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Rodents and Risk Assessments - the Excellent Cats applaud Gizmo's recent achievements

445 replies

TheBroonOneAndTheWhiteOne · 13/08/2026 15:38

....... although the Argyll Mouse Murderer is unrepentant.

OP posts:
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DrDisrespect · 23/09/2026 19:28

Fergus is so bloody cute! 😍

TheBroonOneAndTheWhiteOne · 23/09/2026 20:15

Argh.

Linney currently seems to be on a One-Cat Vole-Extinguishing Mission.

He brought another one in yesterday evening, and dropped it on the carpet in front of me. It was dead. I disposed of it.

This afternoon he brought yet another one as far as the front steps.
It was even deader, since he'd bitten its head off.

I disposed of it, sighing.

OP posts:
Grumpyoldpersonwithcats · 23/09/2026 20:16

Had a big cat food delivery today.
Sybil likes the boxes...

Rodents and Risk Assessments - the Excellent Cats applaud Gizmo's recent achievements
JaceLancs · 23/09/2026 20:17

Thank you @DrDisrespect @Breadcat24
He has big paws to fill and is doing so admirably!

Grumpyoldpersonwithcats · 23/09/2026 20:19

TheBroonOneAndTheWhiteOne · 23/09/2026 20:15

Argh.

Linney currently seems to be on a One-Cat Vole-Extinguishing Mission.

He brought another one in yesterday evening, and dropped it on the carpet in front of me. It was dead. I disposed of it.

This afternoon he brought yet another one as far as the front steps.
It was even deader, since he'd bitten its head off.

I disposed of it, sighing.

Lenny and Karl have started leaving eviscerated voles and mice just outside the front door.
I feel it's really rather ill mannered of them.

TheBroonOneAndTheWhiteOne · 23/09/2026 20:24

Unrepentant, as usual

Rodents and Risk Assessments - the Excellent Cats applaud Gizmo's recent achievements
OP posts:
MiniPantherOwner · 23/09/2026 20:50

I'm sorry @RumNotRun that must have been a difficult day. My cats are my first, so I have no experience of how that feels, but it must be hard.

MiniPantherOwner · 23/09/2026 20:54

Fergus (glad you kept the name, it suits him) remains gorgeous @JaceLancs I'm impressed that you've cracked on with the slipper training.

I occasionally feel guilty that my cats are mainly house cats with short trips out to the back yard, but at least I don't have to worry about deal voles. I'm pretty sure at this point that if either of mine encountered one they would back away in puzzlement.

Kirova · 24/09/2026 18:19

Hello everyone! I hope all the excellent cats are doing well. I'm sorry I've been AWOL so long. It has been a busy few months with DD having school issues, house renovations, etc.

Since I last posted, I have officially become a Failed Foster. I made it to FC 3 and 4, but they both ended up becoming permanent residents.

FC3 gave us a pretty rough time to start with. She was a very traumatised ginger veteran mother who'd been dumped with a broken tail after having her final litter. She is ginormous and has an excellent death stare.

She warmed up to us quite easily, but she was very scared: of other cats, of people coming into the building through the front door, of loud noises. Being not a delicate little slip of a thing, her terrors usually manifested themselves by hissing and using the furniture as a toilet.

She had just about settled when we were asked to take FC4 for a very short stint until he got adopted. I was very dubious but was persuaded against my better judgement! He was at the time a 14-week old kitten.

After a week of separation (and initial outrage from FC3) they inexplicably became best of friends. The plan was for FC3 to be adopted somewhere more rural once she'd been rehabilitated and the rescue had expected FC4 to be snapped up. But every time any potential adopters came to meet him, he hid under the sofa and wouldn't come out! Which was plain weird, since he is a total little charmer with absolutely no loyalty at all, and usually makes up to everyone.

Eventually, I felt that they couldn't possibly be parted... So here we are!

Kirova · 24/09/2026 18:40

FCs 3 and 4.

Rodents and Risk Assessments - the Excellent Cats applaud Gizmo's recent achievements
EmpressaurusKitty · 24/09/2026 19:33

I’m SO glad you adopted FC3 in particular, @Kirova. I bet she’d have had a very tough time finding a home otherwise. And FC4 sounds as if he knew what he was doing from the start!

EmpressaurusKitty · 24/09/2026 19:39

Would any of the Excellent Cats like to appear in a calendar, like Kitty did last year?

The rescue who saved her & her kittens is holding a raffle. Tickets are £5 each. The winner will be on the cover of next year’s calendar, the next 12 will be on the month pages & all other entrants will have small photos on the back cover.

I think posting the link might be stretching the rules, so if anyone would like to enter ask me & I’ll PM you.

Rodents and Risk Assessments - the Excellent Cats applaud Gizmo's recent achievements
Kirova · 24/09/2026 19:48

EmpressaurusKitty · 24/09/2026 19:33

I’m SO glad you adopted FC3 in particular, @Kirova. I bet she’d have had a very tough time finding a home otherwise. And FC4 sounds as if he knew what he was doing from the start!

I'm glad too, because she got a very bad press. She's lovely. She has the loudest purr in the world and she's super affectionate - of course I am biased because she likes me more than anyone else. And FC4 is her little loyal sidekick. She is extremely tolerant of his exuberance.

We think she's about 3, so she's not an old girl at all. But she has very matronly vibes!

Rodents and Risk Assessments - the Excellent Cats applaud Gizmo's recent achievements
RumNotRun · 24/09/2026 19:50

Kirova · 24/09/2026 18:40

FCs 3 and 4.

They're both gorgeous but FC4 is incredibly striking with those markings 😍

@EmpressaurusKitty I will have a word with the tribe and see if they wish to start a modelling career. I don't think Fred would be much good at it though judging by his pose at the moment.

Rodents and Risk Assessments - the Excellent Cats applaud Gizmo's recent achievements
EmpressaurusKitty · 24/09/2026 20:01

Kirova · 24/09/2026 19:48

I'm glad too, because she got a very bad press. She's lovely. She has the loudest purr in the world and she's super affectionate - of course I am biased because she likes me more than anyone else. And FC4 is her little loyal sidekick. She is extremely tolerant of his exuberance.

We think she's about 3, so she's not an old girl at all. But she has very matronly vibes!

You might find she gets younger! How’s her tail now?

Kirova · 24/09/2026 20:07

Oh yeah, she's definitely finding her playful side since little friend arrived. Her tail seems to have healed up really well, considering it was completely crushed at the end. The tip of her tail is a bit wonky, but she has full movement through the whole tail and it doesn't seem to give her any bother.

She was recently pronounced a normal and very relaxed (if slightly chubby) cat by the vet.

No more fostering sadly, but I have started doing volunteering and have been helping to support a new foster who has a mum and kittens - now 6 weeks old 💕

MiniPantherOwner · 24/09/2026 21:10

How lovely @Kirova that they formed such an unexpected bond. Is the kitten a Bengal with those markings? It sounds like they have very firmly decided that you are their human and they want to stay put. It seems like big ginger girl has decided that the rural life isn't for her after all.

Kirova · 24/09/2026 21:20

Yes, he is - a "blue" Bengal, which is apparently not a recognised type. Not that I know much or care about that!

Here he is as a younger boy (in one of his quiet moments).

Rodents and Risk Assessments - the Excellent Cats applaud Gizmo's recent achievements
CatsonPollock · 24/09/2026 22:38

Just wanted to say 😍 to FC3 and FC4 and thank you @Kirova for adopting them and fostering previously. A very happy ending.

Is it true that female gingers are rare? 🐈

RumNotRun · 24/09/2026 22:57

I've had lots of purring and headbutts from Fred tonight, at one point he even lay down on my legs. I thought that was going to lead to him coming upstairs for bed, but as soon as I got up to go to bed, this happened. Clearly he was just waiting for me to leave.

Rodents and Risk Assessments - the Excellent Cats applaud Gizmo's recent achievements
Allergictoironing · 25/09/2026 06:42

Is it true that female gingers are rare?

I've heard that as well, and from my own observations it seems so. Google AI says 20-25% of ginger cats are female.

MiniPantherOwner · 25/09/2026 07:17

The ginger or black gene is passed on through the x chromosome, so girls have two, one from each parent and boys have one. The ginger gene or allele is less common in the cat population overall. For boy cats the proportion with a ginger gene is just the proportion of ginger alleles in the population. For girl cats it's this frequency squared (which will always be less than the male cats as the frequency will always be <1. The proportion of girls with tortie genes will be 2 x ginger allele frequency x black allele frequency. This is further complicated by other genes that decide cats fur colours, such as one which can give white patches (like Matilda), one that turns them white all over and another that mutes the colours giving colours like grey.

Sorry, please feel free to ignore my very boring to most people, technical explanation of why there are more ginger boy cats than girl cats.

EmpressaurusKitty · 25/09/2026 07:51

Is that also why 99% of calicos & torties are girls, @MiniPantherOwner?

MiniPantherOwner · 25/09/2026 08:31

EmpressaurusKitty · 25/09/2026 07:51

Is that also why 99% of calicos & torties are girls, @MiniPantherOwner?

Edited

I should imagine it's much smaller than 1% (sorry, I'm a statistician so being precise about numbers is just part of who I am now, I'm sure you probably just meant a really small number). You can get cats that have male genitalia, but have two x chromosomes, but it's very rare. So it is possible to have a male tortie.

Grumpyoldpersonwithcats · 25/09/2026 09:28

MiniPantherOwner · 25/09/2026 08:31

I should imagine it's much smaller than 1% (sorry, I'm a statistician so being precise about numbers is just part of who I am now, I'm sure you probably just meant a really small number). You can get cats that have male genitalia, but have two x chromosomes, but it's very rare. So it is possible to have a male tortie.

A quick squirrel on google (and yes I know that isn't necessarily accurate...) suggests only 1 in 3000 tortoiseshell cats are male. 😮

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