to see part 1

to see part 3

 to see part 4

This is Daddycat doing that hillarious gag where you stand behind the wire, and pretend you're in prison. ha. ha.

Pretending to work - it's quite slimming [...]]]> Hi everyone! We’re getting REALLY excited now – The catio is continuing to improve!

to see part 1

to see part 3

 to see part 4

This is Daddycat doing that hillarious gag where you stand behind the wire, and pretend you're in prison. ha. ha.

Pretending to work - it's quite slimming to hold your hands above your head, isn't it?

This is all the wire mesh left, from a 30 meter roll of 25x25 mesh. I hope there's enough to do the end panel!

These diagonal supports are very useful for adding structural rigidity to the whole thing. If we did it again, we'd start using them earlier on in the process.

Looking like a proper Catio now!

There's a lot of ripples in the mesh, generally all over. It's not possible to pull it tight, so I think it's pretty much the way it goes with mesh

All that’s left now, is to do the end panel with what’s left of the mesh, and fit the door and hinges.

Oh, and cut the hole in the wall for the catflap, so we can come and go when we want!

We’re so excited – outdoors sounds like great fun!

I’m very excited abut the catio. What do you think Teego?

“mmmf mmm mmpfh!”

It’s the irresistibly Sweet Blog Award!

We have to mention 7 random facts about us, and then pass it on, so because there’s 4 of us including Daddycat, we’re all going to share it!

I remember we’ve done something like this [...]]]> My friend Robyn from my favourite Blog, Love and Hisses gave me an award!

It’s the irresistibly Sweet Blog Award!

We have to mention 7 random facts about us, and then pass it on, so because there’s 4 of us including Daddycat, we’re all going to share it!

I remember we’ve done something like this before, but we’re going to just answer it again and see if any of the answers are the same…

1. Daddycat’s first cat, Scampie was a Black Feral cat, who had a reputation for being a little er… “feisty”.  She was only like this with other people, and very rarely scratched Daddycat. She was fine as long as you understood cat body language. You’d be totally safe stroking her, as long as she was ignoring you. As soon as she started to take an interest in your hand, if you didn’t stop what you were doing, you’d probably get a nip or a whap. She loved to snuggle up with Daddycat when he fell asleep on the sofa, and she learned the word “kiss”, and would stand on her back legs to give him a kiss on command!

2. Teego is the worlds most cuddleable kittie. He has the softest fur, and it’s deep and luxurious and soft. To bury your face in his side is the nearest thing to heaven on earth.

He has the absolute cutest face, and recently has mastered the “I’m feeling so sad and unloved” look, and carries it off to perfection. This enhances his “most cuddleable” status immesurably.

In fact, there’s only one single problem with Mr Teego.

HE HATES TO BE CUDDLED OR HELD OR STROKED!
Daddycat is a world famous cat wrestler, and he can sometimes manage a 3 second cuddle on a good day! The subsequent hospital visit is worth every stitch and injection.

3. Little Miss Freya is the queen of the house. She gets to sleep wherever she wants, and has a beautiful nature. She’s a terrible scaredycat though, and has a thing about being picked up.

She loves to be held, and stroked and generally pampered, but she has a mental block about the picking up bit! If you don’t approach her right, she’ll scuttle away and hide under the nearest table so you can’t pick her up!

It only happens when she’s walking or standing too. If she’s lying down, she’s more than happy to be picked up!

4. Little Master Chatzi is…. he’s a….. well, I mean…how can I put this…. he’s so…..well, let me put it this way. It’s a good job he’s so GORGEOUS!!!

He’s everything a kitten should be. x10. and he’s fearless and stubborn on top of that too. I guess Bengals have a reputation for a reason! He’s still jumping on top of the kitchen counter, and every time, without fail, I will shout GET DOWN twice, and then push him off. You’d think he’d learn after two weeks, that I say it once, twice, and then he goes down regardless of what he wants to do! But no, he’s not bothered, and he’ll push back when I try to get him off!

We tried a water spray, but of course, Bengals LIKE water!

It’s a good job we absolutely adore him!…

5. You know how Teego hates any sort of affection? Well, that’s except early in the morning… Around 6AM, he’ll sometimes wake Daddycat up with cheek-rubs! And he’s insatiable, it’s not just one, it’s non stop for about 10 minutes! It doesn’t come with a cuddle, but the cheek-rubs are so gentle, they’ll melt your heart, even if it is 3 hours before wakeup time!

6. Daddycat’s other business (apart from making films) is repairing computers. And do you know, he’ll exploit any opportunity to improve his company’s web search ranking! so, if you need any computer help or support on your computer in the Orpington or Petts Wood or Chislehurst Area, visit madcomputer.co.uk! Of course, it goes without saying, Kittie bloggers get everything for free!

7. We all have nicknames -

Freya’s are: Little Miss Freya, Freyzi-Fru, Sweetie-girl, Fruzie-woozie.

Teego’s are Mr Teego, T-boy, Slinky Malinky, NO BOY!, Mr Snuggly (wishful thinking)

Chatzi’s are Mr Chatzi, Shoutzi, STOP THAT!, GET DOWN!, NO BOY!, Mr Muscles, Hunky boy.

Well that was a lot of fun! So now we have to nominate some others…

These bloggers are the really special people that we’d like to nominate to pass the award onto.

The Cat Blogosphere

Cat Lady Diary

Huffle Mawson, Explorer Cat

I Have Cat

Mr Puddy

Loki the Cat

So having seen that, it really grabbed our imagination, and we want to make a similar film!  We’re currently brainstorming ideas, and trying to get some fake fur to make the the paws and the chin like in the film.

In the [...]]]> Have you seen this film yet? It’s called Crossed Wires, by Superchunk.

So having seen that, it really grabbed our imagination, and we want to make a similar film!  We’re currently brainstorming ideas, and trying to get some fake fur to make the the paws and the chin like in the film.

In the process of contacting all the fake fur companies, we emailed 5 companies with our bizarre requirements – “I know this may sound strange, but we want to buy enough fake fur for two cat legs, and the underside of a cat chin.”

I bet that doesn’t arrive in many fur supplier’s inoxes too often?

Most suppliers didn’t bother to reply, but there was one supplier that did. And what a reply!

They explained that they weren’t a manufacturer, so didn’t have offcuts as such, but there was one type of fur that they thought might do, and explained that all fake fur was usually much longer pile than a cat’s leg would be.

and to top it off… get this:

THEY WENT HOME AT LUNCHTIME AND TRIED TO SHAVE A SAMPLE TO SEE IF IT WORKED!

When they came back, they said it worked pretty well, and they’d send me some offcuts for free!

Now, I’m willing to award them the Freya Cat GOLD award for customer service!

So if you want a beautiful and luxurious fake fur throw or blanket, please visit www.fauxfurthrows.com Even if they don’t have what you require, I can personally guarantee that they will give you the BEST customer service! Even better – If you enter the discount code COULS-15 you’ll get 15% discount on anything they sell, like fake fur  hats, scarves,gloves, cuffs, boottoppers etc. (offer Valid until Mid November 2011)

I don’t often give free plugs to companies, but I was so struck by the generosity of this company that had never heard of me before yesterday, that I wanted to shout it from the rooftops!

And they have an office cat called Prudence, who is modelling one of their Dusky Rose coloured Fake Fur Throws!

He wanted to have us in the film, but  he didn’t ask me, and he asked the brat, Titchy Teego to be in it. At first I was offended, but then I realised why he wanted Teego and not me.

It’s because Teego is [...]]]> Our Daddycat’s a film maker, and he made a new film.

He wanted to have us in the film, but  he didn’t ask me, and he asked the brat, Titchy Teego to be in it. At first I was offended, but then I realised why he wanted Teego and not me.

It’s because Teego is belligerent and unhelpful, and I’m beautiful and clever so I wouldn’t do for that part!

Wanna see Teego being difficult? Click below!

If you liked it, please share it with your friends on facebook!

Click here to automatically share on facebook!!

One of the memories that sticks in my mind the most, is the way we were treated by the vet’s staff. We’d been in there [...]]]> When my last cat, Scampie, went to The Bridge, it was after a terrible 2 weeks of seeing a healthy fun-loving cat fade away to a thin listless bony thing.

One of the memories that sticks in my mind the most, is the way we were treated by the vet’s staff. We’d been in there pretty much every three days or more, and the staff didn’t seem to recognise us, or Scampie,  except for when they did, and she was known as the scratchy cat.

Scampie loved her sunbeams!

Scampie had kidney failure, so the staff (when they looked at her sheet, or recognised us) would have been aware that she might not have had long to go, and maybe might have been a bit more personable to us, but they didn’t and it always made the trip to the vet’s all the more traumatic for us.

In fairness, when Scampie reached the end of the road, the boss vet that came to our house to send her to the bridge couldn’t have been lovlier, so at least the ending was as she deserved.

The early days

One of my earliest memories of a vet is when Scampie was young. I took her in to have an injection, and straight away the vet grabbed her by the scruff and stuck the needle into her neck. Scampie yelped, turned on him, and gave him a good scratch and a bite. (serves him right!)

The First Vet

A month after Scampie went to The Bridge, Freya moved in with us, and we went looking for a new vet. We discovered one vets when we received a leaflet about a half-price vaccination, so saw no reason not to take them up with the  idea. We hadn’t heard of that vet either, so it was clearly good and effective marketing!

When we arrived, there were two receptionists, both engrossed in their conversation, and we felt a little awkward. Carrying Freya, I proudly put her cage on the counter in front of me, and she looked up, and said something like “can I help you, could you put the cage on the floor, it might fall off there.” So no mention of how beautiful Freya was, or any niceties to make me feel welcome…

Fair enough, I WAS fishing for compliments, but I guess she was a dog person.

I can’t remember anything else about that visit so clearly, the vet didn’t impress me enough to make me remember anything about the treatment.

Following my unhappiness with the old vet, this wasn’t an improvement, so we decided to go elsewherethe next time we needed a vet.

The Second Vet

A while later, Freya had a gloopy eye, and we tried out another Vet that we were aware of. When we walked in, they were busy, but not too busy to smile when we walked up to the counter. I can tell you, THAT was such a huge relief, as in all honesty, all we wanted to do was find a friendly Vets!

In fairness, all the vets themselves were nice enough, but at the first vet, it was their receptionists that let them down.

So here’s the lowdown on how to run a good vetinary surgery.

1. Receptionists are VERY IMPORTANT
2. Receptionists should greet the pet owner as they walk in – bear in mind they may be very upset or stressed, as their dearly loved pet might be very ill!
3. Receptionists should coo or say some other nicety about the animal in order to put the owner at ease, and to further de-stress or relax them.
4. When the Vet sees the animal, they should talk to the owner, and stroke the animal to relax the animal and hopefully calm it down a little. My vet allows the animal to walk around and explore the surgery for a few minutes.
5. Dont forget – the owner may be feeling very nervous, because their fur-baby may or may not be very ill – They’re not to know either way until the vet makes a decision.
6. Vets should be awarwe that everyone jokes about how they always give the animal a (chargeable) shot of antibiotics, just to be sure. (even when the animal’s only gone in to have its nails clipped!)

Little titchy Teego’s so cute, even the vet has a sneaky cuddle out the back!

Well I can trump all of those.

The other day, I was feeling sorry for the poor poor starving kitties [...]]]> There are no end of stories popping up all over the internet, where someone has a piece of burnt toast that looks like the Virgin Mary, or a splat of paint that looks like Jesus.

Well I can trump all of those.

The other day, I was feeling sorry for the poor poor starving kitties that hadn’t been fed for hours and hours, so I thought I’d give them a little treat of ham to stave off the clearly impending Death by Starvation.

I opened the ham, and pinched a little bit with my thumb and forefinger and pulled a piece out.

I nearly died from shock when I looked down, as the perfect likeness of Cod, or Ceiling cat, (depending on your denomination) looked back at me!

(I promise I didn’t do any rearranging of any sort!)

Do you think Freya & Teego have been putting a bit of overtime into their purraying this week?

Can you spot what’s wrong with this picture?

If you want to see the offending advert, go to their website and search for “Pet Carrier For Small Animals” I won’t link to them or it, as that will boost their search ratings.

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A cat carrier should have room for [...]]]> Pet Travel Store.com

Can you spot what’s wrong with this picture?

If you want to see the offending advert, go to their website and search for “Pet Carrier For Small Animals” I won’t link to them or it, as that will boost their search ratings.

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A cat carrier should have room for a cat to stand up and walk around freely. Bizzarely, The blurb for this product says it’s for rabbits, hamsters and turtles.

SO WHY HAVE A PICTURE OF A CAT IN IT?

I’m appalled that someone might see the picture and buy it for their cat, in spite of the obvious cruelty it would cause a cat.

I despair of some people’s lack of common sense sometimes.

I’ve written a scathing review and it’s under moderation, but hopefully, someone at the company will see it and remove it.