December
Hello again, Mowgli here! Well, who can believe it is nearly December already? There are definite advantages to this time of year- our favourite is radiators.
We urge any cat owners in need of a good Christmas present for their feline friend to get a radiator cradle. We only have one for a while but a few years ago Santa Paws obviously decided that we had been well behaved and brought us another one! It is nearly time to find out if we have been good enough for Santa Paws to come again.
I have to admit that I am a bit sceptical about Santa Paws- I have a tendency to be a bit mischievous (hard to believe I know…..) but I always seem to get plenty of Christmas presents. Do you think that he knows that my heart is in the right place?
Other good things about the holidays are also of course, time off and visitors. Although Clive and Jane are on call for some of the holidays they will get to spend more time with us, and if they are home it means they will light the fire more often.
We love the fire. We also love visitors because they are very easy to convince that we are hard done by and hardly anyone leaves our house without giving us a treat!
As for our Christmas shopping we have decided to economise this year and not give material gifts. Instead, I have decided to give Clive a few lie ins past 5.30. I normally wake him up about then so he can feed me and then go back to bed.
And for Jane I have decided that for a whole week I won’t sharpen my claws on the rug that she likes in the snug, or chew plastic bags. I think I am spoiling them! Ebony of course has just offered up extra purrs for everyone although if you ask me she should offer to steal the duvet less for a while. She makes the rest of us get cold!
Louis of course is looking forward to Christmas- he gets even more tasty treats than normal. Josh is in charge of feeding Louis and they make a good team. Whenever Louis sees Josh he rushes over to him in the hope that it will make Josh get him food. It usually works…..
We like sharing our house with a tortoise but we are always quite pleased that Louis is quite small.
At the clinic at the moment they have a river cooter looking for a home- a huge terrapin. He was found wandering around Bethersden and it looks like he has been living wild for a while. Although he is nice Ebony and I think we would draw the line at such a huge terrapin! There are limits!
Right, I am off to practice being well behaved. That’s something I don’t write often!
November
Hello everyone, Mowgli here. Hope you are all enjoying the beginning of autumn. Ebony and I love it as the heating comes back on- lovely warm radiator beds to curl up in- a must for any cat that lives in a drafty old house!
Last month I wrote to you about my silly humans making me have a blood test, and that they thought I might need something doing to my teeth. Turns out that they are not so silly as I thought (who knew!) and that there might actually be something in this whole ‘vet’ thing…..
Not two weeks later I developed an abscess in my mouth due to a bad tooth. I was very brave and still ate all my biscuits but I made even more mess eating than normal, and of course the humans noticed. I was soon on a course of antibiotics.
Apparently they were designed as tasty for cats. Let me tell you- whoever made it has NO IDEA what cats like to eat. They should ask some of us felines I reckon. The medicine was disgusting. It was a syrup and because I am twice as big as other cats (I am a fine Snow Spotted Serengeti don’t forget!) I needed a lot of it.
I wouldn’t let Clive give it to me but in the end I let Jane get on with it- she gave me Dreamies after the medicine each time so I decided it was OK. The abscess is all gone now but it looks like I will soon need a dental. Poor me!
Do all you other cats out there also like sitting in boxes and squeezing into small spaces? We had something delivered in a big box this month and it was made into a house for me with doors and windows I could bat toys out of.
Please note that I got given the box and not Josh- I am older after all. Anyway, much fun was had in this box until I became a bit too enthusiastic with it, jumped on it and it all collapsed. I was a bit sad but Ebony and I soon forgot all about the box when we discovered a new hiding place in our house!
I think I have told you before that our house is rather unusual…. well, Jane moved a panel of wood below a bookcase in the hall and a perfect place for a cat appeared. It is even carpeted and wall papered (a style from long before I was born).
We spent a long time camped out there before the wood panel went back up, and we are now campaigning for the panel to be removed to make a bijou cat house.
It is Halloween this month and so Ebony is making sure that her ablutions are particularly thorough and that she doesn’t have a hair out of place. She says that Halloween is an important time of year for black cats and is looking forward to being especially useful as an accessory for dressing up when Josh gets older.
I think she is getting a bit above her station. Why should she be important just because of her glossy black fur? I of course have beautiful spots and stripes (not forgetting my beautiful blue eyes) and these make me important every day of the year. After Halloween of course comes bonfire night.
We hope that all of you cats out there stay safely tucked up away from all the bangs and noise.
Ebony and I aren’t bothered about fireworks (I think we have so much to worry about with the blooming goats that everything else seems fine) but let’s hope they are not too loud this year!
October
Hello everyone, Mowgli here. All is well again in our house as Ebony is back! I was so pleased to see her. Don’t tell her that though- wouldn’t want her to get too conceited…
When Ebony came home she was still slightly radioactive and so had to live in a separate room from the rest of us for a week. We were allowed visits though so I visited her several times a day and she had soon washed me and got my fur spick and span again.
The day she came home I slept right through the night- I was so relieved! Clive said he was also very relieved as he had spent hours up in the night with me when Ebony was away and I was upset. He also muttered something about why I couldn’t just be upset quietly rather than yowling, falling off things and breaking things. He does like to exaggerate! Anyway, Ebony has been back with us all for a few weeks now and it is like she has never been away.
I think I have now been writing this column long enough for you to realise what a lot I have to put up with from my humans. They get the silliest of ideas. Ebony’s thyroid condition was picked up on a routine blood test that Clive decided to do as we are both getting older.
This month he decided it was my turn. What a silly idea! It started off with Jane holding me on the kitchen table and Clive trying to take a sample. I wriggled and squirmed and made sure they had no chance. I then got rolled up in a towel like a ‘cat burrito’.
I managed to get out of that too. Then the silly humans started muttering about me being too big and too strong (I don’t like to boast but because I am a Serengeti I am very tall and very long and about twice the weight of a normal cat. When some visitors see me they think I am from Jane’s zoo!) and they needed to give me some medication.
Before I knew what was happening I had been given some tranquilisers. They made me feel very odd- I saw fluffy pink mice and felt very calm. I didn’t mind about the blood sample at all and after it was all over I had a lovely sleep curled up on Jane’s lap. I had all sorts of dreams about hunting mice and about being the most famous cat in the world.
The whole thing was actually quite nice but I made sure to make the humans feel terrible about it all, so they spoilt me and gave me extra Dreamies.
Luckily all was well with my tests but apparently I haven’t been looking after my teeth properly and I might need to have a dental. I am sure it would be easier to have humans that aren’t vets! Hope all you other cats out there are well and not having problems like Ebony and me!
In other news the clinic has a new website- designed in my colours, and featuring me of course!
Hope you all have a good few weeks!
September
Hello everyone, Mowgli here. Hope you are all enjoying the summer…. if it isn’t still raining! I am writing this from a rather lonely house- Ebony is off having the treatment for her thyroid that I mentioned last month. She has been gone a week and will be back in 10 days. It has been a long week….
First of all I keep forgetting that she isn’t here! I wander all over the house, miaow to have various doors opened and only when I can’t find her do I remember that she is at the hospital. There has been a bit of human eye rolling about this. Now, I like to think that I am a very independent cat but I have to admit that I am finding things a bit lonely without her.
She is normally always around to curl up next to and I hadn’t really realised (nor had the humans) that she does all my washing for me. Jane has had to remove various sticky bits from my fur and I have had to have a few brushes to sort out my normally immaculate coat. It is hard work without her. By the next time I write this she will be safely back home! I’m not going to let her out of my sight.
It is of course the way that things go that Ebony is away just when there is more work to do. The humans are having the outside of the house painted. So as well as having to occasionally try and wash myself I have to keep track of progress out of the windows. Everything has come off the walls, plants have been trimmed back and now the paint is going on. It is almost a full time job to keep track of things and make sure Trevor doesn’t miss a bit. I did hear Clive mumbling something about poor Trevor not expecting to be tracked by a cat and miaowed at through the windows all the time but I am sure he knows I am helping really…..
The owls I mentioned last month are doing well and the clinic has had all other sorts of wildlife. I was amazed to see a pink fluffy baby bird in our garden this morning. It was sitting outside the window yelling for its parents. Apparently it’s a Jay. It looks rather fun to play with. I might just go and look out of the window again and see if it is still there……
August
Hello everyone, Mowgli here. Hope you are all enjoying the summer…. if it isn’t still raining! I am writing this from a rather lonely house- Ebony is off having the treatment for her thyroid that I mentioned last month.
She has been gone a week and will be back in 10 days. It has been a long week…. First of all I keep forgetting that she isn’t here!
I wander all over the house, miaow to have various doors opened and only when I can’t find her do I remember that she is at the hospital.
There has been a bit of human eye rolling about this. Now, I like to think that I am a very independent cat but I have to admit that I am finding things a bit lonely without her.
She is normally always around to curl up next to and I hadn’t really realised (nor had the humans) that she does all my washing for me.
Jane has had to remove various sticky bits from my fur and I have had to have a few brushes to sort out my normally immaculate coat. It is hard work without her. By the next time I write this she will be safely back home! I’m not going to let her out of my sight.
It is of course the way that things go that Ebony is away just when there is more work to do. The humans are having the outside of the house painted. So as well as having to occasionally try and wash myself I have to keep track of progress out of the windows.
Everything has come off the walls, plants have been trimmed back and now the paint is going on. It is almost a full time job to keep track of things and make sure Trevor doesn’t miss a bit.
I did hear Clive mumbling something about poor Trevor not expecting to be tracked by a cat and miaowed at through the windows all the time but I am sure he knows I am helping really…..
The owls I mentioned last month are doing well and the clinic has had all other sorts of wildlife. I was amazed to see a pink fluffy baby bird in our garden this morning. It was sitting outside the window yelling for its parents.
Apparently it’s a Jay. It looks rather fun to play with. I might just go and look out of the window again and see if it is still there……
July
Hello everyone, Mowgli here. My last column was all about sun and it seems too have rained ever since….. I hope that by the time you all read this we will once again all be sun bathing. At the moment Jane, Josh and I are sitting by a roaring fire and Josh even has a blanket. Open fires and radiator beds are very important for weather like this I think.
The camera trap we have been using to see if Marzipan the feral cat is still in our garden has been working well. We have managed to get photos of him coming in though the garage cat flap to eat his food and then leaving again.
Clive says we might use the camera trap to see what wildlife we have in the garden.
Sounds good to me- I love watching all the birds and rabbits out of the windows!
Talking of wildlife, they have 2 Little owl chicks that they have been hand-raising at the clinic after they were found abandoned- they were found deserted at the foot of a tree 3 days apart. The chicks have been doing incredibly well and have now gone for rehabilitation with the person who found them.
Jane says she still sees a Barn owl in the zoo that was raised at the clinic some years ago. Let’s hope the Little owls do as well!
Ebony is going away next week for radiation treatment for her thyroid. Apparently she has to go away for 2 weeks and then she will be as good as new and not need tablets any more. I get given Dreamies when she gets a tablet so I am not convinced this is a good idea.
I am also a bit worried we are going to miss her. She is very nice to curl up next to, she is always happy to wash me when I am feeling lazy and she is very good at convincing the humans that we have been good, even when we haven’t….. I cannot ever convince the humans I have been good, even when I have. It just isn’t fair!
Ebony and I have lived together for nearly 10 years- I had lived with Clive and Jane for about 4 weeks when Ebony arrived. She was tiny and only 6 weeks old. She arrived in the same basket that I had and initially we were only allowed to sniff through the mesh. Then the basket was opened.
Jane was really worried we wouldn’t get on but we made friends immediately and I offered to show Ebony round. She agreed and so within about 3 seconds I was leading her up the stairs for a grand tour.
The humans were quite surprised! I taught her how to sleep on the bed and how to pounce on feet and all other essential kitten tricks! She tried to teach me how to look angelic but somehow it didn’t work… Anyway, I will update you all on how it all goes next month!
May
Hello everyone, Mowgli here. Isn’t it hot? Have you all been enjoying the hot weather? I find it just heavenly. My favourite activity is sunbathing in front of the French Windows on the bed. I am a bit spoilt when it comes to beds- one bed gets the sun from the French windows and my other favourite one is in the attic bedroom which is always very hot.
My own radiator bed is my favourite. There are two next to each other for total stretching out. They are very comfortable- unless Josh has put duplo or trains in them! Clive says I am always complaining like the Princess and the Pea (He’s so silly- Ebony is the Princess!).
All that sunshine just wears me right out and it is as much as I can do to stretch out and emit the odd purr. Hope all my furry friends out there are loving it as much!
Marzipan has settled well into the garden and is now going in and out of the garage. Not that any of us have seen him….. but the food is going so we think he is enjoying the garden. Jane is going to borrow a camera trap from work and put it by the food bowl just to check it is Marzipan and that he is doing well.
The camera trap takes a photo whenever there is movement so if they put it by the food bowl hopefully they will get a picture…..Ebony and I think he is just too busy exploring at night to be seen- I bet he could tell a few stories of what lives in the garden!
Clive, Jane and Josh have just been on holiday and we were very lucky because Lucy the nurse form the clinic came to stay with us. It was great- I made sure she felt very welcome and slept right by her face and woke her up each morning.
Possibly a little early but it is always good to be on the safe side…… We also made sure she got to know all the house well by hiding in unusual places so that she had to find us. I think I have told you before but it is rather an unusual house with twisty staircases and Ebony and I made sure she knew each room well by the end of her stay.
Ebony had the best hiding place- under the beanbag in the toy room in the basement. Took Lucy ages to find her there!
Anyway, let’s hope this wonderful sun lasts and I will write to you all again next month!
