October 22, 2008 • 8:37 am
Writing about http://www.petsathome.com/find/category-is-1E+Flaps/product-is-101058
- Electronic Cat Flap
We defo need to get one of these.
Two sightings of foreign cats in the house last night.
One in the bedroom.
Not sure if same cat or dif. cats.
One confirmed sighting of long haired black & white.
Second sighting may have been same or short-haired with similar colouring.
As a consequence we both spent the remainder of the night with the bedside lamp on and one eye open. Me on the bed. Her cowering under it.
She’s a lover, not a fighter. Albeit a rather detached cupboard lover wanting everything on her own terms.
Filed under: Cat, Sprackle
January 23, 2008 • 9:03 am
December 6, 2007 • 12:26 pm
We went to see The Golden Compass last night. It was fast-paced (no surprise given the length) and visually beautiful – but the script was a bit clumsy in places:
It’s Ma Costa, Head of the Gyptians and Billy Costa’s mother….
But I was left wondering where I could get an Armoured Bear.
Himself suggested that I could dress up Sprack in some of his old shin pads to get the effect.
I’m not sure she’ll go for it.
Filed under: Cat, Children, Christmas, Films, Sprackle
A weekend in pictures…
Lazy morning for some of us.
Potage de Bonne Femme with Cornmeal Dumplings.
Note to self – if I need a recipe for Czech brown bread and spek dumplings then this is the one.
An artisan-crafted and finally finished bookcase (Himself has gone back to work for a break.)
Helping with the housework by decorating the carpet with muddy pawprints. (Hiding because she knows she’s done wrong.)
Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: Cat, Food, Himself, New Home, Sprackle
November 10, 2006 • 10:59 am
Himself has long maintained that cats are notorious for being sick in people’s shoes.
I have no idea where he got this idea from and have been telling him for years that it’s pure rubbish.
So, he was actually distinctly jubilant when yesterday morning Sparka threw up in his slippers.
He managed to retain his humour because he noticed before putting his feet in them.
Natters suggested that it may have been the smell that indicated to her that it was an acceptable place to be sick.
I was crueller and suggested that it was the smell that caused her to throw up.
Sprack’s
developing a persecution complex this week (it was flea treatment time)
– yes, we all look forward to, and bare the scars from, that time of
the month.
She seems to have developed a sixth sense about Frontline no matter how devious and subtle I think I’m being.
Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: Cat, Himself, Sprackle
October 16, 2006 • 1:30 pm
After prolonged, and not wholly rational or productive, discussion
on Thursday night we decided that the reason that we hadn’t done
anything to the house since moving in was because:
(a) We didn’t know where too start
(b) Too many things needed doing
(c) We never felt like DIY at the same time
(d) We didn’t put time aside to do things
So
as a starting point we spent two full days sorting/tidying/cleaning in
preparation for starting to fix/decorate/organise adequate storage.
Before:
After:
Sparka helped by sleeping on the bed for the whole weekend looking remarkably like my Grandma’s stuffed cat ornament:
These things are truely horrid. The manufacturers claim that it is:
Very
realistic looking sleeping cat in basket. This cat is also made with
real rabbit fur to make it very convincing. This cat comes in different
colors but is sold on the basis of what is in stock.
Yuck. I take it back she didn’t look like that at all.
Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: Cat, Diy, New Home, Sprackle
October 10, 2006 • 9:27 am
Murderer.
And she is no kind of lyrical gangster.
But
she did decide to register her displeasure at our late arrival home
last night by dismembering a mouse and dragging it round the house.
It’s not as if she was even hungry – she hadn’t finished her breakfast.
The
reason for her displeasure was that Himself had been at college and I
had been at the Language Centre for my first Italian lesson.
Buonasera gatto. Piacera.
I
can’t be too cross with her at the moment though – we are still feeling
too guilty. We went to change her collar recently and it/she had been
irritating her neck so much that she had no fur left.
She
is currently collarless (though chipped) and I am paranoid that she is
going to get lost/wander off and that in her collarless state we’ll
never see her again.
Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: Cat, Italian, Language, Sprackle
Sprackle did. She’s been on a bit of a killing spree.
She killed a robin last night and three sparrows this morning – all of which were brought into the house.
The
robin was taken to the upstairs landing (under the cover of the
Middlesbrough vs. Steaua Bucharest game) and shredded. Blood on the
skirting boards and everything.
The sparrows this morning were accompanied by a mostly unharmed sparrow which we managed to liberate.
I
am very cross with her – not least because the robin was one of a pair
that had been nesting in the back garden for a fortnight or so.
Unfortunately
I have to hide the fact that I’m cross because it’s not her fault that
she’s a predator and she wouldn’t understand.
Nonetheless certain procedures have now been put in place – she doesn’t understand these either:
- An embargo on unsupervised visits upstairs (aided by a door at the foot of our stairs)
- Liberty
of kitchen only during the day (I filled the kitchen with her toys and
things this morning sto try and prevent her getting bored and scaling
the cupboards)
- The cat flap will be sjut at dusk and dawn (prime hunting times)
- The back garden has been rearranged to try and create an obstacle course in front of the ivy where the birds seem to nest
In the mean time I think we just have to wait and see.
Bad puddy tat!
Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: Cat, Garden, Sprackle, The Drawer
Sprackle has discovered a new lease of life this week – Spring must have woken her up. She does seem to have slept all winter!
She is now proving her skills as an adept, vicious and merciless mouser. So far this week we have had two.
- One teeny and just about still alive on Friday (upstairs).
- One larger, cold and feet-upwards on the kitchen mat on Monday.
She is also molting prolifically. We have invested in one of
those rolling ‘clothes brushes’ with tear-off sticky strips and I still
feel perennially covered in a soft down of cat fur.
“Dogs have Owners, Cats have Staff” – Unknown
“There is no snooze button on a cat who wants breakfast.” – Unknown
(As Himself well knows!)
“Thousands of years ago, cats were worshipped as gods. Cats have never forgotten this.” – Anonymous
“Cats are smarter than dogs. You can’t get eight cats to pull a sled through snow.” – Jeff Valdez
“Cats seem to go on the principle that it never does any harm to ask for what you want.” – Joseph Wood Krutch
“Cats aren’t clean, they’re just covered with cat spit.” – Unknown
“Women and cats will do as they please and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.” – Robert A. Heinlein
Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: Cat, Sprackle
