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.

I vote yes, and possibly two. I've always found my adult cats are more accepting of kitten additions than when I've introduced a teenage cat. Also if you get two they can play fight with each other and are less likely to irritate the adult cat.

I have a photo of my first cat sitting in my dad's doctor's case (he was a GP) and today my dad helped me work out that it's from 89/90. She looks so tiny. She was half Siamese and boy, did you know it when she started shouting!

We've heard of an elderly ginger Tom who needs a home.

I would have thought that as long as Linney gets the attention and love he is used to getting, and his routine doesn't change at all you've got a good chance.

Can you do a sent swap and see how he reacts?

I’ve had mixed fortunes introducing another cat sometimes toleration is the best you get - I think Finlay will be happy being an only kitten and when DS moves out this year - there will only be one lap
He is very pampered and im
not sure I could afford to do the same with another

Up early again this morning (getting really bored of going to Warrington first thing in the morning).
Don't think the bleary eyed Sybil was impressed by being woken up so early.

Finlay is looking very well (and gorgeous of course). Is he now fully recovered?

@TheShellBeach about getting new cats, it depends on you, Linney and a couple of other things like the size of your house and your new cats!

We've only introduced new cats and kittens with one of our cats. The first was a stray with six kittens who gave birth in our garage and the second pair were a couple of Siamese kittens. The original cat was a very tough farm cat, wouldn't be picked up or stroked, forget playing, didn't really like people, didn't get out much but defended his garden very effectively. In a big house, he sort of got on with it and loathed them from a distance. I think they all had pretty happy lives coexisting but they were far from being friends (it helped the kittens to have friends to play with).

Ha!

DS arrived for dinner and Linney came straight over to see him.

The final boss.

Charlie plonked in front of the cat flap.

Fred and I were having lovely cuddles earlier until attention seeking Toad decided he wanted to join in. He pushed poor Freddy to the edge of the pillow, then curled up with his bottom right by my face.

One of the robocats is either malfunctioning or has decided to fake realism. I boasted the other day of how meticulously they conceal their use of the litter tray. Since then, on two occasions now, Thrifty has built a little mound and then crowned it with a huge, smelly, fortunately healthy-looking poo. The only thing I'll say for it is that it's dead easy to clear up.

The little angel halo is slipping on that one. It's like blokes, innit? All sweetness and light until they get their feet under the table. Izzy continues to be adorable though. Perhaps she hasn't read the memo yet.

Morning from me and Velvet! She finally realised what cardboard boxes are for the other day (normally she just sits on the ground next to them and chews on the flaps, she particularly likes gnawing off the old sellotape). I also received a parcel packed in one of those very tough paper bags and let her play in it, as she loves going into bags. I was steadying it on the bed with my hand at the edge of it when she spotted my hand, pounced with great force and somersaulted over the edge of the bed! Luckily she's very like me and is always falling over or tumbling happily around without any shame whatsoever.

One thing we are a bit mystified about is that she's still very vocal and sometimes it just seems pointless, she has slightly different intonations for hungry, playful, lonely, "let me out" and her chirrupy little hello/this is comfy mew. But sometimes she just strolls around nearly howling for no reason! Anyone else had this? Especially if you have had whole or part-Bengals or Siamese... We've had a properly operatic Siamese before but she always had a reason to make noise on that scale :)

Oh she is so beautiful isn’t she!
Eko is 1/4 Bengal and he is random howls and sings for no apparent reason. Even if we think it’s loneliness, when we find him he still does it.

All our mogs are talkative, you can hold an extended conversation with Basil or Sybil, but Lenny is very vocal - often for no apparent reason. He regularly miaows in his sleep and the daft animal has been known to wake himself up doing it.

I grew up though with a Burmese cat. She really was noisy 🙀

Lasagna likes to walk around howling for no reason at all. Despite being a Cairo street cat, he's definitely part some kind of oriental breed so perhaps it's that? He's by far the most vocal of my 5.

There is a reason why one of Leroy's nicknames is Gobshite...

I love all the chatty cat chat :)

You're right. Our small furry demons do a very good job of keeping us entertained. 😻

Alizè (also known as Favourite Cat) would have great conversations with me each night when I got home from work, starting as he ran across the gardens to come home. He'd shout as he ran as if he was saying "mum, you're home!" then he'd continue to chatter when he came in, catching me up on everything he'd been doing.

Raven and Toad are chatty, but not like FC was. I do like to have conversations with them although they're probably thinking I'm stupid and am not answering their questions properly.

I returned from the lunch club for old people to find Mr SB desolate.

He claimed that Linney must have a sore throat because he hadn't said anything while I was gone.

I am not sure what to make of this.

Either Linney has got a sore throat, or he couldn't think of anything to say, or he was just asleep.

I am keeping Mr SB under close observation, for further signs of insanity.

I wonder what Linney's version of events would be?

Agatha (the shouty cat from my user name) is very vocal. She's also half Bengal. She will vocalise on every exhale for a loooong time if she fancies it. Sometimes it's because I haven't stopped the rain, sometimes because I've been in the loo too long (the door is never shut), sometimes to let me know she's used the litter tray. Quite a lot of the time it's because she just wants to....

Agatha's such an elegant cat name :)

Angry cat post :( Velvet has gone in the space of one day from sleeping on my bed all day and all night - during which time my mother comes in every 90 minutes roughly to disturb her or poke her or "check" where she is and speak disapprovingly to both of us as if Velvet shouldn't be allowed in my room - to sleeping on my mother's bed all day and all night. On the few occasions she's been in my room at all she's followed my mother in and been called out again. I wouldn't ever disturb the cat and I feel like that's game over now. I know logically it makes it easier for both of us if/when I move out, because there's no way I'd actually be allowed to keep Velvet even if I found the perfect house for her, but it feels awful. She's just a cat who spends quite a lot of time on my bed keeping me company, which means a huge amount to me.