I STILL FUCKING LOVE CATS

[The Mollusk]

^ that video is amazing! How am I just now seeing it for the first time?!

Thanks for the support. Tonight was particularly grim. I won't go into detail, not that it was anything grizzly but still doesn't feel right to just talk about it freely here. Glad I can come home and cuddle my two cats and unwind before bed.

[steve98]

This year, there were three kittens Anyway, it was very cold (for here) last night and I was worrying about them.  They normally live in the street drains...

Anyway, I got one of those plastic mushroom baskets...

Sound work Buelligan.

I was telling Clive - who's parked in front of the radiator for the next 4 months or so - about these poor unfortunate kittens and how she's incredibly lucky to have me. "Living in an old scabby mushroom box, poor things; you don't know how lucky you are Madam.
A mushroom box inside a street drain - can you imagine? And just some old scraps to eat (when Mrs Buelligan can spare it), French scraps... They'd give their right arm for a cheap tin of tuna or a few brussel sprouts... Spoiled rotten you are Clive... How'd you like to live in a French drain?.... Ungrateful wretch." 

[steve98]

Here's another one of Clive (You'll SHIT YOURSELF when you see her.)
You'll see the tent is about 6 inches off the ground? That's because the catnip was getting too close to the lamp (which is red hot). I had to cut a hole in the base of the tent so the plant pot could sit on the ground as the tent - supporting the lamp -  rose above it. Not ideal. Not great for Clive, because she's barred from the room due to the... monolith? Call it that? becoming increasingly top-heavy, and dangerous. Catnip is like... wotsit to her: she loves it.



PS. It'll look a lot more like a monolith (like the original monolith), when the catnip's out and it's all zipped-up (I've had to prop the flaps open (Oo Missus) as the plant's expanded into a monster.)

[jobotic]

Fabulous work Mollusk. Good on you.


So Lilly seems pretty happy, she'll have been with us four weeks on Sunday and we can, gulp, let her out.

However, after a couple of weeks of happily using the litter tray she's started shitting on the coir (?) matting by the front door. Loves it. Still weeing in the tray.  Any tips?

[pigamus]

Two cats have been squaring up to each other outside my window these past few nights. The noise they're making is hilarious. It's half like they're being strangled and half like two Glasgow drunks singing to one another.

[Pink Gregory]

Our friends just very suddenly lost one of their catties, two sisters.  She was the dopey, indoorsy one.  Very sudden, very sad.

[Icehaven]

Here's another one of Clive (You'll SHIT YOURSELF when you see her.)
You'll see the tent is about 6 inches off the ground? That's because the catnip was getting too close to the lamp (which is red hot). I had to cut a hole in the base of the tent so the plant pot could sit on the ground as the tent - supporting the lamp -  rose above it. Not ideal. Not great for Clive, because she's barred from the room due to the... monolith? Call it that? becoming increasingly top-heavy, and dangerous. Catnip is like... wotsit to her: she loves it.



PS. It'll look a lot more like a monolith (like the original monolith), when the catnip's out and it's all zipped-up (I've had to prop the flaps open (Oo Missus) as the plant's expanded into a monster.)

That's amazing. We've been growing catnip and it went mad over summer but it's died down now, presumably because of the cold. Gonna get a heat lamp!

[pigamus]

If I had that equipment in my gaff I'd be worried about a visit from a van load of sceptical coppers

[steve98]

That's amazing. We've been growing catnip and it went mad over summer but it's died down now, presumably because of the cold. Gonna get a heat lamp!

[steve98]

It's not actually catnip, Icehaven. Eh, I thought it was catnip - that's what the guy who gave me the seed said, but it isn't... Yeah. (But I know catnip grows great under a heat-lamp, cos I've grown it.) Clive prefers the plant in the pic to catnip.

[Buelligan]

That's some mighty fine catnip you've got there steve.  heheh.

For anyone growing catnip out of doors, you can cut it and dry it and cats will still like it just as much.

[steve98]

If I had that equipment in my gaff I'd be worried about a visit from a van load of sceptical coppers

Would you have me deny the cat? At Christmas?

That's some mighty fine catnip you've got there steve.  heheh.

Cheers (turns out it's not catnip though; never mind.)

[Buelligan]

Well, what ever it is, I hope you enjoy it.

[steve98]

We will, we will. (I think it might be a Japanese Maple: you can see the similarity in the leaf shapes)

[Buelligan]

Indeed.

[Menu]

Our friends just very suddenly lost one of their catties, two sisters.  She was the dopey, indoorsy one.  Very sudden, very sad.

No, how did it happen? We have two sisters and the dopey indoorsy one(who I sometimes drug with opioids, as some people might remember) is lying next to me right now.

[Icehaven]

The saddest thing I hear is when people say how they've had two cats, usually siblings, and when one dies the other goes around looking for them. It's hard to know but I wonder if they eventually get a sense of what's happened to them.

[imitationleather]

When my Clive was having his tail amputated his sister Queenie seemed ecstatic about him being gone. Proper walking around purring, thinking she owned the place now. I felt for the poor girl when we brought him back and it was business as usual for her.

They get on but he is definitely in charge around here.

[Attila]

The saddest thing I hear is when people say how they've had two cats, usually siblings, and when one dies the other goes around looking for them. It's hard to know but I wonder if they eventually get a sense of what's happened to them.

Mr Gus, our neighbours' cat who claims our garden (and house) as part of his territory, has lost two of his great pals since I've lived here - my cat The Beans (they were really best buds) and then Vince. I play with Gus almost daily in the garden when he comes over, and he still pauses and looks towards to catflap to see if either of them will be coming out.

On the catnip front -- what Bulligen said: we grew catnip in the greenhouse over the summer, and I cut it all back for drying in October, I think -- it's ground up and now in a tub to be brought out for treats (and little toys baste in it). It's really strong compared to the sawdust you can get from the shops; a little goes a long way.

When I had my house, I also had enormous catnip bushes all over the property -- it can grow into a decent-sized shrub if you live somewhere with a long, hot growing season (central Virginia). Birds seeded it for me, and some of the best stuff was growing on the compost from the sheeps' barn. I had so much of it that once I dried it, I stuffed all of it into a bed-sized pillowcase for the cats to lounge and play on.

[Pink Gregory]

No, how did it happen? We have two sisters and the dopey indoorsy one(who I sometimes drug with opioids, as some people might remember) is lying next to me right now.

She was runt of the litter; so apparently she had horribly deformed kidneys.  She was lucky to live as long as she did, really.  Of course being a silly runty cattie was most of her personality, but she just stopped eating and drinking and that was it.

[flotemysost]

The saddest thing I hear is when people say how they've had two cats, usually siblings, and when one dies the other goes around looking for them. It's hard to know but I wonder if they eventually get a sense of what's happened to them.

Oh man, my childhood kitty did this when his twin brother died (they were both about two years old at the time). Just pacing and crying and glancing up at us fretfully all the time, really heartbreaking. The surviving brother had quite a bolshy personality (and was actually a bit of a dick to his more introverted sibling while he was alive), but after losing his pal he became much more needy and clingy with me and my family.

Well done The Mollusk for doing such selfless work, and everyone else too for the various tales here of humanity towards our feline friends. Reading this thread/seeing everyone's lovely photos is invariably a sort of balm for my soul, if that doesn't sound too silly.

[jobotic]

Tomorrow will be 28 days since we got Lilly, so we're going to open the back door and let her out into the garden. I'm more worried about this than Covid, no deal Brexit and war with France.

She does look very content at the moment though so I'm pretty hopeful she won't leg it.

[Menu]

and he still pauses and looks towards to catflap to see if either of them will be coming out.

Oh man. I'm welling up. That's so sad. I wonder if they do have any intimation as to what's happened. Probably not.

[Menu]

She was runt of the litter; so apparently she had horribly deformed kidneys.  She was lucky to live as long as she did, really.  Of course being a silly runty cattie was most of her personality, but she just stopped eating and drinking and that was it.

Poor little thing. Mine is the runt of the little as well, and she does get bullied by her sister. Will go and give her a big hug now.

[Menu]

Here she is:

She's the sweetest, most loving cat I've ever had.

[Menu]

Tomorrow will be 28 days since we got Lilly, so we're going to open the back door and let her out into the garden. I'm more worried about this than Covid, no deal Brexit and war with France.

She does look very content at the moment though so I'm pretty hopeful she won't leg it.

There's not easy access to roads is there? That would be my only worry.

[steve98]

(sarc alert) He should move to Sark (no roads)

[Cerys]

Sark has roads but no cars, I thought.  Unless Bergerac lied to me all those years ago.

[Menu]

DID ANYONE LIKE MY FUCKING CAT FFS.

[Icehaven]

Here she is:

She's the sweetest, most loving cat I've ever had.

She's taking none of your nonsense though. That beautiful, pissed off face.