Tales and Tails and NMCs - the Excellent Cats March On

[TheShellBeach]

Join us as 2024 starts and our cats continue to run our lives for us.

Well Done!

Well done Shell - great result. 👍

And Allergic - very pleased to hear the Tobias update.

Mr SB did nothing! Just made cups of tea.

It was my neighbour and me!

Whoops sorry, I have a terrible memory!

Well done @TheShellBeach and Neighbour of Shell! Fantastic result 😁

Also, I forgot to say I'm glad Tobias is feeling perkier.

Frankenstein has been a bit snuffly for the last couple of days, he gets this every now and again. When I asked a vet about it before they said that he may have a low dose of cat flu that keeps recurring but it's nothing to worry about etc. I bought some sliced chicken for him to cheer him up and got snuggles all night last night. That's the first time ever that he's spent the whole night curled up next to my top half as opposed to moving near my feet. Hopefully he's now realised that's a good place to sleep as he gets strokes all night (I wake up a lot throughout the night)

Great news, @TheShellBeach - I had been musing on a Cunning Plan to increase the number of signatures on your petition, thanks to your making us people aware of it on this thread more widely. But of course, this would have been unethical, and couldn't be done anonymously

I actually considered that, but realised I didn't want to dox myself.
🤣

And in fact, the HA were so outraged that a post had been made on the village FB page which an insider told me they obsessively check daily that they capitulated immediately.
They were especially unprepared for a petition.

Loads of people signed it, though, and wrote very, very supportive comments.

Go Shell!!! Smart move.

Oh the power of public opinion! 😁 So many organisations can be somewhat dependent on their reputation, so even a hint of negative publicity can work wonders.

Quick Tobias update. Spoke to vets, they were happy that he didn't need to come in but have given him some vile looking paste to give him once a day for 3 days. Nurse did start to say to just stick the end of the dispenser in his mouth and push the plunger in, then when I finally slowed down the rather hysterical laughter at that thought she suggested I put a measure of it in his food & mix it in.

Not sure whether he likes it or not though, as currently hes tucking into Girlcat's supper rather than his own. But his poos look a tiny bit firmer this evening anyway, and he's definitely perked up a bit more.

How long would you keep a new cat in one room? She's doing very well, eaten quite a bit today and comes out a couple of mins after I've left the room to eat the Dreamies. Believe me, this is progress! I just feel it's very boring for her in there. She has a few toys, several cat beds (of course she isn't using them!) and I've been leaving the radio on low all day. She just comes out to eat, use her tray, she has a bit of a stretch and washes, might have a look in the corner and at the radio, then goes back under her chair.

Tobias is clearly feeling better this morning, as I was woken up by him committing mayhem with the upstairs hallway carpet at 05:15, with accompanying squawks and growls. He also had a good go at the cardboard scratcher attached to the wall at the top of the stairs, them jumped and fled with a wild look in his eyes when I came out of the loo.

So back to "normal" morning behaviour then!

Ah glad to hear Allergic!
ha ha ha I love it when they’re involved in some game and then do the wild look and bolt. Eko does that frequently on windy days in the garden. Always makes me laugh

@upanddowns - unfortunately that is one of those questions with no real answer, it depends entirely on the cat. If you have children or other animals it's probably best to leave it longer, if not it can probably be shorter. Has she got access to a window with a decent(ish) view?

When I brought Leroy home he had a good look round the whole house, ate a full bowl of food, did a wee in his tray, then sat on the windowsill, surveyed his new territory... and promptly washed his butt. All in the space of about 15 minutes. By 9am the next morning he'd taken over my bed, and hasn't given it back 🤷🏼‍♀️

Thanks. I live alone. Yes she has a window in her room but I haven't seen her sit on it yet to look out. She's sleeping under a chair which has a blanket draped over like a kind of tent to make her feel safe.

I tend to give my newbies free range of the house pretty early on, but part of the reason is because the rest of the tribe always gets annoyed if a room is shut off to them. Often the new cat will stay in one room out of choice anyway, at least until they feel more confident. Although some new cats here have been like Leroy in that they've acted like it's been their house all along and barely taken 5 minutes to settle in.

Frederick is being a bugger today. He went onto the top of my (always empty) wine cabinet and pushed the Halloween tree onto the floor. He then jumped down next to it, sniffed it a bit and looked at me all surprised like "Mum, mum, look the tree fell, how did that happen?" After I put the tree back, he's gone up there a few times more but quickly jumped down when I've shouted his name. Demon cat.

@upanddowns Can I ask how old you think she is? If she's getting on a bit, can she comfortably jump to the windowsill or d'you think she might need a bit of help (a series of hops may be better)? If it's just you then I think it'd be OK to leave the door open just a little bit.

@RumNotRun A Halloween Tree? May we see said Halloween Tree? I'm very interested 😁 (it's not Halloween any more though....?)

She's between 10 and 12. I hadn't thought of that, thanks, I'll give her a stool to help her get up.

@Allergictoironing I'm glad Tobias is better and deeply impressed that you managed to get any of that vile paste into him at all.
Linney was prescribed some once, looked at it, laughed and walked off.

@RumNotRun Have you got a Christmas tree still up, as well as a Halloween tree?
Are you going to get a Valentine's Day tree?

It sounds lovely! Need to see a pic.

So two NMCs are currently on our doorstep, wailing at each other and each is refusing to back down.
Or go home.

Linney is also outside, watching proceedings from a safe distance.

This is the Halloween tree. It has various spooky things like Lego horror characters, a bat from Budapest, a Santa gonk from my dad and step mum (it then became a Hallow-mas) tree. It used to have a Jack Skellington at the top and little bat and pumpkin LED light strings but I think they've died during one of times Fred has pushed it onto the floor.

I only really celebrate Halloween (Samhain) so it is the only celebration tree I have.

A photo helps!!

Oh I love that Rum, thank you for sharing. I now need a Halloween Tree to go with my witchy cats and dragons 😁

Today we tried to get a cat groomer to visit the house and trim Reg’s claws, as he won’t yet go outside and doesn’t know how to use a scratcher. This is the end result…