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!

Idle conversation between DS2 and self this afternoon:

DS2 - Linney looks like he'd have a great vocabulary if he was the sort of cat that could speak

Me - The sort of cat that could speak? Like Top Cat?

DS2 - Top Cat was a cartoon cat. He couldn't actually speak, mum

Me - No cats can actually speak, DS.

DS2 - I meant cats like Salem.

Me - Who he?

Salem - the cat from 'Sabrina the teenage witch'?

My go-to talking cat is Tobermory (quoted on one of the TC thread titles)

Yes, apparently, although I hadn't heard of that either

Is Tobermory an actual cat, Grumpy?

😂

To be fair, velvet does speak a lot. Unfortunately it’s the equivalent of shrieking in Romanian two rooms away or even in the same room but it’s the same as bloody shouting in Romanian. Or Finnish. She says her piece, nobody has any idea what has been said. Then we acknowledge she is very sweet and nice but nobody knows or cares what was just said, she is fussed and fed and resumes crying.

Also isn’t Tobermory a womble? My autocorrect knows him

Tobermory is the cat in Saki's short story of the same name. It's a masterpiece of the short story genre.

And yes - he was also a womble 🤣

Great news about Linney, Shell

Thank you, Papergirl, and everyone else who has commented. We're really happy about Linney's results.

Re - Tobermory

I also thought he was a Womble.

And a small town on the Island of Mull.

Not to mention the particularly nasty Scottish sweet* *Tobermory Tatties made in the 1960s and 70s which was made of fondant covered in cinnamon powder and which Mr SB consumed in great quantities during his misspent youth.

Oh Lord. I’m retching and V is eating probablt a large meal with the neighbours.

They contained a tiny plastic toy in the middle as well (which made them v. dangerous IMO) and also made them the precursor of things like Kinder eggs which are also overpriced crap which contain plastic tat in the middle.

Mind you, I never got to the middle of the one I was given as a child. It was so vile that I spat it out.

If anyone is moved to try the Tobermory Tattie, it is obtainable on Amazon, probably from the same seller who sent me all those Anglo Bubblies.

Mr SB has also just informed me that he saw Tobermory Tatties in the retro sweetshop in Inveraray, just in case a poster from this thread wants a wee trip to Argyll and fancies eating Scottish sweets from yesteryear.

Which I do not, in good conscience, recommend. Yelo Felos will chip bits off your teeth.

Great news, Shell!

I like fondant, I love cinnamon, I am intrigued...

Trust me, they're vile.

Anglo Bubblies are good though.

Which reminds me.............

Oh Glory

just reminded velvet to smother me in the face tomorrow so I don’t have to experience potato related sweets

I can't find them on Amazon anyway. I did find an Oor Willie sweet box with Highland toffee bars in. I used to love those, I don't think my teeth would survive them these days.

I just burst into tears upon finding that I'd accidentally left Matt outside for four hours this evening.
I totally forgot he ran out the front door at about 5pm, heard some miows at about 8pm and looked out of the back door in case he'd got out by accident while thinking no, it can't be Matt, he's upstairs somewhere, before realising at 9pm that I hadn't got him in after he dashed out of the front door.
He was fine, has eaten and is curled up by me. He does go.out but not much this weather, and I don't let him out the front because of traffic although he does occasionally slip out when someone is coming in or going out.
I can't believe I forgot him and left him out on such a cold night 😪

Oh bless you

Dont forget he is furry so he can stay warmer than we can. He probably hasn’t suffered much and isn’t assigning blame. Even if he’s had a chilly couple of hours he’s inside warming up and getting back to OK in double quick time. He still loved you. Lots of love to you both.

Oh Papergirl I'm so sorry
I've done the same thing with two of mine in the past.
The guilt is unreal.

But Matt is lovely and warm now.
So don't beat yourself up too much about it.

Do you mean that Saki actually created the Wombles?

Trebles all round!

🤣🤣🤣

@Papergirl1968 I've done this in the past too. I also once shut Pigeon (who couldn't "speak") out in the freezing cold utility room for a few hours, unintentionally. I was looking for her and couldn't find her so opened the utility door and she was sitting there looking so sad. Obviously she had extra Dreamies and snuggles to make up for it.

@Papergirl1968 we've done similar too, I find a simple apology to the cat suffices, certainly wouldn't feel guilty about it. As a PP commented, cats do have very well tailored fur coats to keep them warm.

Aw, it’s so sad when a cat is locked out. Luckily (just going to run with luckily) velvet goes from zero to MEOW MEOW MEOW MEOW MEOW in her impressive mezzo soprano if she feels mistreated. In seconds. This applies if she’s locked out, not allowed to be in the shower, people are eating stuff she hates etc. it also applies if I’ve closed an internal door while she’s looking to settle in for a long sleep. Obviously it will be roughly ten minutes before the little dear is all MEOW MEOW MEOW at the door. Also I think a cat may have weed on me and there is one in the house VELVET.