left it alone. Luckily for me, when she got home from work that evening my injury looked much better so she decided to cancel the V-E-T's appointment. Now I have a big bald patch with a scar in the middle of it, but it is healing OK now and the floof will soon grow back over it. I think scars are very Macho Kitty anyway. Thanks to all my friends for your concern over my well-being!

More good news! Look what I got in the post this week!

It's a parcel from Milo and Alfie! They sent it to me and my mum as part of the "Paws It Forward" gift-giving. Wasn't that kind of them? Here I am sniffing at the goodies.

Look what I got! Two different flavours of treats, a packet of mousies, some yummy foods...(check out my whiskers in this picture too, looking furry whiskery!)

...and a REAL seagull fev-ver from the beach at Sidmouth, previously played with by Milo and Alfie so it smelt furry furry interesting!

They also sent some goodies for my mum - a pretty candle and some coasters and a funny book with cartoons about kitties!

We are furry grateful for the kind Paws It Forward gifts from Milo, Alfie and their mum, and we want to say thank you and also send our best wishes to their mum Jan, who is going into hospital tomorrow to have her poorly leg treated (and we know it is no fun to have a poorly leg).

Many Purrs to them!

P.S. I will be sending some gifts to another kitty to continue the Paws It Forward chain, but I need to decide who to send them to first!

Injured!

2009-09-07T00:26:00.000Z

I am injured, and thus not looking my best on this Mancat Monday. Yesterday my mum was grooming me - she has been so busy in the last week coping with going back to work that my grooming regime has been affected. As you know, I have a very floofy, double-thickness coat and if I don't get enough combing, I get mats and knots in it. Well, my mum found out yesterday that (due to her neglect) I had a big enormous mat on my left hip. She combed and combed at it - I didn't really enjoy this but I tolerated it, even though it was a little bit painful with the comb pulling my furrs. But she still couldn't get all the mat out, so she resorted to trying to cut it out, and she SNIPPED MY SKIN!!! There was blood!!! And yes, she did feel VERY VERY GUILTY and apologise a lot. My humans are keeping an eye on the injury. It is not bad enough to go to the v-e-t as long as it heals up all right, but we need to make sure it does not get infected or anything. Please keep your paws crossed that my injury heals up soon, that my mum continues to ply me with extra treats to try to work off her extreme feelings of guilt, and that I do not have to go to the v-e-t.

Happy Mancat Monday!

Woeful Wednesday

2009-09-02T00:10:00.000Z

Oh woe is me. My mum has taken her leg and her crutches and gone back to school. No longer do I have a permanent daytime lap and human attention 24/7, it's back to the bad old days of guarding the house in the daytime and waiting for the humans to come home and feed me. Suppose I'll just have to while away the hours doing this:

To make matters worse, that evil intruder kitty Marmite is back after leaving me in peace for a while. Normality is restored...

Back To Normal

2009-08-22T21:19:00.003Z

Hooray. My humans are home from Devon, after doing a lot of celebrating of Devon Grandma's 80th purrthday. I survived with the help of Uncle Andrew. I am so glad that everything is back to normal now, and my humans have agreed to stay home for a long time after all their travels. I have recovered from kitty jail and I am used to being back in my own house now. It is nice sunny weather and my humans still have some holidays left. My dad has taken a few more days off work to play with me (well, I think he also wants to spend some more time with Uncle Sim before Uncle Sim goes back to Montana next week) and my mum has another week before she goes back to school (her leg still does not walk properly but she is going back anyway, with limitations).

My relatives from Mericky who came over for Devon Grandma's party remembered to bring supplies of Greenies with them, which is good. Here I am enjoying the sunshine with my Scratchy Mouse and thinking about delicious Greenies. My mum has been combing me because I got a bit matted while she was away. Don't I look handsome today?

And here are my two grandmas, Cornish Grandma on the left (mum's mum) and birthday girl Devon Grandma on the right (dad's mum). My mum was exhausted after a couple of days of purrthday celebrations, she can't keep up with the party pace set by Devon Grandma! So she is tired out, but that is OK because it means she just sits still and I get to purr and drool on her. Must get back to doing that now!

Abandoned AGAIN!

2009-08-15T23:16:00.003Z

So, the good news is that I survived the six nights in the kitty jail, where the staff were pretty nice to me, and on Friday morning my humans came and rescued me and took me home. I was very happy to be home, and even happier that my dad wouldn't let my mum adopt the two teeny black kittens who were working very hard to get taken home with us from the adoption section at the kitty jail. After I got home I demanded an enormous meal and then set about shedding my furs all over the suspiciously clean house, stinking up my litter box and making my garden smell less like Evil Intruder Kitties and more like me. I have also been catching up on laptime and spending a lot of time sitting on my mum (who is allowed to start putting some weight on her broken leg now but she still can't really walk on it so she is still relying on the crutches and the wheelchair, but that doesn't matter when it comes to giving a kitty his laptime, right?)

That's the good news. The bad news is that today, just when I was starting to feel at home again, I found out that my humans are abandoning me again! Tomorrow they are going down to Devon for three days to attend Devon Grandma's 80th birthday party on Monday (the party of the decade apparently). My mum thinks a car journey to Devon Grandma's would be too traumatic for me straight after the kitty jail, so I am staying home with Uncle Andrew coming round to feed me. But no laptime with my mum! *sob* How can they do this to me?

Devon Grandma's party is being held in a hotel in Sidmouth - the hotel is on the seafront and just a few streets away from Milo and Alfie's house. Lots of humans are coming from far and wide (including Uncle Sim and Aunty Jan from Montana), but it doesn't seem like kitties are invited!

My humans are going to pay dearly for all this neglect when they get back (my mum is going to owe me a lot of laptime!). However, I do love my Devon Grandma, so I would like to wish her a Happy 80th Purrthday anyway!

Noooooooooooooooooo!

2009-08-07T22:06:00.003Z

I can't believe it. The ingratitude. All these weeks I have been lavishing care and attention on my mum's leg, and how does she repay me? Tomorrow my humans are going off to North Yorkshire (despite the leg) and I get to spend six nights in the KITTY JAIL!!!

OK, so this is the kitty jail I went to last summer, where they treat me like a celebrity, but even so, it is deeply traumatic! And OK, so I get to take my Scratchy Mouse, a bag of Greenies, my Gizzy quilt and various other home comforts, but I'd rather be at home!

Think of me languishing in prison, my friends, until I get released next Friday...

Sunspot

2009-08-04T13:55:00.001Z

Mancat Monday

2009-07-27T09:15:00.000Z

Not much to report. I am worn out from taking care of my mum and her broken leg. Tomorrow it will be six weeks since her accident. Six weeks has taken a lot of napping, sitting on the mum, and generally making sure that she rests the leg like she is supposed to. Tomorrow she is going for another X-ray and to see the doctor again. If she is lucky he might say tomorrow that she can start putting some weight on the leg, and then she can start getting around better.

My dad abandoned us this weekend and went off adventuring in the Yorkshire Moors with some healthy friends of his. Luckily my mum is able to feed me and Uncle Paul (another friend of ours) very kindly came round and cleaned my litterbox and watered mum's plants, two things that she can't do because of her leg.

It's a tough job being a carer but some kitty has to do it. Zzzzzzz....

Murder And Mystery

2009-07-21T14:27:00.004Z

Oh yes, there has been murder and mystery around here!

The murder...at dawn one morning a magpie was found dead in the middle of our back lawn. There were feathers everywhere. Now a magpie is quite a large bird. What could have happened to it? (what with all those feathers everywhere, it didn't look like natural causes!) Well, it could have been a fox. Or an Evil Intruder Kitty. Obviously it wasn't me, because I am a pacifist non-hunting kitty and anyway I was locked in the house all night.

We do have a prime suspect...he says it wasn't him but he does have a previous history of catching frogs and birdies and even being caught before with feathers in the mouth...hmm...

So Marmite is the Prime Suspect but we can't prove anything...

The other mystery happened yesterday. There are two ways of getting out from our house into the back garden - one is through the kitchen door and one is through the patio window. Both were open yesterday afternoon while my mum and I were relaxing at home. Then, towards evening, it started to rain. My mum got up to shut the patio window. She looked outside and saw me asleep in my hiding place behind the flower pots. She thought "I will shut the window to keep the rain out, the kitchen door is open if Eric wants to come in." She shut the window and went into the kitchen. It started to rain really hard. She thought "I need to get Eric to come in or he will get all wet." She stood at the open kitchen door and rattled some treats and called "Eric, Eric, come inside!" But there was no sign of me appearing in the doorway. Then she heard a loud "MEW!" from behind her! She turned round and saw me in the kitchen mewing for the treats in her hand...but how did I GET there when the patio window was closed and she'd been watching for me at the kitchen door??? She is still confused by my mystical kitty teleporting powers!

I know the answer of course, but I'm not telling!

Eventful Week...And A Milestone

2009-07-14T17:48:00.003Z

It's only Tuesday, but it's been a very eventful week already in my house. Yesterday my dad was supposed to get up at 7.15 a.m. to get ready for work but for some reason his alarm clock didn't go off. But luckily I was feeling hungry so at 7.20 I jumped on him and meow-meowed, which made him wake up and then realise his alarm hadn't gone off. Usually he isn't thrilled when I jump on him first thing in the morning, but this time he was pleased and called me a good little alarm kitty! After he fed me, I went back upstairs and snuggled up with my mum for a bit, because since she has been off work with her broken leg she hasn't been getting up that early.

Unfortunately, my humans haven't been so pleased with me since. Last night I waited till they had just gone to bed and turned off the lights and then I felt hungry so I started banging the door of my litter box loudly to get some attention. But that didn't work, so then I started making loud yakking noises in the hall at the bottom of the stairs. My dad put the light on and stumbled downstairs and said bad words, because I did actually yak a little on the carpet. After he cleaned it up I jumped up and down in front of my empty food bowl because now my stomach was empty I was really hungry. And guess what? He actually gave me some food to get me to shut up! Then he went back to bed, muttering. I really own him!

This morning after he had gone to work I waited for my mum to get herself up and dressed and downstairs. She opened the patio window so I could go out in the garden if I wanted to, and then she hobbled into the kitchen on her crutches to make herself some breakfast. Suddenly I saw Skinny Ginger kitty (who hasn't been seen around my garden for more than 3 weeks), lurking outside the window. I went out to chase him away but he didn't run! Next thing I knew, a red mist descended on me and we were REALLY FIGHTING!!! My mum heard us making a loud noise and came (well, not running but hobbling at top broken-leg speed) and saw a big ball of ginger fur flying on the patio. She yelled at us and waved her crutches and I suddenly realised I was in trouble! I skulked indoors and tried to look innocent and Skinny did the same outside. My mum checked both of us but couldn't see any blood or injuries, just a lot of bits of fur. You won't believe this, kitties - she called me a big bully, and I was only trying to defend MY territory! I think I should get treats for that.

(old photo, no fighting pics available!)

Then I decided to play a new game with my mum, where she hobbles across the room to get to her armchair and I jump up on the chair just before she gets there! Heh heh, that is lots of fun because she has to try to dislodge me while still using her crutches to stand up. I did it three times running this morning, I don't think she finds it as funny as I do.

So as you can see, even though it is only Tuesday it has really been a very eventful week already. My mum is going to visit her class tomorrow afternoon for the first time since she broke her leg 4 weeks ago. They have been missing her, apparently. There is only one week of term left and then they won't be her class any more. She is going to see a show they are doing on Friday too.

Oh yes, I nearly forgot...this is my 400th post!

Wednesday Is Gingersday

2009-07-08T16:25:00.004Z

The heatwave from last week has gone and it's been raining a lot, so instead of using my favourite hiding place behind the plant pots, I've just been napping indoors and watching daytime TV with my mum.

Yesterday she went back to the hospital and they took off the plaster cast on her leg! They put on this big blue brace thing instead, so that she can start practising bending her knee again up to 50 degrees. But she still isn't allowed to put weight on her leg or take the brace off at all in the next three weeks, so it doesn't make a lot of difference to what she can and can't do. In three weeks they might let her start trying to put weight on the leg and bend it to 70 degrees. If she was a cat like me, maybe she'd be a lot more flexible, I can bend my legs in all directions, especially when I'm having a wash!

I prefer the new leg brace because it is nice and soft for me to lie on, unlike that cast which was rather hard and uncomfortable. Also, what with it being dark blue and having Velcro on it, it shows off my white and ginger furrs very very well when I shed them on it!

I don't think this leg brace is enough to heal the leg, though, so I'm still keeping up the purring. She can't run away from me so I'm able to get in some good licks too.

Schlurp! Schlurp!

P.S. I'm sending some purrs to Cornish Grandma too - she had an operation on her hand yesterday because it never healed properly after she broke it last summer. Now she is all plastered up and can't do much. I'd go and schlurp on her too if I could!

Floofy Friday - Where's Eric?

2009-07-03T14:51:00.003Z

It has been very hot in London this week. In fact, you won't believe this but on occasions my mum has refused to let me guard her and the leg by playing lapkitty - some excuse about "it's just too hot to have a warm furry kitty on my lap"! Luckily we have got an electric fan so mum and I have been spending a lot of time sitting in front of it. I have also found some shady places in the garden to get away from the sun. Can you see me in this picture? This is my new favourite hiding place. But I have to be careful in case dad decides to water the plant pots...last night I nearly got watered!

Easy Like Sunday With Dr. Eric

2009-06-28T13:49:00.004Z

Here I am guarding the broken leg, the mum, the crutches, the laptop...I have a lot of responsibility! She has a new cast on now (not the one in this picture) which doesn't include her foot in the cast, which makes her happy. It still goes all the way up from her ankle to the middle of her thigh. We have been sharing a lot of laptime and watching a lot of tennis this week. She has to go back to the hospital this week for another X-ray to make sure nothing has moved in her leg. The purring therapy continues...I will be worn out soon!

Monotony

2009-06-23T14:00:00.002Z

Well, not much to report. Thank you again for all the good wishes for my mum's broken leg. It is a week now since she did it. She is getting a bit annoyed with the hospital because she is supposed to be going there again any day, but the consultant can't make up his mind whether he wants to do an operation on her leg, or just put it in a different cast. So until he finishes looking at her scans and making up his mind, we are just waiting around. It is a bit monotonous but at least I get LOTS of lap time!

My dad is off work at the moment as he has been able to bring some work home from his office and take some leave to look after my mum and drive her to her appointments. So we all get up a bit later in the morning and eventually mum crawls downstairs on her bottom and gets to her armchair and then I sit on her. I help her eat the meals that dad makes and I snoopervise him doing the laundry and the cooking and the gardening and stuff.

The Wimbledon tennis is on, so mum and I have been watching that in the afternoons. It is nice and sunny, but mum is getting frustrated that she can't go and do things to her plants in the garden. Also she has some pictures on the camera of me looking after her leg, but she hasn't been able to download them yet on the upstairs computer because it is much harder for her to use than the laptop (because her plaster cast doesn't fit under the desk), and dad doesn't know how to do photo things on the computer. So here's an older picture of me looking cute and floofy. Do not worry, I have the situation well under control!

By the way, we have not seen the Skinny One for a week, I know he is an Evil Intruder but I hope he is OK...

International Box Day

2009-06-19T10:04:00.005Z

Today, all the kitties at the Cat Blogosphere are celebrating International Box Day and posting pictures of themselves in boxes. I have had a look through my pictures - I haven't been in any boxes recently but I found some old pictures.

Five and a half years ago when my humans moved house, our house was full of boxes of books until the bookshelves got put up. The piles of boxes were very good for sitting on and snoopervising. Here I am with my sister Hattie sitting on the boxes.

And here I am sitting in a box which my mum was about to use for posting some presents to Cornish Grandma. A purrfect fit, don't you think?

And this is still one of my mum's all-time favourite pictures...me sleeping upside down in a box!

Thank you very much for all the purrs and good wishes for mum's broken leg. She had the CAT scan done on it yesterday and now she has to wait till the consultant has looked at the scan results. She is all set up in a chair with her leg up on another chair and all the things she needs laid out within reach, like the phone and the laptop and TV remotes and me, of course, on permanant standby for lap-time! We really appreciate everyone's good wishes.

Happy International Box Day, everyone!

Weird Stuff Going On - Purrs Needed!

2009-06-17T17:26:00.002Z

Wednesday should be Gingersday, but weird stuff has been going on here. Yesterday my humans both got up and went off to work as usual. My mum goes to work at her school, which is only about 15 mins from our house, and my dad gets the train to work in central London. I was doing my normal weekday routine of napping, snacking, bathing and looking out of the window to check for Evil Intruder Kitties, not expecting my mum to get back from work till about 5 p.m., but then weird stuff happened!

First my dad arrived home much too early at about 2.30 p.m., and he hardly stopped to talk to me before he got the car and went off again. Then about an hour later he came back in the car with my mum, but she had this weird white plaster cast all down her left leg, and was using these scary metal sticks to walk! I ran away from those clomping metal sticks straight away. Then when she wanted to go upstairs she had to crawl up on her bottom, which seemed to be a big effort. Then she went to bed and didn't get up again until this morning.

Apparently she was at school and her class had just gone off to the hall to have lunch. She decided to hang their artwork from the ceiling and - stupid mum! - she stood on one of the classroom tables to do it. When she went to step down from the table on to a chair, the chair tipped over and she fell down on the floor with her leg stuck in the chair legs. Then she found she couldn't get up again and she had to call one of her colleagues who was walking past the door. Twenty minutes later she was on her way to hospital in an ambulance! Silly mum broke her leg! Now she is fed up because she has to drag this heavy plaster cast round. She has to go back tomorrow to have a CAT scan (wonder what sort of kitty that is?) I have done some purring on her already, but I think this broken leg thingy could go on for some weeks, I may need extra help from my friends to maintain a 24-hour purring rota!

P.S. I suppose I should look on the bright side - dad gets to do all the cat feeding and the litter box cleaning, and mum will be off work for weeks so think of all that extra mum-time I will get, and all that extra lap time!

MIDNIGHT MONDAY WITH ME, MARMITE, THE GREAT HUNTER!

2009-06-15T00:35:00.000Z

HELLO, MARMITE FANS! GUESS WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY? NEVER A DULL MOMENT WITH ME AROUND, YOU KNOW! WELL, IT WAS A SUNNY SUNDAY SO OF COURSE I WAS RELAXING IN THE FAT GINGER CAT'S GARDEN. EVEN THOUGH IT WAS SO LOVELY AND SUNNY, HE WAS INDOORS WATCHING TENNIS WITH HIS DAD, CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT? THE FAT GINGER CAT'S MUM WAS OUT IN THE GARDEN HANGING UP SOME WASHING ON THE SPINNING CLOTHES LINE THINGY. SO I DECIDED TO GO ON ANOTHER NEWT HUNT. I WAS SNEAKING ACROSS THE ROCKS ABOVE THE POND, WHEN GUESS WHAT I SAW? A REALLY BIG JUICY FROGGY HIDING UNDER THOSE ROCKS TO GET OUT OF THE SUN! HE WAS NO MATCH FOR A FANTASTIC HUNTER LIKE ME, IN NO TIME I HAD POUNCED AND GOT HIM IN MY MIGHTY JAWS!

THAT FROGGY DID PUT UP A BIT OF A FIGHT AND THERE WAS A COMMOTION WHICH ATTRACTED THE ATTENTION OF THE FAT GINGER CAT'S MUM! I RAN OVER TO HER WITH FROGGY IN MY JAWS, EXPECTING HER TO BE IMPRESSED WITH MY HUNTING SKILLS, BUT FOR SOME REASON SHE WAS CROSS WITH ME! SHE YELLED AT ME AND MADE ME DROP THE FROGGY AND SHE GRABBED HIM UP! THEN - YOU WON'T BELIEVE THIS, MARMITE FANS! - SHE CHECKED HIM OVER FOR WOUNDS (I HADN'T HAD TIME TO CHOMP ANY HOLES IN HIM YET SO HE WAS STILL PRETTY HEALTHY, JUST A BIT SHOCKED!) AND SHE PUT HIM IN THE POND AND LET HIM ESCAPE! WHAT A WASTE OF MY AMAZING HUNTING EFFORTS!

TO MAKE THINGS WORSE, THEN THE FAT GINGER CAT CAME OUTSIDE AND CHASED ME AWAY AND LAID BY THE POND FOR THE REST OF THE AFTERNOON SO THAT I COULDN'T GO BACK AND FIND THAT FROGGY AGAIN! NEVER MIND, MAYBE I'LL SNEAK BACK TOMORROW AND HAVE ANOTHER GO! SEE YOU LATER, MARMITE FANS!

Me And My Shadow

2009-06-12T20:15:00.003Z

After a week of miserable weather, the sun has come out again, yay! Now I can contemplate my shadow again when relaxing on the human bed.

I realised that I have not yet shown off the amazing cushion my Cornish Auntie made for us. Isn't it lovely?

Cornish Auntie is so clever and she sewed nearly all of it by hand. So many stitches!

I think she should make cushions for all of us kitties! Thank you Cornish Auntie!

Appalling Crime!

2009-06-07T17:40:00.004Z

The story I am about to tell may shock you. It is a true story about an appalling crime that took place here recently!

This is Spike, who lives with our neighbours. You see that innocent-looking face? Do not be fooled!
It was supposed to be rainy all day but in the morning there was some unexpected sunshine. My mum decided to get some gardening done and went out to weed a flowerbed. I stayed inside snoopervising my dad painting the bannisters.

While my mum was pulling up clumps of grass that aren't supposed to grow in the flowerbed, Spike turned up and started nosing about to see what she was doing. Then he started playing a game with her where she held up long pieces of grass and he started batting at them. (Yes, I know, he is an Evil Intruder Kitty and has no business to be playing games in my garden at all!) He seemed to be enjoying playing with the long grasses so much that my mum decided to stop gardening and keep playing with him. She went and fetched one of my feather sticks, the yellow one that looks like this. I usually play with the blue one so I haven't played with the yellow one for a while.

My mum took the yellow feather stick out on to the patio and started playing with Spike. He was having a great time, jumping up for the feathers. My mum called my dad to come and look at him jumping up. Then...do you know what happened?

HE SNATCHED THE FEATHER STICK IN HIS TEETH AND RAN AWAY AND JUMPED OVER THE FENCE AND TOOK THE FEATHER STICK BACK TO HIS OWN HOUSE!!! AND IT WAS MINE! HE STOLE IT AND HE IS A BIG THIEF!!!

What makes it worse, when they saw him stealing the feather stick my humans were falling about laughing because they thought it was FUNNY!!!

My mum went next door to talk to the neighbours, who had been a bit surprised when they saw Spike coming home carrying a yellow feather stick. And do you know what? My mum said that if Spike liked the feather stick so much, he could keep it because I had others and I didn't really need it.

I AM OUTRAGED!!! What next - is Marmite going to come round and steal my Gizzy Quilt??? Where will this crime wave end?

In The Garden

2009-06-04T20:07:00.003Z

This week has been very odd weather-wise. First we had a heatwave. Then it cooled down again. I am glad it has cooled down a bit because when it was very hot I was not comfortable being out in the garden in my floofy furrs.

We have lots of flowers out at the moment. The alliums have finished now but they were very pretty.

My mum likes the giant poppies. We have had lots and lots this year.

And there are lots of roses out at the moment.

I have been checking out good places to lurk in the garden - finding hiding places from which I can leap out at any Evil Intruder Kitties. They won't spot me lurking here...

The caterpillars which were staying with us during the half-term holiday turned into chrysalises and my mum took them back to school. Yesterday they started hatching out into butterflies! Tomorrow my mum's class are going to release them and let them fly away. I wonder if any of them will fly here to live in my garden?

On Guard

2009-06-01T21:53:00.003Z

Well. Thank you for all the sympathy I got after the terrrible Falling In The Pond incident last week. As you know, not only was I traumatised but then I was unable to blog for a week due to my cold-hearted human's decision to go gallivanting off to Barcelona with Cornish Auntie when she should have been soothing my fevered brow.

Anyway, my mum is back, suntanned and full of stories about how she saw some famous footballers, and now she is moaning about being tired and having to go back to work today, but I insisted she helped me blog. After all, she did abandon me and leave me in charge of looking after my dad, the plants, the house and the school caterpillars, I think I deserve some attention now! We all survived fine without her (um, except for one of the caterpillars...R.I.P. little fellow!)

I'm sure you could guess that it was that Marmite's fault that I fell in the pond. What happened was that I caught him trying to catch my newts again. I chased him and, trying to get away from me, he did a big leap and jumped right over the pond to the other side. I followed him but, well...let's just say I did a big leap but didn't quite make it all the way across. Although I jumped straight out again, I was very wet and dirty and cross. (The newts were quite upset too). It took me a couple of days' hard grooming but I am back to my usual floofy self now.

It has been very hot here for the last few days. We have lots of flowers in the garden, I will try to post some flower pictures soon. After the Pond Incident I have been guarding the newts around the clock. Here you can see me combining a nap in the sun with newt-guarding...

Even when it gets dark I am ready to do my bit to protect the newts from Marmite! Notice I am employing the laser eyes too.

Just wait till the next time he comes round...

Help!

2009-05-25T13:52:00.002Z

Help!

This is turning into a day I would rather forget.

First I find out that my mum is abandoning me AGAIN - she has the week off school for half-term holidays, but instead of staying at home to pamper me, she is flying off to Barcelona this evening with Cornish Auntie for a girlie trip, and not coming back till Friday. I am being left in charge of looking after my dad, the house, the newts, the plants and even the 10 caterpillars which belong to my mum's class which have come to our house for the holidays. It's a lot of responsibility!

Second, I was lazing in the sunshine in my garden this morning when I saw that pest Marmite terrorising the newts in the pond again. I chased him away, and SOMEHOW, (my humans didn't see it but I'm sure it was all Marmite's fault), I ACTUALLY FELL INTO THE POND!!!!!!!!!! This has never happened to me before, and now I am all wet and dirty and not allowed into the house until I have dried off a bit. My mum even tried to spray my muddy paws with the hose!!! The horror! I have been provided with some Greenies to try to make me feel better but really my nerves are extremely shaken! Is this the time for her to abandon me???

Help!

Happy Purrthday, ML!

2009-05-23T23:18:00.003Z

ML does so much to help keep the Cat Blogosphere running! I'd like to send her many purrs for a very happy purrthday!

Freaky Friday

2009-05-22T22:44:00.001Z

Aaaaarrrrgggghhhh - there's two of him!!!

CCSI V - Day Two

2009-05-21T22:31:00.003Z

The conclusion of CCSI V is showing now at Sassy's page! I feel honoured to have played Detective Skeeter. Hope you all had fun watching it!

A Purrthday Wish For Auntie Deb - And Stardom For Me!

2009-05-19T23:12:00.003Z

I just wanted to join in with my Cat Blogosphere friends in wishing Auntie Deb a furry happy purrthday. Many happy returns, Auntie Deb!

Plus, I have some exciting news. Did you know I am appearing in the new CCSI5 production? I am playing Detective Skeeter! I hope it goes well! I have been given this special badge for being a cast member.

The show starts tomorrow!

Multi Mancat Monday - Captions Please!

2009-05-18T00:05:00.000Z

Saturday Caturday

2009-05-15T23:14:00.003Z

I haven't been allowed to blog for a few days because I ate grass and then yakked on one of my mum's books (and the carpet). Not that I've been put off from nomming the yummy green grass...

My mum has a streaming cold and keeps sneezing and coughing, which is very disturbing if I am trying to sit on her because she doesn't keep still. It is raining too, so we will probably have a quiet weekend in while she drinks Lemsip and snivels into countless tissues. My dad keeps making jokes about swine flu. He thinks he is so funny!

Of course, it is Eurovision tomorrow night, so we have to do the traditional sitting in front of the TV for 3 hours laughing at the bizarre costumes and strange songs and wondering how many points the UK will get this year. My humans and I always enjoy that.

Lots of cat-related news stories this week:

Here's one about a kitty who wants to be a film star.

Click here to read about another kitty who did something furry dangerous!

This is a story about a grumpy floofy cat who somehow travelled far from home...

And here are some funny pictures of a kitten being pestered by a budgie!

Hope your humans are less germ-infested than mine and you don't have so much rain. Have a good weekend!

Marmite Goes Newt-Hunting

2009-05-11T20:33:00.006Z

HELLO, MARMITE FANS! DID YOU MISS ME? DID YOU THINK I HAD NOT HAD ENOUGH BLOGJACKING TIME LATELY??? WELL, TODAY I GET MY CHANCE! THE FAT GINGER CAT HAS BEEN GROUNDED FROM BLOGGING AFTER HE YAKKED UP GRASS (YES THE SAME GRASS HE WAS NOMMING IN THE PREVIOUS POST) - ANYWAY, HE YAKKED UP GRASS ON THE CARPET AND ON THE RUG AND EVEN ON THE BOOK HIS MUM WAS READING! HEH HEH HEH!

SO I EXPECT YOU ARE WONDERING WHAT I HAVE BEEN DOING LATELY, EXCEPT FOR NOMMING TEMPTATIONS? I HAVE GOT A NEW HOBBY! YOU SEE, IN THE POND IN THE FAT GINGER CAT'S GARDEN THERE ARE ALL THESE LITTLE NEWTY THINGS THAT LOOK LIKE THIS...

AND I REALLY REALLY WANT TO CATCH A NEWTY THING SO I HAVE BEEN SPENDING HOURS TRYING. FIRST I GET UP ON THE ROCKERY AND LURK WHERE THE NEWTY THINGS CAN'T SEE ME. THEN I CREEP DOWN TOWARDS THE WATER VERY SLOWLY SO THEY WON'T HEAR ME COMING!

I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO TEACH MY BFF SPIKE HOW TO DO THIS BUT HE IS SCARED THE NEWTY THINGS WILL ATTACK HIM. SPIKE IS A BIT OF A WUSS SOMETIMES!

THEN I SIT VERY STILL AND WAIT TILL I SEE A LITTLE NEWTY THING SWIMMING PAST.

WHEN I SEE ONE I TRY TO POUNCE ON IT BUT SOMEHOW THE NEWTY THINGS ALWAYS MANAGE TO GET AWAY AND I KEEP ENDING UP WITH A WET PAW. DON'T WORRY THOUGH, I AM NOT GIVING UP UNTIL I CATCH ONE!

THE FAT GINGER CAT'S MUM DOES NOT LIKE ME TRYING TO CATCH THE NEWTY THINGS. SHE THINKS I AM MAKING THEM FEEL STRESSED! SO I TRY TO DO MY NEWT-FISHING WHEN SHE IS NOT LOOKING...

BUT SOMETIMES SHE CATCHES US IN THE ACT!

Among The Bluebells

2009-05-06T18:45:00.003Z

Don't worry, I am only nomming the grass, not the bluebells. Bluebells don't taste good but they look pretty.

Easy Like A Ginger Sunday

2009-05-03T15:05:00.005Z

A busy day in my garden today. My mum was gardening (mostly weeding and cutting the grass), my dad was giving my mum's bicycle a spring overhaul, and I was sitting in the warm sunshine. Apparently the humans are growing carrots in this red tub as an experiment. I wonder if they will grow? I examined the tub closely. I will keep you updated on whether the carrots grow.

Meanwhile there was more than one ginger in the garden...the Skinny One was sunbathing by the pond. He really does have the skinniest tail I have ever seen. Not at all like my floofy tail! Earlier I had chased the neighbour kitty (and sidekick of Marmite) Spike out of the garden. I gave Skinny a hard stare... ...but decided it was too warm and I could not be bothered to chase him. Actually I have been wondering lately if I need a sidekick of my own, since Marmite has one. My mum thinks I have been developing some tolerance for Skinny. Maybe I could start a Ginger Posse? He certainly is very skinny! Uh-oh, what is that I see? It's that dratted Spike back again. Go away Spike, there is not room for three cats snoozing in this garden, and you are the wrong colour to belong to my Ginger Posse. OK, he's gone away, back to sunbathing and snoozing for the Ginger Posse.

Sunshine And A Bank Holiday Coming

2009-04-30T23:22:00.004Z

My humans have spent too much time working this week and not enough time making a fuss of me, but at least we have got some nice sunshine. My mum planted baby vegetables last weekend and there are lots of flowers out in the garden, including mum's favourite of all, the lilac, which smells really nice just outside the patio windows. I have been able to spend some time sunning myself outside, in between chasing off a few Evil Intruder Cats. The weatherman on the BBC tonight said it was going to be a nice summer this year, not like the last two rainy summers.

There are lots of cats recently who have sent me their pictures to put on the Gorgeous Gingers page. I'm sorry they're still waiting - my human staff are slow about doing these things. But this weekend is a long weekend (my humans get next Monday off work for May Bank Holiday), so I will make my mum spend some time helping me get the Gorgeous Gingers page up to date.

We love bank holidays!

Farewell Oreo

2009-04-28T18:00:00.003Z

A long time ago, when I started blogging, Oreo was one of the first blogging kitties I met. Lately he had been away from blogging, but he will be much missed in the blogosphere. His final post is very moving. His mum is missing him very much.

Farewell, Oreo.

Anyone There?

2009-04-26T14:58:00.003Z

HELLO? HELLO? ANYONE HOME? IT'S ME, MARMITE, AND MY BFF, SPIKE KITTY FROM NEXT DOOR! WE'VE COME ROUND LOOKING FOR TEMPTATIONS.

Marmite, I think they must be out. There's no answer.

NO, I CAN DEFINITELY SEE SOMEONE THROUGH THE GLASS, SPIKE! MAYBE THE FAT GINGER KITTY'S MUM IS SO BUSY SNUGGLING WITH HIM THAT SHE HASN'T NOTICED US STANDING HERE OUTSIDE THE BACK DOOR?

Maybe we should try mewing to attract her attention? Mew! Mew! Mew!

MEW! MEW! MEW!

HOORAY, IT WORKED! LOOK SPIKE, TEMPTATIONS!

Nom, nom, nom...I hope the fat ginger kitty doesn't come outside and catch us!

She's home!

2009-04-25T22:05:00.002Z

PURRRRRRRRR PURRRRRRRRR PURRRRRRRRR PURRRRRRRRR PURRRRRRRRR PURRRRRRRRR

Ginger Cat Gossip

2009-04-19T17:48:00.003Z

Oh hey there, it's me, Skinny...anyone home? I just came round to see if there was any food going.

Hey, thanks! Nom, nom, nom...delicious! Fat Eric's humans serve the best stinky goodness! Go away, Tiny Tuxie, you are not skinny so you don't get to eat any of this!

Hi, Eric, how's it going? You look a little upset.

What? Your mum is abandoning you AGAIN! That's outrageous! She's leaving tomorrow morning to spend a week with 28 children on an activity holiday in Norfolk? Instead of spending time with you and your dad? No wonder you look upset!

Will there still be stinky goodness available for me with your mum away? There will? Yay! Well, maybe you would like me to come round and keep you company while your mum is away? Us gingers must stick together, you know.

What She Saw

2009-04-17T17:29:00.004Z

I haven't been blogging much this week but I have been enjoying lots and lots of quality time with my mum since she has still been on school holidays. Also I get some extra foods because she is home at lunchtime (normally she is out all day) and I can play the pitiful hungry kitty who cannot possibly wait till normal dinner time for something to keep me going. It has been quite sunny (until today, when it is raining), so I have been helping her with some gardening, and I have got to sit on her lap a lot when she is playing on the computer or reading or watching TV, or just lying around doing nothing. We have been doing a lot of that too.

I have helped her download her pictures from last week when she went to see Cornish Auntie and Cornish Grandma. I thought you might like to see a few of them.

This is from the day they went to Penzance. As you can see it was quite sunny, but not warm enough for a dip in the open air pool!

While they were in Penzance they saw a vintage clothes shop called Kitt's Corner. Look closely in that shop window. Can you see a gorgeous ginger kitty? Oh yes, and you can probably see my mum taking the photo too.

This is the kitty who works in the clothes shop. Who wouldn't want to buy that dress he is advertising?

This is Falmouth where Cornish Grandma volunteers as a guide at the Maritime Museum. They have got a special exhibition on there at the moment about the Titanic.

And this is the village where Cornish Grandma lives and where my mum grew up.

Wait a minute! That's that Scottish woofie of Cornish Grandma's that I can't stand! (We had to spend Christmas in the same house one year, it was one of the most traumatic experiences of my life, he kept trying to LICK me! *shudder*)

So that's what she saw in Cornwall. Now I need to catch up on doing nothing again and make the most of the last few days of her holiday. Have a nice weekend!

Purring

2009-04-13T22:49:00.003Z

Well, after nearly five whole days my mum finally came home. My dad told her I was emotionally needy while she was away. For some reason he didn't appreciate me climbing into bed with him at 5 a.m. each morning, wrapping myself round his head for company and patting him on the eyelid. I thought it was cute and endearing and would stop him from getting lonely!

Since she got home I have been mostly sitting on her and purring. Of course, because of her neglect I was unable to visit my friends and wish them a happy Easter, so please consider this a belated Easter greeting! At least she didn't make me take part in an embarrassing Easter picture like this one from last year.

To make up for being neglected over Easter I made her post this video of me - here I am doing some blogging at the computer - as usual, there's some loud purring going on, so turn up your volume!

Woeful Wednesday - Abandoned!

2009-04-08T00:12:00.000Z

My mum is abandoning me for four whole days on the flimsy excuse that she wants to go down to Cornwall to see Cornish Grandma and Cornish Auntie while she is on holiday from school.

I thought I had made it clear that holidays from school are for spending quality time with the kitty!

My dad still has to go to work every day so he will be here to feed me - he is quite generous with the food and Greenies, but his lap is not as comfy and he just doesn't provide the level of cuddling, scritches, kisses and general adoration I require on a daily basis!

How could she? I will have to think of a way to punish her when she gets back on Sunday - after I've finished licking her, that is.

Presenting...The Official Rogues' Gallery of Evil Intruder Kitties!

2009-04-06T00:28:00.000Z

Many times I have complained about the Evil Intruder Kitties in my garden, and it may be confusing for some of my friends sorting out who is who, so I thought I would do a Rogues' Gallery so that if you see any of them lurking near your garden, you will be on the alert!

You will be shocked when you see what I have to put up with...here we go!

1) Top of the list, of course, for reasons of sheer persistence - that little black pest, Marmite. He's a daily visitor, and gets everywhere - on the shed, by the pond, meowing for treats by the back door, sunbathing by the rhubarb, striking photogenic poses...he has no shame! The only revenge I can get is revealing that his own humans call him Kitty (snigger)...no wonder he wants to hang out with my humans, who have much cooler taste in names!

2) This is Skinny, also known as Skinny Ginger - my mum tried calling him Arthur but Skinny kind of stuck. He turned up at the kitchen door one day, over a year ago, wearing a blue collar and so skinny that mum could feel all his bones sticking out. My mum fed him but then he left. She thought maybe he had got lost. A few months ago he turned up again, without the collar and still really skinny. Now he visits regularly but not every day; he only turns up for breakfast about three times a week so we think he is getting fed somewhere else too, otherwise he would stick around here more. He must be part Meezer because he meezes and meezes very loudly for some of my stinky goodness and then he scoffs it down immediately. He thinks it's OK to rub all over my mum, purring, and I've even seen him out in the garden jumping on her lap when she was sitting on the steps. He tries to come in the house too if the door's open. The only good thing about him from my point of view is that he doesn't like Marmite and will chase him away if they both show up at the same time. He's the only Evil Intruder Cat who eats my stinky goodness, so he's a major threat!

3) This is Spike, our neighbour kitty. He comes in our garden a few times a week, and the humans never feed him because they know he has a great home of his own, so I wouldn't mind him so much, except that he has poor taste in friends...he likes to hang out with the black terror, Marmite. He has also been known to try to come into my kitchen. He is quite nosy. Spike is scared of Skinny.

4) This is tuxie Juliet, who lives with our neighbours on the other side. She is one of the few girl kitties in the neighbourhood. She comes in my garden several times a day but she is very shy of humans except her own, so if she sees one of my humans coming outside, she runs straight back to her own garden. However, she has been known to hang out with Skinny and a few other cats. Juliet is not her real name, but she gets called that now because Romeo is in love with her. Who's Romeo? Read on...

5) The floofy black kitty sitting under Juliet's window is Romeo, who lives several houses away with a nice man. He doesn't often come into my garden but he spends a lot of time in Juliet's garden, because he leuuurves her. He likes to sit under her window or on her front doorstep most nights. We're not sure why he loves her so much because they've both had the "-ectomy" operations which should have cooled their ardour. Romeo runs away from my humans and at least he doesn't come scrounging for food! He is a bit of a sad case really with his hopeless passion for Juliet. And he is scared of Marmite - what a wimp! 6) This is Big Tuxie. He is the strong silent type. He patrols the neighbourhood and has scars from his many fights. He runs away from my humans. He is difficult to photograph, but this was taken on a very warm day when he had let his guard down and was relaxing under a bush in my garden.

7) This is Tiny Tuxie, a recent arrival. We don't know much about him/her yet, except that he/she is quite young. Used to be very shy, but then he/she turned up here and saw Skinny nomming a plateful of my stinky goodness and since then he/she has been coming round looking hopeful.

8) This is Tuxie Three - only an occasional visitor and runs away from my humans, so I'm not too concerned about him.

9) This is Mysterious Thin Grey Tabby With Bell. Doesn't come into my garden very often but is seen hiding behind walls and fences up and down the street. Very shy and wears a very loud jingly bell, so you can always hear him/her going past - quite often being chased by the Very Mean Kitty.

10) We don't have a picture of the Very Mean Kitty but he is Bad News. He is floofy and dark brown with a big strange faded yellow patch on one side and lots of scars from fighting. He terrorises cats far and wide but luckily he has only been in my garden about twice. One time he cornered Juliet behind the shed and my mum had to rescue her by chasing him away. Another time Romeo had to go to the v-e-t because he got beaten up by the Very Mean Kitty. He is a Very Mean Kitty and should be avoided at all costs.

Phew! No wonder I am exhausted from monitoring the Evil Intruder Kitty situation! Now you know who is who, please help me keep an eye on them!

Some More Springtime Photos

2009-04-02T22:29:00.004Z

Well, I found out that those scary big cats in my last post were actually at this place, which my humans visited on the Special Birthday Weekend in the countryside. And my humans have no plans to bring any big cats home in the near future. Phew.

My mum has been ignoring my blogging and cuddling needs this week, pretending to be too busy to give me as much attention as I deserve. However, tomorrow is her last day of school and then she gets two weeks of Easter holidays, so I hope she is going to devote herself to my needs for a while! She says she needs to do lots of work on the garden, although it is looking quite pretty and flowery already. Last weekend we changed our clocks to British Summer Time so it stays light in the evenings for longer and we have been enjoying some nice sunny evenings and sniffing the flowers.

Here is a colourful part of the back garden.

Here are some flowers just next to our front door - pink hyacinths, yellow forsythia, blue grape hyacinths, and in that pot in about a week there should be some yellow tulips out (there is another pot of yellow tulips on the other side of the front door).

Here I am coming in up the steps from my evening stroll around the garden. I am looking a bit grumpy in this picture because I have just been sniffing too many Evil Intruder Kitty smells in my personal garden. You can see some nice evening sunshine shining on me though.

And here is the best picture my mum has ever taken of Isaac Newt, who lives in our pond with about 20 of his friends and relations. He is underwater in this picture, chilling out on the edge of a pot which has a minature water lilly plant in it. The water is very clear at the moment because my mum cleaned out the pond the other day.

Coming soon...I will be presenting the official Rogues' Gallery of Evil Intruder Kitties! Hope everyone has a nice Friday even if their humans are not getting two weeks' holiday!

What the...???

2009-03-30T23:57:00.002Z

Well, my humans came back from the Special Birthday Weekend. Having been abandoned for one whole night, I have been punishing them ever since by insisting on sitting on them at all opportunities because I am feeling emotionally needy.

Then I thought I would check my mum's camera to make sure she had not been unfaithful to me with other kitties during the weekend. I was shocked at what I found!

Um...I think they are kitties, but what the...???

The Big Four-Oh

2009-03-27T22:57:00.004Z

Today is my mum's purrthday, she is trying to come to terms with something called "the big four-oh". Not quite sure why humans get so upset about this! Her colleagues forced her to wear a big pink birthday badge around school all day and they crept into her classroom during lunchtime and put up balloons. She got a lot of presents and I helped her with the wrapping paper which was fun. Also she fell off her healthy eating wagon for one day and the humans had brownies and ice cream for dessert. Ice cream! There hasn't been any of that in our house for months due to her health kick. I sat and watched them eating and drooled until I was allowed to lick out the tub. Also I was given some gourmet tuna and shrimp stinky goodness for dinner as it was a special day - YUMMY!!!

My dad is taking her away for a surprise weekend trip but they will only be away for one night. Uncle Andrew is on a mission again to make sure I get fed. Bet he won't be giving me ice cream though! I hope I hear all about the surprise trip when they get back!

My mum had some amazing cat-related gifts which I am going to try to post pictures of when the humans get back. I hope the weather gets better because our sunshine has disappeared and we have icy winds now instead. Happy weekend everyone!

Wordy Wednesday

2009-03-25T08:00:00.001Z

Mother's Day

2009-03-22T23:08:00.003Z

Today was Mother's Day here in the UK, I hope all my fellow-British kitty friends have been spending some quality snuggling time with their mums today. We sent cards and flowers to Cornish Grandma and Devon Grandma and I am sending them virtual snuggles as I am not able to sit on them and purr in purrson today because they live too far away.

We have had another really lovely sunny day, I know I keep going on about the sunshine but it is so nice to have it. My humans spent most of the day outside in the garden doing stuff. My dad was doing something with a broken chair and a drill and bits of metal and screws and lots of bad word-saying. My mum mowed the grass for the first time this spring and did some weeding and I sat on the patio in the sunshine and gave her moral support. There was a pleasing lack of Evil Intruder Kitties interrupting our relaxing day.

I gave my mum some extra licks for Mother's Day - if you need reminding of how I like to lick her, check out the video here.

We are expecting another busy week. My dad has moved to a new department at his work and he has lots of work to do. My mum is only teaching her class for three days this week because she is going on a first-aid course on Wednesday and Thursday. And - don't tell anyone because it's a secret - she has a big birthday next Friday with a 0 on the end which she is trying to keep quiet but my dad and I are planning a big surprise! Shh!

Floofy Friday

2009-03-20T00:05:00.000Z

Still sunny - it's been sunny all week! The birds are still singing, the flowers are still blooming. Reg the Hedge, our visiting hedgehog, has woken up and has been seen mooching round the bushes in the late evenings. There are some large bright yellow bushes in our garden called forsythia which are very colourful at the moment. You can see a bit of yellow forsythia behind me in this picture as I sit enjoying a few rays of sunshine. There are also a great many Evil Intruder Kitties enjoying the sunshine in my garden, but I refuse to give them any blog time today! Maybe I'll do a Rogues' Gallery next week and you can see just what I have to put up with...

Still, it's sunny! And it's almost the weekend! And it smells like spring! Yay!

Sunshine

2009-03-16T22:49:00.003Z

We had a lovely warm sunny weekend here. Apparently it was about 15 degrees C in London yesterday afternoon, that's about 59 F for my Mericky friends. The birds were singing, the spring flowers were flowering, everything smelt nice and I ventured outside to soak up a few rays in my garden. My mum was doing gardening. I helped until she started cleaning out the pond, covering everything in splashes of dirty water and buckets of stinky mud - then I went inside to nap because that was too messy for me. I did see that little pest Marmite "helping" her though - he nearly fell in the pond at one stage through being too nosy for his own good.

I want to thank some of my friends for giving me awards. I will get my lazy human to help me post about those very soon. She is too busy panicking this evening about taking her class on a trip into central London tomorrow (they're going here), but after that's over I will insist on more blogging time.

It's supposed to stay sunny and spring-like here all week - hope it's nice for all my friends too!

Finally Friday

2009-03-13T18:56:00.003Z

I'm exhausted! It's been a long hard week of sleeping, eating, purring and sitting on my human every night when she collapsed, claiming to be over-worked. And then I have to get up early every morning to jump on my humans and lick them awake, in case they are so tired that they sleep through their alarm clocks.

I'm so exhausted that I barely have the energy to keep defending my garden from the hordes of Evil Intruder Kitties.

You-Know-Who doesn't run away any more when I look at him, he just pretends to be a bush in the hope that I won't spot him hiding in my garden.

Any suggestions for getting rid of the little pest? *sigh*

MIDNIGHT MONDAY BLOGJACKING WITH ME, MARMITE, AND MY NEW BFF!

2009-03-09T22:30:00.004Z

DID YOU MISS ME, MARMITE FANS? DON'T WORRY, I'M STILL AROUND AND I HAVE SOME EXCITING NEWS!

THERE I WAS A FEW DAYS AGO HELPING THE FAT GINGER CAT'S MUM. SHE WAS DOING SOMETHING IN THE GARAGE WITH GARDENING STUFF NOW THAT IT'S GETTING MORE SPRINGLIKE, AND I WAS HANGING OUT IN THE GARAGE TO KEEP HER COMPANY. I THINK THE FAT GINGER CAT WAS SNORING INDOORS BY THE RADIATOR - HE IS SO LAZY!!!

ANYWAY, I WAS BEING ALL HELPFUL AND STUFF AND THEN THIS OTHER CAT CAME BY AND SAID HI. HE SAID HIS NAME WAS SPIKE AND HE HAD MOVED IN NEXT DOOR TO THE FAT GINGER CAT. I TOLD HIM I DIDN'T *OFFICIALLY* LIVE WITH THE FAT GINGER CAT BUT I LIKE TO HANG OUT THERE AND LOOK AFTER THE FAT GINGER CAT'S MUM.

SPIKE SEEMS LIKE A FUN KITTY, SO FIRST I SHOWED HIM ROUND THE GARAGE.

THEN I TOOK HIM TO THE PATIO AND SHOWED HIM WHERE TO SNIFF AROUND TO MAKE SURE NO TEMPTATIONS HAVE BEEN DROPPED THERE. I TOLD HIM IF HE HUNG OUT HERE WITH ME, HE WOULD PROBABLY GET SOME TEMPTATIONS FROM THE FAT GINGER CAT'S MUM, JUST LIKE I DO! AND THEY ARE REALLY NOMMY!

SPIKE AND I BOTH LIKE HANGING OUT IN THE FAT GINGER CAT'S GARDEN, SO WE HAVE DECIDED TO BE BEST FRIENDS! IT'S GREAT TO HAVE A BEST FRIEND! MEOW!

LOOK WHAT I GOT!!!

2009-03-06T18:32:00.005Z

It's a box from Derby! And it smells very interesting!

There are GREENIES in this box! I can smell them!

LOOK! Look at all these Greenies! I'm almost fainting from pleasure. I was getting worried because I only had half a bag left of the Greenies I got for Christmas. Mmm...I see some bags of my favourite Tempting Tuna flavour...

Yummy! I'm drooling and licking my lips, looking forward to scoffing all these delicious Greenies!

Schlurp!

Derby, you're such a good friend! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

Weird Wednesday

2009-03-04T23:57:00.004Z

My mum didn't have to go to school to teach the sticky little people today. Instead, she was on something called a "training course" which meant that she got home an hour and a half earlier than normal - yay! So we enjoyed some extra quality time together. As it was sunny we went out in the garden and took some pictures of the spring flowers we have got so far. I thought that some of my friends who are still up to their tails in snow might like to see them.

The big daffodils aren't out yet but the little narcissi are.

The snowdrops and the yellow crocuses (croci?) are already finished but there are lots of purple ones.

These are some polyanthus mum bought at the weekend to cheer up an empty pot.

There are lots of little wild violets which mum didn't plant, they just grow all over the place.

These crocuses are on the wall by the front gate.

I noticed that some new grass had started growing in the flowerbeds where there isn't supposed to be any grass, so I tasted some just to see if it was nice. *nom nom nom*

Then something weird happened. We went indoors after taking pictures of spring flowers in the sunshine. About 10 minutes later there was a massive clap of thunder and all this hail started falling out of the sky. Within a few minutes everything was covered in white hailstones! Including the poor flowers.

A few minutes later the sun came out again and the hail all melted. So, even though it is looking like spring here, the weather is being pretty weird!

Squillion Day - Mandy and Mini

2009-02-28T20:49:00.000Z

Hello, Mandy Squillion here. It is Squillion Day again in the Cat Blogosphere, so Fat Eric is letting me blog today. Can you believe it is nearly three years since Derby and Virginger sent me all the way from Mericky to live with Fat Eric? Later I was joined by my friend Mini Squillion, who was sent to us by Monty Q.

Mini and I are currently spending our days sitting just inside the patio doors, where we can monitor events inside and outside the house. We have noticed an escalation lately in the level of Evil Intruder Kitty activity outside. That Marmite is the worst offender. We saw him just yesterday again, calmly doing kitty yoga on the patio like he owned the place!

But it's not just Marmite we've seen, there have been at least 8 different cats visiting the garden in the last week, including the new neighbour kitty. No wonder Fat Eric is stressed out. At least he has friends like us!

Happy Squillion Day, everyone!

Cousins

2009-02-25T23:20:00.004Z

My regular visitors will know that I have an Uncle Sim who lives far away in Mericky. He is my dad's brother who got kidnapped and married by a lady from Mericky a long time ago and now he lives in Montana, but sometimes he comes to see me and sometimes he sends me Greenies!

Well, my Uncle Sim in Montana has been owned by two cats for a while, and they are brothers called Fred and Barney. My humans met them when they went to visit Uncle Sim. Barney is a bit neurotic and goes crazy when he has to go to the v-e-t. He is also banned from catnip because he has been known to get a bit vicious with his humans when he is 'nipped up. Fred is more easy-going but not exactly famous for his brainpower, if you know what I mean. They like to hang out together a lot.

I think my Mericky cousins are feeling like they want to get in on some of my blogging celebrity. They just signed up to the Gorgeous Gingers group, so I added their picture to that page. I think they should get their own blog, don't you? All I have to do is persuade Uncle Sim or Auntie Jan to help them type...

Here are some pictures of my Mericky cousins! (Barney is the slightly darker ginger).

Reunited

2009-02-23T22:36:00.003Z

My humans, having abandoned me for the weekend while they were off enjoying themselves in Sussex, have returned. I survived, but only thanks to Uncle Andrew remembering to come and feed me.

I have lots of photos and interesting stuff to post but my human claims to be too busy doing school stuff to help me post.

However, dad got the video camera out to prove how happy I was that my humans came home. This is how my humans can expect to be licked every time we are reunited! I love licking my humans...(and I hope you can hear the purring too)

Abandoned!

2009-02-19T21:05:00.004Z

I knew it was too good to be true, my mum staying home during the whole of her half-term holiday week and giving me quality time...

The humans are abandoning me! My so-called mum and dad have decided that enjoying themselves in Sussex for the weekend is more important than spending time making a fuss of ME! They really need to sort out their priorities!

They are leaving tomorrow morning (Friday) and coming back on Sunday afternoon. I am being left to the tender mercies of Uncle Andrew, who has promised to come in and feed me...I just hope he remembers! Otherwise I'm leaving home!

I will just have to spend the weekend sleeping and glaring out of the window at the massed hordes of Evil Intruder Kitties.

I'm sulking now.

P.S. If anyone's interested, my humans are going here - my mum thought that as my dad is crazy about trains, he would like it as a birthday present...but she hasn't told him yet that they're sleeping in a railway carriage!

Wednesday Is Gingersday

2009-02-18T17:50:00.003Z

Trying to forget about the Evil Intruder Kitties swarming all over my garden, I have persuaded my mum to use some of her holiday time to help me update the Gorgeous Gingers page. There are now approximately 93 Gorgeous Gingers on the page...and that is a LOT of ginger gorgeousness! Maybe soon we can make it to a round 100 Gingers?

On a sadder note, some very special Gingers have been moved over to the Rainbow Gingers page. This is a place to pay tribute to Gingers who have gone to the Bridge, like my sister Hattie, and more recently, Mr. Kelly Cat, Skeeter and Winton, among others.

Let me introduce you to a new friend of mine, Rusty. He looks like me! Don't you think? You can visit him at his blog here. Go over and say hi!

Also, if you want a good laugh, take a look at this video from the BBC website. I hope my Mericky friends won't be too offended, but it's made by a British journalist who clearly thinks that some Mericky cat people are a little...weird...heh heh. It's about a Cat Training School...what do they think we are...dogs???

Tabby Terror On Tuesday

2009-02-17T15:28:00.005Z

I might have known...my mum opened the back door into the garden and guess who was sitting on the wall between our house and our neighbour's house, peering nosily through the window into our kitchen?

I don't like to seem unfriendly to the new neighbours, but how many times do I have to say this??? It's MY GARDEN!!! And that includes the wall!!!