Cat toys

You know how you buy a kid a present and all it wants to do is play with the box? Yeah, cats are like that too. People laugh at us when they come to our house as there are so many cat toys lying around, unloved and not played with. It's a bit like Toy Story 2.

And then there are the things the cats do like to play with. This ranges from curtain hooks and rolls of sellotape to the night that Nathan chewed up and swallowed a polystyrene packing bead. That was...interesting.

A pen falls from the bed, and two cats are present:

"Mai pen!"
"Really, brother? I think it may be MY pen!"



"MAI PEN!"
"...Well, if you're sure..."



"Iz mai pen. I ritez to hoomins wiv pen. Asks for more foodz. Yes."



(sorry they are so blurry!)

Off the roof

This morning we let the cats out on to the roof again, because it's funny.

Being cats, they didn't do what they did before, oh no.

Natalie set off for the neighbours':



She came back quite promptly, because she's a good girl. Sometimes. (I really don't live in a forest, really.)

They had a good look around, exploring the boundaries:



But what are boundaries to a cat? Note Nathan having a bloody good look over the edge of the roof;



A very good look over the edge:


No, of *course* he won't go over the edge, we thought, and went about our morning business.

Except, he disappeared. He wasn't on our roof, and he wasn't on the neighbour's roof. He wasn't on the floor outside the window (and I was concerned about splattage. Not nice.) Where had he gone?

Feeling a bit worried, I fed Natalie and Nathan would usually run like the clappers at the merest hint there was a human in the kitchen, let alone that cat food was being issued.

But he did not return.

I took the food up to the bedroom and put it on the windowsill.

No cat.
No Nathan.
Where could he be?

I guess the next exercise will be to let them out and then watch from the outside where they go. In a world where it stops raining. But he did come back, crying for his breakfast.

Naughty cat.

Kitchen pests

The cats are on a diet, because they are too fat. I almost wish someone would control my food in a similar way and then maybe my clothes would fit.

Sadly, I am in charge, and eat far too much rubbish, and if I wasn't in control, I'd probably behave a little like the cats do at the moment.

Because they are cats, and have very small brains, they are capable of association but not much else. They understand that kitchen means food, but not much more than that. They come and beg, much like a dog, regardless of what you're doing. Nathan is particularly bad for it, often rushing in from outside on the off-chance he'll get some chicken.

He does this at first, staring up at you:



Then he stretches up, to get a better view. When I took this picture, I was chopping up garlic, surely not his favourite?



(Do you like my slippers?)
We shout "down" at him and he gets down, for about 30 seconds and then he's up again. It's quite sweet, but also a bit dangerous when you don't notice him and I kicked Natalie in the face when she was doing this last week. I felt a bit bad about that.

Sometimes, I accidentally drop or throw them a piece of food just to prove to them that they won't like the melon/carrot/cup of tea that I'm preparing.

It doesn't always work:

I dropped one tortello (of tortellini, I think) which had gorgonzola and walnut in it. Far too strong for a cat, thought I, of course she'll ignore it. Of course she didn't. She gobbled it up!



Natalie is also the cat that does naughty things, but in a very "what, me?" sort of way. Nathan will jump down when you shout. Natalie just looks at you in a "Problem? Keep the noise down, please" kind of way.

Up she jumps, to have an investigate:



(Yeah, our kitchen isn't finished. You stop noticing after a few weeks)
You shout "DOWN!" and she just...carries on...



Anything for food. Greedy gutses.

Up on the roof

We like to think we are considerate cat owners, feeding the cats properly, keeping their litter clean, trying to make sure they don't go out on to the road. Stuff like that.

But more and more, I think that life with two cats is much like life with a toddler. They will seek out danger wherever they can.

It's been warm on and off the last couple of weeks and we've been sleeping with the bedroom window open by varying degrees. One morning it was very hot in our room and so I flung the window open wide before going out to work.

Now, as we have previously seen, the cats quite enjoy sitting on a windowsill looking out, and particularly looking out of the window from our room which is directly opposite a tree where sparrows live. I forgot about this before I went out.

Turns out, the cats were just waiting for their opportunity to explore the other side of this particular window and R managed to get these shots of them checking out some high-rise living:



Natalie's all like, what? Why are you *always* taking pictures of me? Yes, my little feet are sloping away from under me. What's the beef?



It makes you feel great when your cat appears to be assessing whether to make the jump from a first floor roof. Don't do it Natalie!



I got this set of photos through via email at work and when my colleague heard my sharp intake of breath she said, "What's wrong, has someone died?!"

Lepidoptera

The cats don't usually like the bathroom. It probably smells a bit weird and has a strange shiny floor.

But it's summer now, which means that when the light is on in the bathroom, moths cluster at the window, trying to get to the light which they think is the moon.

Cats like catching moths, and Natalie, who is on a diet, likes eating moths.

She'll go to some lengths to get at one.

First, getting into the sink to ease access to the window:



Then exploring what exactly is going on behind that glass:



Are there any here?



Or here?



Here they are! And sadly inaccessible. She gave it her all though:



And what of Nathan? Well, our good little boy just stood sentry:



He also brought me a frog tonight. I wish I could be pleased about that.

Ranidaphobia II

Today it is R's birthday. Happy birthday R!

As we are quite a casual sort of household, R was looking up things on the internet in our bedroom this morning, whilst I watched a Lebanese film downstairs in the living room. Casual, like I say.

I heard a cat come in and do the "mew mew, I'm here" thing that they do. I called out hello and waited for the cat to come in. It didn't, but carried on mewing so I went into the hall to investigate.

What I found HORRIFIED me, and I was extremely relieved she had not come into the living room.

Natalie had come in with a frog, and was proudly proclaiming this wonderful gift she'd brought in.

I think you know the drill:

"Rob, I need you!"
"What is it?"
"She's brought in a frog!"

Weirdly, she wasn't playing with it, just lying sort of curled around it. Rob went off to the get the cat litter shovel and I waited in the living room with the door shut if the frog started having ideas about breathing and leaping and vile things like that.

Rob returned and suggested it was my fault that the cat had brought in a frog, because I had given them ideas about appropriate toys. He held this toy up to the crack in the door that I was looking through.



Seeing an ersatz frog so close to my face sent me into the screaming ab-dabs. I slammed the door, screamed very loudly and ran up and down the living room like someone who really really doesn't like frogs. Damm me buying that toy.

So then R had to get rid of the frog. But, the frog had gone. Where had it gone?! It was dead, wasn't it? No, it wasn't. Remember the cat's kidney problems? And the little cups of water around the house?

Yep, the frog had jumped into one of the water bowls.



OMG!

This little dive into water had apparently refreshed it, and it jumped into Natalie's face, scaring her into running away from her prize. Stupid cat.

Rob managed to get it back into the cup and then I had to be really brave and leave the living room to open the back door to let Rob dispose of the frog in the garden. After last time with the spade, I made sure he had his hand very firmly over the cup before exiting and helping him outside.

The cats are banned from the main part of the house for the rest of the day.

Happy birthday Rob!