It’s just another hole in the door.
We have a catflap in the back door. All of the Tribe use it, but Iggy much prefers it if we open the front door for him. I think that perhaps the back yard walls are a bit difficult for him, now he is a self-proclaimed grumpy old man.
So yesterday, Pete put a catflap in the front door. We’re not worried about the danger – they all swarm out as soon as the door is opened, then go down the passage beside the house, and back over the aforementioned wall (or gate). But if Iggy is not let out, he is sometimes inclined to do his business indoors, and not in the litter trays, so an additional cat flap where he can come and go without scaling the walls seemed a good idea.
While it was being constructed, all the cats hurtled through the hole. Now it has a flap fitted, they’re being prissy, of course. I did bundle Iggy through yesterday, and he came straight back in, so he at least understands it. Mustrum would *not* go through it this morning, though, but I’m sure that’ll all change. Either that, or we have a hole in the door to no real end apart from creating more draught …
I’ve recently taken up tapestry once more, and am currently finishing off an aubergine by Kaffe Fassett. Next up, I’m going to do this one, which I’ve already ordered. Don’t you think the resemblance is uncanny?
Iggy loves the slow cooker because it is warm, and there is an old padded jiffy bag beside it for a chap to rest his old bones.
Today there is a whole chickie! in the slow cooker, which means that he is even more determined to maintain his station. If he works out how to get the lid off, we’ll have no chicken for our supper …
Still, warmth *and* chickie! FTW, as far as he’s concerned.
[For the sake of accuracy, this photograph was taken when the slow cooker was dealing with some lentils]
Lily is having a hard-ish time of it right now – Henry has been bullying her for a few months. Not constantly, but enough to make her life uncomfortable from time to time, and now Ron is starting to join in now and again.
However, Lilith is a stalwart, and takes it pretty much all in her stride most of the time. Here you can see her being very stressed, on my desk. For some reason, I called her “mein leibling”, and it appears to be sticking.
I have had serious words with EnRon but, as you might imagine, they just ignored me (apart from a “purr” from Henry, which is his response to most things).
In other news, we picked up a cat tree this morning from our friend Samantha, who bought it at an auction for us. It has been placed in front of the living room window, but obviously nocat is going to sit on it for some time. I have seeded* it with catnip, so we shall see if that lures them. It’s quite a whizzy one, as it has not only a platform, but a rather fine tunnel, so I imagine they’ll have some fun with it when we’re not looking.
* Not literally.
Apologies for the lack of posts – I do have stuff to write, but have lacked the time and energy to write it! But I will soon, promise.
This is a photograph of Mustrum who, like all the others, is enjoying this time of year when the sun falls into our bedroom (which is large, and has two tall windows facing south.). They move sleepily across the floor – the cats, not the windows! – following the sunshine, and Mussie is under the chair.
Someone commented on Flickr that, in the thumbnail, he looked like “some kind of poultry or game, plucked and ready to cook”, and as I always say, there’s good eating on a Mustrum.
As I strolled back from the post box yesterday, I encountered Lily, about 50 yards or so up the road from the house, on the other side of the road. Being fed chickie! by an old lady, who apparently does this on a daily basis. And bikkit too.
I told her that Lilith was our cat, and she said “Oh, we thought she was a stray. I’ve been feeding her for weeks – she was so thin”.
Now, there’s no way Lily a) looks like a stray, or b) could in any way be described as thin. The woman asked why we let her out, and told me we “weren’t allowed” to let her roam free. After this, the conversation got quite acrimonious, especially when it transpired that Lily’s “angel” fan club had told this woman where she lived, but she “didn’t believe them”* – I suspect she is trying to adopt her by coercion, and after what happened at our old house, I’m damned if I’m letting that occur again.
I’ve asked her not to feed Lily any more, but I have no real hope of this happening – she really is a remarkably pretty cat, and people do like her. They don’t realise she’s a monster, but she is our monster.
*She could have come and asked, of course>
Ron and Henry check out the transportation
We – or more particularly, the Tribe – have been suffering an infestation of fleas. Despite two doses of Frontline, and copious spraying with cans of expensive Stuff from the vitinery, Henry has been overwhelmed by the little bitey creatures, and so we decided he’d have to see the vet for something stronger.
The surgery is about ten minutes walk away, and Pete and I had a discussion about how best to convey Henry – initially, Pete wanted to walk him, but he’s a heavy beast (Henry, that is – those who have met Pete will know he is but a slip of a thing :), and I didn’t think he’d like being carried that far innabox. Then Pete decided that his bike trailer would be just the thing, but in the end we took the car. Which took about ten minutes, due to the Machiavellian nature of the one-way system round here, which is designed to stop boy racers steaming through the grid of terraced streets. It works very well, but it makes a short journey much longer in a car.
Henry was admired and weighed (5 kgs!), and pronounced en-flea’d. Sarah the vet said we would need to do the rest, and she would need to see them to have them weighed. Our hearts sank – catching the other four was likely to be a non-trivial task. I assured her that we had weights for the spotty boys from last November, and given that they are alpha male Bengals, we could be quite sure they weighed over 4kgs, thank you very much. But Lilith and Ron were a different matter – I could be positive Lily was under 4kgs, and thought Ron was, but wasn’t sure, so they had to go in.
And so Pete came home, fetched out a stack of bungees, and set to to see how to secure the bike basket in the trailer. We bribed Ron and Lily in with cold roast chickie!, a trick that never fails, and off they went on a nice trip out – he left the cover off the trailer so they could see where they were going, and they seem completely untraumatised by their experience.
All five have now been dosed with Advocate, and the house vacuumed and sprayed once more – let us hope we shall shortly be free of bloody fleas.
** note for self: Iggy and Mustrum 5.5kgs, Lilith 3.8kgs, Ron 4.6kgs (which surprised me), Henry 5kgs.
We live in an urban jungle here – (biggish) Victorian terraced houses, with alleys and runs between the back yards. The spotty boys have found it hard to settle into this new environment, and Iggy in particular is not very happy with his lot; he’s never liked change, and this was hard for a 13 year old chap to bear.
He’s making it his home, though – I’ve just spent five minutes watching him through the window, while he decided where he wanted to go. He was sitting on a wall, preparatory to jumping onto a flat roofed extension, and it was fascinating how he looked, judged, then moved backward a smidge, rinse and repeat, until the distance was perfectly judged and he leapt, landing light pawed on the roof.
He didn’t stay there long, probably because the window was closed (none of the Tribe have ever been particular about whose house they visit, or indeed eat in), so he moved along to the next roof, and did the same thing before landing on someone’s shed.
We can observe a fair bit of the secret life of the neighbourhood cats from up here – it’s endlessly fascinating.
The Tribe are very pleased to welcome Vikki, who is going to catsit for us, in exchange for us rabbitsitting. 80% of the Tribe were inspected and admired; Iggy declined to present himself, but you can’t have everything.
On a more serious note, this is a great weight off my mind, so we’re very pleased to have Vikki on board.
In other news, we have Fleas. We Frontlined all five of them last Friday, and now have discovered that the carpets are alive. Everything has been sprayed with Acclaim, and other Blob has got the Dyson going full pelt. Hateful things, flease.
