Sweet snooze spot

This nice soft beanbag is a favourite of Magic's to rest her poor arthritic joints and have a cosy coorie up on the back of the sofa.

Her love of the squidgy cushion she purloined is what inspired the accidental polystyrene beads over order so that I could make her lovely soft overlay cushions for her favourite places. Unfortunately, I got it very wrong in terms of how much beady filling is required in a cushion and I managed to create a...rock! It is pretty but has all the give of steel so I've been using it to perch my laptop on when on my knee.

I tried again and half filled another cushion which is not great either and is certainly not going to do much for Magic's little joints. I think I need to make them with the stretchy material I have and keep experimenting with the filling volume.

 

Update: the 'rock' seems to be getting slightly softer the more I use it for my laptop and knee exercises so I think there may be a bit of a bedding in period with beanbags when they are used. It is still not what you'd call comfortable and Magic ignores it but there may be a slim hope yet, even if my fledgling career a cat cushion maker is doomed.

Evading the flashy box

Seriously, no pictures. I'm shy, my floof is a mess, I don't want to be recognised, I'm off duty......

 Oh, ok just one shot as I can't take a selfie due to the whole lack of opposable thumbs we cats suffer

Two little words

Two little words guaranteed to strike fear into a cat owner's heart......

What exactly was wrong with the OLD recipe....!

Grow Your Blog - Pepsi Max Addict

I'm joining in with the Grow your Blog meet and greet event at 2 Bags Full. A warm welcome everyone who pops by and I am looking forward to visiting as many of the 500 bloggers taking part in this event as possible.

I have two blogs; this is my cat blog and other one called Gone Beading is where I record my craft adventures, ramblings and thoughts. When I was creating the cat blog back in 2009 I was struggling to think of a title, saw my glass of the Pepsi beside me, and thought 'that'll do'. Very unoriginal way to create a title but there we go!

We live in Scotland and I wanted to record how the humans and resident house princess cat adapted to having Red, a tiny ball of the softest ginger and white fluff, enter our lives, and to see if I could actually set up and maintain a blog

Magic was 6yrs old when the demon boy below arrived much to her disgust

 Red, a few weeks after he arrived, he's sitting on note cube which shows you how tiny he still is.

Magic, a very regal lady is continually affronted by Red's playfulness and disrespectful behaviour so always tries to sit as far away from him as possible

 Red grew up tall and gorgeous with a fluffy chest wig just crying out for a big gold medallion and enormous big soft paws that he allows his loved ones to massage

 He also does a very cute line in sleepy poses which I love taking full advantage of

I found I enjoyed blogging so I kept quietly recording their lives and some of my own thoughts. In 2013 I was contacted by two fabulous cat bloggers, Hannah and Lucy's Mum and Jacqueline, and they introduced me to the Cat Blogosphere which opened up a whole new world of lovely bloggers.

Blogging is such a sociable and fun activity and it is a privilege to engage with fellow bloggers across the world who share their own lives, stories, knowledge and skills. It is lovely to read their posts and a delight when they leave comments on my own.

My ultra gorgeous new header was designed by the wonderful Ann at Zoolatry and I could not be more delighted with it.  I have only ever had basic ones that came as part of the blogger template and I feel very swish and sophisticated wearing my best new image for this event. What is especially lovely is that she has really captured the essence of both cats.

Thank you for visiting and please feel free to leave me a comment if you would like to let me know you've been.

Sweet Magic

Sweet Magical girly with her lovely wise, caring green eyes. I love that she communicates with her eyes and enjoys holding eye contact when we are talking and sitting together.

Mancat Monday and a question

Can something so soft and floofy with nerves of pure candyfloss still qualify for Mancat Monday?

Itchy, twitchy floppy ear but too lazy to give it a scratch

So, what do you want to chat about?

Ps. That is Magic's rump behind, but just to be clear - they are not in eye contact and not a hair is touching so all hostilities are suspended even though it would take only one paw or tail flick for an outbreak of growly hisses from the dark lady.

 

Keep taking the tablets

Magic is on seraquin for her knee joints. She thinks these are so delicious as you hold it out between finger and thumb she very delicately wraps her paw round your little finger and softly guides your hand towards her mouth. It is a tender, lovely little moment twice each day. As soon as I say 'tabby babs' (ok, not the coolest phrase!) she belts into the room and sits there with love in her eyes in anticipation of her special treat followed by a few whiskas pockets for afters. Red is treated the same tho' he just gets the pockets.

As Magic is so good with this, if friends are over when she needs her tablet I'll offer them the opportunity to give it to her if I think it is something they might enjoy doing. Those who have never had a cat usually accept right away and ask how to do it. Afterward they often feel they have the Dr Doolittle touch and maybe missed their vocation as a vet. Those who have, or have had, a cat they've ever tried to medicate look at me in undisguised wide-eyed horror and hiss 'whaaat.....noooo!' clearly traumatised by their past experiences.

Yesterday a friend enjoyed the ritual of the tablet. Later I was thinking about my old cat, the one called Cat. For many years she was on a fifth of a tiny 15mg phenobarbitone tablet and I was just thinking about some of the times we had just getting the tablet into her and how we used to handle her differently.

When Cat came into our lives she was too young to eat by herself, she'd go to the plate and nose around but couldn't quite manage to eat so for the first fortnight I bottle fed her. I used a baby bottle, tucked her in like a baby and gently squeezed the teat to drip the milk into the side of her mouth. This worked well until I had some evening shifts and I would come home to the smell of fermenting milk, my Mum and Sister both high as kites and a hungry kitty with a milk crust round its entire chest and neck. Basically between the two of them they could not get any milk into Cat, yet within minutes I had her fed and keeled over to sleep with a satisfied full tummy. From her earliest days I obviously became the alpha or mummy cat too.

Over the years there were numerous 'procedures' that somehow became my job as I could handle Cat allegedly or more like no one else fancied doing it. Like the time she had some weird thing hanging from her back end and it turned out she'd been eating the crimson fringes off of the back of the chesterfield sofa. I was volunteered to remove it while my Dad fled the room, my Mum and Sis watched in horror and the cat was bewildered and had that look they do when the vet takes their temp. Something similar happened years later with the sub-cuticular suture that was supposed to dissolve after her partial thyroidectomy. Somehow she got a hold of the top knot and her little chest kept wrinkling and lifting as she hung onto the knot with her teeth and tugged. Guess who was volunteered to remove her long suture....oh, yes, cue looks of horror again though this time Cat was cross eyed trying to see what I was up to at such close quarters. To this day I can still recall her look and it makes me laugh. The care of nail clipping, bathing, bowels and bladder also fell to me and I even have experience of administering an enema to a cat - it's just like for a human except you have to chase and hold down your intended victim!

When Cat became epileptic and went onto the phenobarb I gave her the tablet fragment. This involved tucking her in like a baby again, jaws open, flick tablet to the back so that it cant be spat out, close mouth and wait till swallowed. She loathed this but on the flip side with me she realised when I meant something it was going to happen. This was all fine until I had to go to Ireland for a work placement as part of a course and in the course of discussing it Mum stopped dead and said I there was no way I could go as, get this....."how are we supposed to manage Cat's tablet". Eh, same way I do maybe...? Mum and Sis actually discussed taking Cat to the vet's twice a day while I was away! So over the weeks while I was studying for my exams, as the only cat wrangler in our house I had to train my Mum to administer the tablet.

Cat totally took advantage of the opportunity to play up and my mum was so nervous of hurting her that she'd accidentally nip the cats lip as she tried to open her mouth or not hold her firmly enough so that she could wriggle or escape. She also didn't always flick the tablet back far enough and spent ages rubbing the cats windpipe as she thought this would make her swallow while the cat kept the tablet in then spat it out. Great fun! Eventually, détente was achieved and finally one other person could medicate the cat besides me.

Though many of these skirmishes took place between Cat and me over the years I always won though sometimes it was only after a couple of rounds before the submission. I was a novice cat owner and just did what I thought or knew was in her best interests as I loved her completely. In looking back, although she had quite a diva-ish temperament and with me she knew the line not to cross. There was a strong mutual trust as she always sought me out when she was ever ill needed assistance with something as I could pick up on her behaviour and similarly if I was ill she refused to leave my side until I recovered. Truly she made me the cat owner I am today and I learned much from her as we muddled along.

So, as someone who has spent many years cat wrangling while trying to administer a fragment of a tablet it is lovely to be able just to announce that it is tablet time and have the cat actually help you get it into her mouth. It is also nice to let friends share in this sweet time.

Saturday Photohunt - DOOR

Normally I read other bloggers who participate in the Saturday photohunt but I haven't joined in intentionally. Last week the Stunning Keisha pointed out that one of my pictures had an AQUA blanket as this had been the photohunt word.

Today, or just a few minutes ago, by sheer coincidence I had without even realising joined in again on my other blog. Today's word is DOOR and I posted about how I had finally just completed a craft project for my own bathroom door which is pictured below.

It was inspired by a sign in my favourite little restaurant Two Fat Ladies in Glasgow and I thought it was just so witty and fun. It is made from two dinky little Jean Paul Gaultier perfume bottles in a box frame.

If you are itching to have one of these too feel free to pop over to Gone Beading as I've documented how I did it there.

Not quite an Orient Express mystery...

I am so relieved I have just solved a mystery regarding my darling little Magic. For the past month or so she has been shrieking at me intermittently. It is a horrible, high pitched, teeth on edge kind of scream unlike any she has made before. She does it particularly when I have my back to her when I come out of the shower and if she is in the kitchen with me but also sometimes if she is just sitting near me.

When I ask her what it is, she looks at me so intently as though she wants to tell me something, and even stretches a paw out, before doing it again. Magic is not a vocal cat with me preferring long lingering eye contact or touch. She is only vocal when hissing and growling at Red or after a cattery stay where she 'adopts' an accent. We usually just ignore her new voice and lavish praise on her when she is quiet and it settles; though the time she adopted a Siamese yam seemed particularly prolonged.

I'll admit I've been worried and have considered a vet visit as I couldn't fathom out what it was that was causing this. I was worried she had a pain. However, she can climb wherever she puts her mind to, has no eating or toileting issues and I cannot elicit any pain along her body. So, the mystery remains as to why she is still making these sharp screams which make me wince as well.

In the absence of any other evidence I am forced to conclude it might be attention seeking but I am with them night and day and they get tons of attention. However, this morning the mystery was solved while I was sitting on a train.

We live very near a train station but they are electric trains and super quiet though if you listen you can hear them stopping, some beeping and snatches of the odd announcement. When I was on the train this morning I heard the high toned beep, beep, beep at each stop which indicates that the door open button can be pressed.....and do you know what?....it sounded very familiar as each 'beep' is at exactly the same tone and of the same duration as my little Magic's screech. She is not in pain, she is attention seeking and she has adopted a new accent courtesy of Scot Rail.

Cosy cats

The weather here has been windy and rainy but we are missing the truly awful weather some folk are having here and in America so our hearts go out to you and hope you are safe. Both cats are taking full advantage of the hibernation potential that comes from us being holed up at home.

Thank you to everyone who has wished me well with my knee problem. It is a much slower recovery than I'd hoped but I'm planning to arrange some private physio appointment next week as the local health board (who like to pretend they actually give a damn) appointment is not for another four weeks which will be six weeks post-op and have missed the boat I suspect and I am not willing to jeopardise my return to decent mobility.

Both cats essentially eat, have a little half-hearted joust, use their litter boxes then decide where their next sleep will occur. Magic, as usual, has taken on the role of chief protector and has been practically glued to me overnight as well as taking her shift during the day to see that I am ok.

The other nice thing is that the Christmas tree, which is coming down tomorrow, has actually remained upright the whole time- result!

 This is Joy the angel I made for the top of the tree as I couldn't find the decorations box. The only reason she doesn't have features is that I am hopeless at them and she'd have ended up looking somewhat 'glaikit'*

 The bean bag is still a great favourite

  as is the chair at the dining table that I used for crafting

all cuddled up and cosy

 Sleepy boy on the radiator bed on top of the shredded stool that has been scheduled for renovation since the old cat died circa 2002! I do have plans and the materials for it now, honestly!

 

*Glaikit - Old Scottish word meaning silly, stupid, senseless, clueless, thick etc. Excellent word to use as both a descriptor or as an insult i.e. "He just stood there looking glaikit" or "What have you knocked over now you glaikit numptie". 

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.