Wonder Cat

So Rosey is still boycotting his obscenely large selection of litter trays for the purposes of plopping. Poor Mini Kitty. She must think boys are so lazy and unclean, which I would actually concur with.

Last weekend my mum came home after running some errands and went into the bathroom, where Mini and Rosey stay when she's out, and fully expected to find a little present from Rosey on the floor. Indeed she could smell said gift, but couldn't see it. She could, however, see a J cloth on the floor, under which was nestled Rosey's little present, as it turns out. My mum concludes that Mini Cat must have dragged the cloth from its previous spot wedged behind the toilet cistern and used it to cover Rosey's poop, possibly in some kind of desperate (but alarmingly clever) attempt to cover up the foulness.

I was skeptical when she told me this, but she went on to say that Mini regularly kicks bits of gravel that happen to be outside the litter tray towards Rosey's offending stool, wherever it may be in the room, and attempt to cover it up with that, so now I am wondering whether the whole J cloth thing was premeditated by the little black cat after all. Apparently they've never played with the J cloth either. They're not interested in things like that. I am surprised either way. I thought a recent study showed that cats are pretty stupid. Mind you, a lot of people can be pretty stupid too. Anyway, needless to say my mum was gushing and squealing like an embarrassingly proud parent over Mini's antics. To be fair, I knew she was a special little girl.

In other news, Rosey is still snotty and sneezy and, on reflection, has actually been like this since I got him. The vet's been giving him various medication and although he has this issue, his airways and lungs are always apparently clear. My mum thinks he's got some sort of lifelong condition. She keeps vaguely mentioning herpes, which has me raising my eyebrows in perplexion (which isn't actually a real word, but definitely should be). I'm pretty sure the vet mentioned no such condition.

Here are some old and recent photos of the babies for purposes of a comparison. It's amazing how much they've grown and changed.

Getting back to writing

Wow, life's been hectic now back at home and I just realised how long it's been since my last post. I am genuinely wondering how I went about my life with six cats to care for when there even seems too much to do now with none. I guess when you're caring for the little critters, you automatically care about them more than the trivial little things in life (like keeping the surfaces tidy, using in-date milk and paying the electricity bill).

I see Oscar and Tilly are still listed on the TCR website and therefore still in their foster home. I wonder how they coped with losing their mom. Just the thought of it is so saddening, even if cats don't attach as much emotion to this kind of thing as humans. I think I'd be in tears if I had to look after those poor orphans. And I think I was lucky with my bunch. It was difficult enough coping with the death of Celia even though she was no longer in my care: I don't know how I'd have felt if I did lose one while he/she was with me.

I feel like I appreciate the fragility of life a bit more having just read about little Destiny's fate on Beth's blog. It makes me think back to Rosey and how close we'd been to losing him. I cannot believe what a little fighter he was and how far he's come from being a snotty little furball who wouldn't stop screaming to an athletic little tiger who only ever wants to poop on the floor. I feel like throwing caution to the wind and just letting the little guy poop wherever he bloody well likes in appreciation of the fact that he just kept on going in times of adversity. Unfortunately he's my mum's responsibility now and she tells me it's not much fun cleaning up poop from the floor every day, especially in the heat of summer. I actually do know how she feels and have had my fair share of it, thank you very much. Other than that, Rosey's being totally, totally spoilt with fresh meat, which he loves so much that he gobbles it down and starts on Mini-Cat's bowl within seconds. No wonder him and Matt got on so well.

As an aside, I was alarmed to notice a strange name on Rosey's medicine bottle from the vet when I visited at the weekend - "Tigger". Having questioned my mum, she shiftily revealed that when being pressed for a name at the vet the first time, she felt embarrassed for Rosey about giving the vet a girl's name for him, so she hastily opted for "Tigger". Uh, now all we have to do is change Mini's name to "Winnie" and rename Tiddles "Christopher Robin" and we're all set for a remake of the children's classis Winnie The Pooh. Well, she claimed she gave that name because he looks like a tiger and wasn't in fact aware of his cartoon namesake, but I'm not so sure. There's nothing wrong with the name, as such, but it's such an obvious name for a tabby cat and I don't like obvious. And I also cannot believe they rebuffed my suggestion of "Dexter" (I've been enjoying series 1 and 2 and was inevitably inspired) and then went and did this. Anyway, luckily neither names stuck and my handsome little stripy prince continues to be called Rosey, although his silly little head doesn't in fact seem to respond to anything you call him.