Christmas with the Excellent Cats

[TheShellBeach]

......... Silent Night.........

Well, maybe not so silent when there's a cat about who wants to be fed.

Join us in the run up to Christmas 2023!

As I could not blow bubbles with bubblegum as a child, I didn't really buy it much.

Until the mid-sixties when me and my friends took to buying several packets each after school. We were teenagers and the bubblegum had cards of The Man From Uncle in them. We would open them excitedly on the train home, and do swaps.

I managed to complete the set, though the very last one was not perfect, probably a swap. And I've still got them

OMG I fancied Napoleon Solo so much.

Some of us on this thread are showing our age.

And he looks so proud too 🥰

He'll teach Prince how to do it next... 🤢

He gets fed at 6pm
sharp.

Here he is stealing Prince’s supper. Note time of post.

Illya for me! TBF there were a few people who preferred Napoleon, but not so many as fancied Illya...

My sister adored Ilya. I was too young to be taking notice of blokes when it was on.

@Supersimkin2 I could forgive Havelock the farts, because he's just beautiful (and I love his name - are you a fan of Lord Vetinari by any chance?). He looks like the late darling Hadji.

Just a thought, my Mamie did wash-all-your-clothes-immediately farts, or that's what I thought they were. Since she tended to squirt, I now wonder if it was her anal glands involved. Are Havelock's like that?

@Grumpyoldpersonwithcats just wondering who are Doris, Cedric and FWK?? ...........

FWK = Friend With Kittens. Even though Cedric and Doris are no longer kittens.
Doris and Cedric are her two cats - reportedly BSH/Persian crosses, although they look a lot more BSH than Persian to me
Cedric (the grey) is a female cat who clearly struggles with his/her identity (and pronouns)

@Grumpyoldpersonwithcats aha! Thank you! I've seen references to them and never knew who they were or who they belonged to ..........

You have such fabulous cat owning friends! Cedric/Doris/TC !! (and of course, you're a fabulous cat owner too - thought I'd better say that quick before your lot looked at me disapprovingly 😂)

Linney, miaowing by the front door.
He's trying to get us to open it so that he can go out and do some catting in the dark.

We have not complied.

Now he's making biscuits on the bed

Ilya all the way for me. I was watching Strictly last night and Nikita reminded me a bit of Ilya...

While I used to enjoy the Man from Uncle, nobody on TV could ever compete with Emma Peel.

I suppose this might explain my penchant for felines with black catsuits 🤣

Ooh, Mrs Peel was my heroine! I remember having a photo from a magazine of her in her blue jumpsuit pasted into my scrapbook. I must have been about five or six (don't know how long after their British airing episodes played here).

Ghostie is sitting in the bay window watching the birds this morning. Lots of chattering and tail swishing when she sees magpies but when pigeons are there she calms down. Someone had kindly 🤔 dumped bread and crisps on the pavement outside so I think Ghostie will be watching this "programme" for a long time.

I saw Diana Rigg live at the Almeida Theatre in London in the early nineties, playing Medea. Gods that woman can act, she was superb!

Her Emma Peel was definitely the best Avengers female lead, though I thought Joanna Lumley as Purdy was pretty decent.

This is derailing entirely but the person I saw most recently in a theatre who absolutely wowed me is Imelda Staunton in Gypsy. About eight years ago. I knew she could act but oh my GOD she can sing as well. Near Idina Menzel level with the belting, it was a bit odd to see Dolores Umbridge singing her heart out. And speaking of the acting I particularly remember a moment in her biggest speech where she left an obscenely big pause and the phrase “you could have heard a pin drop” literally applied. You have to be a good actress overall to even get to that level but you have to be incredibly good to leave the entire audience hanging on to your every word even when you aren’t speaking any!

Returning to cats, Velvet doesn’t really seem to like cat television (birds etc) but she really likes actual television. We’ve spotted her watching slack-jawed and wide-eyed at various human programmes whereas her reaction to ravens etc is “what is that huge thing? Never mind, I have some trees to bite”.

Munchkin is fascinated by bird videos, but I've had to stop putting on the ones with pet mice and rats because she starts batting the TV and trying to get round the back to find out where they've gone.

Phoebe likes human TV as well. Her favourite seems to be Time Team.

Today we have done something which is either very very clever, or (much more likely) utterly pointless and stupid. Only time will tell. 😁
Based on another thread on MN about cats being messy eaters, and giving advice how to reduce it, we've decided to remove the cats' feeding bowls and replace them with ceramic serving dishes (thanks TKMaxx). Hoping it reduces the usual postprandial carnage.
I'll report back in a day or two to update on 'spillage'.
Sybil likes the new arrangement anyway.

@Grumpyoldpersonwithcats that looks very posh! I replaced cat bowls with white dinner plates. It's easier for them all to reach but Toad still insists on pulling some of the food into the floor then leaving it because it's passed the five second rule. Dick.

Midnight did not like treats like bits of chicken actually in her bowl, but usually took them out and put them on the floor before eating them. Eventually we just put them on the floor next to her bowl. Perhaps this was because she was a prolific hunter and was indulging in the fiction that she had caught the chicken etc herself?

@Grumpyoldpersonwithcats I might steal that idea - Lasagna is an incredibly messy eater. He has no teeth so finds picking food up in his mouth tricky. His solution is to scoop in a paw and go paw to mouth (which looks adorable) but it does go everywhere. I reckon he would really like a flat plate, thank you!