BS: Cats

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Charmion
Date: 26 Jun 21 - 04:32 PM

I am sitting in the comfy chair with my feet up, and Watson stretched himself out along my legs. Isobel is yeasting around, looking for lap space, but Watson isn’t yielding an inch. Treat time in 28 minutes …!

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 26 Jun 21 - 04:24 PM

Well, I'm updating this thread because I miss the cats,
but since I haven't got any food for them,
they probably won't come when I call.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Charmion
Date: 22 May 21 - 08:22 AM

I think it’s working, keb.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 21 May 21 - 03:05 PM

One of our "becatted" Mudcatters reports on
supplying the cats, by whom the Mudcatter is owned,
with their own water fountain.

Curious to see how the cats come to terms with same.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 22 Apr 21 - 11:16 PM

Now, when a cat actually WANTS to come indoors . . .

in my childhood home, there was a side door from the garage
into the kitchen;
when the cats were fed indoors, they were fed in the kitchen.

That wooden door, with a pane of window glass in the top half,
was somewhat the worse for wear:
the cat [s] would leap up to the window pane,
hanging onto the wooden panel with their claws,
and singing at the top of their lungs, to be let in.
Actually the clawing was louder than the singing,
but the cats probably didn't care.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 07 Apr 21 - 08:09 PM

Do cats respond to anything OTHER than food calls ??

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Charmion
Date: 07 Apr 21 - 11:41 AM

In my family, we call cats by means of a loud trilling sound generated in the mouth just forward of the hard palate. It carries across an acre of garden and can't be mistaken for anything else.

And yes, the "food call" is one of several reasons why the neighbours consider us a little strange. We're okay with that.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 07 Apr 21 - 11:32 AM

I know. Even though she's still confined to quarters so that she doesn't get any ideas about running away, I've been outside practising the call. I ask you to imagine a scruffy, bearded old bloke in shorts standing on the backdoorstep hollering POLLYPOLLYPOLLY!... in a loud falsetto... The lack of near neighbours is a definite boon (for them anyway...)

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Charmion
Date: 07 Apr 21 - 10:40 AM

Polly is an excellent name for a cat, Steve. Dignified enough for an introduction to the Queen, short enough to be hollered off the back step at supper-time.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 07 Apr 21 - 06:41 AM

Polly. The name derives from hidden meanings to do with family history. I won't regale you.

We are over the moon.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Donuel
Date: 06 Apr 21 - 04:19 PM

A new colorful cat sounds like a great idea Steve.
Any names come to mind?

When a cat sits on our hip we call it being catted.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Apr 21 - 06:05 AM

I'm training her to be a centre-back...

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 05 Apr 21 - 05:56 AM

I think Steve would rather have her be a scouser than a mouser :-D

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 04 Apr 21 - 06:24 PM

Enjoying these additions to the vocabulary:

catfullness
becatted

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Donuel
Date: 04 Apr 21 - 08:59 AM

Its not a cat but you can sympathize crossing the street with too many children
https://kfor.com/news/human-parents-feel-for-mama-bear-trying-to-get-her-four-cubs-to-cross-this-road/

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 Apr 21 - 08:24 AM

She's a damned fine characterful cat, well-behaved, house-trained and incredibly friendly. Just a bit of confidence-building to do but we're getting there...

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Apr 21 - 09:36 AM

Well she hid under the sofa for twenty minutes, then became the world's friendliest and most personable cat. Amazing considering we'd never met her before (can't do things like that under current rules). She's a bit podgy so we have a regime to follow. We have to put up with a stinky old litter tray for a couple of weeks, then the world will be her oyster. We're dead chuffed so far. We are becatted once again!

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Raggytash
Date: 03 Apr 21 - 09:04 AM

or even soon become a mouser!!

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Raggytash
Date: 03 Apr 21 - 07:59 AM

Don't feed the little bugger, it will some become a mouser!!

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Charmion
Date: 03 Apr 21 - 07:46 AM

Catfulness! Now, that’s a word I’ve needed my whole life.

Good luck with your training program, Steve. In my experience, a cat is either a mouser, or not.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Apr 21 - 05:39 AM

In an hour's time we will be in receipt of a cat. She'll be our first cat for eight years, after 35 years of catfulness before that. She's a rescue tortie who has been temporarily named Twinkle by Cats Protection. We'll soon be changing that. I'm going to spend the afternoon showing her pictures of rats, mice, squirrels, rabbits and moles. I've installed a large warning sign on the bird table. This is going to be good!

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Donuel
Date: 02 Mar 21 - 09:31 AM

In the living room one wall is glass. The Mourning Doves have returned to keep the cats entertained for hours in the morning.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Senoufou
Date: 02 Mar 21 - 08:40 AM

Oh how sweet Jos! It's true, animals can love each other. My veterinary nurse/shepherdess neighbour tells me her sheep make firm friends with a selected pal. Pairs or trios, always together and cuddle down in their straw at night with their 'friend' close and snuggly!
All the cats we've ever had used to be much closer friends with one than with another. Minty and Murphy, although litter mates, weren't all that keen on each other. And SmokeyPokey was rather a 'loner' than a matey type. But SimpsonSamson and Gussie (one a Siamese and the other a pedigree British Black Shorthair) were very close pals.
I've posted on here before how Sam the Skull (Spirit) hated every cat he clapped eyes on, until he began sitting with me on The Bench. He accepted Smokey eventually and they'd smile at each other in a chummy sort of way. I miss them both so much. Hope they're exploring Heaven together now!

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Jos
Date: 02 Mar 21 - 08:16 AM

Animals generally seem to keep love and lust separate. I suspect that even those that pair for life stay together because they love each other rather than because they lust after each other. This can, of course, be the same with humans as well.
We used to have a cat who adored a dog up the road. The dog ignored him completely but our cat would sit at the end of their path and just gaze longingly at the dog.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Senoufou
Date: 02 Mar 21 - 07:29 AM

Archie the rescued kitten is now almost fully grown. He haunts our garden during the day, and we were amused to see he has paired up with Pippin the female cat and chicken-addict. They sit peacefully together and gaze lovingly into each other's eyes. I don't think Pippin (female) knows that Archie no longer has the ... er...'equipment' to do much except purr.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 28 Feb 21 - 07:54 PM

. . . or maybe the cat in question is trying to tell you:

I'm doing you the supreme favo[u]r
of making your rug my territory,
so why don't you groom me and pet me in return ...

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Charmion
Date: 11 Feb 21 - 11:59 AM

Embuing the carpets with catness is apparently a long-term mission, keb. At any given time, one cat or the other will be flat on the floor and squirming about, doing victory rolls and grinding as much grey fluff into the pile as possible. Of course, this performance is usually accompanied by loud purring and mewing, as if to advertise the general abandonment of inhibition.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 10 Feb 21 - 05:34 PM

Heheh. There's no cat like like a Texas judge cat... :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 27 Jan 21 - 08:20 PM

Charmion,
have Watson and Isobel
claimed the territory of the cleaned rugs
to their feline satisfaction now?

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 25 Jan 21 - 07:22 PM

I spent a brief period of my life around Austin, Texas.

In a room full of people, making conversation,
one lady casually referred to her neutered pet cat as
an "ex-Tom."

Whereupon one of the red-blooded Texan men present
fired back,
"That's politically incorrect . . ."

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 25 Jan 21 - 11:26 AM

By the way, I looked up the
Richard Jury mysteries written by Martha Grimes,
trying to trace Cyril the Cat
who is always pouncing on Superintendent Racer.

I believe the last time Cyril shows up is in the book titled
"The Grave Maurice."

After that came an installment titled
"The Winds of Change,"
and indeed, a sea change was worked on Richard Jury,
including a passionate love affair with a Latin woman.
(Melrose Plant, on the other hand, never changes.)

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: robomatic
Date: 24 Jan 21 - 07:00 PM

I lived with a pair of neutral males, the property of my landlady. Other than being domestic felines, they were different as night and day. One was black, rather laid back, not quite as self confident in balance and jumping as the piebald kitty. That one had grown up in the Alaska village of McGrath, was known in town for going up and getting stuck in a tree. The volunteer firemen simply cut the tree down for him.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Charmion
Date: 24 Jan 21 - 07:02 AM

In the dead of an Ontario winter, there isn’t much for a housecat to do but take in another performance of the Squirrel Show, followed by a bout of bird lust and yet another long snooze. Watson did indeed clobber another misguided mouse the other day, but he spends most of his time in a basket on top of a heat vent in the parlour.

Now well past their seventh birthday, Watson and Isobel are now middle-aged pussies, and the vet has started clucking about Watson’s weight, now about 17 pounds. He still jumps with apparent ease, but not as often or as eagerly as he did in his youth, and it’s a long time since he flung himself into my arms straight up from the floor. Isobel, on the other hand, is as slender and nimble as ever. Her concession to age is domination of my lap, whenever I park my butt in the comfy chair. With the whole province locked down, whole days pass like that.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: robomatic
Date: 24 Jan 21 - 01:41 AM

There was an episode of the 'original' Avengers, with John Steed and Emma Peel, where a team of killers used cats. They had a magic frequency that released all the feline ferocity bottled up in a tabby and could turn any cat into a killer in an instant.

Good Show!

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Jan 21 - 10:00 PM

Hooray for Watson who caught himself a mouse in the house.
(thus de-cluttering the house)

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Senoufou
Date: 23 Jan 21 - 03:52 AM

Yes keberoxu, she has a flock of twenty two sheep. They are 'rescued' from farmers who intended to send them for slaughter after they're no longer any use. (mostly old or infertile, sometimes lame or poorly)
During the recent severe storm, her large sheep-shed (where the animals can shelter at night) blew down. Luckily no sheep were hurt,but the wooden construction cost £1000 and she's very upset because the company are refusing to sort it out.
Many of us in the village have contributed to a fund to put a new shed in place.
Sorry this is not about cats!

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 22 Jan 21 - 07:21 PM

Archie the tomcat is the one who lives with a veterinarian
who has her own flock of sheep, correct?

Still haven't heard lately about Watson and Isobel,
although I recall Charmion allowing that
they took her stay-at-home lifestyle adjustment to mean
that she is staying home for THEM.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Senoufou
Date: 19 Jan 21 - 08:25 AM

Oh keberoxu, 'Archie' is now a magnificent young chap! He's always bashing around in their bungalow, chasing all his special toys that the veterinary nurse has bought for him. (Wind-up things with holes in from which a 'pretend' mousie pops out). She often posts little videos of him on our village Facebook site. And I often see him through our utility room windows (adjacent to theirs)
They have three cats, and 'Delilah' sits on top of their boiler in there. I wave to her and she opens her mouth to me and shuts her eyes ("Hello there!" in Catspeak)
Their third cat'Tiger Lily' is a bit old now and not very interested in her elderly neighbours. She's nearly always fast asleep.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 17 Jan 21 - 04:44 PM

cats ... we need cats ...

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 16 Jan 21 - 09:09 PM

And Eliza/Senoufou,

what's the latest on Archie the orphaned cat?

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 30 Dec 20 - 08:50 PM

Charmion,
how are Watson and Isobel doing chez vous?

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 28 Dec 20 - 08:17 PM

No, Donuel, nothing all that interesting ...

I mean people whose behavior is particularly catty.
In this clinic I seem to be surrounded by them.
Some of them even MOVE like cats, I swear,
very fluid arrogant hoity-toity gestures,
even the way they walk across a room.

To say nothing of their conversations about people who are not in the room --
that is when the retractable claws come out. Ugh.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Donuel
Date: 28 Dec 20 - 07:38 PM

I'm intrigued.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 26 Dec 20 - 02:34 PM

where I am staying right now,
I am outnumbered by cats on two legs.

I much prefer cats on four legs.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 24 Nov 20 - 09:00 PM

here kitty kitty kitty ...

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Nov 20 - 01:56 PM

Now, if we can just find what is needed
to fill the dog-shaped hole in Mudcatter Ebbie's heart,
then everything will be lovely in the garden.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Charmion
Date: 22 Nov 20 - 09:07 PM

I’m not going anywhere for quite a while, keb, and when I do, Watson and Isobel will come too.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 22 Nov 20 - 06:14 PM

When it is time to downsize, Charmion,
I hope the cats are going with you ...

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Charmion
Date: 19 Nov 20 - 07:24 AM

Raggy, Watson performs victory rolls on every square foot of every carpet in the house. That would be a lot of pepper.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 18 Nov 20 - 08:40 PM

Keep those cats and kittens coming.