Weeelllllll ........

...... we had an interesting couple of hours administering the worm pill.

You'd think after three years it wouldn't be such a big deal.  I won't go into the excruciating detail, but there was a good outcome and the evil medicine was eventually swallowed - albeit covered in cat spit and fur. 

All I know is that now one of us can step confidently into the helminth infested world, safe in the knowledge that they are protected from every tape-hook-whip-heart worm and nematode known to man.  Problem is, I don't think it's necessarily going to be the cat? 

Oh and just in case you were worried, the Aged P didn't need to have stitches after all, but she's booked in for six sessions with the trauma therapist starting next month. 

So I would say that on the whole it was a resounding success.

Note to self:  I wonder if they do catnip flavoured ....... ?

A Work of Art!

I have a wonderful view from my window of mountains, water, fields and trees - not to mention the City of Bangor (well best not!) - and in the field right opposite there are the sheep of course. 

Ok, yes, I've mentioned Blackie and her extended family a few times, but today I saw a work of art being created before my eyes.  The farmer came with his sheepdog. This, in itself, is not an unusual occurrence, but as I watched the two of them working together as one, a picture began to form and it became something akin to an artistic performance. The ebb and flow of the sheep as they were undulated across the field like the fluctuating movement of the tide on the shore. They were totally at peace as the beautiful dog calmly but energetically did the farmer's bidding.  Backwards and forwards she ran making sure not one sheep escaped or was allowed to do its own thing apart from the group.

The dog was asked to do a variety of tasks including sitting with the sheep penned in a corner for about 20 minutes, while the farmer decided which to take and which to leave.  When the whole thing was over, the farmer whistled and the dog went to him.  And the sheep?  Well they just went back to munching their lunch totally unconcerned, unfazed and untraumatised - even though half their number were now missing and had no doubt gone to Llangefni abattoir for recycling (ok, not thinking, not thinking!).  The sheep are probably both very stupid and very trusting.  "All we like sheep ...... ......."

Random Cat Pome

Walking in the garden late

All is calm and quiet.

Then suddenly a whirlwind hits

And Austin's caused a riot!

Crouching low behind the bush

He waits patiently for hours.

When I wander past his lair,

He's hid beneath the flowers.

Two orbs gleaming in the dark;

His eyes are pinned on me;

And as I breathe the night time air,

He thwacks me in the knee.

Bedlam follows, and while I pick

myself up from the ground;

That young rascal disappears

And's nowhere to be found!

If you don't stop taking stupid pictures ........!

......... I gonna haz a hissy fit !!!

The Jellicle Gang!

The sight of me running up and down the grass verge in my jogs and slippers tends to worry the neighbours a tad, so I try not to do it unless the moon is full - or is, at the very least, waning gibbous - and there's also an R in the month!  Don't you just love the names of the phases of the moon?  Waxing crescent, waning gibbous, new, full, dark, blue, half, bad ...... ahem!

Well anyway let's get to the point. Austin has joined a gang!  I've been obsessing since he first came about the (relatively) busy road in front of the house and have told him umpteen times not to even think about crossing it.  Well apart from a couple of occasions when Tigger seduced him, I believe he's kept on the straight and narrow - until recently that is, as I mentioned a couple of blog posts ago.  Ok it's not a hugely busy road, but the cars race up and down - it's fairly straight and boy racers come in all shapes and sizes ....  and genders!  I worry. 

This road, by the way, is actually part of the Anglesey Coastal Path. It's possibly the only coastal path in Britain which offers the possibility of travelling at 70 mph and has even had the odd 30 ton container lorry find it's way there courtesy of a Ukrainian satnav.  It happened this week; I saw (and heard) a huge juggernaut roar by and then waited a few minutes to watch it reverse all the way back again.  Its shadow filled the window; it had nowhere to go.  Last I saw it was trying to back into a three foot hedge!  If he'd accidentally been caught up in its undercarriage, Austin could've ended up in Kiev or Gdansk, or Aberdeen.  Doesn't bear thinking about! 

Anyway, yesterday Austin was spied with his front paws up on the dry stone wall next to the gate opposite, looking into Blackie's Field. Today he was seen sitting the other side of the gate.  He sat there for so long that my curiosity got the better of me and I padded over there in the aforementioned "dissables" to see what the attraction was.  I leaned on the gate and we had a little chat.  We talked about this and that and whether England was likely to get through to the next round - he said it's not likely on present form and anyway he preferred rugby, being Welsh (huh!) and did I know that I was being stared at by a couple of people in shorts and rucksacks? 

I ignored him (and them) and looked up and over further into the field and did a double take (literally)!  There was a black and white cat staring back at me.  I looked a bit further and there was another!!!  What the ...... ?  In fact all three of them were sitting facing the road and formed an equilateral triangle about ten feet apart.  Talk about seeing double; I'd never seen either of the other two before (except one of them COULD have been Two, I suppose).  The sheep were just a little way off taking no notice and munching their lunch to the accompaniment of cacophonous cackling from a couple of jackdaws who'd popped by for a snack.  I also thought I spied Tigger skulking under a bush, who was probably drafting a letter of complaint to the council about the deterioration of the neighbourhood and the influx of eastern Eurocats who take all the jobs and indulge in a lot of thwacking with paws.

So there we have it, the Jellicle Gang are now in town.  I'd better get a message to Big Ginge, soonest. 

On the way back across the road I started to acquaint Austin with the Green Cross Code, but I confused myself and started chuntering on about the Jolly Green Giant. Realising I was on a hiding to nothing, I have now put road safety awareness back on my to-do list along with cat flap orientation and furniture scratching resistance training.

Not so daft!

I kind of understand why cats scratch the furniture; no, I do really! It's something to do with marking territory and sharpening claws. Actually, I've been very remiss about training Austin in this respect, so as he's got older, he's got into very bad habits. As a result, the furniture has acquired a look that's a mixture of shabby chic and derelict sink estate.

Just lately, I've been trying to encourage him to resist the urge to rip up the Parker Knoll, but being the attention seeking, rebellious teenager he is, he does it all the more!  So, before we are reduced to sitting on large piles of kapok and broken springs, I've introduced "Austin calming measures" (note rather neat link to previous post!). 

Picture the scene. It's evening and Austin returns from his twilight forays, eats a mouthful of Felix salmon marinade and heads to the sofa arm.  In a trice I've whipped out a plastic spray container full of water - had to be careful it wasn't the one from the garden with the fertiliser, as I didn't want Austin to wake up the next morning to discover he'd morphed from short haired sleek moggie to long haired shagpile moggie, courtesy of "Miracle-Gro-all-purpose-concentrated-liquid-plant-food"!  His reaction was swift; he took one look and before I'd even had time to pull the trigger he was out the room!  

And this was how it played out for the next day or two.  He'd enter the room, I'd lift my arm (say to pick up a glass or scratch my head) and he'd shoot off in the opposite direction.  So now he wasn't even coming near me :~(  One evening he slunk in and slipped through the curtains into the bay window and all was quiet for about 30 minutes as he sat and surveyed his catdom.  Now normally what would happen is he'd eventually nose his way out, go scratch the armchair and then jump on my lap for the evening ritual of shiatsu and cuddles.  This time though he decided discretion was the better part of valour.  This time the scratch scratch scratch took place behind the curtain as he systematically ripped up the carpet around the edge of the window.  When he finally emerged he gave me such a look of triumph all I could do was fall about laughing! 

Needless to say we have agreed on a truce - with conditions: He scratches when I'm not around and I relegate the spray to the back of the cupboard.  

                                          

Road Rage!

My cat stomps! Oh yes he surely does!  Never heard anything like it; he makes walking across the kitchen sound like a pneumatic drill going full pelt! 

I'm downstairs minding my own business trying to be quiet and reflective and upstairs Austin's deciding he needs some attention. How can it be that he makes such a racket?  All he is doing is walking across the floor, but to me downstairs, it sounds like the builders are in. Stomp, stomp STOMP!  I know what he wants. "Foooood".  It's ridiculous really, he hardly eats enough to keep a flea alive. But he likes to make a fuss just so's he gets a chance to wind in and out my legs and trip me up. 

To my deep consternation, Austin has developed a hankering to cross the road in front of the house.  Now, although it is a 30 mph speed limit, cars race along at 60 or 70!  I really don't want to have to go and scrape him off the road, but don't know, short of locking him up, what to do to stop him going!  He used to be such a scaredy cat, but now, egged on, I believe, by Tigger the Massive and enticed by the green fields and baby lambs opposite, he's finding temptation too much to overcome. 

A couple of times I've caught him sitting in the middle of the road!!  Aaaargh!  I know the council are supposed to be introducing traffic calming measures soon, but am not sure what form this will take? Is some poor lowly council employee going to have to stand at the side of the road with a tranquiliser gun taking pot shots at all passing vehicles?  I need to know, because if the training isn't top notch they might miss the target and hit something with legs!  It's all a bit of a worry!