Chicken, Dreamies and Lickelix - the Excellent Cats form a disorderly queue

[TheBroonOneAndTheWhiteOne]

..... behind Gizmo, of course.

Calling all cats! Come and get some chicken.

Yes, I spent a bit of time researching the genetics of cat colours after my mum didn't believe that Boris and Matilda could have had the same dad. I found it quite fascinating because I'm geeky like that and Boris and Matilda are more similar than they appear genetically.

There is one gene that all cats have that is either black or orange colouring. It's on the x chromosome, so female cats can have one of each, whereas male cats can only have one or the other (it is possible for a male cat to have two x chromosomes, but it's extremely rare). Of course not all cats are ginger or black, due to other genes that do things like turn part/ all of them white, mute colours etc.

Sorry for the cat based science essay! Feel free to ignore. 😺

That’s really interesting, @HumanToCatBeasties. Are you certain Boris & Matilda had the same dad though? One thing I learned fairly recently is that one litter can have multiple dads.

My mum had also read that, which was why she was questioning their paternity. I have no idea if they did have the same dad. Matilda obviously has one ginger and one black gene and Boris just has a black one. They both have a gene that gives white patches, Matilda over most of her body and Boris has a white patch under his chin. Neither of them have the genes that mute colours or turn them white all over. Matilda has one that makes her stripey, but Boris could have it, but you can't tell because he's nearly all black. So, they're pretty similar, but they have the most common variations, so who knows. I was told that the other two kittens in the litter were both girls and looked similar to Matilda, but I never saw them. They do have completely different physiques. Boris is a long elegant slinky cat, whereas Matilda is solid with little stubby legs.

There were 5 in Kitty’s final litter, 4 tabby & white & 1 black & white, & they all had spots somewhere.

@Pianoaholic if it makes you feel any better, at least Herbie only stole dog food. My first cat, Palinka, broke into someone's house by breaking the cat flap, then managed to claw open the fridge, and she came home to find him tucking into some chicken he'd stolen! Luckily she was also a crazy cat lady so she saw the funny side.

Cooling his paws at the front door.

My friend K adopted one of my fosters, and photos / videos of him walking into other people’s kitchens & stealing their cat’s dinnner turn up on the local FB group every so often.

Yes that does make me feel a bit better @RumNotRun .
If there had been chicken around though, Herbie would have had it!

Palinka sounds an extremely determined cat!

Palinka was the best most sociable cat I have ever known. He was a big black cat who would happily break into other people's houses and demand attention. He loved people, affection, and of course chicken! He would bring the weirdest "presents" into the house for me. I had a roast potato, banana skin, whole pigeon, frogs, and once a solid ball about 5cm in diameter. I never did figure out how he'd managed to bring it in through the cat flap.

He sounds very clever & resourceful.

Tobias has a new favorite toy.

A few weeks ago some of the plastic curtain hooks on the living room main curtains decided to resign by breaking. Fair enough, they'd been holding up a heavy curtain for about 15 years. Cue swags in the curtains & scattered shattered bits of plastic. Annie came round & helped put new hooks up (I have pretty crap balance with my back so it's a bit unsafe for me to stand on steps & reach up to do stuff) and we cleared most of the bits.

Today Tobias found a half curtain hook that we must have missed and had a very happy half hour hunting and killing this small hooked strip of plastic, batting it around, throwing it up with his mouth and paws then pouncing & batting again. It must have been a whole 1.5com long!

I looked at the assorted toys scattered around including his erstwhile favorite dill pickle, a couple of Molly's Mice, a couple of other catnip small kickers, some of the springs that are his fave for overnight frolics in the upstairs hall as loudly as possible, other toy mice etc probably adding up to a fair amount of money spent. But no, today the tiny hooked bit of broken plastic is THE one!

It looks like you are about to make your fortune, Allergic, by manufacturing and marketing these wonderful new cat toys.

Let us know when you make your first million.
🤣

I've done a stupid thing and bought more cat toys. I don't know why I bother as they will just ignore them, but I saw an automated cat ouija board toy on Pets at Home and couldn't resist.

I've seen cats on FB like Beebs playing with a similar toy, but who knows what these ingrates will think. Maybe I should have just got some broken curtain hooks!

I’ve just found the ouija board. We might have to get that.

www.petsathome.com/product/pets-at-home-halloween-ouija-board-cat-toy/7154694P

Must. Resist. Spider. Donut. Bed.

I've done a stupid thing and bought more cat toys.

Ah Rum, we've all done that.

We never learn, do we?

From the Pets at Home website's description of the cat ouija board:

"USB-powered, multi-sensory fun for 5 hours of chasing, pouncing, and feline enchantment"

5 hours?

Whoever invented this has never owned a cat.

There would be 5 minutes of nosiness, then the cat would walk off, curl up in a ball and go to sleep.

For five hours. At least.

Just read another, the marks our lovely feline friends give us are cattoos
Of course incapussitated remains at the top of the list😹

I was tempted by the coffin bed. Oh and the pumpkin one, and the spider. Plus the dog outfits cause I know Lex rocks a shirt, but I resisted and just got the ouija board, and a couple of cheaper toys.

If my lot take it in turns, I might get 35 minutes out of it 😁

We had a special treat for our last day of our Greek holiday as it turned out NMHC is a mum and brought her little kitten up to visit us. The kitten was very social and she was totally
relaxed about him playing with us (perhaps a bit glad to have someone else entertain him for a bit). The children were over the moon.

She and big grey bruiser cat seem to be buddies and help each other out with childcare. They all seem to live together in the olive farm next to the villa.

What a brilliant hostess NMHC is.

Toad has decided he is sharing Raven's box. She gets no say in this.

🤣 they don't look very comfortable.