New ID Tags

I am so easily amused :-)

The Kitten moved out a couple of weeks ago and now lives with some friends of mine and their two cats and two dogs. They used to be a four cat family but lost two of their rescue girls very close together so a kitten seemed like a good idea (they always do right up until they arrive!). He's settled in brilliantly and has injected new life into his two older siblings :-)

Poor Cheesecake pined a little so I bought him some new toys that have to be kept securely locked in a metal box to stop them getting destroyed. Here's why:

Exhibit A:


(see the bits of fluff caught on his claws? There's only so much disemboweling one cat toy can take you know)

Exhibit B:





(the feathers lasted less than 2 minutes - a sure sign that pet birds are not in my future)

No Wash!

No Wash!, originally uploaded by hadook.

The kitten was being demanding earlier while I was on the phone so I passed him over to his babysitter :-)

Cat v Kitten

We have a new temporary resident - a kitten we found late one night last week in the middle of the road in Dunshaughlin and, as no owners could be located and tiny kittens don't tend to do so well with traffic, we brought him home. Isn't he cute? Bet you're making awww noises right now, aren't you? Unfortunately extreme cuteness is a defense mechanism employed by all small despots and this kitten is no exception. Determined, demanding, obnoxious and a purr louder than a jet engine. Pure trouble :-)

Anyway, most of the older residents of the Horde are fairly good with newcomers (they've had lots of experience) so I've only been worried about the reactions of the younger cats. Mia hates him with a passion, Mao doesn't give a damn and Lily can't figure out what he is.

Cheesecake, however, is ecstatic, he's obviously experiencing a second kitten-hood and having a whale of time playing with the teeny ball of kitten fur. The kitten is also besotted with the Cheesewhizz and thinks nothing of taking on a cat that's easily 10 times bigger than him. It's a good thing that kittens are made of indesctro-fur and it will teach him about important things like bite inhibition and proper hunting methods but still, it makes me wince to see 600g of fluff skidding along the floor with 4kg of pure cat in hot pursuit. Then again, he doesn't actually have to sneak up on a sleeping Cheesecake to eat his ears really does he?

The kitten is the spitting image of a much loved departed feline of a friend of mine so I'm hoping he might have a new home close by. Keep your fingers crossed!

Birdies in the house

Today I transcended from somewhat tolerated owner to most beloved.

A canary attempted to commit suicide on my watch earlier and, after nursing the little monster back to something approaching health, I ended up bringing him home to keep an eye on overnight. In my experience birds are prone to sudden bouts of suicide and, occasionally, death so I wasn't taking any chance. According to the collective cats the only thing more entrancing than a sickly canary is one that is feeling better. And fluttering around in a cage.


(especially one that decides to take a bath right in front of the cats. Mesmirised doesn't even come close to describing it)














Cheesecake adores me right now (though that might change when he realises that I have no intention of opening the cage in his presence) and Lily thinks I'm the best owner ever. I plan to have at least two locked doors between the bird and the cats tonight...

My desk at home is tiny, a mere 80cm x 55cm shoved into a corner out of the way. The printer lives on a shelf alongside my camera, my external harddrive etc. I have a mac mini and a 12" powerbook so in theory I dodn't need a big desk - everything I use fits into a small space.

OH's desk is easily three times the size of mine (all the better to fit the pair of 22" widescreen lcd's that are essential to his gaming habit) and hulks in the far corner. It's not a cat friendly spot ever since that incident involving a cat sleeping on his keyboard and 127 popup windows... (I laughed, he didn't!) His collects junk, mine is usually fairly clear. I have a bonsai tree that I'm petrified I'll kill, my pretty disco-light speakers and my desk light.

And at least one cat at all times.

Here's Cheesecake listening to Stephen Fry:

Here little fishies...

Dear Mintoe,

I'm sure you'd thought you'd finally join the league of grown up cats after your spectacular kill earlier this evening. I understand that every cat is born to hunt and that it is your nature.

Unfortunately I cannot accept peeing in the fish tank as an appropriate way to gain status as a Big Hunter Cat. 85% water changes at midnight are not my idea of fun and I will be very annoyed if the remaining 8 fish are dead in the morning too.

Yours,
The Human

Dear Cheesecake,

You were right, they were in a bowl and things in a bowl are usually food. This is not always the case though and tonight the things in the bowl were not most definitely not meant as food (and no, the fact that they tasted nice doesn't count). I'd really would have preferred it if you hadn't eaten the recently murdered fish almost as fast as I removed them from the tank.

Hopefully we won't have a next time like this but, if we do, please do not eat the fish.

Yours,
The Human