Cats With Thumbs

Why wouldn’t you share?

Survivor Mangahei

Results are in for Survivor: Mangahei! The winners are!

The winner with superficial bruising - Pooch

Runner-up with a wired jaw - The General

The Cat Done Come Back!

The good news! The cat done come back…

Typing away on the computer I look outside to see the cat sitting on the deck. Happy news…

Well mostly happy news. The cat was a most unhappy General! Another visit to the after hours emergency vet, and yes the cat has been hit by a car, and has a broken jaw. The vet says it’s a simple fix, where they wire the jaw. It doesn’t sound simple to me!

So in summary, I run over the dog, someone else runs over the cat, dog is bruised and sore, but might not need an x-ray, and the cat has broken jaw. All other animals are now to be kept in a padded room!

Pets – They Make You Lose Your Hair!

We are having a bit of a bad weekend when it comes to pets.

After work yesterday, I was driving up our driveway. The dogs were behind the fence in the home section, and the grandparents have arrived. All is good. I spot I can park between their car and fence, and turn in to park, when I heard a thud, then a thud and a yelp, followed by another yelp. I then spot Pooch, our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel speeding up the hill behind the house. In the five seconds it took for me to checkout where I was going to park, he got out of the home yard and ran under the car!

A quick trip to the vets, to tell us nothing seems broken, but there may be damage tot he shoulder. He is put on painkillers, and we need to watch for 24 hours until they can x-ray to make sure. They need to put him out for a bit and they don’t want to do that until they have confirmed no internal bleeding. Sigh.

Then to top it all off our last remaining cat, The General, has gone missing. He is very much an about the house cat, and he hasn’t been seen since yesterday morning. Arghhhh….  It’s enough to make you lose your hair!

Our Rose

We had a sad day today. Our big black cat, Rose, who probably should have been called Queen Sheba, has been missing for a couple of days. I went for a perimeter walk and found her down the bank under a tree. We think she may have fallen out and broken her neck. She was only five years old, so  just a young cat. What’s worse is that she was not that  keen on photos. I only found two in our archives…

So sad day…

Runaway Dessert

I awoke this morning at 6am to light the fire and turn on the radio to check what happened in the soccer. Yah the All whites!

In my bleary state I hear our big black cat called Rose meowing very loudly. Must be hungry I think, so I find her bowl and pour some cat biscuits into it for her. She scoots over and drops the mouse she had in her mouth into the bowl and starts eating. Ok I think, is the mouse alive and needing rescuing.

Sure enough the mouse scuttles out of the bowl. Rose, seeing the mouse runaway, catches it again and puts in back in the bowl, and starts to eat again.

Me, I think I might have to rescue the mouse, and Rose growls at me as I approach. Mouse hops out again and Rose catches mouse again. I head to cupboard to find something to put mouse into.  Heading back I see that Rose has tired of her dessert fleeing and so she eats the mouse with her cat food. Poor mouse, good cat.

Many Cats

We have always had cats, the E.I.C and myself.

Our first cat was a tabby called Horace. We bought him from a petshop in our first year out of the hostel. We had to have him put to sleep last year at the ripe old age of 16.  

Our next cat was a white old girl called Grizzel. She was an SPCA rescue cat and didn’t like people. Except for me. We had her for about three years before she was run over.

At the same time we acquired a second tabby called Squeak. She was an SPCA rescue as well, and she was mental. For about six years she refused to come inside and was a bit feral. She is still going though, but isn’t with us any more. She moved into a house down the street back in Dannevirke.

When we lost Grizzel we rescued another SCPA cat. She was a ginger thing, who was always skinny, with a narrow face, called Gelfling after the Dark Crystal creatures. She was lovely, and as far as we know still alive. She adopted our neighbours in Greytown when we lived there, and stayed behind when we moved.

The Eldest TBT wanted a cat, so we bought from a petshop a little tabby girl he called Sally. unfortunately she wasn’t with us long as he had a tent, and one very hot day left her in by mistake. She was only about 12 weeks old and she died from heat exhaustion. There was much sadness around the house. It was an accident and we were worried that he would take it to much to heart, so we bought another kitten, this time a black kitten called Rose Montena. She is still with us and rules the house, being five years old.

When Horace passed away last year, we rescued a great big Ginger cat called Steve from the SPCA. Our run with SPCA cats is not so good, as he quickly moved out to a nice retired gentleman’s place down the road. Sharing with children, other cats and dogs wasn’t in his nature.

This meant that we were back to one cat again.

Until yesterday. A new kitten, tabby called General Loki has been added to the menagerie.

Hopefully he will be like Horace. With us for many years to come…