Ring Out, Wild Bells! As 2025 approaches, the Excellent Cats raise their game with a discussion on Tennyson's poetry

[TheBroonOneAndTheWhiteOne]

And while the cats are thus engaged, their human slaves are still finishing the turkey and Christmas pud, and idly placing bets on whether or not Kitty will use her new cat tree.

Please may I join. I have two sad girls who got spayed today but are doing a good job looking after each other. Whitecat is very unhappy about having to wear a jacket.

Oh sweethearts! You will be forgiven... eventually. 😄

Welcome White Cat and Stripey Cat, and @stormsandsunshine I find chicken and ham help alleviate the bad feelings after a visit to the V.E.T.

Lexter is stomping around on my bed shouting at me about the terrible service in this hotel. He has only had Waitrose roasted chicken and ham today (plus cat food). He believes he should have also had a third meat or fish option plus Dreamies.

I can feel the sadness all the way over here. Poor little things. However it's nothing that a few dreamies can't fix. Or chicken. Or tuna 😂

Very good at the guilt trip with the dejected body language and hanging heads. But they did purr at me when I looked under the sofa so I think they aren’t holding a grudge. And they enjoyed their boiled chicken and tuna dinner so it’s not all a disaster

White Cat’s fur is surprisingly dense and fluffy despite being short haired, so with it compressed down she looks comically as though someone has photoshopped her head onto a much smaller cat’s body

Love the second photo 🤣

Anywhere near you Ma Broon? www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj6z61ylj40o

@TheBroonOneAndTheWhiteOne The app wouldn't let me tag you in my last post.

I'd swear that's Gizmo...

Welcome @stormsandsunshine, Whitecat & Stripeycat! When I’ve had fosters recovering from being spayed, Cat TV on YouTube has helped keep them entertained.

Poor Lexter.

Betty-next-door’s parents are home & apparently she tried very hard to convince them I’d forgotten to give her dinner. What a shame they had photo evidence.

Thank you for the suggestion @EmpressaurusKitty. They are watching cat tv with great interest now.

They’ve already made quite a few small holes in their jackets so I’m hoping they last the required 10 days! White Cat has stopped rolling around all the time trying to get hers off, though, and seems less unhappy about it.

Glad to hear that Herbie is not the only 'slurpy' cat when washing! I thought it was just one his funny habits.
He sometimes wakes us up at about 5am sounding like a washing machine! Other times he attacks and bites our feet through the duvet at 5am.
This morning he was very calm, but I still woke up at 5am!

Oh gosh those kittens are ADORABLE (and presumably also SERIOUS MISCHIEF)
I love lying half-awake in the dark listening to the vigorous slurping sounds of my cat washing herself. Feels like all is well in the world.

I’m glad it’s helped! Good for White Cat.

Welcome @stormsandsunshine and your beautiful cats. I really love that photo.

With my two extra loud slurpy noises always mean they are cleaning their bum region. No idea why it has to be extra slurpy, probably to make all humans in the vicinity feel slightly uncomfortable.

The lights were off, so I couldn’t see what she was washing, but she finished fairly quickly.

When she feels cuddly she has a cooing purr that sounds like a pigeon - much nicer noise!

Walter makes the most disgusting noises when he's washing, I can't even describe them 🤮

Boris has various different meows. There's a chirruping one that means he's seen an exciting bird, there's a load MROOAWWWWWW one that means he's running around in excitement, there's a standard meow that means he wants something and there is the shout meow which generally means WHERE'S MY DINNER HUMAN! Matilda on the other hand has a very quiet meow she rarely uses, she's a very load purrer though and snores like a cat pig.

My two miaow to each other a lot.

White Cat is the boss. If she miaows, Stripey Cat drops what she is doing and goes running to her sister. On occasion, Whitecat has been known to call her sister down for dinner to make sure she gets her fair share of food.

Stripey is quite dependent on her sister and doesn’t really like being apart from her, even just in a different room of the house. She has a particular plaintive mew which means “I want you to come to me”. There’s a 50/50
chance Whitecat will twitch her ears and ignore it.

They also have a purr-chirrup for each other when they are exploring together and want to tell the other about something.

Whitecat is also chatty with me. If she comes into the room she wants to say hello and she finds it quite rude if I don’t verbally acknowledge her. This is very charming except when it happens in the middle of the night.

Stripey doesn’t miaow to humans much but she has the most ridiculously loud purr I’ve ever heard and if she’s pleased with something she will look at you and purr like a motorbike.

My previous 2 (sisters) had a similar relationship and communication skills. When the more vocal, dominant one passed away at 16 years old, the quieter one who rarely meowed up to that point suddenly became the loudest cat ever! She lived for another 3 years and kept us sane during the Covid lockdowns. 🐈‍⬛ 🖤

My previous foster girls, M & J, weren’t sisters but had met in the rescue as kittens & bonded immediately. J was responsible for checking things out & if the hoover was going, she’d always sit & watch & then run to tell M when it was finished.

When M went into heat, J was very solicitous & washed her. When J went into heat & was yowling, M sat on her.

I’m not sure what J thought of it, but she stopped yowling 😹

I love the pictures of the kittens in their red jackets.

They look like they’re ready to start work at Butlins

No, it is 120 miles away.

And even Guillermo doesn't stray that far.
🤣