The day the fur flew

Magic LOVES having her coat combed through with the furminator. She goes into raptures and often when you pass the bathroom, there she is sitting in the bath with her little face just inviting you to pop in and give her coat a going over. She is a short haired cat and the grooming is more for her pleasure than an essential.

For Red the opposite is the case. He sheds fine, fine, soft hair absolutely everywhere. There is no controlling it and the house, humans and furniture are all becoming furrier by the day. I am utterly demented and keep Lakeland's profits up from all the sticky mitts I buy. I have them all over the house, in my briefcases, glove compartment and desk drawer at work.

Red takes good care of his coat and rarely has tangles but the reality is that there is just so much fur he cannot handle it and yaks up quite a few furballs. The would lead you to suspect, like me, that the time had come to finally persuade him to cope with being brushed. He has never taken to being brushed and hates it. I've bought every hair removal device I can think of and all to no avail. I have two sizes of furminator, a zoom groom, a rubber cat mitt, cat combs, a nit comb, one of my old hairbrushes and not one will he tolerate. Being a fairly tolerant boy he allows you two strokes of whatever device you have and then sinks his teeth into your wrist. I'd struggle to say he is biting to do damage as he is not that ill tempered instead it is more a warning delivered with his teeth.

So one night I decided enough was enough and I was going to finally take a hard line on the grooming. Normally Magic wont let him near her but as she goes semi-delirious when being groomed I reckoned she might not notice him watchng her as she lolled about the bath. This would then, I hoped, persuade him that it was a good thing as normally he copies all her behaviours and I've not had to teach him much because he just follows her. I use the bath because it is easier to clean but I've tried Red in other locations and he still wont play ball so I reckoned it might as well be the bath ths time.

Anyway they say a picture is worth a thousand words and these definitely tell the tale. Magic loved it and couldnt get enough. In fact there is nearly enough fur combed off to make a clone of her. I only got a few swipes at Red when it was his turn before I decided his teeth sinking was sorer than I could cope with. Or to put it another way, I decided to see it from Red's point of view - that it was not worth continuing with as neither of us was enjoying it. So all I got off of him was the equivalent of a little ginger moustache. I also dont have a pic of Red actually in the bath as he didn't hang about.

Cat burglar

One morning I went into the other room to get Red and Magic back into their room before I went out. Red was acting very strangely, yep more so than normal! He wouldnt get down and he was lying all splayed out and resisted being lifted off, which was very odd. However, when I lifted him, all was revealed. He had found a bag of Whiskas I'd forgotten about and had obviously been supplementing his diet. Again, like the shredded net curtain incidents, I didnt actually witness him do it but I'd say the circumstantial case was pretty strong.

Dont knock the boy, he is really very handsome

Lots of the preceeding photos show Red doing something daft so this little selection is to redress the balance and show his handsome sweet side. He is shaping up into a very kind and chilled out cat.

We might need a midwife here

I am not sure whether these pictures show a congenital abnormality or the need for a midwife.
We used to joke that Red's daddy was a hare because of his huge back legs so I guess this might prove it as he appears to be giving birth to a bunny. However, the only problem is he is male!

Either way I am struggling to make head or tail or it...!

Let me take care of the paperwork

As any cat owner knows all activities must be supervised and approved by the alpha residents. This means you just get used to retrieving essential paperwork or typing with a cat under your arm. My two are no exception.

When your make-up just isnt working

While I was checking out the contents of the parcel which arrived with my nice new make up I looked up and realised Red had stuffed his head in the delivery bag. Plastic bags come with warnings not to leave small children or pets unattended with a plastic bag because it is dangerous. Red managed to do this within arms reach of me. Unfortunately, he loves plastic especially crunchy bags which he loves sinking his teeth into. As this kind of dumb behaviour is not unusual for him I took a couple of quick snaps before whipping the bag off of his head. This is why the pics are a bit fuzzy. However, even with the poor quality cameramanship you can still see the look of total disgust from Magic. If cats could roll their eyes she'd have been doing it.

The boy with the angora shovels

The boy has huge feet. If he were human he'd have cost me a fortune in outgrown shoes. They are sincerely long and as soft as the best quality angora. He is tremendously gentle in how he uses his paws and barely, if ever, scratches because he is so careful. However he is not past using them to their best effect to get in or out of things.

These are a couple of shots which show the size of them. The first one shows the length from his wrist, which he is licking, to the finger tips. Unsurprisingly he is very good at not just playing fetch when you toss a toy for him but is actually scarily good at catching the toy in a single paw. If he gets any better I might just audition him for the Cravendale milk advert as one of the cats with opposable thumbs.

Save yourself, the woman's having a clear out

I am not known for being the tidiest person in the world but during a clear up when stuff was being piled up in that corner Red decided the safest place might actually be the bin. Why is anyone's guess but he survived the clear out and all the other stuff surrounding him made it to its rightful place...for a day or two at least

Who's your pal...?

Red cuddled up to a Highland cow hot water bottle cover. I suppose it is right what they say- two heads are always better than one.

Time to update

It has been a very long time since I updated the 'Tails of the cats' and I intend to rectify this. I finally also downloaded the pictures from my phone so have lots of pictures of the two cats which I think are worth keeping in this online memory store. I didnt think it had been that long since I downloaded the photos but some are from the Christmas lights going on in the Trafford Centre last year so the evidence rather points to it having been a while...!

I hope you enjoy sharing in the cats year.