The Very Eventful Lives of the Excellent Cats

[TheShellBeach]

Calling all cats and their overworked slaves - join us as we grudgingly accept that every day is National Cat Day as far as our moggies are concerned.

They are so cute together!

@coastergirl Benny looks almost the same size as Walter in that picture.
What's the age gap between them?

Nine years!

They’re so dear. Benny’s that heavenly fire orange. Prince is more apricot. He’s huge and very muscly which causes issues with The Pillow at night.

I’ve bought another pillow. Surely 7 is enough.

Oh I didn’t see NMC in the background.

I am feeling rather pleased with myself today. I dragged myself out into the cold and rain to go and buy milk and on the way spotted this chair outside someone's house. I've wanted a vintage/antique chair for my kitchen for ages but nothing has been right, but this is perfect. The person in the house looked at me like I was crazy when I asked if I could take it. It weighs a ton so I had to drag it home as I couldn't carry it but I now have a kitchen throne. Vixen has been eyeing it up but the chair is soaking so I think she'll wait till I've dried it out before claiming her throne

@Supersimkin2 I've been quickly flicking through your pictures of Price and enjoying stop motion cat action 😁.
@RumNotRun - most impressed with your chair 👍

@Supersimkin2 Prince looks like he's waving on the last photo.

Benny's back is very bright orange, but his paws are a more gentle apricot colour. He has very defined markings and a fluffy tail. He's beautiful (and he knows it). It's a shame the app will only let me add certain photos.

Trying to get a photo of Linney where he's in the middle of jumping up.
Vaguely successful.

May I reciprocate with a photo of miss Velvet? Mine is also unsuccessful as her head is just not in it, but I tried. Another unsuccessful thing is her hunting skills, now she mainly defaults to biting a chair/sofa/carpet when she gets stressed about her lack of prowess at playing with the wand toy or whatever it is.

That second photo of Miss Velvet is quite un-nerving. A headless cat!?
Unless - maybe she's a ghost and can remove her head and tuck it underneath her arm?

Funnily enough, we do suspect her of being a ghost. She keeps disappearing and appearing in completely unexpected places…

My son has adopted 2 cats about 7 months old today, brother and sister. The female is pregnant but the male has been neutered. I'll try to get a photo tomorrow. They are black with a bit of white with mustaches.

@TheShellBeach & @CeciledeVolangesdeNouveau - try taking a short video clip of them jumping then take the best still, or do a photo burst and select the clearest one.

@caringcarer has he planned what to do when the kittens are born? As in, does he have a vet to call in case of emergency or the kittens not feeding, having medical problems, etc, and then what he's going to do about homing them?

He will be using our vet she's booked in for a microchip on Wednesday. I think he's waiting to see how many kittens the cat has.

Good to hear!

@SequentialAnalyst I think she’s probably headless - bless her but she’s not the sharpest knife in the box and often behaves like she doesn’t have access to her brain!

Re kittening (I can’t remember the proper word) it’s definitely a very good idea to have a vet accessible and aware of the situation but don’t stress too much, cats have much easier labours than humans in general (smaller heads, proportionally) and fairly frequently will deliver the kittens before you know it! So make sure you have contingency plans but no need to raise your own blood pressure.

That chair’s Victorian - very fine too.

I found the matching chair to my chaise longue in the street during lockdown. I took it home on the empty bus, lovely. Re-stuffed it with foam cos the horsehair had got damp, easy, and spent a couple of hours polishing it to a golden gleam. Old furniture’s worth £0 but it’s so pretty.

My friend's DD found a chaise longue in the street one day.

They quite often found quite nice furniture this way, one benefit of living near older houses rented out to students, and which were presumably refurbed reasonably often

Seriously how cute are these boys? Benny loves to have his paws crossed. Walter is just being all chilled with his massive head 😂 Having seen a lot lately about cats who won't go near their owners, I feel very lucky to have these boys. They love to snuggle 💙💙

Daisy's a happy bunny right now. I promised her I'd come into the bedroom while Mum was doing her exercises this afternoon, and here we are.

Balanchine’s most favourite way to sleep is (as in these photos from the other day) lying on my front. With his head on my shoulder, or listening to my heartbeat, or tucked under my chin - he faces into me, like a kitten with their mummycat. Nijinsky, as a rule, will face me for a fuss & blink-kisses, but curls up in a loaf facing away: he prides himself on being my guard!cat.

This afternoon - well, yesterday afternoon now - Nijinsky meowed me awake because I’d missed my noon medication by over 1h30 (they’re very attuned to my medication timings as when we’re home alone they’re the prelude to feline mealtimes 😸). Unfortunately this meant I was late taking breakthrough painkillers with the result I was reduced to writhing & crying from the pain.

Despite the fact I wasn’t providing a comfy surface for his nap, Nijinsky stayed. And purred. Then Balanchine appeared and climbed up on me; & as well as rubbing his face on mine (the same cheek brush cats do to greet each other) which is not unusual, he licked the tears off my face (not allowed, but I was in no state to stop him). He then settled down facing away from me, lying between my arm & my side so his purrs & warmth could work on my hip & elbow. I fell asleep after the painkillers kicked in, & woke up with Balanchine in his usual place, head resting over my heart, snurring^ blissfully. Jin was stretched out to cover as much of my legs as possible, and he was also snurring.

They are so very much the best cats. I mean, all our cats are the best cats, obviously; but I am so very lucky. As I write this, Nijinsky is once more asleep on my lap; & Balanchine is snurring away, his head on my right collarbone & his front paws reaching across to my right arm 😻

^ snurring = sleep purring/snoring x purring

What excellent boys they are!

As is the word snurring, I haven't heard that one before. Must listen to hear if Phoebe's snores are ever snurrs. She's a champion snorer, can be heard a room away.

Love the (presumed) neologism spurring. I also love the French for purring: ronronner - when pronounced properly it’s really onomatopoeic, and the German for whiskers - schnurrbart.