Life sucks ...

They are all so different, aren't they?

Whenever any of mine get (really) wet in the rain, I've always wiped them down with a bit of paper towel. The first time I did it to Dougal his reaction was along the lines of "Gerrrofff! What are you doing?" Then he began to enjoy being fussed and found that he was getting dry, too. Now he stands in the sitting room doorway and meows to be dried off.

When he is really grubby (having long fur and white chest and legs) I have some wet wipes designed for cats and dogs, so he gets wiped down with those.

Less hard work grooming if you let your human do it for you.
 
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The adventures of Dougal & his friends. :D

This is going to be one of the most viewed subjects on here ....

I use an old towel to dry the cat, that is when I remember to have it near, otherwise I use one of my own towels. Can only dry one cat as the other two are scaredy cats and play hide and seek, leaving little tracks of water and/or mud behind them as they go. The tame one, the Tortie, is so naughty she squeals, kicks and bites me but likes it really, and will stand for ages while I dry her off then purr after she's beaten me up.

The big male scaredy cat who is a stripey grey thing awoke me before 6 this morning with a massive fur ball. Wish I could brush him without all the hassle of the crush cage and catching as he really needs it. I'm doing it this weekend, should be fun.

Hope Dougal is okay - did the vet say anything about the lump you found?

And did he have his fish and chips? :<3:
 
redhead said:
They are all so different, aren't they?

Whenever any of mine get (really) wet in the rain, I've always wiped them down with a bit of paper towel. The first time I did it to Dougal his reaction was along the lines of "Gerrrofff! What are you doing?" Then he began to enjoy being fussed and found that he was getting dry, too. Now he stands in the sitting room doorway and meows to be dried off.

When he is really grubby (having long fur and white chest and legs) I have some wet wipes designed for cats and dogs, so he gets wiped down with those.

Less hard work grooming if you let your human do it for you.
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Mine will do that as well - comes through the flap and stands there waiting for a dry down.
 
I've bought a little book called "One Hundred Ways for a Horse to Train Its Human" by Tina Bettison, pub. Hodder & Stoughton, which is very amusing. There's a dog and a cat version, too, and I reckon all of our moggies could be glowing examples of cats' wily ways of getting us to do their bidding.

One horsey chapter on "Riding Activities to do with Your Human" exhorts horses to on no account tolerate an activity if they don't enjoy it. About doing dressage: "submission" is a key word in dressage. It's all about attention, confidence, harmony and lightness. You may have to work hard to get your human to submit to you... on no account should you submit to your human until they have done it first. This could take years. :whistle:
 
;) I think your cat wrote it, Isi!

I can't resist quoting a bit more from the horsey one, under the chapter heading Young Life - Foals and Families: The moment you open your eyes as a newborn foal, you start the process of teaching your human family. The first lesson you teach them is adoration. They will be totally smitten by you, as they are by all baby things. Your first wobbly steps are the ideal opportunity to encourage oohs and aahs.

Encourage them to get to know you by playing. Foal games involve nipping and barging, mock-fighting, spooks, spins and mad dashes. All of these games prepare your human for survival skills they'll need later on. :lol:
 
Brilliant, Krizon! I have seen the feline version and have come to the conclusion that all my cats have Masters degrees in Human Management.

Dougal was a bit under the weather after his chemo, but I think it was because he must have read my mind and scooted for 2 hours, so he had to go late and stay longer until the vet came back from her rounds. He was very scared this time and just sat in his cage shivering. He punished me by ignoring his fish and staying out for most of the night.

I was very worried on Thursday night as he really was not well and put himself to bed on his beanbag at about 8.00 that evening. I decided to turn in at about 10.00 and he dragged himself into the kitchen and just sat looking at me, very unhappy and down. Then all of a sudden he gave an almighty heave and a half-digested bird came up! He followed me up to my bedroom and then proceeded to put himself to bed on my brand new bedroom chair (nothing's sacred) and snored all night.

He was much brighter yesterday, but still a bit off his feed, and the lump in his neck had gone down so, as Helen suggested, it seems to have been a reaction to his treatment.

Today he is wide-eyed and looking for mischief. I have a feeling that he will be mountaineering on top of the wardrobe again today. Getting up is okay, getting down is always harder work though. Last time he decided to be Bat Cat and jumped from there on to me (fast asleep in bed) at about 3.00 in the morning. Big yell from human. Result!!
 
Very glad Dougal seems to be okay. :)

Must be pretty good to catch a bird in his condition, and sky dive from wardrobes.

Ah, the continuing adventures of our feline friends.

I think I have seen it all now.

I keep cats in at night because they are all nuts, have no commmon about cars, having lived in deep dark countryside with zillions of acres behind them and never seen the road in front. We now live in busy place.

So, I have a horrible litter tray in our loo. But, during the day they have access to a garden.

So, there I am yesterday morn brushing teeth. Cats are outside. Suddenly tame but ferocious 3 year old 'kitten' tears into the room, jumps in litter tray and wees. I shout at her. She glares at me. Jumps out and looks at a front paw. Gives it a lick to remove a bit of litter, goes 'blah!', looks to where their water bowl sits in a corner, leans over and dips litter strewn paw into it, gives it a shake and runs off! :lol:

Never seen her do it before, but know the litter irritates her, tastes awful (no, I've not tried it) and I guess this is how she cleans her feet now as I often find a bit of litter in the water bowl and and the shower and wondered how the hell it gets there as far from litter tray.
 
Marvellous stories! We seemed, as a family, to get one nutty animal, two normal. We had a tabby female who had a bobtail (I was too young to understand why), and one of her kittens was a bit retarded (according to the vet). Mother called him Beppo, after Beppo's Circus clowns. He's the one who'd ambush her ankles at the top of the stairs as she came in - but I mean really ambush them! I've seen him digging his claws in really deeply, tighter onto her leg than a dancer on a pole, while she walked around with him stuck to it. Trying to remove him just led to him holding on tighter and ruining her stockings, so she had to wear the living feline boot for a minute or two until he'd let go.

Beppo also learned to poo in the loo - Mother found him sitting over the pan one day, and he looked, she said, highly embarrassed that he'd been seen doing his duty. After that, he decided it was more discreet to hide in the bath, and do the necessary over the plughole! He was mad as a box of frogs, but great fun.
 
Smart cats!!

Maxine, my mother's cat had her first litter tray at the age of 19, when she was getting kidney problems and becoming too frail to go out.

Poor little thing sat in front of the tray and started trying to eat the litter! Just like the muesli ad that was on at the time.

Luckily she soon got the message when I put her into the tray and held her paws to scrape at it.

Your poor mother, Kri, all the puncture marks around her ankles must have really hurt!

Maxine used to round my mother up by charging round the top of the chairs and sofa if she was a bit later than her normal retiring time of 10.00. The door would fly open and she would walk in in "gunslinger" mode (watch a cat when it's squaring up for a row, you'll soon see what I mean), then proceed to launch herself at the nearest armchair and belt around the room over the furniture, never touching the floor. Then she would just jump off, stand in the doorway, look over her shoulder at Mum, then jerk her head at the stairs.

I often wondered who was really in charge in that house.
 
My old cats seem to have been the inspiration for "Simons Cat" that you can see on youtube and on his website - especially the waking up in the morning one....
 
... with the baseball bat?

Simons Cat is brilliant. I used to love Garfield, too.

Oddly enough, Dougal's dad is called Garfield. Now I know why the scruffy one loves pasta, pizza and all sorts of junk food!
 
We got Asme late last year from the Cat Protection League having decided that with me working away during the week we could not get a new dog.
A real life scaredy cat, she gradually grew in confidence to the point where she became an accomplished killer and saw off the local big tom. Indoors she was a lapcat but when bored would fetch one of her soft toys,usually a ball, and bring to to us to play fetch. A great little character who would wait at the door when it was the normal time for one of us to come home.

Last weekend she had a tangle with a fox in the garden, not a pleasant experience and all this week she has been reluctant to go outside. On Friday she ventured outside in progressive forays gradually going further.
On Friday evening she was run over and killed.

Life indeed sucks!
 
Oh TS! That is so sad. Just as her confidence in humans and the world was growing.

I am so, so sorry. It hurts terribly to lose them.

Perhaps when you have stopped grieving a little you may have an experience like the one I am about to post on the Very, Very Strange thread.
 
That's terribly sad, TS. Home is going to feel empty for some time, without her playful ways. She sounded a real sweetheart.
 
redhead said:
... with the baseball bat?

Simons Cat is brilliant. I used to love Garfield, too.

Oddly enough, Dougal's dad is called Garfield. Now I know why the scruffy one loves pasta, pizza and all sorts of junk food!
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:D thats the one - that would be Pebbles... the outside/inside one would be Barni.

( rip both of them now!!)
 
The Paddy Power advert is about a team of blind footballers with a bell on the ball. Unfortunately Tiddles gets on the pitch and is launched into a tree.
 
Have never been a fan of cats but, really am warming to them now. But this year Dad and I have agreed we want to get one. Dad wants a different type of companion animal other than a dog (we have 2 at present) after he retires at the end of this year. We could have gotten a third dog, but we have 2, and a cat seems a perfect alternative option.

After last week in Samoa, I am very excited to be getting one at the end of the year. Where I was staying, the hotel had 10 cats that vacated the entire property. They belonged to the resort owner, and there main purpose was to eat the vermon that would range the property. They were fed three times a day, at a certain time and part of the resort. The rest of the time, they strayed happily around the premises, sleeping on the deck chairs, peoples lounge chairs, or getting fed scraps from the guests, or a welcoming pat by all the guests.
Every night at 6pm, I had one particular cat, a non-spayed female, on my doorstep, meowing and talking as it awaited me to join her on my lounge chair on my balcony. She would then come up and purr happily, rubbing herself against my leg and just happily being petted. After the affection, being a typical cat, she would just trot off and then another, a male would come up for his turn.
It was wonderful to have them around.
 
Went to see the litter of Weimaraner puppies I have one booked from on Friday evening - as they were only 20 minutes from the Royal Cornwall Show, it seemed too good an opportunity to miss, even though they were only four weeks old. Lovely puppies etc etc but they also have the most amazing neutered Bengal male cat who Tara, the dam of the litter, loves to pieces. While she was whelping, he was allowed in with her, while the male Springer they also own, was definitely unwelcome! Bengal's markings were stunning - like that of a Jaguar (feline variety) and he was a huge character - full of swagger and cat arrogance! Loved him!

Mind you, I knew they were expensive but didn't realise how expensive! The breeder is horrified they allow the cat out of the house but it would be unkind to deprive him of his liberty and it's a quiet neighbourhood, so he's as safe as he can be. I'd be tempted to have one if they weren't so pricey but I tihnk the four farm cats would have a lot to say about that, so it's a dream only!
 
A Weimaraner the size of a small pony has appeared on the other size of the wall from us. The son and heir is putting on a whiney begging voice looking for one but it's just not practical where we live. I'd love one myself and the wife has taken a shine to it as well. But it's not practical, no, not practical ...
 
... you know you're losing already, don't you? :D You could maybe find out if the neighbours would let young Master Mel go for walkies with them and the hound, so he could get a little bit of it out of his system. Or if they're nice people, maybe you could invite the dog over for drinks one evening, and say he can bring his owners if they're well-behaved and won't jump on the sofa? Then your lad can have a whale of a time playing with the beast by proxy.

Actually, I'd be done with it and just buy one now. It'll cost you much less in the long run!
 
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