Skuds' Sister's Brother » Pets

More gratuitous cat photos

Skuds — Mon, 10 May 2010 19:47:59 +0000

Just because it’s Monday.

Chiquita stalking something

Diego doing what he does best

Leaders’ debate lack of interest

Skuds — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 22:19:50 +0000

I have to admit I wasn’t paying full attention to the second leaders’ debate on Sky News. This was partly due to Sky’s even-worse-than-ITV production, partly due to the blatant bias towards Cameron, but mostly due to having this sort of thing going on at the same time…

Meet Diego

Skuds — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 19:46:40 +0000

At last the new kitten is old enough to leave his mother and has come to fill our house with squeeks. I have a 76-page election manifesto to read, understand, and familiarise myself with so may not be able to take the 200 photographs I want to take tonight, but I’m sure I will be filling up the memory card before long.

In keeping with our habit of giving the cats Spanish names we are calling him Diego. (Think Velázquez not Maradona)

Chiquita is having a serious sulk in the kitchen, but I’m sure she will snap out of it before too long. If she knows what is good for her she will stop hissing and start making friends because having seen Diego’s parents and half-brother we reckon he will be bigger than her in about five months.

How can you not adore him?

He looks fluffier without the flash

Furry friend

Skuds — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 01:31:15 +0000

It has been quite a cat-oriented evening today. As soon as I got home I had to take Chiquita to the vets for a scheduled check-up to make sure her scar is healing properly. Considering she ripped the stitches out within minutes of having the collar removed at the weekend, she is doing fine. The vet did ask if she was an only cat and said that he thinks they do better with company, which is handy because after I got her home we went back out to visit Chiquita’s new companion.We don’t actually know which cat will be keeping her company, we just know it is one of the five three-week-old kittens we saw. It doesn’t matter really, they are all pretty much the same – tiny and unbelievably appealing.

It was only a little bit worrying that we saw another cat there who was from the previous litter only five months ago and he was huge!

Although it is normal for kittens to not be taken from their mother until they are at least eight weeks, the lady who has these kittens is of the opinion that the sooner they go the better, and she tries to find good homes from them as soon as they can handle meat, which is at about five weeks. She thinks it is best for them to still be very dependent so they bond better with the new family.

Professional opinion may differ, but as a farmer she has had plenty of kittens to rehouse over the years and reckons they have all thrived on this approach. It is certainly good timing for us because it means we should be able to get a little playmate for Chiquita during the school holidays so there will be somebody home all day for a week or two to keep an eye on them.

So… brace yourself for a barrage of kitten photos in a couple of weeks. Flickr? You’d better buy yourself some more hard drives!

Good news on the kitten front

Skuds — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 01:06:42 +0000

It appears that the local farm’s cat has had kittens, and they are happy to give them away to a good home. They have a pair of tabbies of, as yet, unascertained gender. They are still too young to be removed from their mother, but as soon as they are old enough we can have one. The only complication is that if nobody else has expressed an interest we might have to take both of them.

We were only really after a second cat to keep Chiquita company, and neither of us has had more than two cats before, let alone three kittens. Part of me hopes the other one goes so we don’t have to make that decision – but part of me sort of hopes we get the pair. It will be at least three weeks before we can have it/them anyway, but I think we will be popping down to the farm this week to say hello and will probably get hopelessly smitten with both.

If we do end up with three it does open up some possibilities…¹

only joking obviously. I can’t juggle

Back from the vets

Skuds — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:51:59 +0000

Not a happy bunny!

Chiquita had her long-awaited visit to the vets to get spayed yesterday and returned with a huge shaved patch and a buster collar to stop her ripping the stitches out.

She is not impressed with the collar.

Advice from the vets included a remark that the cat could be drowsy for a few days as a result of the anaesthetic. If only! She has been going berserk from the moment we got her home.

Obligatory cat photos

Skuds — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:30:57 +0000

I spend a lot of time amusing and being amused by Chiquita, but hardly any time taking cat photos. I tried to make amends a little on Monday while I was taking a day off work.

Looking cute and innocent. Trying to pretend that is is not her who took the doormat and hid it behind the sofa. Again.

She has been reluctant to explore outdoors but I finally got her to go into the back garden.

Turning the tables on the kitten

Skuds — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 23:16:24 +0000

Over the last couple of weeks we have been reminded that kittens are a force of nature, but tonight Chiquita had a break from terrorising us as she learned that there is an even greater force of nature, which also comes on four legs – Jayne’s friend came round with her twin 8-year-old girls… I don’t think I will need to put in a shift of playing with her tonight.

Cat Chaos

Skuds — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:04:09 +0000

So. The first day that Chiquita was left alone all day and she trashed the front room a bit. At the moment we can’t let her out (a bit young, not had her jabs, paranoid about cars and wrapping her in cotton wool etc.) It was not supposed to be like this: it was supposed to be the pair of them providing company for each other while we are at work.

She comes from a house with other cats, a dog, and people at home all day so I guess it is a bit unfair to have her left alone – although with Chrystal having different hours to us, with us all working locally, and with the long school holidays she is not deserted for 10 hours at a time all year as she would be if we were childless commuters, but even so…

I suppose we could find a better home for her.

On the other hand I hear that one of Frankie’s friends has just had a litter. It is tempting.

More bad cat news

Skuds — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 21:10:52 +0000

El Diablo Rojo: 2008-2010

Today has been a very sad and depressing one, as it saw us lose our second cat in just over a week, but this time it was totally unexpected.I was woken up by Jayne saying I need to get up because it looks like someone has run Rojo over. Sure enough, as I came out of the house there she was with him in her arms, blood round his mouth and no signs of life at all.

He was not very old, only about 18 months, but I like to think he enjoyed those 18 months. As any regular readers will know I was quite besotted with him. Every time I came home from work I would shout out “where’s my boy?” and Jayne always pointed out to me that my face would light up whenever he came into the room.

Over the last couple of days he has been getting used to the kitten and they have been playing with each other. Only last night he discovered a new favourite toy – a paper Primark carrier bag. He was climbing into it and sticking his head out, while Chiquita ran around the bag swiping at him. Just before I went to bed I rescued the bag and folded it.

The idea was to save it for today so I could film them playing together, but it turned out that I didn’t see him today, except to bury him by his favourite bush. Truly it broke my heart to see him in that hole, still wearing his little West Ham collar. The consolation is that it must have been a very sudden death.

Little Chiquita is going to miss having a playmate but I can’t go through all this again so I’ll have to keep her entertained and hope we have no other friends who just happen to have an irresistable kitten on the housing list.