Cats that beg

Nathan has become a dog!

He's started begging for food. Well, he's a cat, so it's not begging so much as making numerous bids for your plate. Yesterday I had some leftovers on my plate, and I'd eaten on the sofa, so just put the plate to one side while I finished watching a film. I had to physically stop him getting at plate twice and it was just a pizza crust! Nothing terribly yummy for a cat, I don't think.

He comes and sits on the floor, staring at the food. Then jumps up and climbs across to have a good sniff, investigate and sometimes a cheeky bite. He only seems to do this when there's just one of us eating. Interesting.

This was the scene earlier today:



Sorry it's a bit blurry.

At one point they were both doing it which is REALLY freaky.

Nathan is the best at hiding

Every now and again, we want to put the cats "to bed" (shut them in their room) and we can't find Nathan.

The first time this happened, I was on my own in the house and I just couldn't find him. My usually greedy cat was not even responding to the food container being rattled. I eventually found him tucked down the back of the desk in R's study. I got the feeling he quite enjoyed defying my attempts to get him to their room. Not really of course, he's just a cat!

The last time this happened, we knew he was in the house and R was tasked with putting them to bed. He looked and looked and looked and just couldn't find him. I was in bed, and eventually got up, went to his favourite spot, and found him tucked into an unused rucksack.

Cats are HILARIOUS!

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.

Ginger Interloper

Nathan got a bit pwned this morning. I can't blame him, he's a skinny lanky thing and all the other cats are much bigger than him.

Firstly, he came into our bedroom, getting up on the bed and managing to do his usual scent-marking (urine) there. I really don't think he should be allowed on the bed any more, but I don't make the rules about that one.

The morning continued and I was downstairs, doing something or another. R called down and told me to look out of the window at the back. I did, and saw this:



You can see the reflections on the glass. Our first instinct was to chase it off, but I thought it would be interesting to see what happened.

They sat for a couple of minutes, this close to each other. I was mainly watching the ginger cat - his ears were flicking back and forth, the skin on his back rippling and he was staring at Nathan on and off. Nathan's tail was flicking back and forth, but not madly like when he's about to pounce on Natalie.

I decided to risk opening the back door. I did it quietly and slowly and got this shot.



You'd think they were getting on quite well. Then the ginger cat started meowing and hissing at Nathan. Pretty much "Back off, black kitty! BACK OFF!". I think Nathan may have given him a couple of meows back. But then he jumped off and backed off to the picnic bench. This is higher up, but he was definitely backing off. I think the next step would've been the ginger taking a swipe at him. I did notice that neither of them did piloerection (hair on end to look bigger). I guess Nathan knew he was beat, and the ginger cat didn't need to bother!



It's a good looking cat, and pure muscle. I wouldn't fancy Nathan's chances. We had never seen this cat until last night and I have no idea where it's coming from. I'm going to try to read up on territory disputes, as it seems really weird that so many cats have suddenly started something of a battle for our garden. But, I don't know enough about feline workings to judge.

Bully Cats

Well, I was going to do a post about bullycats and a new one just turned up, so this is fuelled by righteous rage!

Before we got the cats, we always knew there were about two or three cats that hung around in our garden. The homechecker asserted that our two would see off any intruders.

Turns out, it ain't as simple as that...

Bullycat #1
This is a grey and white thing and it is BIG. Really big. This morning, I saw it wandering around the garden, closely watched by Natalie, who then followed it into a bush! I hope she didn't get beaten up. Later on this morning, I saw Nathan on the picnic bench watching something intently. It was this bullycat, wandering along the edge of the grass, casually spraying a plant and then sauntering on. It drives me up the wall, but it's so big, neither of the cats would stand a chance in getting rid of it and sadly, the domestic feline doesn't do team work. They'd be a great team though!

We have the perception that the garden "belongs" to our cats, because they live in the house that the garden is attached to. Of course, cat territory doesn't work like this - the cats that come into the garden could be coming from really quite far away. But they are big, they spray and that's how it seems to be going. The cats do enjoy the garden, and I think this particular cat only does a daily patrol and they keep their distance. We try to chase it off when we see it but we obviously can't protect our kitties all day long.

Bullycat #2
This is a black and white splodgey cat. It could be Natalie's mum, the way it looks and it's also quite a lot larger than both of them. No way near as gorgeous as her, of course! This is the one that keeps coming into our garage and pounds on the catflap at night. I am wondering if it's stray, but this isn't really the kind of area that has stray cats. It might teach the owners to keep the cat in at night if we did treat it like a stray though, eh? That's just my mean side talking.
I haven't seen it spraying, and it's usually slinking along the bottom of the garden, rather than anywhere near the house but obviously it does come up right into the house. The cheek of it! I think this one is a bit worse than #1, as I can imagine it's a bit more intimidating for the cats having a bloody strange fatty cat intruding in their small amount of space. GRRR.

Had I been writing this post last night, it would end here. However...

Bullycat #3
Some bloody great ginger tom has literally turned up in the last HOUR! We got our cats in, and then we noticed him lolling on the floor outside their room. Just lolling, hanging out, in #1 and #2's territory. Right under our cats' noses. Ginger bastard.

So, I think, on the whole, our cats are reasonably well-adjusted, considering the amount of pressure they are under. Good kitties.

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)