I always find with pets, they never really have one name, more of a base name and then variations spawned from that.
So we have gone from Ruby to…
Auntie Rubotnics
Rubotoid Cute-itis
Hey! Rubay!
Rubinium
Rube Tube and so on and so forth.
She gets tired of it all.
The kittens are now running around the bedroom freely and I have to tread very carefully the whole time I am in there. They seem to be stuck in a constant loop of sleeping in a pile, waking, hitting each other in the face and then sprinting up and down the length of the room. It is an adventure playground for them in there, full of things to try and climb up, dangling fabrics to whack and chew on and shoes to snuggle in.
My boyfriend is the scary cat lady, well, bloke. Totally obsessed with them and regularly attracting them to our home with food left out for whichever one of the neighbour’s cats he was feeding last. I love animals too, so it’s a good thing but I can’t help be aware that if he was female he would be in serious danger of being labelled a freak based on this feline fancying alone.
So when I came across this bizarre cross stitch cat portrait in Help The Aged I just had to buy it for him. What I like most about it is the way the cat is positioned and its head is tilted. Cute.
He came home with this delicious old typewriter the other day. He had proudly scooped it from under the nose of some old cadger who had spent too much time staring into the shop window, rubbing his beard and saying to his wife ” Oooh look at that typewriter Mavis, I might buy it…”.
This ball of fluff and cuteness just entered our lives one day. Chaperoned by the infamous Ghost Cat (see Ruby Tuesday #1 « Oh, Nicola Joy! ). She was meowing constantly and very hungry. Clark, being a self proclaimed cat expert, (I was raised with wolves dogs) declared that it was a girl and pregnant. After she did a smelly poo in the kitchen this all changed. He named him Oscar and administered worm tablets. Meanwhile, I was working funny shifts, coming home at weird times and suggesting that maybe he/her should see a vet.
Oscar saw a vet and is in good health, around two years old… but actually a female and pregnant. She could give birth any time in the next week or two. She has her own collar with our phone number in a locket because we are going to take care of her now.
It turns out that its not rare for owners to abandon female cats once they get pregnant. This may be what Rosie/Poppy/Daisy’s back story is but we don’t know. She won’t talk about it.
She is too fat to get out of the cat flap now, so has a litter tray, which she used straight away (more evidence of having a previous owner) .She has an appointment to get spayed in three months time, otherwise, she will just keep on getting pregnant ( she is hot stuff). Positioned around the house are baskets lined with shredded paper and sheets of paper on top, plus drawers have been emptied and lined with the same. She is looking for a safe place to give birth and we have made sure there are plenty of options for her.
We are also providing a lot of extra food because she is so hungry now and her belly is so big with kittens. I’m so exited for the day when the kittens pop out. Its going to be a cuteness overload.
Ruby is not so happy about there being a new addition to the household. She has to be given lots of fuss to show that she is still loved. She is horrible to Daisy/Rosie/Poppy, so we try to keep them apart. Also , she likes to decorate the birthing boxes with her urine if we are not careful. She is such an angry, bitter, unfriendly creature but that really is part of her charm, bless her.
Also, nothing has been seen of Ghost Cat since the night he showed up with Rosie. I like to imagine that he is the father and helped his kittens by showing the way to a good home. lets not forget he was a bit of a fatty, so probably had a home of his own.
10 Essential Pregnant Cat Care Tips | The Cat Owner Club | Cat Care | The Cat Owner Club.
Meow…I’ve been fairly good this week and haven’t done any pee pees on the rugs upstairs. Although it has been made impossible for me to do as the doors are now locked from the outside.
Now watch this:
Meow for now…x
Ruby is back for her second post. Because it’s Tuesday and her name is Ruby.
Meow…Its been another busy week for me as is always the case for us felines. I am pleased to tell you that Ghost Cat has not been able to eat all of my food in the night as it is being taken away when the humans go to bed. I don’t mind as I wasn’t getting to eat it anyway!
Number of times I got banned from going upstairs EVER AGAIN due to urinating on the rug in the front room or the rug in the bathroom: Three
Number of times I turned on the cute and got myself re-allowed to go upstairs: Three
Where am I now? On the bed, of course, my favourite place of all.
Meow for now x
Ruby will be posting every Tuesday. Because her name is Ruby…and it’s Tuesday.
Well, it’s been a busy week. Ghost Cat got caught sneaking into the house at night to eat all of my food when Clark set up a motion sensored camera in the kitchen. (see Mystery Guest | Oh, Nicola Joy!). The obvious solution would be to get one of those magnetic collars for my cat flap, so that only I can get in, but I spend a lot of time sitting right by it…waiting…so it may not work. My food is all being taken away at night for now so that hopefully Ghost Cat will leave me alone soon. I do not like other animals, you see.
Nicola and Clark love other animals which does worry me but they assured me that they would not be adopting Ghost Cat. He runs off when they try to meet him which made them think he was Ferrel and wanted to help him. But in the light of this new video evidence they see that he is very fat, indicating that he either has a home or is very good at taking care of himself…
Meow for now…
Despite the War On Fleas in my house Ruby still manages to play host to a new set every couple of months. She achieves this despite hating all other animals, never getting close to any of the neighbouring cats and scaring any that try it on away with her weird noises.
I know that they’re back as I have a fresh set of bites and my boyfriend admitted that one hopped onto his book whilst he was reading.
How can this keep happening then?
The answer came when I heard the cat flap go, followed by the sound of squelching chews from the cat food bowl. It took several seconds for me to realise that Ruby was sat next to me so I hurried up to meet the intruder and the cat flap sounded once more. All I saw was the bottom end of an unknown black cat racing off behind the shed.
This explains various recent phenomena such as: warm spots on the sofa when coming home, despite Ruby being curled up on her favourite cushion; her amazing ability to keep a svelte figure despite doing very little exercise and doubling her food intake and last but not least, a noticeable increase in the amount of fur I’m picking up these days.
Craft Book Review: Crafting with Cat Hair by Kaori Tsutaya | Craft Test Dummies.
I was after all, the kid who was never bored…often to be found at my desk or the dining table making candles, cards, jewellery, pictures, cakes…or whatever I was into that week. Needless to say I was not the child with the most friends, though I wasn’t entirely friendless.
I discovered partying and there was a noticeable decline in my creative offerings…
I went to Art College but couldn’t be arsed with explaining every creative action in terms of its reference and relevance. That is to say when I actually attended as I seem to remember spending most of it working/drinking in the pub.
There was the time when I actually made a meagre living selling crappy prints and portraits on ebay, having found myself almost jobless and living in a bedsit in Leicester. A highlight of that era was the week when I survived on discount (stale) bread and homemade dhal, rushing to complete yet another watercolour of some ugly cat I’d been given a shit picture of.
Somehow I managed to pick myself up, avoid starvation and cultivate a sort of normal and happy life for myself. And here I am…with a relinquished lust for creating things with my own fair hands, be it edible or ornamental, fashionable or practical. The journey starts (again) here.
