BS: Cats

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: 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: 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: keberoxu
Date: 04 Apr 21 - 06:24 PM

Enjoying these additions to the vocabulary:

catfullness
becatted

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: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Apr 21 - 06:05 AM

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

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: 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: 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 - 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 - 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: keberoxu
Date: 07 Apr 21 - 08:09 PM

Do cats respond to anything OTHER than food calls ??

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: 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: Charmion
Date: 22 May 21 - 08:22 AM

I think it’s working, keb.

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: 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: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Jun 21 - 06:48 PM

Polly the cat has settled well and greets us very vocally several times a day. She's food-obsessed. She's happy outdoors and she loves the cat-cave we've installed outside our front door. Thankfully, she doesn't have wanderlust. We do live in a house with a huge garden and no neighbours, a long way from roads, ideal cat territory...

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Charmion
Date: 27 Jun 21 - 08:39 AM

Newsflash, Steve: All cats are food-obsessed. It’s part of that predator thing.

When they lose interest in food, there’s something amiss. So Polly is firing on all cylinders.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Jun 21 - 08:48 AM

She was overweight when we got her and has been on a strict regime ever since. We're getting there, though I'm sure she feels somewhat badly done to. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Jos
Date: 27 Jun 21 - 09:43 AM

Often, rescue cats have gone hungry in the past, so they eat whenever they get the chance.
When I had cats they had dry cat food (and water, of course) available all day long from the time they were weened, and just ate when they felt like it. They weren't overweight and they weren't food obsessed.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 27 Jun 21 - 02:22 PM

I have only just noticed the choice of name, Steve. Not only was I Polly at school, but our remaining cat is Molly. Were we separated at birth? :-D

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Jun 21 - 07:25 PM

Well I was "shorty-pants" at school, Dave. Bastard northerners... All our cats have been named after puddings, though the connection is often a private family joke... We've had a Pud, a Sago, a Fig, a Mousse, a Toots (tootie-fruitie) a Monty (?) and now a Polly (derived from roly-poly a la jam, a reference to the rather rotund shape she was when we first acquired her).

Mrs Steve's gone to bed so I'll ask her about "Monty" tomorrow!

In 2002 I got a photo of Toots and me in the Guardian weekend mag... Now there was a cat...

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 04 Sep 21 - 10:35 PM

By the way, Charmion,
have you managed to wean the cats off of the kitchen tap altogether
with the implementation of the water fountain for cats?

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Charmion
Date: 05 Sep 21 - 10:37 AM

Watson still occasionally hangs around the sink and nudges the spout with suggestive chirps when I’m making coffee, but quickly gives up and resorts to the fountain. Isobel doesn’t bother with the sink at all any more.

They both like to visit the shower while I am drying myself to lap up the water around the drain. Fortunately, I do not indulge in complicated body-wash products.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 21 Dec 21 - 09:00 PM

How goes it with our cat-owned Mudcatters
hunkering down for the (Northern Hemisphere) winter?

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 29 Jan 22 - 09:56 PM

cats, cats, glorious cats . . .

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: rich-joy
Date: 30 Jan 22 - 03:37 AM

After I waxed lyrical on this thread about the film KEDI : The Cats of Istanbul on 08April2020 and JackCampin and Charmion concurred!(conpurred?), I came across SARPER DUMAN's lovely YT channel.

He is a gentle pianist from Istanbul who took in some of Istanbul's myriad cats (I think he shared his abode with 19 at one time, one blind) and cares for and repairs them! He has many vidclips of playing his compositions either surrounded by his cats, or, playing around - and with - them at the keyboard!


This is my fave tabby cat : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1A3hOmH-hI0

Here are his videos : https://www.youtube.com/c/MrSarperd/videos
(includes one of "his story")

Highly recommended.
Cheers, R-J

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: rich-joy
Date: 30 Jan 22 - 03:40 AM

Sorry, I forgot to Bl'ickisize :) R-J

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 25 Jul 22 - 08:27 AM

One of our Mudcatter members
recently said goodbye to their cat.
Commiserations from cat-lovers here at the Mudcat.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 16 Sep 22 - 03:14 PM

How are the Mudcatters's cats responding
to the change of the seasons,
whichever hemisphere they dwell in?

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Donuel
Date: 16 Sep 22 - 03:41 PM

I got rid of old rugs and put down dark green carpet and the cats are ecstatic about it. They also got an additional window perch. Any open window season is a good season.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Senoufou
Date: 17 Sep 22 - 01:50 AM

Well Pippin (cat owned by neighbours behind my bungalow) is ready at the conservatory door when I get up at 6am. She stands up on her hind legs and does a sort of mambo with her front paws on the window pane.
I always give her a plate of Whiskas cat food, as she seems very hungry, and her owners aren't the best of pet-owners. They have a poor dog that spends its entire life shut in a cage in their garden, barking and howling. I might contact the RSPCA, but they're notoriously non-responsive round here.
And Archie, the rescued kitten, is now fully grown and flourishing. He comes belting through the hedge to see me on The Bench, and rolls around on his back making funny little moaning noises. His housemates, Delilah and Tiger Lily, have accepted him, and the delightful shepherdess/vet nurse look after them all beautifully.
Both Pippin ans Archie like to sunbathe in my greenhouse, so I leave the door open for them. It's boiling hot in there at times, but of course, cats love heat!

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Sep 22 - 05:41 AM

I have a large bag of puppy food in my outhouse (are you listening, Backwoodsman?) I'm using it to feed a rather skinny fox that's been turning up in our garden for weeks, eating bird food on the ground. My cat does not like the fox although the fox would really prefer just to ignore the cat. Polly the cat does that wiggly bum swishy tail stalking thing when she sees the fox and has been known to chase it off. I try to feed the fox when the cat's indoors having just had her tea. So far, so good.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 17 Sep 22 - 06:41 AM

Our little calico, Molly, has a new lease of life. She is getting on in years (15 I think) and has always suffered from problems with her back legs but after a visit to the vets about 3 months back she in on regular Solensia injection which has put the spring back in her step. Must see if I can get it :-D

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Charmion
Date: 17 Sep 22 - 09:15 AM

I rearranged the parlour furniture and the cats don’t approve. I have evidently disturbed an important observation post.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 17 Sep 22 - 12:30 PM

It's too bad, Charmion, about Watson and that one carpet; your reports of sending the carpet to be cleaned have become drearily regular and routine. I don't know what can be done when an aging cat claims an object in that fashion, you can't train him out of it in any way, can you?

Regarding the parlo[u]r, is it about the windows? The cats want the furniture a certain way so that they can see out the windows?

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Sep 22 - 10:10 AM

My cat Rocky would cause deer in the front yard to freeze in place.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Charmion
Date: 18 Sep 22 - 03:22 PM

I solved the parlour carpet problem by moving the litter box upstairs to the coat closet, so Watson doesn’t have so far to go when the urge strikes, and replacing the pissed-on green Bokhara with a less beautiful but still quite acceptable old red Persian that has never been pissed on, at least not lately, or by Watson.

The freshly cleaned green Bokhara is rolled up and stowed in the basement. I don’t know yet when or where it will be deployed again, but it’s too nice to let slip through my fingers.

As for the windows, the new furniture arrangement actually provides better sight-lines. But cats hate change, and that’s that.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 18 Sep 22 - 04:33 PM

I must admit I was surprised in another thread by Donuel commenting:

"Furniture moving was the bulk of the lifting but I'm not sore today. The room looks bigger today and the cats seem to love it."

We never had a cat that wasn't thrown by reorganising furniture.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 22 Sep 22 - 01:34 PM

Keep those cats and kittens coming.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 23 Sep 22 - 09:34 AM

> Keep those cats and kittens coming.

Don't snip them, then :-) . Our current feline tenant was the result of a serial slut (her staff's description, not ours) high-tailing it over to the graveyard every night, for fun and entertainment with the local troupe of entire toms. Methinks she never was qualified to sing "A Solo Miaou".

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 24 Sep 22 - 07:44 AM

Nice take on "O Sole Mio" there.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Sep 22 - 06:44 AM

stray cat strut

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Donuel
Date: 28 Sep 22 - 07:30 AM

House trained and cuddly these are compared to cats by owners but they don't eat birds! https://www.mypetalpaca.com/

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Donuel
Date: 28 Sep 22 - 07:44 AM

My neighbors can be seen walking their dog with their cat bounding about freely behind the dog and an exotic leopard-like kitten strutting behind the first cat.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 06 Jul 23 - 04:28 PM

How are your cats coping with climate change??

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 07 Jul 23 - 10:44 AM

> How are your cats coping with climate change?

Ours has taken to lounging on the nice cool floor tiles in the kitchen. It's a start.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Charmion
Date: 07 Jul 23 - 11:01 AM

My cats have always lived indoors, in heated and air-conditioned space, and they can't read and probably wouldn't bother with the newspapers if they could. What's more, they are quite unaware of energy costs. Consequently, Watson and Isobel have no notion of climate change.

The different seasons affect them only to the extent that Watson's occasional dashes onto the front porch last about three minutes in summer and more like two seconds in winter.

All year round, they enjoy lounging on the vent gratings -- warm in winter, cool in summer. Can't beat that with a stick.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Senoufou
Date: 10 Jul 23 - 03:29 AM

My lovely neighbour (a veterinary nurse) has an animal sanctuary and rescues animals of all types, mostly farm ones. A year ago she saved a litter of farm kittens from a cruel farmer who had shot their mother. She bottle-fed them, then re-homed them all, keeping only 'Archie'. He's grown up beautifully, and comes to sit with me on The Bench in my front garden.She also has Delilah and Tiger Lily, who also come to visit me. Since my last cat, Smokey, had to be put to sleep three years ago, it's nice to be able to 'borrow' these cats.
Pippin, another cat who lives in a house behind mine, also comes. I think she's fallen in love with Archie!!