I STILL FUCKING LOVE CATS

[imitationleather]

I'd like to see you say that to their faces!

[the]

Glad to hear Clive is on the mend.

[steve98]

I'd like to see you say that to their faces!

Don't think I wouldn't.

[NoOffenceLynn]

Another one here, who is happy to hear that Clive is doing well.

[Attila]

Good to hear that Stumpy Clive is doing well.

Tiny Toast helped me to blend up some fibre for spinning yesterday, a mix of white Shetland and fur combed off the various cats around the house (Mr Whiskers, Tiny, and Susan), and neighbourhood cats (Mr Gus and Arthur).







She also likes to sit one step below me when I do crunches and grab my hair



Mr Whiskers looking like a gormless wonder



If we're doing hoodlum cats, here's Mr Kitty and his sister, from about 10 or 12 years ago, on Mr Attila's old XM



Here's Amy in her very expensive cat bed

[Flouncer]

I'm just as impressed by the XM as I am by the kitties to be honest. I love hearing about your cats and seeing the accompanying photos Atilla; please keep it up! :-)

[Attila]

I'm just as impressed by the XM as I am by the kitties to be honest. I love hearing about your cats and seeing the accompanying photos Atilla; please keep it up! :-)

Cheers -- all of the cats here are wonderful. I like this thread a lot.

That XM was a mess -- it was sat on the driveway for years in a bad state, as a van full of melons struck Mr Attila from behind on the motorway, wrecking it. One of the back windows was smashed, which is how Amy was able to access and live in it for a while.

Keeping it running was a labour of love, I think. The first time I met Mr Attila in the flesh (we'd be in corro via a chat room and phone prior to that, as he was part of a small group of friends of my then-partner), he came up to London to collect me for a weekend visit to the south. He couldn't actually come to the door or help me down four flights of stairs with a bunch of boxes of stuff I needed to give to him from another friend (and it was one of those houses where you could not let the door shut behind you, or you'd be locked out -- my ex had the keys and had gone to work), and it wasn't a street where you wanted to keep the door propped open. But Mr Attila couldn't switch off the XM as the alternator had failed on the drive up to London, and he was afraid if he shut it off, he'd never get the thing started again -- so he was parked up and idling down the street.

It had loads of other issues; there was the night he was driving to a concert and had to take a lot of dark B-roads to get there, and his headlights failed. So he snuggled up as closely behind another car to take advantage of their headlights til he could find a service station. Imagine being in some tiny car and this enormous landshark of a vehicle with no lights glides up behind you on a deserted country lane. They understandbly kept going faster and faster to get away from him. At the time it apparently did not occur to him that he was terrifying the car's occupants.

Then the melon van came along, and that was the end of the XM

Cat photos to make up for the car chat.

Tiny Toast clambering around on a freshly washed, new bedsheet



Tiny Toast after being caught using said bedsheet as a hammock -- that's not a look of regret, but a look of regret that she got caught.



Mr Whiskers, watching me work



Tiny Toast next to the haunted steamer trunk (under the gauze to protect it from cat's claws). She loves that steamer trunk, and bonded with it when I brought it out of storage and back to the house.



Mr Gus, nipped out on fresh catnip earlier this summer



Mr Whiskers & tongue -- these three rarely get caught in that tongue-out pose that some of my other cats had



Tiny upside down and in one of her moods



Susan, who lives exclusively on the windowsill in a plastic bucket. She lives, eats, excretes, and plays on that windowsill. Sometimes she sits on a cushion on Mr Attila's desk, and even more rarely ventures off the sill, but that's her spot.



Tiny sat on my side desk while I work

[shiftwork2]

YEAH SO I'VE DECIDED TO SIT HERE

[Attila]

That XM was very, very hairy by the time it was finally towed away. Usually she wedged herself on the back deck under the rear window. It had to have been boiling hot in that car on summer days, but she'd be in there, basking away.

[spaghetamine]

Was looking after my housemate's cat this weekend while they were away and she took a big shit on the bathroom floor in protest, seemed very pleased with herself as well and looked on smugly while I cleaned it up, the little skank

[mobias]

Very cute, mobias.

Clive is recovering well from his big op. At first he kept taking his cone off and licking his new shortened tail like mad. I was worried he was going to end up with a horrible sore on it as it was getting very red. However after a check-up at the vet he was given a smaller one and now I think he actually likes wearing it. He keeps chasing his sister around and she's absolutely terrified of it.

Can't believe what a drama the whole degloving thing has been. For a few nights I was actually a bit traumatised about it and was finding it even more difficult to get to sleep than usual. Seeing a pet you really care loads about badly injured is horrific.

Yeah its horrendous when you seem them suffer. So glad Clive is on the mend though.

[mobias]

Speaking of the Krays. This photo of Gunther and Heidi taken a few years back always minded me of a Ronnie and Reggie.

[steve98]

That's 3 different sets of Kray-Cat twins, whose owners all reckon they're got what it takes to be Britain's Hardest Cat, but there can be only 1. So, let's look at a few more rock-hard British Bastards before picking a winner...

(pic) Lenny "The Judge" McBronson. Billericay.





Psycho-Jock "The Eyes" No-Ears. Dundee.

[NoOffenceLynn]

That's 3 different sets of Kray-Cat twins, whose owners all reckon they're got what it takes to be Britain's Hardest Cat, but there can be only 1. So, let's look at a few more rock-hard British Bastards before picking a winner...

(pic) Lenny "The Judge" McBronson. Billericay.





Psycho-Jock "The Eyes" No-Ears. Dundee.

Lenny "The Judge" McBronson. Billericay. Looks exactly like Vinney Jones would look like, if he was a cat

[Captain Crunch]

(Might be fake but made me smile)

[Famous Mortimer]

After my last successful fostering (Huck and Bumblebee, a fine pair of lads, currently enjoying their forever home), I'm taking on another, who's arriving on Saturday. Sprout is his name, and having an owner who had to move into an assisted living facility that didn't allow cats is his game. Apparently, he enjoys sitting in chairs like a human.

[The Mollusk]

I can't wait to see photos of that!

Phew, been quite an emotional day for me today. The cats have been acting really fussy with their food this week and both not eating much and it really got to me this evening, ended up sobbing my eyes out in the kitchen and feeling like everything is out of my control.

Now I'm lying on the sofa and Cleo is asleep and slumped over my leg. She's so dependent on me I am basically mama, and when I give her a fuss she will stare right into my eyes for the longest time. Whatever the cat equivalent of love is, it's so strong in her little heart. Makes me feel very lucky.

[flotemysost]

Very jealous of everyone's ridiculously handsome kitties and loving all the stories about their foibles. Also, Tiny Toast is an excellent name for a cat.

Think I may have made a new friend though - on the estate I cut through on my way to work there's a tabby with a miaow that sounds like a rusty gate, like it spent too much of its youth getting fucked up and yelling over speakers, and whenever I walk past it unfurls itself from the doorway and runs at me, creaking maniacally. Trying to avoid petting it with unwashed hands as I know they can catch the 'vid but it's so insistent, I probably have limited agency in the matter.

[Menu]

Loved Mollusk's last post.

[Attila]

The Mollusk your cats sound lovely! I am sorry that you've had a rough day. Our three here will go through phases where they won't eat, and so much food gets wasted. It won't hurt them to have a 'fast day' with just a minimum amount of food/kibble -- that's what we do when they get into one of those moods.

Tiny Toast's original name was 'Blue' and Susan Bucket was called 'Princess.' We've had a heck of a time getting our local vet's to update their names for some reason, so we still get reminders that Blue and Princess need checkups.

Both of them will respond to Tiny and to Susan -- Tiny sacks out on her favourite chair every evening, and will let out a chirp/squeak NOT if you call her name, but if you call Susan's name.  Tiny also likes to catch and/or bat small sponge balls back and forth. I also may or may not lately have been terrorising her with a beaver puppet.

[The Mollusk]

Thanks friends. Fortunately I'm feeling a lot better today!

I was having a poo this morning and Cleo came in and started doing her trademark flop and thrash around for attention. She got her claw snagged on the mat and turned herself into a taco, and then freaked out and bolted. A great way to start the day.

[bgmnts]

My cat used to love rubbing his head against your leg while you were shitting. Top cat.

[imitationleather]

Clive jumps on my lap while I'm on the pot. It's a bit awkward.

[The Mollusk]

There is a definite air of "enjoying the tranquil solitude of sitting on the toilet there are you mate?" about it

[Attila]

Tiny Toast regularly jumps onto my shoulders first thing in the morning either when I'm having a wee or when I'm brushing my teeth.

[Ferris]

I made friends with a cat this morning. It was a very nice start to the day.

It's always nice when you do the "pss pss pss" noise thing* at a cat you don't know and it comes over to you. Makes me feel like an animal charmer.

_{*insert piss joke here}

[petercussing]

Haha, two old cats i had used to love going into the lav when i need to do some turds. One of them also, after much careful sizing up and preparation, lept head first into a small empty bin and got stuck, as it was plump, filled the entire thing right up so it looked like a big fluffy lot of rubish that happened to have a tail, two feet and an arsehole.

[pigamus]

I made friends with a cat this morning. It was a very nice start to the day.

It's always nice when you do the "pss pss pss" noise thing* at a cat you don't know and it comes over to you. Makes me feel like an animal charmer.

_{*insert piss joke here}

Said this before but my dad can't do that noise - he literally just goes "pish pish pish" like an irate Scotsman. Cats look at him in bafflement. It's very funny.

[Famous Mortimer]

I made friends with a cat this morning. It was a very nice start to the day.

It's always nice when you do the "pss pss pss" noise thing* at a cat you don't know and it comes over to you. Makes me feel like an animal charmer.

_{*insert piss joke here}

There's a stray who hangs about in the alleyway behind my house, and about a year ago I started leaving food and water out for it. Nowadays, "The Customer" waits in the back garden every morning (and most afternoons), but even so it won't come within a mile of me. If I'm sat on a deck-chair out there, it won't set foot in the place, and even though the little bastard knows I'm the one who feeds it, and have never made so much as an aggressive sound in its presence. Ah well.

[Ferris]

There's a stray who hangs about in the alleyway behind my house, and about a year ago I started leaving food and water out for it. Nowadays, "The Customer" waits in the back garden every morning (and most afternoons), but even so it won't come within a mile of me. If I'm sat on a deck-chair out there, it won't set foot in the place, and even though the little bastard knows I'm the one who feeds it, and have never made so much as an aggressive sound in its presence. Ah well.

It's a tough one, that. You can't know their background so it's a bit of a gamble with strays. I befriended a stray cat at university who was really nice. There are some strays near me now that hang out in a laneway and they are not nice. My son is mad for cats/dogs and will refuse to walk past until I've tried to coax one over - these moggies don't like to be coaxed (and probably aren't great for playing with toddlers) so it's a bit fraught if we go that way.

A neighbour saw me and the nipper saying hello to the nice cat this morning and I had a brief chat with him, apparently it's "the neighbourhood cat" so it's good that we are ingratiating ourselves in our new community. Ferris Jr was delighted and even brave enough to touch the cat's tail, which was nice.