Cats

A triskelion of cats

Here is Cassi Cat, sitting on the bed on New Years Day, early in the morning, "helping" me with some crochet! 

More sunshine! more gardening! (and Cat shenanikins in the middle of the night)

The cats kept us awake a lot of last night as it was obviously a hunting night - all three took it in turns to catch various unfortunate prey ( not Rats, sadly!) and then bring them in and shout to the other cats to "come and see what *I* have caught" VERY LOUDLY INDEED

I was awakened at 2, 4, 5 and 6.30 am  and Compostman also in between, he woke me when he got up  to sort out yet more cat antics - so we are a bit shattered, here!

Nevertheless today I have written a couple of articles, investigated an on line selling web site for a review post, done several loads of washing, pricked out yet more tomato and pepper plants and sowed more seeds in the polytunnel (oh, how I LOVE my polytunnel - it is my cheap version of a fabulous wooden potting shed - not that I would not like a fabulous wooden potting shed, but it just is not going to happen so, I love my polytunnel!)

I have also dusted all the hens with Barrier lice powder AND Diatom as they have lice (yuck  - on a par with head lice in hair)  I hate any sort of lice or flea infestations and dealing with it makes me feel quite queasy, but hey ho if we have animals we have to do this sort of stuff for them. :-(  I am not at all squeamish about blood and guts and gore, but lice ugh.

Anyway I sorted out the feathery (now lice less) girls and then, being liberally dusted myself, went and had a shower and washed my hair. At least I am lice free, also!

I know it is now OFFICIALLY SPRING as I am now having to open up the polytunnel window and door before 9 am so my precious plants do not cook during the day and  I am now watering the plants every evening. Also the porch plants need daily watering now and a window opening to stop them frying.

I need some form of automatic watering system in the Polytunnel - will have to have a bit of a think about that.

Shutting up the hens tonight at 8.30 there was a fabulous sunset - the first of many I hope! I also saw my first Swallow of 2013 today :-)

Now off to settle down to wine, food and the Great British Sewing Bee final on BBC 2 HD, I love it and can't wait to see what happens - have logged off Twitter and Facebook so I don't find out in advance who won!

Hope you all have a lovely evening :-) xxx

Update on Tabitha

Tabitha Cat now fully restored to health - hunting, purring, pushing us out of bed etc etc . All scabs fallen off, huge wound scab gone and new skin growing new fur :-)

Many thanks to Mike the vet, who did a wonderful job and saved her life.

Life.....

has not been very good around here lately.

Tabitha Cat is very ill, has been in hospital at the vet's for the last 3 days and will be in there at least over the weekend, if not longer.

She came in with what seemed to be a bite wound on her leg last weekend - but despite  prompt attention from us and then prompt treatment  from our vet it has developed into a major infection. The regime of antibiotic iv drip and dressings is only just maintaining the status quo - she is not improving at all.

We are waiting for the results of tissue biopsy tests on Monday, to see where we go from here.

Tom Cat ( her brother) and Cassi (her bff) are lost without her and are wandering around, looking mournful.


So, good positive thoughts please for Tabitha

My how she has grown!

Cassi kitten has been with us for two months now and how she has grown!

She is the loveliest cat, very affectionate and plays mad games of chase with Compostgirl around the kitchen. She is still a little nervous of going outside, but has ventured out especially if we come too.

She is settling in with Tom and Tabitha now and mostly they ignore each other, or exchange nose sniffs, but the major fighting has stopped thank goodness!

Pets

This is the new set up for the Guinea pigs and Peter Rabbit. He lives in the double hutch nearest to the camera.The three piggies live in the furthest away hutch. They have finally got the idea about the ramp, but it took a bit of bribery with food to get them to go up and down it.

 Cassi kitten up a tree

Tabitha malevolently waits to pounce on Cassi....she isn't giving up her "send her back" campaign in a hurry!

Cassieopea

This is Cassiopea. She is also a rescue cat, abandoned or lost. I saw her when I went to collect Cleo from the vets and decided that if she was not claimed we would re home her as well. My thinking was that with two existing ( and fed up) cats already, if we were going to have more cats then it would be better to get the hiss/spit stuff over and done with ...

Well, that idea, as we know, didn't work out with lovely Cleo cat. She had to be re homed becasue Tom Cat and Tabitha his sister were so unkind and kept on attacking her with increasing violence. Cleo was disabled, so couldn't fight back and was getting more and more terrified, so eventually, with much sadness, I admitted defeat and found her a new and loving home.

Cassi on the other hand is only a kitten of about 5 months old, so can run away if they attack! .She is also VERY feisty and has already given Tabitha a good scratching. So...the cats are sorting out where they all come in the scratching order, and after only 3 weeks they are all tolerating each other and will all sleep on our bed without fighting.

Hopefully, Cassi will eventually become a friend to the other two.

Isn't she adorable?

Cat joys and woes

Gloom.

I blogged earlier in the month about Cleo, our lovely rescue cat. She was beautiful and I really bonded with her, and she with me.

But....

Cleo was being terrorised and beaten up increasingly nastily by Tabitha and Tom, our original cats , who are siblings and have been with us for 2 years now.

Cleo was denied access to the downstairs several times and eventually in desparation wee'd in the wrong place twice (on our bed, saturating the blankets, sheets and matress - yuck).

She was shivering and terrified most of the day, hiding next to me under the bench in the study, was not eating much , and there was little way we could keep them all apart in our house and certainly not in the garden (where they were stalking her in tandem and then both beating her up)

so....she has been re homed to someone who has recently lost their only cat and really wants her.

I am so desperately sad about this, as is Compostman and Compostgirl ( oh...Compostgirl! so upset!) ...but after discussion with the behavioural vet nurse, we all think it is for the best.

Cassiopea kitten, who we got 2 weeks ago, as a rescue cat, is a far more feisty little girl and gives as good as she gets, and T and T have stopped bothering her already but Cleo was shy and scared and disabled and they were just getting worse and worse with her.

I am so sad it has not worked out but we have to think of Cleo and what is best for her. Holed up, terrified and shaking, in a room waiting to be pounced on was not doing her any good. Also Tom and Tabby have lived here for 2 1/2 years, from kittens, and they were/are also very upset by all this....

If we hadn't done something now we would have ended up with 3 very unhappy cats I suspect.

And our lives have been a nightmare as well during this episode...for example Tabby followed Cleo downstairs, waited until she was "positioned" on the litter tray and then shot through the cat flap and pounced on her....Cleo now has a badly scratched ear and Tabby has a flea in her ear...

AND Tom Cat sprayed sofa bed in CG's room the day before Cleo left. Boy did it stink, even though he is neutered. Yuck.

Sofa bed was un salvagable as it has a chipboard base which is now saturated and the non removable cushion stuffings are as well, so it went to the tip. Lovely. The sofa bed was 9 years old and had been well used, so I don't feel too bad but it is annoying as it was useful when Compostgirl had friends to stay.

I hate the smell of cat wee

Then I discovered Tom Cat had wee'd in the clothes basket as well as trashing the sofa bed beyond washing, so spent the rest of the weekend rinsing and washing and re washing clothes, which I didn't need to wash at all and now had to try to dry out. House was festooned with damp clothes. On a rainy day. Even with a dolly in the kitchen roof space, still a bit to many for my taste.And this had been the daily round for three weeks.
Washing basket ( wicker) was also wrecked. Bloody Tom Cat. Grrr.

So..the end result of all this mayhem is ....my Cleo cat now gone to new home   new owner is a vet nurse at our vets. Much tears from CG and me as well, but it is all for the best. I tried, oh how I tried ! but she was too disabled to fight them off and they were too mean to stop bullying her.


Am sad. Very sad indeed.

New companion cat.

This is Cassiopea. She is a new rescue kitten, come to live with Tom, Tabitha and Cleopatra.

She is adorable, about 5 months old and so friendly!

Our new companion cat

Rescue cat is ADORABLE!

All black except for a bunch of white hairs in a whorl slap bang on the middle of her chest.

She has been at the vets for 3 weeks while they tried to find her owner, with no joy, was found starved and shivering under a shrub and with an injury to her hind paw ( looks like a trap injury, she had lost 2 toes...)

She is so friendly and delightful and purrs and purrs and has already draped herself repeatedly around my neck

Tom Cat and Tabitha think she is the anti christ, of course and much growling and posturing is currently going on in the kitchen...


Her name is Cleopatra....she has green eyes....  and has some Siamese blood I think, judging by the way she talks and sucks fur, wool etc!

Yet more sad stuff, just before Christmas...farewell to Kitty Cat

Yet more sad stuff here, I have a catch up post about the Festive Season, but first I want to tell you all about Kitty Cat.

Lovely old Kitty Cat reached the end of the road and took his last journey to the Vets on the Saturday before Christmas.

The poor old lad could hardly walk and had become unable to even get out through the cat flap to have a wee, so had taken to just going on the carpet. And as he has never used a litter tray (never learnt how to ..always went outside) there was not a lot we could do to help him.

He went from a strong, if a bit wobbly on his legs, old cat...to looking terrible in the last few days of his life. CM and I have been having "the conversation" several times that week as to if it was "time" but had decided he was still getting some good quality of life..but the last 2 days changed all that...

poor old lad, he looked so uncomfortable....couldn't even groom himself and fell over when he tried the last couple of days :-(

Holly the vet agreed he looked in a very poor way, she offered us the option of yet more tests etc but he had already been down that route earlier this year, was on lots of medication for Kidney and joint problems and was still going downhill fast...and had also started to be incontinent .....AND it would have meant an overnight (at least) stay in the vets, which distressed him hugely last time....so we declined to do any more prodding or poking of him. At 18, he had had enough....

As it was he had a nice last day lying on a cushion by the Aga being stroked and loved and fed cheese and other titbits, then he went quietly to sleep at the vets with CM stroking his head...

So...Tom and Tabitha have sniffed Kitty Cat's body so know he is gone on ahead...and he has been buried in the wood near the pool, a place where he loved to hunt for rabbits...he was a MIGHTY fine hunter until a year ago! Full grown cock pheasants, rabbits, adult rats, squirrels, moles, bats..you name it he could catch it and he never played with his food, as a serious hunter he killed it and ate it!

and there is much sadness around here as we have lost two beloved cats in less than two weeks.....

Farewell, old friend, there is a very large hole where you used to be....

:-(

Am very sad here..

Am very sad here..

Just after Compostman left to take Compostgirl to Brownies, at 6.15 a knock on the door was followed by a man saying he had found a cat in the road...it further transpired that his car had hit Sidney our lovely cat outside our house.

The man ( all credit for having the guts to tell me what had happened, and not just drive off...)
had brought Sid in to the garden, so I rushed inside to get a solid board, towel and warm blanket, plus phone..we lifted Sid ( who was alive but not moving) onto the board, and I covered him up and went inside to phone the vet...

I got Sid (on the board, wrapped up) into my car and sped to the vets, ..at 6 30 pm he was given oxygen..at 8 pm a phone call told me he was stable, seemed to have a broken pelvis from the initial X ray but his breathing was still worrying them...but they could see no major, other injuries...so we were all happy and I was telling a distraught CG that maybe Sid might be OK, eventually....

but as the vet was talking to me there was a shout for her as he had stopped breathing...and when she called me back 5 min later it was with the news that he had stopped breathing and despite CPR, had died....

CG is over come with grief..we are numb with shock..Sid was the rescue young cat we got last year..after the Monty puss shaped hole had ceased to hurt quite so badly..he was lovely, friendly, a character and so motherly to the 2 kittens Tom and Tabitha...


RIP Sidney Puss, we will ALL miss you so very much.....

Back in the land of the living....

Well, I am back in the land of the blog, anyway....

Where do I start? I am still rather weak and poorly but am feeling a little more like my pre July self, and have been able to get on with a few of the million and one things which need doing around here.

So here are some lovely fruit and veg from the garden and polytunnel.



I took the opportunity of my enforced rest to get on with preparation for various workshops I an giving in the autumn and next spring, one is recycled paper making and paper crafts so I have been busy pressing and drying leaves and flowers to add to the paper we will be making.

I have also been collecting and drying Lavender and other flowers to use in dried flower arrangements.



The cats as always watch everything I do. This time they got up on the scaffolding and were peering in through the study window!



When they are not sleeping, that is!

Its a Cat thing.......

I seem to have become able to grow cats in pots in the polytunnel now...



fortunately (for Tabitha Twitchett and Tom Kitten!) the pots only contained growing medium...I hadn't actually planted them up yet!



Compostgirl has been making a very palatial den in the sitting room and has made it very comfy, with lots of cushions on the floor...so guess who decided it would be a good place to snooze away a rainy day?....yep, you got it, Tom, Tabitha and Sid!



And finally...we were down in the Wood a few evenings ago, making adjustments to our log circle in the pouring rain ( as you do..) It was getting late and Sid came down to say "hello" to us....and spent about 20 mins sitting on Compostgirl .....purring and talking to her...






And then walked all around the log circle, on top of the logs, jumping over the gaps, as if to inspect what we had been doing. Then he walked back up to the house with us, chatting away all the time, announcing our return to the other animals.

He was SOAKING when we got back to the house (as were we) but he really doesn't to mind being wet at all.

I REALLY should know better.....

I REALLY should know better.....

I posted a comment on a previous post earlier today....

The picture shows a shrew ( a common shrew I think, pigmy shrews are even smaller with even pointier noses!)

but the cats DO bring in bank voles, yellow necked mice, wood mice and ( whisper) the late Monty puss brought in a dormouse once, which I managed to rescue and release. The worst "present" was a live Moorhen, which was brought in through 3 cat flaps, 3 rooms and then killed ( very messily) all over the sitting room carpet...that was done by Kitty Cat many years ago, in his "catching Hares, Rabbits and full grown cock Pheasants on the wing" days...

I wish the young cats would bring back something edible, for a change, I don't really fancy shrew...(!

Guess what Sidney has just brought in?

A full grown, warm, dead rabbit....

I need to be careful what I wish for, I think!

Slaughter of the innocents

What IS it with my animals?

First it was moles, now it is shrews!



See how small it is?



They have very sensitive snouts and whiskers.

This one was unfortunately dead when we got to it, but we HAVE rescued many, alive and wriggling and vocal. Watch out if you ever have to handle one, as shrews bite hard and they, too , have venomous saliva!

and now the hens are getting in on the act! These are of Henny, she caught this live shrew and ran off with it, the other hens following her like a macabre Benny Hill chase scene, before she managed to find the time to swallow it whole. :-(







We find at least 3 dead ones a day, usually inside the dining room. I think the cats have the (misguided) idea that as WE eat in there, THEY should as well?

And we are constantly rescuing other wildlife at the moment...

Sometimes I think I live in a madhouse ;-)

A very busy Mothering Sunday

a lovely Mothering sunday card for me...



and a picture



and one for Compostman!...



The hens invade the made compost storage bin...looking for worms!



Compostman prunes apple trees in the orchard






and Sidney snoozes the day away under a cloche....

Cat update....

This post is for all the cat lovers out there in the blogosphere, who have wanted to know how the Compost Mansion cats are doing.....here they are in the regular place they sleep in during the day..in Compostgirl's bedroom....


Sidney the lovely puss





Tom Kitten ( nearly Tom Cat, now..) and his sister Tabitha Twitchett





I think the answer has to be...very well indeed!

Kitty Cat was asleep by the Aga, downstairs...he is too senior to join in with huddles on the sofa in Compostgirl's bedroom....he stays in *his* special bed by the warm Aga.....

What do you do on a snowy day if you are a cat?

You watch the TV VERY intently....




You walk across the table with your muddy paws....



and you snooze the day away.....

Plastic bags can be very bad for your health!

Poor Tom Kitten!

He somehow managed to get a plastic sports bag string wrapped around his leg today .

he was playing in the dining room and then Compostman saw him shoot by as if his tail was on fire, run back again and then run past, and out through the cat flap trailing a bag.

He had somehow got tangled up with this...a sports bag given out free on a stand at a county show last summer, which is used to put wet swimming stuff in...




Compostman and I were very worried, as Tom had disappeared outside trailing this string and bag behind him....

So we wrapped up and went outside to try to find poor Tommy.





I eventually found the bag, it had come off as Tom ran under the door of a shed. (I had my camera with me as it has a picture of Tom on it, to show anyone who might pass on our road)

But Tom was not inside...

We look around some more, searched the Woodland as best we could and then finally came inside for a (belated) breakfast.

Worrying about Tom.

He eventually came in, a couple of hours later, cold, scared and very spooked.



He has hidden under the table for most of the rest of the day. Can you see his fluffed up tail?

Poor Tom! being chased by a big white flappy rustly thing that follows you everywhere NO MATTER how fast you run away...not nice at all.