That's my spot

Our cats are lucky enough to have their own penthouse in our home. It's like a granny flat, but for cats.

They have a "cat gym" in said penthouse.



Every so often we need to clean out their room. This involves removing all the toys, bed, litter trays, mats and other cat accoutrements to give it a good mop and tidy up.

As it's been unseasonably warm lately, we put the stuff outside this time.

Natalie didn't see any reason to change her usual sleeping spot.



Once she got her head the fact that all of her familiar possessions were in a different place she was quite happy:



And did what she usually does in her spot. She went to sleep.

Of cats and creatures

No posts from me for a while. There hasn't been much to say about the cats lately, and I've been a bit busy to do a couple of posts that are about wider issues around cat ownership.

All there is to say about the cats is a) they are being very naughty and b) they keep bringing things in.

On Thursday Natalie brought a mouse in for me. It wasn't dead, ran across the room towards me, inducing me to produce a blood-curdling screamm that made Rob think I was being attacked. Oops. But it was a mouse! IN THE HOUSE! She went out with it, but then came back in to play with it in their room, growling extensively at Nathan when he tried to get a paw in.

Then she ate it. Cats are such delights.

This morning, Natalie was on our bed, having a very companionable lie-in when I heard the cat flap going and the familiar "thud thud" of a cat tossing some poor unfortunate creature around. It was Nathan with a bird, and I had foolishly left my bag down there, creating a bird-my handbag interaction. Not impressed.

Natalie and I went down to shoo him out, which made him growl at her and they had a bit of a standoff, which I broke. It was scary though, as I didn't know if he'd go for me, bird and all.

Oh, and as they're on a diet, they've turned into velociraptors. Last night I ate my dinner and they actually did a pincer movement on me (after opening the door!) one going in front of me and my plate, and the other behind. I ended up barricading the door with my handweights to keep them out! Who knows what they'll do next.

Pictures soon...

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!

Me and my girl

Natalie has a bit of a little routine. In the mornings she gets fed. She goes outside to do her abulutions and then she comes back in. If she's in the mood, she'll get on our bed and have a little snooze with whoever is lucky enough to have a lie in. Sometimes, she just goes out to play all day.

At some point during the day, both of them with come in "talking" to us. I'm not sure how to describe the cry - it's more of a cry than a mew, but we generally respond with "hello!". If one of us is upstairs and calls them, they come up to see us there. It's sweet. (Nathan is doing it to me now, sounding a bit distressed. But I don't speak cat, and he doesn't speak English so I'll just carry on.)

Natalie likes to come in and cuddle up with me. I like to watch television in the living room with my feet up, usually with a blanket over me as it gets a bit cold in here.

She starts off curled up next to my legs:



She might check out what's on the telly:



Or just have a stretch:



And if I'm really lucky, I'll be invited to rub her tummy:



Hard life, being a cat.

Update

There's a couple of things I think it would be useful to note today.

The first is Nathan's health and how his rodent ulcers are going. Towards the end of May, his top lip began to swell and a scab came up. As we were going away, and wouldn't be in a position to take him to the vet for a biopsy if it did come up badly, we decided to give him some steroids to bring it down. We had a catsitter who was also able to pill him and we gave him a low dose. In the middle of reducing the dose he did his disappearing act so we couldn't complete the reduction but he didn't seem to have any ill-effect.

Since then, he's been absolutely fine. We've been very firm on not giving him any food other than the hypoallergenic stuff and really made sure that the flea control is done properly and in a timely fashion. I'm glad he's OK for now.

The second thing to update is both of their kidneys! After the visit to the vet a couple of weeks ago, we went out and got them some high quality wet food. Although we wonder if part of Nathan's allergy was caused by flea bites, I also think that some cat food has so much "stuff" in it that it may also be the trigger for the ulcers. We need to give them wet food to bring down the concentration of their urine (nice, I know) and to encourage them to take more fluid on board. This food has only got meat, rice and water in it and nothing else so it shouldn't cause Nathan any problems.

It's working out pretty good as they both love it, particularly Nathan. On Friday morning I was preparing it and he sprayed on the kitchen floor, which wasn't very nice. So now I keep them behind a door while I'm getting it ready (adding water and forking it apart).



I'll try to get a shot of them standing up against the glass and mewing. It's very pitiful. And silly, because of course I'm about to give them the food!

And finally, was that they were being overfed and Natalie in particularly needed to lose some weight. The vet said if there was a scale of cat weight thus:

0 = malnourished feral cat ---------5 = perfect weight ---------9 = morbidly obese

Nathan is a 6 and Natalie an 8. So, she needed to lose some chub! She really didn't like the reduction in food at first, she got really quite intense and odd while she was in the house and in her interactions with us. I was concerned that it would lead to them being competitive over food. Nathan eats very quickly and tends to finish his then start on hers. But she comes in for extra food, and I try to make sure it's done fairly when I have time to stand over them and remove Nathan when she's only half way through and he's finished his. I think she's beginning to look a bit trimmer and I hope gradually she'll be as sleek as Nathan. I will miss her fatness though, Nathan is so boney, stroking him doesn't feel quite so nice.

Bringing things in...

Today I was sitting in the living room, having the first Saturday at home for a while when I heard a strange rustling. A very strange rustling. The only thing it could be was the cats. investigating or as I like to call it, up to no good.

Off I went to investigate myself and I found them doing this:



Same photo, more or less as the last post. That's my umbrella and my bike bag/pannier and cable lock next to them. I wondered what could be so interesting about my umbrella.

Nothing was interesting about my umbrella, there was something *in* the umbrella, most likely put there by the naughty cats.

"R, I need you"
"Why?"
"The cats have brought something in. What if it's another frog??!!"

R came down to investigate and attempt to reduce my rising panic. Natalie ran away, a little, but Nathan was not giving up whatever the umbrella contained:



I made him going away, using the tool used by cat owners everywhere. My foot.

R shook out the umbrella - what do you think it was? Another frog? A bird? A mouse?

Natalie was delighted by the easy access this offered:



It was none of the above. It was a butterfly. Now, butterflies are EXTRAORDINARILY precious and the fact that the cats had caught one, brought it in and were basically torturing it was very upsetting. We kept them away and it crawled up the side of the stairs off the carpet. We decided that, although its wings were a bit mangled, we'd take it out of the house. Here's a shot:



Those bright colours are suggesting to me that it doesn't taste of chicken. Cats are so thick.
At first, I thought it was a red admiral but it wasn't and I have no idea how to identify it.

So, we took it outside and returned to our Saturday morning activities.

Shortly afterwards, I heard the rustling again. The little buggers had got it back in!

We rescued it again, even more mangled, but clinging on to life. Poor poor butterfly! I gave it some sugar solution but its wings are so damaged, I don't think there's much hope. I can't bring myself to put it out of its misery but at least it's not being tortured any more.

Here's a little pic of it:


Cats will be cats, but I don't always have to be pleased about it. And if they'd just bring in a mouse, I'd be quite pleased.

Ranidaphobia

I don't recommend reading this post if you are of a nervous disposition.

Every now and again, the cats do something that looks a bit like this:


You and I might call that investigating. And when they are doing this, very little good can come of it.

Earlier this week, I was going from my bedroom to the bathroom to brush my teeth. It was quite late at night and the cats had been in for about an hour. During this two foot journey, I looked down at the foot of the stairs and noticed the cats investigating something. At first, I thought it was one of their catnip mice. But they're bored of them, what was it that was fascinating them so much?

It seemed to have a long tail, like a mouse - perhaps they'd finally caught one of the mice we hear scratching about in the walls every night?

Then I noticed it had two long bits. Like legs. Legs with two knees.

IT WAS A FROG.

Now, we must digress for a moment to explain about me and frogs. As a child, there were neighbours who had ponds in their gardens, and in these gardens resided frogs. And as we all know, frogs feel the need to have HUNDREDS of children. Known as froglets when they stop being tadpoles. And these froglets must leave the parent pond and go forth in to the world, only returning to create more evil spawn. So our garden became something of a froglet highway. There they'd be, night after night, hopping erratically across our garden. One of our friends once picked up a frog and brought it into our house and it leaped at me. A FROG LEAPED AT ME. This is not allowed. And ever since then, I cannot have a frog anywhere near me. I don't like looking at pictures of them, I don't think they're cute and I definitely do not want a frog anywhere near me where possible (strangely "foreign" frogs are fine, and I do think poison arrow frogs are quite sweet, being all blue and orange. In the zoo. Behind glass.).

So, let's go back to that evening, where the cats were investigating a frog. IN MY HOUSE.

I called out, "R, I need you". I must've sounded quite frantic as he appeared straightaway.

"What is it?"

"The cats have a FROG! Do something!" (there was swearing, but this is a family show)

I stood at the top of the stairs, wringing my hands like someone who doesn't want frogs in her house. R got the catlitter spade and scooped the frog up. On closer examination, it proved to be alive.

There was a LIVE frog in the house. Dead frogs are one thing, but one that's breathing? Breathing frogs JUMP. This was just getting worse!

Then I had to go and help by corraling the cats away from the back door so R could flick it into the garden. He explained what he wanted me to do, by gesticulating with the spade. The spade with a frog on the end of it.

There was more swearing. Finally it was over.

We then debriefed the incident with me explaining not to stick spades with frogs on the end of them in my face as I will scream and do swearing. R understood. We also mulled over how a frog appeared in the house, an hour after the cats had last been outside.

I realised they must have brought the frog in earlier in the day, it had hidden somewhere, then revealed itself for further playtime. Naturally, the thought made me feel sick. What if there were more frogs in the house? What if every nook and cranny was hiding a traumatised frog? It was enough to make me want a very long hot shower and a flamethrower.

R calmed me down, but the cats are now excluded from the house when we're not in. That hasn't stopped them though...

Slightly Poorly Cats

I've noticed a couple of times over the last little while that the litter has had a bit of a pinkish tinge to it in the morning. I wasn't really sure what to make of it, but then, luckily, I read this post, as tweeted via @VitalPetHealth on Twitter.

So I booked them in with the vet. I was a little concerned that I was over-reacting, and would go down as a bit of a weirdo, having taken Nathan in with a burgeoning rodent ulcer to be told in no uncertain terms that he was fine and medicating him was unnecessary.

I kept them this morning as the appointment was in the afternoon and they're hard to get in unless they really want to, or they're hungry.

It's been a tough day. Nathan sat by the back door for about two hours, just mournfully staring at the handle. Then he came into the living room where I was watching telly and did this:



I really do think it looks like he's trying to figure out how to open the window! (We don't actually live in a forest, btw.)

I went out for a while and they were sleeping when I got back. That didn't last long, as then they both came in and started looking mournfully out of the window:



They're both looking at me in that photo, but trust me, there was some longing staring going on!

I really hoped there was nothing wrong, but I know that kidney problems can get very nasty in cats, and we can afford to pay for the peace of mind.

We both really like the vet and thankfully we didn't have to wait too long. Last time we waited about 40 minutes and there was a big dog in the waiting room scaring Nathan to death. There were some seriously sweaty paws during that visit.

So in we went, and explained the problem. The vet explained that female cats get cystitis, which hurts but doesn't cause too many problems. Male cats get blockages, I think that was crystals. Google will tell you. He could feel their bladders and explained that the way to check if there was anything wrong was to take a sample of urine. From their bladders. WITH A NEEDLE.

I was a bit taken aback and was wondering about general anaesthetics and things. But, it's brisk business, this vet lark, so in came a nurse and he took urine from both of their bladders, easy as pie! I know if someone stuck a needle in my bladder you'd know about it in Shanghai, but they were both beautifully behaved, although good old Natalie got her leg up to make it difficult. That's my girl.

Turns out both of them have highly concentrated urine, and Nathan's contained blood. So I'm very glad that I do cast an eye over the litter as I change it, and that they do use it at home. Phew. He's on the cusp of an infection, and she's pretty close too, so we've got to try to get as much fluid into them as possible. They are not drinking enough for their body mass, which means their bladders fill with highly concentrated urine which causes problems. The dry food makes it worse as it doesn't contain any fluid which would help with their moisture intake. The vet said it was quite unusual to see cats before the infection kicks in, so I'm pretty pleased with myself for spotting it. I may be a bit neurotic, but it pays off eventually!

There is an element of an intersection of problems as we now have a few things to manage to help them. We had been feeding them wet food, but due to Nathan's rodent ulcers, were sticking to hypoallergenic dry food only. Another problem just feeding them dry food is that it's making them fat. But as we have two, we try to give them free access as it avoids competition. Nathan eats a lot faster than Natalie, so she'll lose weight regardless! I just hope we can manage it so that they lose weight, don't get bladder infections, don't get competitive over food and his face doesn't flare up. Not too much of a challenge!

Here's Natalie with the article that prompted me to take action while I was writing this post. She's already hungry.

Rain rain go away

This is Natalie after a hard day's exploring out in the rain. It's not terrible dramatic, I know, but she's rather spiky around the edges. Nathan is really not a fan of the rain and quite happily comes back into the house to dry himself against my legs and then settle down for a nap.

Natalie however will stay out in it for hours and come in absolutely dripping wet, and then also proceeds to dry herself against my legs. It's not nice at all when said legs are bare. But I'm glad she's as intrepid as I think she is.

That's not how we do things!

I had to get up super early this morning, to go to a conference. R my partner is away and the cats were just SO CONFUSED at having to get up so early.

They were awake, but Nathan just stood on top of the cat tree for ages with a somewhat bewildered expression on his face. It made me laugh quite a lot. I suppose it doesn't sound like much, but he's usually straight out of the door with no time for greetings or any such nonsense.

Last night I got them in a bit early which they didn't really like one bit. They were bored, so chased each other around the house a lot, and of course, Nathan got in the piano. We'll have to get a cover for it or something. I don't get why they keep going in there, it doesn't change!

Our little activist

I'm a community activist, and it looks like Natalie is following in my footsteps in her own feline way:



No cutting the grass today!

She ran off as soon as I got the shot, but it did make me laugh. The idea of her taking a stand against the lawnmower!

I've got them in two hours ahead of usual schedule, so waiting to see if they go completely stir-crazy. Time will tell.

Busy times

It's been a really busy week! I've not really had time to take any pictures or write up the next post I'm planning.

The cats are great though and I'm really happy because Natalie was friendly tonight. To explain, they're usually extremely affectionate and friendly in the morning and during the day. But once we get them in at night, any time between ten and 11, all they want to do is fight each other and act like complete drama queens. It's like they've never met us before, but every night! They run away when we walk towards them, run away when we try to stroke them and run away if we try to play with them sometimes. Silly cats.

We're used to their moods now and it's just how they are, they're always lovely at any other time. But tonight, Natalie had a little bit of a leg-wind for me so I was very pleased about that. Good kitty.



She likes to come in during the day, and if I'm in the living room, she curls up on the foot-rest/stool thingy. It's very sweet (Yes, I have a bit of a penchant for lurid socks. They're great)

I do not like cats

Before getting the cats, I didn't really think of myself as a cat person. I thought, if I had to choose between the traditional "cat or dog person", I'd choose dogs. You know where you are with a dog. You can play with a dog. You can train a dog. I like the idea of training a pet, particularly when it comes to toiletting.

But, I'm coming round to the way of the cat. Here's a brief list of my pre-cat concerns, and what's happened since the cats have lived with us.

Cats pee, puke and poo in the most inappropriate places
I like to read forums on the internet, and over time I've read a few cat based messageboards. Without a doubt, within the first 50 or so posts, someone will talk about their cat pissing on their bed, pooing under their bed and puking in the porch shortly before guests arrive. It's like some law of the internet. They will also, invariably, be perfectly jovial about it, and act as if it's no big deal.

Trust me, anyone pissing in my bed is a BIG fracking deal. A big deal. My bed is a very lovely place to be, and the bed itself cost a lot of money. So, I decided to institute a "no cats in the bedroom rule". One of R's major fantasies about getting a cat was curling up with it on the bed. But no! I said, no cats on the bed. No cats means no piss, right?

Well, the no cats on the bed rule failed, as you've seen from previous posts. They are only allowed in here when we are in here, and I must say, I quite enjoy a morning cuddle with a cat, or chatting to them when I get dressed. We have, sadly, had a piss-bed interface incident. It was just one of Nathan's droplets so nothing too major, but I was NOT happy about it, and now he's only allowed on the bed if there's something under him. He doesn't seem too keen to come on to the bed with us anyone, as it's really Natalie's domain.

We have had some puking, and there was one epic day where Nathan managed to puke in four different places in the house. Luckily I was at work and R had the joy of cleaning that up. They have puked a couple of times, but nothing too unbearable, and I've only had to clean up sick from hard floors, which seems to be a lot less unpleasant.

As for poo, well, we've had a couple of occasions where they've misfired from the litter tray, and I was the one that cleaned them up. It wasn't nice, and it wasn't pretty, but I can forgive a misfire and would rather have that any day than a cat turd curled out on my sofa. Yuck.

Scratches
A lot of cat owners have scratched arms and some of them make jokes about looking like self-harmers. This HORRIFIES me. I do not want my forearms getting slashed by some wildcat that I've given a home, feed and clean up after thank you. I decided that I was going to try very hard not to get scratched. I was lucky enough to be gifted "Cat Confidential" by Vicky Halls shortly before they arrived. What a lucky person I am. It's such a great book, explaining all about cat behaviour, how cats think, and gives case studies of where it's gone wrong, why and how to deal with it. I guess reading this book has really helped with all of the problems I was worried about, but body language has been a really helpful one. Of course, living with the cats is the only way to really get to know them, but it's cool to be able to anticipate what they may be about to do from a flick of the ears.

I think we're lucky, in that neither cat is at all swipey, and we frequently comment that they don't seem to know that they can use their claws against us. They usually turn or walk away if they want to be left alone. Equally, we generally try to respect them so that they don't feel they need to use their claws. It's a last resort, after all. They get plenty of space from us, and when we need to grab them for whatever reason, we do it at gently and safely as possible. Even when we were doing the pilling saga with Natalie, I think we only got scratched once each, and then not badly at all.

I could hear this weird crunching...
I also heard far too many horror stories about cats bringing in dead or nearly dead animals. Owners have been settling down for a night's sleep and looked down to see the cat under the bed crunching on a dead frog. Or the cat brings in a bird which isn't dead, but mortally injured which then flaps around the house, spraying blood everywhere until the grim reaper finally puts in an appearance. Or the cat brings in a half dead mouse which scurries behind the fridge and no one knows until it starts to smell. I can think of few things worse than getting home from work to find blood all over the walls of the house and a bird corpse to deal with.

Now, this may be beginning for us, as we've never seen them with anything until today, but it has been ok so far. We're lucky to have the option to stop them bringing anything in to the house proper, as we can shut them in to their room which is off the garden. Boring for them, but dealing with corpses with any regularity is not high of my list of things to do before I'm 50.

We just don't get on
Finally, I suppose I was just worried about how it would be. I'd never lived with a "proper" pet before and wasn't quite sure how it would work. Some of the stories in the Cat Confidential book were quite worrying. What if I didn't get on with the cats? What if they were impossible to live with? I think, perhaps, if they did some or all of the things I've mentioned above, I would definitely find it hard to enjoy them. But as it happens, they've really brought a lot to our lives, things we hadn't imagined, and I am enjoying having them. Scraping cat poo off a wall may not be the height of glamour, but when they burst out of a bush and rub your legs when you go in to the garden, a little bit of you does melt. And hey, I can pill fighty cats now. That's got to be a new skill worth celebrating.

Brother and sister II

What was I saying yesterday about how they get on? This makes it look like they are totally in love!



I'm not keen on the amount of licking she's giving to the site of the rodent ulcer, but if this happens a lot it explains why he's lost so much fur from it. Bless her. I wonder if he's allergic to her spit and this is the explanation for why he keeps getting the ulcers?!

Oh, and, isn't just SO CUTE?! ;)

Brother and sister

I've posted a lot about the cats separately, but not much about how they interact.

The overall advice seems to be that having more than one cat is a Very Bad Idea (although I've noted that a lot of people who say this have several!). Cats are territorial (but social...) and don't like to share their space or their humans with other cats.

If you MUST get two cats, littermates are best, and the best combination is a brother and a sister cat. We win one point. Finally.

When we adopted them, the sanctuary said that Natalie was extremely shy and needed Nathan around to help her out a bit. Since they've settled in, she's come out of her shell twice the size. I'll illustrate this by saying that although we get them in at night, it's Nathan I worry about when he's a bit slow to come back. I know Natalie could beat up a badger no problems; Nathan, not so much.

Their interactions with each other are interesting. They do quite a lot of tearing around after each other, probably because they are both still young cats. At first, I worried that he bullied her, as he was always the one jumping on her. It felt like she couldn't go anywhere without being mounted. I really don't approve of siblings mounting each other, for the record.

Since then, I've seen her drop-kick him in the face, punch him on the nose with her back legs from lying down and kick him in the guts. She can handle herself.

They've recently starting fighting with hissing, where before it was purely playfighting with no verbalising. I don't know if the hissing is just play too, but it certainly sounds a bit nastier.

When we let them out in the morning they go off together, which is sweet, and they do some investigating together, as per the photo at the top. They are quite independent of each other generally though. Domestic cats are definitely more tiger than lion, and pack hunting doesn't come into the equation. When they're hunting bees, it's every cat for him/herself.

I hope they carry on getting on, and a little less fighting would be very pleasant, in the long term. It's noisy, above everything!

Here's a short photo story from today:



This looks cute, like they're bookends, right? In reality, it's like the game of chicken they play in Grease, and they're going to run at each other for a wrestle. You can see Nathan's baldy face patch clearly in this picture.



POW! Smackdown! Nathan on top of Natalie, looks like he's biting her shoulder. She's kicking him where he hasn't got any balls. It's quite dramatic in real life.



Then they walk away, like nothing happened. Nothing to see here.

As I type, they are chasing each other around the hall and living room. So peaceful.