Some Piccies of Our Kitties

I have a new instagram account: tashaddrake - which is mostly so I can post piccies of our kitties. Ruby is easier to photograph because she likes to sit of lie down and become an immovable object, but I did get a couple of Amber too :).

Amber wanting her tummy rubbed.

Amber deigning to sit still long enough for me to take a snap :)

Ruby demanding chin scritches :)

Ruby sprawled on my old office chair.

Ruby snoring :)

Cats - #ThinkyThursdays 1

Yep, you guessed it, another weekly blog event (or as often as I can think of something) :) Welcome to Thinky Thursdays, which is just like it sounds, a blog post about anything I happen to be thinking about, on a Thursday. Sometimes it might be deep thinky thoughts and sometimes just what happens to be wandering through my brain at the time.

Cats

I have always loved cats. Ever since I was very young we have had cats and still do to this day. My parents have a lovely dog called Nemo as well these days, but when we were small we only had cats. Personally I'm pretty much a gonner for anything fluffy.

My mother tells the story of when me and my twin were very small and we were in the supermarket. Both of us little angels were sitting in the trolley and Mama had to go and pick something off a shelf, or talk to someone, so she parked us next to the tins of cat food because she thought we wouldn't try anything there. We were very small at that age because we were premature at birth and didn't really catch up in the growing stakes until the end of primary school, so she also probably through we couldn't reach anything. Apparently she only took her yes off us for a minute and by the time she turned back we have filled the trolley full of cat food "For Augie". We loved our kitty.

I have to admit I don't really remember the cats from back then as anything more than a concept, but I do remember the two kitties we had once we moved to Wittersham: Otter and Froby.

Otter

Otter was the prettiest black and white kitty with an adorable nature. When he was young he was attacked by a fox and had to have pins in his leg. Ever after that, whenever he sat on a windowsill or the like he would hang his leg down off it while the rest of him remained on the perch normally. He was forever purring and loved people. He could also charm a bird right out of tree just by staring at it - I kid you not.

Froby

Or rather Frobisher Sally Jane Mary as she was known when she was naughty. Now here is a very strange cat. She was sweet, but boy was she odd. To start with she had these huge yellow eyes, one of which twitched side to side. You could always tell if she was listening to you or ignoring you because if she wasn't paying attention her eye would be twitching. She was completely black, but not an elegant cat at all.

She had a double jointed back, or something like that, which meant if she tried to run too fast her back end would over take her front end and she'd end up facing the wrong way looking confused. In later life this also meant it was sometimes dicey having her on your knee because she would have this muscle spasms that meant her claws would dig in to sensitive places. We loved her and she lived to a ripe old age despite her problems.

Ythran

My parents had Barnabus, their first dog, after that, so it wasn't until my sister had cats that cats returned to the house. She had Angel (a pretty cat that loved humans but was a right cow to other cats) and then Ythran (big, white, fluffy and so pretty that everyone thought he was a girl), who died a couple of months ago, and now she has Silver and Binks who already have the whole family wrapped round their little paws.

Levi

Levi

After my husband and I were married we didn't have cat for a while. My husband is actually mildly allergic to them and they used to bring out his asthma, however, then we met Levi. He had been rescued by a friend and, how can I put this, he and Rob just bonded when they met.

Rob still had to wash his hands after giving Levi a love or end up with an itchy face, but his asthma stopped playing up very quickly.

Levi

Levi was so laid back he was mostly horizontal :). He loved to sit on people and my desk when I was trying to work and he was a real sweety. The factory next door use to love him too and he visited them all the time - they called him Ginge :).

He was 15 when he died at home from a massive stroke, brought on by the fact he was hyperthyroid.

Bijou

Bijou

Now while we had Levi we also had Bijou for a while. She was a very sweet kitty, but we had to put a glow in the dark collar on her because she had a nasty habit of lying in the middle of the floor and you couldn't see her at night :).

She loved to sit on anyone and everyone given the opportunity.

Unfortunately she had a congenital problem with her back (at least we assume that's what it was since one of her brothers had the same thing) and in the end she was doubly incontinent. She was uncomfortable all the time and unhappy so we eventually took the decision to have her put to sleep. Levi missed her for ages.

Amber and Ruby

We didn't have kitties for a while after Levi died, but once you've had them a house seems empty without them. Then my husband met up with some old uni friends and one of them was talking about his Savannah. One thing led to another and we found Wicca Cats and ended up becoming a home for two of their ex-breeding queens. So these days we have Amber and Ruby.

Amber

Ruby

Anyone who says cats aren't affectionate, doesn't know any of the cats I've ever known. Every single one has been loving in their own way. I can't imagine my life without kitties, even when they are being a pain in the proverbial ;).

Do you have or have had cats? What are their names and what do they get up to?

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Cats - changeable creatures!

So this morning our cats had a real barny (chased each other all over the house etc). This is them now:

Never let it be said that cats are consistent creatures - they just like to mess around with our heads! :)

Meet Ruby - new kitty

So this is Ruby. She's an F2 Savannah like Amber and she is actually Amber's cousin (they both have the same grandfather). We weren't going to try another kitty with Amber, but Ruby needs a good home and she's quite large and hence not easy to re-home. We have her on a trail period to see if Amber will come round.

So far it's looking better than with Fi. For a start Ruby thinks Rob is completely awesome and so is bonding more with him than me, which should please Amber. Ruby is also much more laid back. They actually seem to speak the same language. Amber is growling and being offish, but she isn't hiding and Ruby keeps simply flopping into the floor trying to make friends. If we can convince Amber that this is a good idea we might be able to get somewhere.

Ruby is incredibly friendly, but she's doesn't like children. She's actually larger than Amber and she talks lots like Amber does, but in an entirely different way. She's very sweet and I do hope they get along or come to some sort of understanding.

Kitties, or rather now just one kitty

Amber is quietly ecstatic because she has the whole house back to herself. I say quietly because she is still making sure this isn't some trick.

Yesterday evening Fi went back to her original owners. Her son and her mother are there and so, hopefully, she will settle back in quickly. There Karen can keep her until she finds the perfect home for her and if she can't, well she can just stay, whereas we just couldn't keep going forever.

I had a bit of a cry last night when we left her there, but I know it will be best for her. She and Amber were never, ever going to get on.

It's really weird, last night I kept thinking I could hear her while laying in bed and I can't get used to the fact that kittygate is gone and I can just walk from one side of the house to the other.

It's going to be really strange not having Fi around, but I still have Amber. She might be confused by all the random petting as I feel the need to make sure she is still there, but I'm sure she'll adjust. ;)

I am sad today ...

It looks as if we are going to have to re-home Afia.

We've been implementing the separation technique and everything had settled down, but Fi clearly doesn't like staying in the new half of the house and yesterday she escaped into the old part. The first thing she did was chase Amber and they had a huge fight. Neither of them was hurt, thank heavens, but Amber did refuse to come out from under the sofa for an hour.

They seem to simply be incompatible at a fundamental level :(.

I love Fi, she's a beautiful lovely cat, but Amber was here first and Fi keeps terrorising her.

Amber is not a boisterous cat, Fi is very boisterous and they just don't seem to speak the same language.

I wish there was another way, but I can't see it. I think the separation technique might work for cats that aren't so completely at opposite ends of the spectrum, but not for our two. I am very sad, but I don't think it's fair on either of them to keep this up. :(

Fi-Fi's new collar :)

Doesn't Fi look smart in her new purple and silver sparkly collar? We thought it looks nice and it has a bell so will give Amber more of a heads up that she's around when they are back in the same part of the house :). As you can see Fi also likes playing with the part of the toy the human is supposed to hold ::g::.

Is this my good side?

I shall subdue it carefully.

Now it is mine!

I will turn over and show it who's boss!

Maybe this end is easier...

We still have the kitty gates up and everything seems to be going well. Both cats are very relaxed.

We've just had the fence redone in the garden, so they were not pleased for a while that they couldn't go out. I think it may have been cursed. Monday they were supposed to arrive, but one of the guys had to go to hospital. Tuesday they did turn up and then one of the chaps injured himself and had to go to A&E to have it fixed. Finally on Tuesday afternoon the work was started.

It now looks very lovely and the kitties are glad to be back in the garden.

I have now started the process of moving their food bowls closer to the divider between the parts of the house so they start to associate the smell of each other with good things.

Kittie update - yay! the technique is working so far :)

Separating the kitties seems to be working so far. After only two days Amber is back downstairs (eating as well as looking around) and going into the garden (when it is her turn to have access) - which for Amber is amazing. This is the cat who barely came out from under the table for weeks when she first moved in.

Afia also seems to be adjusting and is far more relaxed too. She seems to like lying on the table and having her belly stroked :).

Here are some piccies of Amber we took last night while she was relaxing on the sofa.

You can tell Rob took this one and I took the others because this one looks vaguely artistic ;)

Kittygate! Dun. dun, dun...

Our kitties have not been getting on for the last few weeks and we've tried everything we can think of so we've had to go with drastic measures.

Now our house has a new half and an old half. Basically we extended on the side for almost the same size as we already had a few years back and gave ourselves a ginourmous kitchen and open plan dining room, a new spare room and a new bathroom. The two halves of the house are joined by an archway and usually we just have a curtain across it in the winter and nothing else.

However, now we need to separate the two kitties. According to the internet if two cats are fighting then it is best to separate them completely until they have calmed down and allow them to hear and smell each other, but not see, and then carefully reintroduce them to each other when all is well with the world again. Hence

KITTYGATE!!!!

dun dun dun

And yes I believe it deserves the capital letters because it's been so stressful trying to keep the kitties apart and stop one chasing the other that we installed the solution at midnight last night after Rob got back from Germany (we didn't get to bed until 1am).

Please ignore the mess, I'm was in the middle of cleaning when I decided to take a break and take the piccie :)

So this is actually two child gates stacked on top of each other. The bottom one is blocked off with card from the box it came in so the kitties can't just hiss and growl at each other.

It means I have to leave the back door open for Afia to go in and out some of the time and the catflap for Amber the other half, but I can deal with that. Afia has the new half of the house and Amber has the old for now.

Amber seems more relaxed already without having had to deal with Afia all night. She had taken to hiding under the sofa or under the throw on the big sofa when she slept. Yesterday I had to go find her to give her her morning treat and this morning she greeted me at the top of the stairs, meowing loudly :).

Afia is not happy she can't just roam the whole house, but even she seems more relaxed this morning and she has two cat trees and a myriad of toys to keep her happy. She's also going to be really pleased when I head back in there to finish cleaning because then she'll have mummy for a few hours :).

It's going to be a pain for a while, but I want my kitties to be happy and relaxed and neither of them have been for several weeks. We've no idea what happened, one day they were sniffing each other and playing together and almost friends and then suddenly they seemed to hate each other, or rather Amber seemed afraid of Afia and Afia decided to use this to take over the whole house. There was lots of growling and hiding under the sofa on Amber's part and chasing and not much else on Afia's.

Amber hasn't been downstairs for more than a minute or so for over a week now. Hopefully she'll start coming down again now.

There is no getting away from the fact that Amber is a little highly strung and she takes ages to adjust to anything new. Clearly something happened between them and she has not adjusted, so hopefully this way will give them more time. I'm going to start moving both their food bowls towards the gate over the next few days so they will end up eating in proximity to each other and get used to non-hostile relations.

So far Afia has not tried to fly so we haven't had to block up the top of the arch, but I'm not discounting the possibility of the great escape at some point. We have a plan if that happens!

Both of their previous mums are visiting today, so hopefully they will find much more happy, relaxed cats when they arrive. Let's hope we get back to more of this

and less stress. I have been at my wits end for days, so I am looking forward to some peace too :).

Right, now back to cleaning.

Have any of you had trouble with pets?

Afia playing and trying out the radiator bed

Yes, it's time for more kitty piccies :D.

While Amber was lounging in the sun in the garden Rob and I were playing with Afia in the old dining room (sorry for the state of the carpet - it's the main thoroughfare of the house). We also set up a radiator bed for her when she first arrived that she has never looked twice at until today. Below is the pictorial evidence of the adventure.

And I'm supposed to do what with that precisely?

Does it move?

Such a top predator!

It's there - I can see it...

Moarrrr

Mine now.

Don't move, you're surrounded!

I'm gonna eat you little bit of plastic...

Perfect view of the cat flap.

Can I reach the sideboard from here in a single bound?

Is that a spider?

Cats are such regal animals ;)

I so post things other than pictures of my cats, I promise, it's just with a new kitty in the house the camera is out a lot at the moment :)

Fi-fi loves having her tummy tickled :) There would have been more piccies, but Rob's camera ran out of charge.

Of course Amber would never stoop so low (or at least not when there is a camera around :)). She is always a princess!

New Piccies of Amber and Afia

Well all is going well so far. Afia spent yesterday evening hiding under things, but then explored most of the house in the early hours and is now happily sitting on top of the kitchen units :). We've given her a bed up there until we have the large cat tree delivered so she has somewhere proper to sleep. She likes high up.

They are currently ignoring each other mostly - well Afia is ignoring Amber, Amber just hasn't looked up yet and can't figure out where the other cat has gone ::g::. Amber knows she's here somewhere, but doesn't seem overly bothered that she can't figure out where.

They also chose to eat each other's food this morning :)

On to the piccies!

Afia

Going to sleep on the unit

That Amber is loud isn't she!

Been up all night exploring, shall sleep now.

This bed, it is good.

Amber

Making sure I still belong to her

Paying close attention :D

Love me please!

What do you think you're doing?