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!

@Papergirl1968 so sorry to hear about Venus - big hugs xx

Finlay’s spider friend is definitely giving him the excited side eye!

Animal brains are far smaller than ours and their limited processing power is directed towards survival. That means food, warmth, play and depending on species, varying degrees of companionship. Cats are stereotypically a bit cold so Venus probably knew where she could get her fuss and went there for it once she’d worked out that the cats were going to live their lives and she’d be coming out of it with at best a little smack.
Also relevant is that they are genetically engineered permanent baby wolves (not a conspiracy, they’ve been bred that way over thousands of years). So part of her survival drive likely included approval and rewards. Very good luck getting that from a cat.
We had a horse who died in the field - 46-47 which is extraordinary - and while his body was there there was a lot of sadness and nudging as if “why won’t you get up”? The day after his body had gone the horses just proceeded as if nothing had changed despite having lived over a decade with him. Unfortunately pet grief is our burden as humans.
On that note, please have tea and biscuits with your neighbour and a good cry. Cats are amazing but they aren’t the best grief counsellors. At the moment you need to focus on how great it was Venus was in your life, how it’s sad that she’s gone and it hurts but you’re standing it and on your life.

@Papergirl1968 so sorry to hear your news, what an awful way for it to happen, so suddenly out of the blue

I know I'm rarely here these days, but I'm so sorry about Venus @Papergirl1968. Take care and get Matt to give you extra cuddles.

Thanks, all, I really do appreciate your thoughts.
Matt has been on cuddle duty with me on the sofa, and has been multi tasking by having a wash at the same time.

Lovely pictures of Matt, Papergirl.

Matt is absolutely the most beautiful full master tabby cat ever in the whole world, of all time.

Daisy was pleased when I went to bed early last night.

Oh God I’ve just seen your update Paper - I’m so sorry about Venus. She gave Matt a run for his money, and she loved you to bits. You gave her a splendid life, you know. She lived and died loved and happy.

You must be in bits; try and rest and look
after yourself. Massive hug. Have a drink 🥃 and get into bed.

Glad you've got the gorgeous Matt looking after you Paper, and most impressed by his tongue rolling.

The best I can offer this morning is Karl looking with contempt at the puny humans (while waiting for his fix of dreamies).

Karl looks really intimidating there, Grumpy.

Just seen your updates Paper, I'm so sorry. She had the best life and loved it - remember that 💐

Karl the Kaiser of Kute! Karl for new king in Denmark!

He is majestic.

DF thinks DNephew is the new king of Denmark. That’s not that bad for him, giving you an idea of how lively my family is.

I’m afraid I’m going to need more details lol

Finlay and I had a heavy night as it was DPs birthday recently and had people round for takeaway, board games and more than usual drinks so having a chill eve tonight

Finlay is looking well (and lovely 😁) - are you still having to collar him?

That’s hilariously basically velvet for 3/4 of every day (she adopts a bizarre diving position in a basket previously used by a cat just over twice her size) but she spends about four hours running about at random, probably an hour total eating but the rest of the time is snoozing. To my pride she has returned to my bed after multiple removals. But yes, she’s not even waited for an excuse. They can found the Lazy Club.
Other highlights of today include her arriving in the early morning and just screaming while the door was ajar and even with her weird squirm worm technique for catflap she could have forced her way through. But she just stood there wailing with her sapphire eyes fixed on me like WHAT SHALL I DO THIS DOOR IS CLOSED TO ME while I responded can you give it a tiny push with your snout or your paw and she went NO I AM A PRINCESS. It took two weeks for her to get catflaps. This is clearly going to take longer.

In our house, that position is called "paws in a point"!

AKA "prawning" chez Chickens.

Sending condolences to Papergirl - it's even more shocking when you have to make these decisions quickly without any time to reconcile what's happening. Go easy on yourself over the coming days.

I think 'paws in a point' is the perfect description for Finlay above. Prawning (to me) is different and looks more like this. 🦐

You're right! En route to a prawn perhaps. Or a pretzel, if you're in the US.

@Grumpyoldpersonwithcats
No we are back to his normal air tag collar - even though he’s not going anywhere (grounded for at least another 4 weeks) we didn’t want him to get used to having no collar at all
He’s doing really well and will start reducing his painkillers tomorrow and increase out of crate time too

The boys are twinning tonight.

The latest in Leroy-Stop technology 😂