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.

@CeciledeVolangesdeNouveau Phoebe sends her congratulations to another budding tail-chasing champion!

I somehow managed to post ⬇️ in the “loaf of doom” thread. Clearly I require far more feline supervision 🤦🏻‍♀️

Balanchine pootled into my room shortly before 0830 this morning to gently pat my face to wake me before the “you haven’t taken your first lot of medication” alarm went off on my phone. Former a much nicer way to wake up than latter. He then watched me take said medication, had a wee fuss, & pootled back off downstairs to continue his birdwatching 😻

Munchkin is also small but you know when she's jumped off the bed or my desk - it probably registers on a seismograph somewhere. Such a thud for such little paws!

I was wondering that too, sequentialanalyst. It looks amazing, Catsmere.

Morticia looks almost as nice in the dressing gown as she does in her bonnet, HouseofHolbein! 😸

I'll just repeat my answer there - what a sweet and helpful boy Balanchine is!

Phoebe is doing squeaky snores under my bed atm. Oh, wait, she's woken up and is now slurp-washing her paws.

@nettie434 thank you! :)

@CeciledeVolangesdeNouveau I love that look on Velvet's face. It's as though she's puzzled to have found herself in the paper recycling thing.

I got "the paw" this morning. Corduroy hasn't been well for the last 10 days, diarrhoea and lots of medications to treat it. I had to give her a bath every night for a week to help keep her clean. She turned a corner on Thursday and has been much better since then.

She curled up and went to sleep on me this morning and the paw was my reward.

Oh The Paw 🥰 The Paw 🥰🩷

I haven’t had the paw or the sitting on lap with Velvet yet, but I was very pleased to have her curl up against my side for her morning nap. Re the facial expression, @TheShellBeach, I genuinely cannot figure out whether she’s extremely clever or very stupid. She habitually runs into doors, tries to jump off the landing and thinks she’s hiding when she’s not, but at the same time she’s hyper-aware of what’s happening, excellent spatial memory (she ALWAYS knows what’s moved and checks it out on her patrol) and when I’m playing with the wand toy or a stringy object she’s clearly looking at the toy then at my hand and never ever goes for my hand. I am going to err on the side of “a bit stupid” though because she keeps pushing cupboard doors and normal doors closed when she wants to open them even when I’ve literally pretended to be a cat and mimed the correct gesture for her…

I would love to see you pretending to be a cat, Cecile!
If it's any comfort, I don't think Socks is the brightest either. I ask her if she was dropped on her head as a kitten because I regularly have to scoop her off the bed to show her I've put her food under the bed. She's eaten her food under the bed for years, you'd have thought she'd have learned by now...
I have an Asda order coming tonight. Some idiot has decided 40 40l bin liners are a suitable substitute for six cat litter tray liners.
They've also given an estimated delivery time of 9.30pm, just below where it says driver has arrived. No, he bloody hasn't, you numpties!

Bless her! That sounds adorable. Velvet to be fair to her is quite a contrast to the Machiavellian Mr N who knew exactly who he could wind around his littlest paw. We had a horse like your Socks though, she had quite bad vision but still had to be reminded where her food was after seven years of putting it in the same place, with vocal and smell prompters to help her!

Velvet on the other hand always knows where the food is or might will be…

Bless x
Finlay is still trying to learn the art of the cat flap! Today he tried ‘pond’ and was most dismayed to find he couldn’t walk on water and it contained wet cold stuff
now recovering on my lap - it’s a hard life being a kitten

@TheLongRider so glad she's getting better, poor little darling!

@JaceLancs goodness Finlay's growing fast!

I'm also in two minds about whether Daisy is smart or a bit stupid. I was inclined to the latter, but there's one thing she's latched onto. About six months ago she was getting constipation, and was diagnosed with megacolon. She's since been put on Cisapride for motility and Osmolax, a laxative. She doesn't get constipated now but she does have very a irregular rhythm - sometimes she'll poo around 24 hours, sometimes 36, sometimes in the forties and a couple of times it's been 58. I always make a fuss and tell her what a good girl she is whenever she goes, and she's developed the habit of telling me when she has - if I come home she'll bounce up, squawk and head-butt me, and yes, there'll usually be a poo in the litter. Or she'll announce she's going. Her favourite, though, is when she's on a nighttime pattern, and she squawks at me to turn the light off when I've been in bed a while, so she can go and do it.

She's selectively smart, I think!

So elegant 🙄

Finlay is gorgeous, and as for Courduroy 😍

I offer a picture of Karl looking quizzically at me earlier.

@CeciledeVolangesdeNouveau said:
I am going to err on the side of “a bit stupid” though because she keeps pushing cupboard doors and normal doors closed when she wants to open them

I do this. Every time. Push a door when it clearly says "Pull." Pull a door when it clearly says "Push."

I am, in fact, very clever. But you'll just have to take my word for that

@SequentialAnalyst you just reminded me of this classic Gary Larson cartoon.

I'd always assumed that all cats are clever, and any behaviours that suggest otherwise are just evidence of the cat trying to fool us.
Until...
we had new French doors fitted and they opened outwards rather than inwards like the old ones.
The result was completely confused cats for about four weeks, who would run away from the doors whenever opened from either side 🙀.

Frankie is looking very teeny curled up on my fake oodie.

Teeny and very cosy!

I love The Far Side! When I left an office where we would fight for the paper every morning to be the first to see the day's cartoon, the blokes gave me the Midvale School for the Gifted one as a farewell card. 😂😂😂

@SequentialAnalyst I also do that re the doors! I’m a typical example of an academic who can ace an exam but can’t work out how to take a bus successfully. I think Velvet is actually very clever but she hasn’t quite engaged her brain with my (admittedly probably quite funny) cat impressions to encourage her to do what all other cats in my life have done instinctively, it’s the “come hither” paw movement to open the door inwards.

So many lovely black cats on this thread! It’s amazing they can have so many different expressions and personalities despite basically all being monochrome with similar-coloured eyes. Cats are so special 😍

@Catsmere - they both are really: the OT who came to assess my home for adaptations (which surveyors are finally coming out to tender for, a mere year later!) was very impressed they move off the stairs for me when I say “excuse me”. (I can’t imagine I’m going to get to use my stairlift without a feline passenger - or two - very often once it gets installed though 😸). Daisy may be smart enough to know it’s best to conceal how smart you are…

@TheLongRider
Poor wee Corduroy: do hope she’s completely better now. Balanchine still likes to hold paws with me while he sleeps sometimes; those first instances of The Paw from wee sleeping kittens are something else though 🥰

@Papergirl1968
Supermarket subs will never cease to amaze me. I mostly select no substitutions when I order, then go through & pick out stuff I’m willing to risk eg loo roll. I hope your order showed up ok.

@twobluechickens
Munchkin is adorbs. And who wants to be elegant when they can be cosy & comfy & relaxed? Am so pleased for both of you. (🍫🍫🍫 more emergency choc for you, as clearly you cannot move until Munchkin says so 😁)

@JaceLancs
Poor wee Finlay: I hope he didn’t get too soggy!

@Grumpyoldpersonwithcats
Karl looks as if he is conducting a very serious interview with you - excellent photo.

@RumNotRun
Frankie is such a wee dote 😍 He reminds me a wee bit of Nijinsky - the pointed face & relatively large ears, I mean, not just being a black cat!

@CeciledeVolangesdeNouveau
Velvet really is very beautiful: such lovely markings; & she looks so happy, too.

As for here, mostly there was lots of snuggling; but during an early-evening game of hide & squeak Jin lost his collar. I was asleep, & wasn’t woken up to replace it immediately; but it was brought in to me & put by my phone for safekeeping. Thus, when Jin came in for bedtime, he had a snoofle at it, & then let me pop it back on him. They will be 12 years old in April, but they still routinely tear round the house as they did at 12 weeks & 12 months. Have also included a photo of Mr B holding my hand 🥰