Happy 2014

Happy New Year to all of our lovely blogger and real life friends. Hope this one is good for everyone. Both cats are curled up cosily, Magic at my feet and Red sprawled across a chair. I am sitting cosily too and my gammy knee is very slowly improving, I hope. I'm still walking like a punch drunk sailor but seem to be lurching around slightly less. Thanks to everyone who sent me good wishes for my recovery too.

May you all be blessed with health, happiness and love, as well as enough money to see you through.

Merry Christmas to All

I just wanted to come by and wish all of my fellow cat bloggers a very lovely warm furry Christmas. I have not been posting so much on this blog because I've been at home more and due to the change in the weather the cats have been mainly to be found curled up in a sleeping position rather than doing much of interest. Since I had my surgery last week I have been recovering and sleeping quite a bit too just like my fluffy friends. So I am going to do a little catch up post.

I hadn't planned to put up the tree this year but last night I just felt in the mood so I have managed to put up the pop up tree with a length of copper piping thoughtfully left by the previous owners and a wad of kitchen roll. They left me loads of odd but great stuff like spare paint sample match pots in case I need to touch up the walls, light bulbs with dire warnings about not mixing them up as apparently it blows some transformer which is expensive, tiles and a couple of special house blessings.

Amazingly the tree is still standing and hasn't been mugged but its been up less than 24hrs so there is time yet. I don't know where the other decorations are (probably in the spare room of despair) so I'm making a fairy angel for the top. Well, its either that, of one of the cats will have to stand in as a tree topper!

While I've been recovering the two of them have been taking very good care of me and have been very careful around my knee. Note the big bandaged knee under the fleecy.

Watching over me even from across the room instead of just sleeping

Giving purr-y massages the morning after surgery

and applying heat therapy

Magic has become a seriously hefty puss who is struggling with her arthritic back legs and sounds like she has an obstructed airway when she sleeps all curled up now and her 'kilt' / belly is nearly on the carpet. However, as both cats are 'grazers' I couldn't work out how to feed them separately.

Once again Red is licking the jelly and Magic is eating the meat so he is like a racing snake and she is a two handed lift who cannot even jump onto the radiator bed. Inspiration struck and I'm now feeding Red on top of the tall chest of drawers and Magic on the floor - result! Or at least it was till Magic worked out how to get onto the bed, bedside cabinet, window ledge, small chest of drawers, bag on top of second small unit then up to the big chest of drawers to shove Red and nick his bedtime sweeties after she'd scoffed her own! On the plus side this is probably because she has lost some weight and certainly she is moving better but once she is up there she'd break every bone if she leapt from that height.

The whole sweeties performance is a bit of a con but I never have to round them up at night as they sit waiting for the treats as soon as I go to brush my teeth. Magic gets her Seraquin tablet and a couple of plain Whiskas crunchies and Red just gets a pile of the plain Whiskas crunchies. On high days and holidays they get Dreamies, webbox sticks or lick-e-lix depending on who likes what but Magic's will be mini rationed for a while yet. She's also getting little sympathy from me as I need to lose some weight too, so sad faces don't work on me. I have a long way to go but Magic will be there in a few more weeks - lucky girl!

I received a beautiful bunch of Get Well/Christmas flowers yesterday which were unexpected and even more special for that. Red has taken full charge of these, including perforating the crunchy acetate wrap, but then they are very much 'his' colour.

Finally, this is not something I expected to see but this morning after I limped my way to the sofa both decided to join me and there was not even a flicker of a fight at such proximity. Obviously they are pretending the other is not there naturally but it was very comforting to have both beside me. Even stranger was that the heating was on and there were cosier nooks to go and rest.

So we three would just love to wish all the lovely bloggers and fur friends who have been a brilliant part of our year a very lovely Christmas filled with love, happiness and kitty kisses.

Crossing into adulthood

Over this last year I've seen a marked change in Red. He has been more solicitous, more involved and actually looked slightly concerned when things were not as they should be. He's always been a very caring little cat and doesn't even mind if you cry into his fur coat, if need be, but he always seemed more perplexed than anything when something happened to alter the routine or stress levels. He is better now at giving me direct eye contact too which he always avoided it before. He was very sweet and tootsie as a kitten,

 

 

cheeky as an adolescent

and has now transitioned into a very handsome grown up cat, in my opinion anyway.

He's no longer my 'young man' but all 'growed' up. Good to see him mature and I look forward to a long life with him but it is sad to see his younger stage go.  

Would the real 'Cat' stand up

I was waiting in a chemist's today for a prescription and I was reminded of my old cat who is long gone but never forgotten and her prescriptions. She was called 'Cat' which is very unoriginal. Unfortunately, by the time I decided on a suitable name the poor soul would only answer to 'cat' or 'baby', and so it remained. Depending on who asked we sometimes just said she was named after Audrey Hepburn's Cat in Breakfast at Tiffany's to make us sound less hopeless as new cat owners.

Cat had epilepsy and was prescribed a fifth of a 15mg tablet of phenobarbitone. These tablets were miniscule and we had to use a craft knife to get a fragment which resembled a fifth. Every so often she ended up with too many 'big fifths' and became utterly zonked and we had to cut back to small fragments so she would round again over the next few days. It was pretty hellish but it worked for her as she never had another fit and was some nine years later able to be weaned off.

A new vet took over the neurology practice and instead of him stocking and dispensing the drug himself, he arranged that a local chemist's would dispense against a private prescription. So far so good. Every few months I'd drive over to a local town pick up the prescription and go to the designated chemist shop.

Now although this was all agreed, the counter staff seemed to lose concentration between me handing it in, after explaining it was a vet prescription, and then calling me when it was ready. The first couple of times it was an oversight and I would smilingly correct them before taking the drugs and we all laughed. However, it kept happening, and never once in all the years did they fail to stand at the counter and bawl into the shop "Prescription for Cat RedSetter!" and I would be forced to stalk up to the counter with gritted teeth and correct them with polite "No. Its a vet prescription FOR the Cat. I'm Ms RedSetter, I'm the owner".

So today when I stood up and walked forward for my own prescription I had to supress a smile as I remembered having to answer to my alter-ego of Cat RedSetter!

When to put the Christmas tree up?

This is a dilemma for two reasons. One, I need to find the poles for the inside of the pop-up tree I bought a couple of years ago as I don't know exactly where they are in this house. Last year we didn't put the tree up at all as when it came to it the hassle was more effort than it was worth and it would only need dismantling again, and two, the timing of the tree going up is crucial. Red thinks Christmas trees are just the absolute best, like winning the lottery with shiny baubles on. This means the tree generally needs a minder.

We did have a great pre-lit tree when Red was a kitten and young cat and it spent the entire time doing the salsa which was most disconcerting as he scaled up the tree and concealed himself in the branches. Please excuse the poor quality pics, they are old ones AND most were 'action' shots! Also, the tree was definitely not dressed as badly as this initially but we grew weary of having to replace the decorations and tinsel.

 This one with the tinsel tail is my favourite

 "Eh..? Was that me you were shouting on......nah, couldn't be...!"

 Peek-a-boo

Two years ago I bought a pop-up tree for the ease of putting it up and down as, although I love Christmas, with work and care commitments I wanted an easy solution. This one was also very slim and I reckoned if I placed it correctly it might be less tempting...pah! It lasted exactly 17 hours, and this was only because the resident ginger tree mugger was in the bedroom overnight for most of that time. I'd wedged it between the radiator and the TV unit thinking this might save it unfortunately, Red climbed up inside it and used it as a hide for poking Magic as she lay on the radiator bed.

The tail might match the carpet but we can still see you...!

 Innocent? Maybe not.

 Poor Magic got no peace whatsoever......

 ...till she moved

 Giving him the stink eye

 However, it was really hard to tell him off...I mean how can you look at that sweet trusting face and say bad things about him..?

 This however, was a point of great relief when we could all stand down from our posts when he finally tired himself out.

So, although I want the tree up asap to bring sparkly Christmas cheer to the house for the first time since moving here, and could easily get a replacement pole/frame for the pop up tree if I can't find the original, my reservations remain about the fluffy tree assassin.