On Cats

[Porkscratching]

In my experience when you buy something specifically for cats, they don't want to know.. They'd rather find their own stuff, or do it their way  

[Classsix T]

I'd heard/read somewhere that Mog would rather have water with some mineral content in it. Mia's the same, muddy puddle beats fresh tap water every time.

 

C6T. 

[alastairq]

All of next-doors cats [some proper feral, but have found a liking for indoors]...drink out of my front garden pond. Possibly sucking up the odd tadpole as well?

One [the tortoiseshell & white feral...butter-wouldn't-melt expression]...has developed a fascination with a rather large frog [toad?] who climbs out into the surrounding vegetation now & again. She sits watching it for hours, dangling her tail in the pond water.

 

Currently having battle with next door's hens, who have developed an escape strategy into my garden. Possibly to get away from a bullying cockerill? 

Anyway, despite my best efforts I have chased them back through the hedge hole several times today. I've blocked it off with ever increasing amounts of blocking-things, but they manage to circumvent them with ease.

One corner of my garden is rapidly resembling the Berlin Wall?

When I come across them, they look at me accusingly and pitifully, like refugees on a boat...

If I ignore them, they will wander down my driveway, and up the tenfoot alongside...to potter offf heaven-knows where.

I wouldn't like to think they had succumbed to a predator because I had ignored them...

They also hang around my back door, in the company of next doors cats as well....quite a collection..could do without the chicken poo in random places though..

Of course , all next door are out at work or school......

Edited June 7, 2021 by alastairq

[Michael Hodgson]

1 hour ago, Porkscratching said:

In my experience when you buy something specifically for cats, they don't want to know.. They'd rather find their own stuff, or do it their way  

You could say the same for children - rather play with the box than the toy.

[doilum]

The tiny bowl was originally home to a novelty plastic goldfish. The green slime is the active ingredient as the bowl is ignored for a few days if cleaned too diligently. If the level falls too low she is not shy in letting you know.

Despite her age and dodgy knees Guinness will regularly go out in the rain to enjoy a freshly formed puddle. The large bowl by the back door is often untouched for days.

[Porkscratching]

Cats probably, very wisely, don't much fancy the chemical muck they put in the supply water.. I've frequently found it undrinkable too. We've had bottled water for actual drinking for a long time now.

[doilum]

Maybe the acid from the algae balances the calcium in the hard water we get?

[Michael Hodgson]

39 minutes ago, Porkscratching said:

Cats probably, very wisely, don't much fancy the chemical muck they put in the supply water.. I've frequently found it undrinkable too. We've had bottled water for actual drinking for a long time now.

I just boil the stuff and pour it into a pot containing tea leaves before drinking it.

[Porkscratching]

On 04/06/2021 at 09:18, Markwj said:

Incidentally I was told black cats don’t rehome that well as they are not photogenic people don’t want them but this thread is well populated with them so somebody (including me) likes them!

Well here's yet another, he was in one of the feral litters we rescued and was the only black one, so kept him !

All the other 3 from his litter were rehomed to one family and stayed together which was nice ( four may have been too many so just as well he stayed in the event ) 

He looks a bit brown here in the sunlight but is definitely a "black cat" !

[Captain Cuttle]

No our rescue cat Teddy real name Hercules doesnt like tap water, here he is keeping me warm, and a couple chilling out!

[Edwin_m]

4 hours ago, alastairq said:

All of next-doors cats [some proper feral, but have found a liking for indoors]...drink out of my front garden pond. Possibly sucking up the odd tadpole as well?

One [the tortoiseshell & white feral...butter-wouldn't-melt expression]...has developed a fascination with a rather large frog [toad?] who climbs out into the surrounding vegetation now & again. She sits watching it for hours, dangling her tail in the pond water.

A few months ago I saw Gizmo closely examining a shrub which was making rustling noises.  Shortly afterwards a frog or toad emerged, did one jump and stopped.  I was expecting to have to attempt to save it from annihilation (as I did with a blackbird in the lounge last weekend) but he seemed bemused by it.  He just approached it and gave it the tiniest nudge with a paw, at which point it did three more jumps to land in the pond.  

 

Perhaps frogs/toads aren't actually edible?

[Porkscratching]

11 minutes ago, Edwin_m said:

A few months ago I saw Gizmo closely examining a shrub which was making rustling noises.  Shortly afterwards a frog or toad emerged, did one jump and stopped.  I was expecting to have to attempt to save it from annihilation (as I did with a blackbird in the lounge last weekend) but he seemed bemused by it.  He just approached it and gave it the tiniest nudge with a paw, at which point it did three more jumps to land in the pond.  

 

Perhaps frogs/toads aren't actually edible?

Many years ago, with the previous generation of cats, they used to find frogs in the garden during the night, the noise was terrible, so I assume these had a good attempt at eating or at least mauling the unfortunate frogs, who not unreasonably, voiced objections ! 

[alastairq]

6 minutes ago, Porkscratching said:

Many years ago, with the previous generation of cats, they used to find frogs in the garden during the night, the noise was terrible, so I assume these had a good attempt at eating or at least mauling the unfortunate frogs, who not unreasonably, voiced objections ! 

 Not as bad as the French, who pull their legs off and eat them....[so I've been told?]

[Compound2632]

4 hours ago, alastairq said:

Currently having battle with next door's hens, who have developed an escape strategy into my garden. Possibly to get away from a bullying cockerill? 

[...]

They also hang around my back door,

 

To continue the chicken diversion, some years ago there were posters along a local rural road protesting against a proposed battery farm "Say No to 5,000 Chickens on your Doorstep" - which to my twisted mind conjured up quite a different image to that intended.

 

BTW Cockerill was (is) a major Belgian engineering company. The word you're looking for is Cockerel - engraved on my memory as my inability to spell it in the tie-breaker spell-off between team captains in an inter-school quiz competition c. 1981 lead to our team's defeat. Ignominy. (Not another word in the spell-off but one whose meaning I was brought to understand by my peers.)

[Michael Hodgson]

1 hour ago, Porkscratching said:

He looks a bit brown here in the sunlight but is definitely a "black cat" !

We were offered our choice from a litter, and the one selected was chosen because he was a brown kitten. 

But now he's grown into a one year old black cat! 

[Michael Hodgson]

39 minutes ago, Porkscratching said:

Many years ago, with the previous generation of cats, they used to find frogs in the garden during the night, the noise was terrible, so I assume these had a good attempt at eating or at least mauling the unfortunate frogs, who not unreasonably, voiced objections ! 

There's a sickening crunching noise when they eat frogs

[petethemole]

That may be because frog bones are hollow.

[Chris116]

4 hours ago, Captain Cuttle said:

No our rescue cat Teddy real name Hercules doesnt like tap water, here he is keeping me warm, and a couple chilling out!

 

 

My ginger cat used to spend hours around my neck while I played with my model railway. That picture brings back some great memories. 

[Porkscratching]

8 hours ago, Chris116 said:

My ginger cat used to spend hours around my neck while I played with my model railway. That picture brings back some great memories. 

Me too!..There was a black cat at a place I worked many years ago who would ride on your shoulders like that, while you walked around, he'd stay like that for as long as you'd have him !

[Allegheny1600]

16 hours ago, alastairq said:

Currently having battle with next door's hens, who have developed an escape strategy into my garden. Possibly to get away from a bullying cockerill? 

Anyway, despite my best efforts I have chased them back through the hedge hole several times today. I've blocked it off with ever increasing amounts of blocking-things, but they manage to circumvent them with ease.

One corner of my garden is rapidly resembling the Berlin Wall?

When I come across them, they look at me accusingly and pitifully, like refugees on a boat...

If I ignore them, they will wander down my driveway, and up the tenfoot alongside...to potter offf heaven-knows where.

I wouldn't like to think they had succumbed to a predator because I had ignored them...

They also hang around my back door, in the company of next doors cats as well....quite a collection..could do without the chicken poo in random places though..

Of course , all next door are out at work or school......

Your problem is the neighbours themselves!

At my previous house, we had problem neighbours just like that and if you create a solution for their problem, they won’t do anything to help.

My solution was to eat any chickens that made their way onto my property. And, make it known this is what was happening. Your imagination should be sufficient for this. The neighbours will soon ensure that no more chickens escaped.

If you don’t want to deal with eating the chickens yourself and don’t know anyone who could, I suggest disappearing said chickens elsewhere and leaving other “evidence” visible I.e. ex supermarket chicken remains! Alternatively, get a fox to do the job.

[alastairq]

3 minutes ago, Allegheny1600 said:

Your problem is the neighbours themselves!

 

Yes, and no, really.

[Allegheny1600]

Just now, alastairq said:

 

Yes, and no, really.

Looks like you read my post in the humorous way I intended!

 I was being funny, in case others didn’t realise.

[alastairq]

To be fair, I don't have neighbour trouble [it's the other way around, I suspect?]

 

The problem with the visiting hens is, the poop that sits in , for me, unsuspecting places?

 

Mind, the neighbour [a single-ish Mum] was annoyed with them all the other day..when she went into her kitchen to find the tabby cat had opened the back door [he climbs, and swings on handles]...and the 4 hens were all in the kitchen looking expectantly at the tub of chicken food?

It's not a very big kitchen.....luckily her two garden-sheep hadn't managed to reach the back door when she discovered the debacle.

 

Life in a countryside village, eh?

 

Oddly, she doesn't get many eggs from her hens......yet the neighbours the others side, who are 'proper' hen people, have more eggs than they can shake a stick at. I sometimes find a half dozen eggs  on the doorstep....all sorts of colours, including blue ones!

Seems their two small kids can only be stuffed with so many eggs before resistance is met?

 

They're home-schooled too [not just because of covid]...young lass is a qualified teacher who has left the profession out of a sense of protest at the  target and performance ethos that has pervaded the education system, especially with the  very young chillens.

 

Anyway, I don't have a cat......probably don't need one? Don't miss the vet's fees either.

[Captain Cuttle]

1 hour ago, Porkscratching said:

Me too!..There was a black cat at a place I worked many years ago who would ride on your shoulders like that, while you walked around, he'd stay like that for as long as you'd have him !

Pretty poorly when we got him very thin from Blue Cross. We wanted a young ginger tom because our adopted son has aspergers and ocd and is off the scale atm and having another cat would give us something to take our mind off the issues.

When we went there they only had a ten year old long hair, we have always had short haired cats but as soon as we saw him it was an instant bond. He has no favorites, any lap will do. He prefers my shoulders plus my wife is quite small, only issue being sharp claws!

Here he is March 2020 at Blue Cross.

[steve1]

Assistant gardener.

 

steve