hijacking

Our nextdoor neighbours (the "wannabes") like cats but don't have one of their own. They encourage our Jack to go in their house and being a friendly thing he obliges. I'm sure he loves the attention even though he is bombarded with love at home. We don't have a problem with him going in the house, after all, ourselves and the neighbours on the other side (the "fantasists") have cat-flaps installed and all our cats are regular visitors to each other's houses. What irkes us is that the wannabes don't have a cat flap so when Jack goes in their house, he's effectively locked in until they decide to let him out.

This morning as I left for work I noticed him sitting in a window in their house. Just then Alfie (Jack's little "brother") came running up the drive. Jack saw him and jumped down from his window seat. I'm convinced that he wanted to come out and join us but he couldn't. I became quite angry but unfortunately didn't have time to knock on their door and ask them to let him out. I'm hoping that I'm still annoyed enough to talk to them about it with them this evening.

Going, going… gone!

We went to a chairty auction tonight in aid of the Cat Protection League. We'd donated some cosmetics (HP's Dad works for Estee Lauder) and our cats have all come from the CPL so we like to support them as much as possible.

The auction was held at the Three Horse Shoes in Yaxley and the landlord helped tremendously by conducting the auction himself. A nice, funny Geordie bloke (aren't we all?) he got everyone involved and made it all fun. I'm sure this contributed to the excellent total raised.

the great one

A sad day today as my cat Gretzky had to be put to sleep. Depite being named after Wayne Gretzky, she was female. For the past couple of weeks she’d been very ill with a lung disease and she was having great difficulty breathing which was distressing to see so must have been awful for her. At 16 she’d had a good life and her last year had been a bonus as she was within a whisker (sorry) of being put down last year but she pulled through at the last minute. She was a nice cat: very affectionate and talkative.

dr. evil

Over the weekend, Jack and Alfie swapped roles with Alfie taking on Jack’s evil mantle and Jack becoming a little angel.

On Sunday Alfie went missing. As we searched for him, rattling the treat tin and calling his name, Jack was bounding around with us almost as if to say “look at me I’m being good”. Just when we were really getting worried, Alfie emerged unconcerned from nextdoor’s cat flap. Even then he tried to run away when we attempted to put him back in the house.

And yesterday evening I looked out of the study window and saw them both across the street. We don’t really like them being at the front of the house where the road is – especially when Alfie is still small and without much road sense. Jack ambled further down the road with Alfie following so HP went out and rattled their tin of treats to get them home. Jack came sprinting home and was rewarded with some treats and his orange spiral toy. Alfie ignored the offer of food (a minor miracle in itself) and wandered even further from home. The git.

no kissing

It’s been a while since I posted anything about Alfie, our kitten.

He’s quickly won a place in our hearts by being extremely cute and very affectionate (but he doesn’t kiss). He has grown very quickly and is catching up fast on Jack (though we suspect Jack might be a bit stunted). One nice thing about Alfie is that even though he knows how to use the cat flap and can negotiate the garden fence (over or under), he rarely goes out. Jack likes to be out as much as possible and has been like that since working out the cat flap but Alfie is quite content to sit in our laps or curl up in front of our keyboards if we’re up in the study.

Of course Jack is still a kitten too: he’s only 7 months old – but it feels like he’s been with us far longer than he has. He’s a lot more independent than Alfie and a lot more naughty. What’s more is that he is intentionally naughty – you can tell by his face – plus he’s obsessed by bathrooms and toilets in particular. I know it’s disgusting, but if we leave the toilet seat up he will half-climb inside and start drinking the water! Eeurgh! But we love him all the same and he and Alfie compliment each other well.

Alfie

I don’t want no bird’s respect – I wouldn’t know what to do with it.

suddenly you were gone

We are both very sad after losing Miles yesterday. It was such a shock with him being so young. All evening we’d be reminded of him or think of things he did and things he’s not going to do. Silly things like calling Jack “litttle Jack” while Miles was “big cat”. This morning there was a big empty space at the top of the stairs where he would wait for someone (usually HP) to go downstairs and feed him (even though he’d invariably have some dry food in his dish). And Jack doesn’t really miaow yet so the house is quiet without Miles talking. It was hard to tell whether Jack was missing his “big brother”… the catflap was locked so he was in all afternoon and evening, plus there was torrential rain which meant he appeared to be wandering around the house at a loss. He’d sit on the window sills looking out. Is he looking for him or is he just watching the rain?

In the afernoon we called the Cat Protection League and they had a black boy waiting for a home. We knew we wanted to get another cat, preferably a black one, so seeing as it could be weeks or months before they got any more we decided to go for it. It might seem a little callous to replace Miles so quickly, well, on the same day he died, but we won’t forget him easily: he was such a character and so very, very handsome. HP would call him a little gentleman cat because he was so nice natured with other cats. Also, Jack is not used to being an only cat; he needs a playmate.

So tonight, Little Jack will become Big Jack when we welcome Alfie to our home.

goodbye big cat

Miles 2003-2004.

We love you.

natural born killer

Jack caught his first mouse last night – the first we know about anyway. He did the usual cat thing of toying with it for a while before eating it. Miles was looking on, perhaps offering telepathic tips. When Jack came in to go to bed he looked very pleased with himself indeed.

Cute but dangerous (if you’re a mouse/bird/rabbit/frog/etc.)

split screen

Miles and nextdoor’s cat, Dukey. They were best pals until Jack came along.