EXTREME CAT CLOSEUP!!!
Tag: pets
Tolstopoodles and donkeys
We had to get Tolstoy shaved because, minger that he is, he doesn’t goom his fur and won’t let us brush him so he gets dreadlocked and it just looks painful. We took him to the vet to get a good brushing under sedation (we have to do this once a year or so) and when we went to pick him up, the nurse said “we had to shave off a bit more fur than expected, but don’t worry, he’s fine”.
We have a poodle. The only things that are not shorn are his head, tail, lower paws and a bit around his ass. The rest of him is gone. His tail is wider than his actual body. The thing is though, ever since we got him done, he’s been like his old self again and has gotten uber clingy. He’s taken to sleeping on the bed with us most every night. It’d be cute if he didn’t weigh so damn much. He’s small, but it’s all muscle.
In other news, the beastie was in a Christmas play in the nursery yesterday. All the small kids were random nativity-esque animals. Ours was a donkey (though the only requirement was to be dressed in grey). We were quite proud of him. He didn’t cry (he seemed to enjoy the attention, in a bemused sort of way) and he clapped enthusiastically at all the right places. Katy could have burst something she was so proud.
Weekend in review
Last weekend was very productive!
Katy’s parents were over for the weekend and we managed to:
– install stair gates at the bottom of the stairs and in the kitchen, because Doofus has officially started to crawl
– put up some Christmas decorations
– clear out some weeds in the garden and rip out more of that bed liner crap
– plant our tulip and crocus bulb
– put the sleepers back around the empty pond
We also got our FU DOGS!!! Woot!
I’ve been going crazy trying to find a pair of fu dogs for the garden. It took me 6 months to find some. And now we have them! Behold the glory of Elvis and Jeff.
I’m so happy I could burst.
Reenie also showed off her tree climbing skills and I managed to snap a few pictures of the gorgeousness.
It’s been getting colder these days, which is nice. The beastie is also starting to go back to his happy, non-permanently-pissed-off self, for which we are thankful.
Our cats are more random than usual
Tolstoy has taken to sleeping in the most random places ever in the past few days. Normally, he’s sleeping under the Poang in our bedroom but in the past 3 days, we’ve seen him:
– on the couch (which he never does)
– under BenBen’s cot bed (he’s usually *in* it)
– behind the scratching post we just put upstairs (it’s always fun when he attacks your feet in the middle of the night when you’re not expecting it)
And this morning, we found him sleeping on BenBen’s play mat.
Random animal :)
Our cats…
It would seem that the cats are taking well to the new environment. They were in and out all everning, part of the night and most of this morning. They’ve discovered, much to their chagrin I would imagine, that our neighbours have a dog :)
I snapped this with my camera phone last night. I have no idea how she climbed up there but Reenie spend a large part of the evening on the roof of our shed and our neighbours. Later that evening, I heard the dog bark and saw Tolstoy magically appear on top of the party wall fence :) I’m sure they’ll get used to it.
Tiredness, and stress. And more tiredness.
I have repainted the whole of the upstairs of the Hinxton house. All the floors have been vacuumed to within inches of their lives (Katy has the blisters to prove it). We’ve done all that we’ve humanly could to make the house clean and tidy. The house is in a *much* better state than we’ve left it in. And still, it would seem that the powers that be aren’t happy. I fear for our deposit. We need that money, and it’s not an inconsiderable sum. If it’s less than 1K, I’ll have to look at our legal recourses. I am not happy. I don’t need this shit right now.
In other news, we gave in and let the cats go out this morning. For the past two weeks, they’ve been cooped up in the house and have turned into unbridled bundles of energy. Even Tolstoy was poinging everywhere and playing with random shit. We’d planned on letting them out this weekend but had to relent because they were spending their nights chasing each other all over and house and up and down the stairs for hours on end. It sounded like a herd of rampaging elephants. This is not conductive for a good night’s sleep. It also doesn’t help that BenBen has decided that 5am is a good time to wake up. As such, I am currently exhausted.
And stressed.
I do not like this situation.
A bit of artsy-fartsyness
Tolstoy has taken to sleeping with BenBen during his daytime naps. It’s cute, and it promotes a good immune system, so we don’t mind it. Sometimes, Tolstoy sleeps with his tail on BenBen’s head and if we happen to move Tolstoy, BenBen stirs because his head suddenly got cold :)
The Tao of Reen-pig
Any attention is good attention.
If I love you, you can have my butt.
If there is no fuss, there needs to be food.
If there is no food, there needs to be fuss.
Giving me fuss is a privilege, not a right.
My paw always tastes good.
It takes a lot of effort to look this fabulous.
Weekend update
I felt like crap on Friday so I stayed home from work. I still have a major case of the lurgie and I’ve been feeling off and on all weekend. I blame the new grad student at work for giving me his Ebola.
We had to go to Saffron Walden in the afternoon to go meet our solicitor and sign some paperwork. On the way back, we stopped at the duck pond. BenBen was completely out of it, but we had a bit of fun with Katy’s new phone.
When we got home, BenBen went into a major meltdown. We think that, between his teeth beginning to play up, his last round of shots and a bit of a cold, he’s been feeling very under the weather and has been feeling very tired and grumpy and has been a cast-iron bugger to feed. So, when we got home, he decided that he was most decidedly not a happy camper and wailed. Solidly. For close to two hours. As soon as we brought him upstairs to start his bedtime routine, he settled down and had a good night but Katy and I were rather traumatized because – for all our griping at times – he is normally a really good baby and rarely kicks up a fuss.
Just as we were going to bring Ben upstairs, Reenie barged in the house with another mouse – still alive – and ran to the shoe rack to drop it in my boot. Again. Except this time, she missed the boot and the mouse got away from her. We so didn’t need that extra little bit of aggravation when our nerves were still frazzled from all the crying. I tried to look for it but I couldn’t find it and we had to go get the boy to bed.
Once things settled down and there was blessed quiet again in the house, I was able to shift some clutter around and find the wayward rodent. Lo and behold, it was the same mouse as two days ago!!!
We freed it in some bushes. If it comes in again, we’re keeping it as a pet.
We spent most of the weekend packing stuff away in boxes and got some good progress done. Most of the mice that Reenie brought in over the weekend were deceased, so we didn’t have too much aggravation. She did manage to drop a live mouse in my boot though, and Katy had to use some fancy penmanship to get rid of it. I just hope it didn’t pee too much in my boot.
Such are the joys of cat ownership.
Rodentpalooza
So, tonight, Reen-pig broke her own record and brought in three mice. One, we think, was an escapee from the Sanger, even! It had either been ear-tagged and tailed or had some very coincidental scars. That one was still alive and was released back into the wild (and hopefully won’t be back tomorrow). The other two were less fortunate. And yes, both of the dead ones ended up in my boots.
Gotta love our pussycats.
Katy thinks it’s because the weather is warming up and the mice are getting more active but are still dopey. Hopefully they’ll be able to give the cats more of a run for their money before my mom gets here or she’ll really freak out :)