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.

Yes, it was my bowl of cherries and cream.
He only got a couple of licks from the empty bowl.

It always takes a strong woman to keep a bunch of male reprobates in order, in my experience.

........... which reminds me of Mrs Thatcher and her first, all-male Cabinet.

Definitely get yourself a power bank. I've been pondering whether to buy one for ages and then when I had the power cut on Sunday, my phone was nearly out of power. Thankfully I live in a city so could do a Just Eat Wilko order to get a power bank. It gave just enough juice to keep my phone alive till my electricity was restored.

Shady has had a snoozy day

Awwww @TheBroonOneAndTheWhiteOne my aunt and uncle had a spam salad as their wedding breakfast 💕 they got married 12th May 1945 and were the first peacetime wedding in their town. First one to have the bells rung in almost 6 years. They also had a cardboard iced cover for their wedding cake to make it look pretty in photos 💕

I love fried spam. It makes a better sandwich than bacon in my opinion.

Spam is the food of the gods.
😂

Which ones?

I do have fond memories of Spam fritters when I was at secondary school. Not sure that Jamie Oliver would have approved 🤣.

Kitty thinks that morning naps should be a priority on the hen do. She’s just gone for her first one.

I was lucky enough to visit Hawaii some years ago and saw these on sale...
(I now regret not buying some)

Kartikheya and Ptah are very, very keen on Spam.

Spam is mentioned often in ancient Egyptian texts. It is also revered in Hindu literature.

Ooh, do they do mail order?

Rab C. Nesbitt mentions the Spam Tea which follows funerals (in - ahem -less-monied parts of Scotland) more than once.

In Costco at present. Clearly suffering from the Baader–Meinhof phenomenon today.

Marked these as sensitive images to protect @TheBroonOneAndTheWhiteOne from getting overexcited 🤣

I'm on my way, Grumpy.

I watched a Jackson Galaxy video on how to play with cats this morning.

There was a definite feel of WTF first but then what he was saying seemed to make sense. I’ve heard he’s controversial though.

I've only ever found Jackson Galaxy a God of cat behaviour, and I've not heard any controversy about his methods? You do have to allow for the fact that he's American so there are a few differences on how cats are viewed, but I think the main difference is the indoor vs outdoor thing.

Watching his Cat from Hell series you can see some remarkable changes in cat's behaviours, and most of the failures you can see are to a degree are down to the owners failing to buy into his advice properly. And yes while I can see some people thinking that he will only allow successes, or at least cases that show him in a good light to air, he does show a few cases where it's not worked despite all his and the owner's efforts.

I know certain things he suggests haven't worked in a couple of cases with my cats, but the theory is sound and both those cases there were exceptional circumstances. I'm pretty sure in Boycat's case he would have agreed that there was an element of either physical trauma or neurodivergence, and that all that could really be done was work around this; there were a few cases of having this acceptance in the TV series as well.

I've also read his book; it isn't so much a cat behaviour book as a sort of autobiography on how he got to where he is & how his methods came about.

Good to know. Thanks Allergic.

Kitty & I tried his simmer & boil way of playing this morning, letting her stalk the toy around the flat before speeding things up & pouncing on it, & she definitely seemed to enjoy it.

I think I need to reboot Frankie. He appears to be broken.

He's imitating Vixen.
🤣

Yep. Turn him off and on again.

Yes. Pull the plug out, count slowly to twenty, then plug him back in again.

Happy Burn's night to all on the Litter tray. Basil is watching me eat my haggis with great interest

Happy Burns night!

I made a leek & lentil gratin with crème fraiche today, & gave Kitty a bit of the creme fraiche on my finger. She licked most of my hand to make sure she hadn’t missed any.

Finally we’re finding some treats she likes.

Burns Night!

We were supposed to go to a Burns Night supper in the village, organised by the women who run the lunch club for old people.

Unfortunately, there's snow and ice everywhere, and even if it were safe to walk or drive anywhere (it really isn't as many trees are still blocking the roads) there were a lot of power cuts in the village, and many places are still without electricity - including the lunch club and two of the restaurants.

So no Burns Night Supper for us this year. I didn't order a haggis myself, because because we'd put our names down for the Supper.

Damn you, Storm Eowyn. But at least we got our own power back quite quickly, as did DS2 and DD2.

DS1 will arrive on Monday, for a week.