I was checking my Nectar Offers through the Sainsbury’s application on my mobile phone and I found this rather disturbing offer:
I’ve always wondered why cat food wasn’t in flavours like “Pidgeon and Sparrow” but turning them into cannibals?
Category: Cats
Posts about cats
We took Crystal up to my parents for the Easter weekend, primarily to give her a…
This is MY ChaiirWe took Crystal up to my parents for the Easter weekend, primarily to give her a break from the hassling she gets from Chester. As you can see she settled in very quickly and decided that she was going to claim one of the chairs as her own
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Rest in Peace Bandit
Bandit arrived, along with his sister Pixie, on August 1st 2006. He wasn’t the cat we’d gone to collect… we’d actually gone to get Pixie, and Bandit, the runt of the litter, was the only other cat left and he won us over by basically trying to climb into Kathy’s handbag.
So we returned with two cats in the carrier rather than one :
He immediately settled in and made our house his home. No matter where he settled he looked comfortable and happy and he took great delight in hopping up onto the bed at night and after hopping back and forward between us would settle down by Kathy for the night.
Despite being the runt of the litter Bandit grew and soon became of one the biggest cats in the house.
Just over a year ago he had a major problem with a bladder infection and we thought we had lost him but he proved us all wrong and bounced back, or so we thought.
When we came back from the US after Thanksgiving this year he just seemed a little listless which we put down to him missing us being round but just before Christmas he took a turn for the worse and we took him back to the vets who did various tests and told us the bad news : Bandit had FIP – which is incurable and rather unpleasant. We brought him home knowing that his time with us was limited but we didn’t know just how limited it would be.
His health declined rapidly and he died in Kathy’s arms at 10:00 am this mornning
He will always be remembered by us, just like we remember all our cats who have passed on. You will always be missed Bandit and we will always love you.
Sleep Well Bandit and we’ll see you in the morning
Cats have feelings too
It feels odd being in the house without Kathy, I know I spend a lot of time during the day by myself normally but its in the evenings that I really miss her. It seems odd cooking just for me and the evenings drag on and when it comes to bed time it really does hit home.
But I’m not the only one missing her. Most of the cats, like Chester and Munchkin, don’t really seem to be bothered, and Chester only really gets bothered when we’ve got the suitcases out and mum and dad turn up because he knows something is going on. But Bandit really is missing her.
Bandit was a cat we didn’t plan on having. When we went to get Pixie, who is a black cat, Bandit was the only kitten left from the litter who hadn’t been adopted and he was the runt of the litter and so we took him home along with Pixie.
Here is a photo of him taken as soon as we got him home back in August 2006 (the fuzzy black in the background is Pixie) :
Bandit, along with Pixie, is a quite photogenic and when he was settling in here he just gave us a lot of photo opportunities:
Those being just two from a large collection of “cute” photos.
As Bandit grew (and boy did he grow) he really bonded with Kathy and sometimes he seems to behave more like a dog in that he followed Kathy round the house and he loved carrying things round in his mouth too. In the evenings after supper he often hopped up into Kathy’s lap to get some attention and he “patty paws” her. Bandit is really Kathy’s cat and he never grew out of the habits he showed as a kitten.
He’s now three and is a big solid cat as can be seen from this recent picture where he is relaxing on the doormats we brought back from the boat for cleaning (the ears in the foreground are Pixie’s)
He might be a big solid cat but he’s really missing Kathy and when I go to bed at night he hops up on top of me and miaows and demands lots of attention. If I ignore him then he headbutts my hand or my arm until I give him tickles. If I put my arms under the covers then he lies on me and stretches out his left paw and pats me on the chin, and if I ignore that then he resorts to licking the end of my nose. Then when he’s had enough tickles he goes to the bottom of the bed and goes to sleep down there. When Kathy is home he tends to sleep on her side of the bed.
Now I know that you’ll probably just say that its a cat and he doesn’t care where he gets his tickles from but its only in the early evening that his behaviour changes. During the day he’s doing just what he does most days, sleeping on our bed or out in the utility room on the boat mats. Its when it gets to about 6:30 which is when Kathy usually home that he starts prowling round the house more and he miaows a lot more too.
Both Kathy and I know what he’ll be like when she gets home, she wont be able to go anywhere in the house for days without him sticking to her like glue and any time she sits down he’ll be there in her lap demanding attention.
Smokey – Rest in Peace
Smokey, one of our two Manx cats, died today. She had developed kidney disease and she was off her food and was very subdued so we took her back to the vets on Saturday. Despite trying “poor man’s dialysis” where they put the cat on a saline drip to help flush the kidneys through the creatinine levels didn’t drop and the vet said that it was pretty much the end for her.
So Kathy and I left work early and Kathy went in to be with Smokey as she was put to sleep. Kathy gave her lots of tickles from me and talked to her, Smokey purred and Kathy continued to talk to her and tickle and stroke her as the vet injected her. She passed away very quickly, and although we know that she wouldn’t understand a word Kathy was saying the fact that there was a voice, a touch, a smell and a person she recognised and indeed would have been the last thing she “remembered” as she went under is some small comfort.
The following photos of Smokey are ones I took when I lived in my flat on Gloucester Road, when she and Sooty ruled the roost and the sofa was, as you can see, Smokey’s domain
Smokey was much more than just a pet. Manx cats seem to favour a single person and she decided that the person she was going to favour was me. When I was sitting in my chair watching TV she’d climb up and onto the back and snuggle down against my neck, sometimes she’d even lick it for me 😉
At night she would often climb onto the bed and it was always my side that she climbed up onto and where she stayed, usually right at the top by my chest. I’d lie there listening her purring and I lost count of the number of times I woke up to find her with her head lying on the pillow.
The house seems strangely empty without her. Her “meeping” at us for food or attention, having to move her so I can get in and out of bed.
Smokey, family cat and companion, you will be sorely missed by us all.
A few days on the boat
Well if all goes to plan we are off to the boat on Thursday night for a few “relaxing” days away from work. I say relaxing because we haven’t quite decided how much to push. If the weather is lousy too hot me might not go far, if the weather conditions are just right then we’ll push on a bit.
Smokey is coming with us as are Bandit and Pixie because we can’t leave Smokey at home by herself due to her diet and Bandit and Pixie would just reduce the house to a complete wreck if we left them for 4 days.
Here’s a picture of Bandit and Pixie looking innocent:
Smokey – a cat on a diet
This is Smokey – a middle aged Manx cat.
Smokey’s lifestyle seems to be based on that of Bagpuss and she loves nothing more to lie around all day doing nothing except eat, sleep and, of course fluff!
Anyway she was a bit overweight – OK so she was a lot overweight, like overweight by a couple of Kilos.
Today I took her along to her regular monthly weight check in out at the vets and she’s now under 5Kg : weighing in at a mere 4.9Kg.
The photo above was taken when I lived in my flat – which means its at least 5 years old now. She put on weight after that photo but now she’s much more svelte and I suspect she now weighs less than she did when the photo was taken.
Updated:
Here is a recent photo, taken when she reached her “target” weight:
Shes now decided that my side of the bed is one of the comfiest places to lie. The other is, believe it or not, on the back of the chair (often when I’m sitting in it)