CATALOGUE 60

The cats are much intrigued today by the arrival of two men in a van who are now wandering about the house making banging noises.

What they are doing is replacing individual window-panes which have lost their double-glazed status and become cloudy.

Well, all but two of them, since two more have popped since the other guy did the survey…..

Fluff is convinced they’ve come to see him, and keeps giving them his best adorable fluffy cat smile. Felix is running about importantly with an air of being in charge of the whole operation.

Mystic is asleep. Dear old Mystic. He’s a slow old thing, but very lovely. I know he’ll wake up for lunch, though, as for every meal. Wonder if he’ll notice the two extra humans at all…..

CATALOGUE 59

Day off yesterday, at least from the internet. I’d like to claim I was writing industriously all day but in fact I did cleaning in the morning and visited an elderly cousin in the afternoon. Then of course cuddled cats most of the evening.

Sometime in the last twenty-four hours I’ve realised that all this settling down and relaxing on the part of the cats has lulled me into a false assumption; that we are reaching a sort of plateau and everything will be fine for years now.

Except of course that there may not be ‘years’ to come, since these are old cats and I knew that when I asked them to come and live with me.

Since my first conscious decision in 2014 to adopt elderly cats in preference to younger ones, my record is; four months for Colin, sixteen months for Jerry. Jerry was eighteen years, eleven months and three weeks old at his death, and so Mystic is already approaching that age. The other two have a couple of years on him, but who’s to say what will happen when it hasn’t happened yet?

I’m not arguing myself into going back to adopting younger cats next time, a lot would depend on who was house-hunting at that point.

I’m just reflecting that at times, however determined I am, I feel a little daunted in the face of the facts. Yes, they are currently well and happy. Yes they are a blessing to me. But the only way forward is to acknowledge the statistically higher risk of suddenly losing one of them at any time. And it’s no good trying to stay detached, these are cats after all and cats start the business of planting pawprints on your heart the day they arrive in the house.

One day at a time. And lots of cuddles.

CATALOGUE 58

Another development is taking place in the Mogs’ pattern of behaviour. Over the last few days the need to work out a way to all sit on me at once, or as close as possible, is driving an evolution towards spending more time all together in the living room while Human watches the corner box or stares at oblong items in her hands.

There have of course been some hissy-scratches, with someone trying to jump up without noticing there’s already an occupant of my lap, but on the whole I feel we may be at the beginning of a real step forward for them and for me, since even Felix is showing an ability to compromise – sometimes.

Due to various conditions, I use a leg-rest when sitting on the sofa, and this has helped the new dispensation. Two nights running now, Mystic has curled up in my lap and Fluff has snuggled into the space between my ankles on the leg-rest. They’ve stayed comfortably for some time on each occasion. I would not dream of pointing out to Fluff that this isn’t true lap-sitting, since it seems to work for him.

Felix is the most interesting, as up until the last few days he would always either start a fight or slink away looking hurt if he found even one of the others sitting on me. Instead he’s taken to snuggling on the sofa-arm, graciously accepting kind words and stroking. It’s almost idyllic. (He gets more individual lap-time now too, by being more assertive than he used to be – but I wonder if he’ll ever actually grasp the concept of lap-sharing.)

All this relative harmony is very pleasing. The main difficulty for me is that of turning the pages of the aforementioned oblong object!

What will tomorrow bring?

CATALOGUE 57

Bemused kitties today – despite the nice warm weather, the downstairs doors they are used to having open most days have been summarily closed by the decorator.

Good reason for that – namely that he’s power-washing the walls all round the house, and the cats would not like it a bit if they stepped outside to be met by a fierce jet of water.

Just try explaining that to them, though.

They have no interest in the appearance of the outside of their house, as long as contains a well-trained human with bottomless supplies of high-class cat food and lots of soft cushions.

I sometimes think the word I most commonly address to my feline family members is. ‘Sorry!’

CATALOGUE 56

When the morning is proceeding as quietly as it is today, with sleeping cats disposed randomly about the house, me on my computer and – hopefully – the decorator due any minute, if not an hour ago: then I wonder if CATALOGUES may have to give way to more bookly themes.

I of course find the mogs endlessly fascinating, and it’s notable how much of my nice long catch-up phone call with my daughter last night was devoted to discussion of her cat, my cats, her brother’s dog, etc etc.

I am dimly aware that there are people out there who find all this as interesting as watching the second-hand or digital equivalent marking the passage of their lives – if not less interesting.

But I find it hard to think myself into a mindset that leaves animals out of account. I can’t conceive of life without at least one cat sharing my home, or rather allowing me to remain in its home after it has taken it over.

So I suspect CATALOGUES will stay, with INTERLUDES for variety now and then. If this all drives you mad, feel free to tell me so in Comments. If you like it, ditto.

For now, purrs from the Mogs to you all.

Schrodinger’s Cat Flap, “Am I in or out?”

CATALOGUE 55

Flea treatment day today!

I’ve survived that better than yesterday’s warm bath for Fluff’s sore bottom…..

Mystic slept on my lap all the way through and seemed not to notice I was parting his hair, let alone squeezing liquid onto his skin.

Fluff on his towel-bedraped chair (just in case) sort of half woke up but made no comment on the procedure.

Felix on his (ditto) chair came awake like a Dragon in a Pinch, wriggled, squirmed, moved each bit of skin I tried to squeeze the stuff onto just as I got there, and then escaped. I think he did get the dose, though.

Why are these things labelled ‘Avoid squeezing onto fur?’

Has no-one in the pharmaceutical development team ever actually seen a cat?

Worming next month, Oh Joy!

CATALOGUE 54

After a few calm days we have reverted to mild chaos again as Fluff is suffering a further bout of his usual affliction.

The cattery tells me they have a wonder-cure for both constipation AND diarrhea which I’ve given them permission to give to Fluff during his impending stay. If it works I can then purchase some and hopefully his misery will be over. Poor old cat. If not, It’s vet visit time, I can’t bear to watch him struggling any longer – even though there may be weeks between bouts, it’s not fair to leave it like this

The cure is called Perridale capsules, I can’t actually recommend it as I’ve not administered it yet, but if anyone has any info on it please reply to this MogBlog.

CATALOGUE 53

Well, it will soon be time for the gericatrics first visit to my wonderful local cattery. As I usually do with cats that are new to the cattery, I’ve just emailed a long outline of what the boys are like and what they do, etc. So for today’s CATALOGUE I’m going to paste in the main section of the email. It’s nice to feel that I’ve grown to know them so much better, and it goes without saying that I love them more as the time goes on – also that there’s now much ore to life than food in/food out:

Mystic is the oldest at 18, and is easily recognised by having only 1.5 ears. He is affectionate, cuddly and sleepy, but definitely still the Godfather in spite of slightly wobbly legs. He has cataract in both eyes but the right is more advanced. The sore place on his nose is very persistent, I keep getting it nearly healed then he washes the scab off again! If he has any digestive upset he may either vomit or get the runs, this has been fairly well settled recently though, after a turbulent first few months trying to find a food that suited everyone. He’s a still bit lazy about where he toilets, I do wonder sometimes if he’s getting dementia or at least elderly confusion.

Fluff (16)is also obvious as he’s fluffy, and seriously pretty. He’s quite little under his fluff, and tends to hang around with Mystic in a deferential way. He too loves a cuddle and has a huge purr. His preferred digestive tract upset is constipation, which as you know can be disastrous in a long-hair when it corrects itself with an explosive reaction. This too is better than it was, I always add water to his wet food as I have never seen him drink, this seems to have helped. His toileting is mostly OK now.

Felix (16) looks just like Felix, so that’s easy. He’s a sweetheart, well they all are in their own ways. He is the odd one out though, which is a shame. I feed him separately, I mean in a separate room, as the other two stare at him intimidatingly which makes him bolt the food and then bring it back. Now that he eats alone he has little trouble with his digestion and is a very good sensible boy, drinking his water after every meal and he’s the only one who unfailingly goes out to the garden to toilet. He’s not exactly cuddly but does like attention and will sit on my lap furtively when the others are not looking. I suspect he may be deaf, which is odd in a tuxedo cat – will check this with the vet next time he needs to go in for anything.

 

CATALOGUE 52

Actually, this is a bit of a general PETALOGUE today.

Seeing that the cats are again fairly quiet, now that we’ve got over Fluff’s unfortunate rear end problems this morning and Mystic’s drops, I’ll go back in time.

My parents and I all being equally nuts about pets, we had quite a few. I don’t have pictures of them all but am working to retrieve and scan those I do have. There were several rabbits, the most memorable of which was a gorgeous black boy called Poco – very intelligent and loving, he lived outside but used to play racing games around the garden with the dog, and come indoors to visit sometimes.

I’ve previously mentioned Dusty, the feral kitten rescued to become a soppy drooling devotee of my Mum. His patterning reminds me of Mystic, but the ‘maps’ on Dusty’s back were dark grey where Mystic’s are black.

I deeply regret the goldfish brought home from the fair and kept in bowls – we did our best for them, but we didn’t know in those days how wrong this was. Similarly with tortoises, who everyone kept in the garden in those days before import restrictions – we loved them all but were ignorant of their needs. My little white mouse whisky was a treasure too, I’m sometimes tempted to keep mice now, but they wouldn’t go too well with the aged cats.

Twinky the blue budgie was a character, like all budgies, and chattered to us all; he came out of his cage a lot, especially in the evenings, and liked to kiss people. He would sit on a chair-arm and converse with the dog.

You’ll have guessed that the dog was a bit remarkable, what with these close relationships with other species. She was a lab/spaniel cross and we took her in when Mum heard there was an unwanted litter going to be drowned (the good old days, eh?) I think the others all got homes too, but they were only 4 weeks and so poor Sparky whimpered miserably for 3-4 days, even though we took it in turns to cuddle her all the time. She won through and grew up loving and intelligent and gorgeous. I could write a book about her, really. But for now it’s good just to remember all this wonderful creatures who came to live with us.

CATALOGUE 51

Mystic wishes to thank all his fans for the get-well cards but found they did not taste very nice.

He is much better now and his eyes would be fine if Mummy would stop dropping the horrible stuff in them twice a day.

As for the anti-inflammatory medicine, he’s convinced it was the reason for him throwing up his breakfast late this morning.

[Mum edit – don’t know why this happened but I do know that as soon as I had cleared up and scrubbed, he followed me into the kitchen looking for lunch!]

Felix and Fluff say it’s not fair because Mystic is getting extra lap-time just because Mummy has the drops to drop on him. When is it their turn again?

Bless them all!