ahh, it took me a while, but I'm finally getting the chance to update the site. I've been home for about a week now, and man, has it been hectic.

When I finally did get home, I was smothered by a Prinny, in dire need of much cuddling. But the others stayed at a distance, still. It wasn't till the next morning that I got sandwiched by several cats, of which Falkie was the most pushy one. My boyfriend had left, the day I arrived. So, I had their full attention. Falkie chirped me awake, and guarded me from the other cats by ordering them off of the bed (it is his territory these days). This of course did NOT include our Prinny, who is still very quick about putting him in his place if he were to dare to get in her way.

On Tuesday, I spent most of my time filling out forms and waiting for my turn to finally get the attention of the government so I could do some administration...booooring. Wednesday I spent most of the day cleaning up, shopping for food and getting my hair coloured again. In the evening my boyfriend came home and I baked him a cake as well as got him a present or two for being so sweet as to take care of my cats while I was babysitting my mom's pets. Then Thursday and Friday, I had to help out at the clinic. So you see, I haven't been home much. The weekend was spent with my boyfriend and friends.

Meanwhile, I've noticed that our cats have slightly changed their ways. Falkie is growing up and had claimed the bedroom as his turf. This means that Trini got kicked out of her own turf, and she now resides in the workroom, together with Arwen. Arwen still does not have any notion of claiming her own territory. Falkie has become very adamant about this though. It got to the point where he acted like a jealous male when I was home alone. If I was in the bed, no other cat except the Prinny and maybe the Lulu was allowed near me. And those were accepted reluctantly, since he wasn't sure he could take them.

They just managed to ruin my evening completely... The cat brought in the rabbit a third time. By this time it was decapitaded, stiff and had entrails hanging out. Gross. I tossed it out again, over the hedge this time. The dog was all hyper over it, which was how I noticed it in the first place.

And then..not half an hour later, I hear crunching. I go out, to find the dog has just about swallowed a rabbit leg. I pull open his mouth, which he refused to open, to then physically shake out the leg, and scream at him in a volume that would put a club to shame. He still took his bloody time to obey me and go away. I cleaned up the leg, and this time reluctantly put it in the trashbin (I know there will be maggots tomorrow*sigh*). The cat comes in, using the cat flap, looking all innocent. I just lost it, grabbed the thing and shoved it right back out of the flap, then closing it. He is in time out for the rest of the night.

As for the dog, I told him to go to his blanket and stay there. Again, he was probably too scared by then, he refused. I actually lifted up his behind (he has arthritis, and although I would have loved dragging him ,that would not have been beneficial for his health), and marched him right to his blanket, told him to stay, left and closed the curtain on him so he would be isolated (it is the best way to make a point with him).

I am soooooo pissed off right now. Once, ok, twice, sure if it has a couple of days between it, three is pushing it, but four in less than 24 hours, when I've made absolutely clear to keep your damned rabbbit out of the house is just asking for trouble. I am not a patient woman, though I try my best, but this would even piss off my mother and she is mother Theresa when it comes to patience.

And the worst part of it is...I dont know if he's eaten the rest of the rabbit or if that is also lying about somewhere to be brought in when the coast seems clear again *cry*

Ahh, only a few more days before I can go home to my own little misschievous lot. And then my boyfriend can whine about how completely nuts my babies drove him.

It is interesting to see though. I am watching a 14 year old dog, who has arthritis so bad that he takes some serious painkillers, and yet is determined to pull your arm out of your socket when going for a walk, and a typical red tom cat which has been taught by my father to bite you out of the blue (fighting with your hands and allowing the cat to bite you will do that :P).

What is interesting about it is the immense difference between indoor and outdoor cats. True, my babies can drive you mental in ways only they can come up with, and they have all the time in the world to think out and execute their plan.
On the other hand, give me my babies over Rosco (the red tom), any day!

This cat is your average 2 year old male neutered cat. He loves playing, hunting, jumping, and getting into your bed while completely soaked. During the day he sleeps on your bed, during the night he wanders the neighborhood.
However, he also enjoys walking and lying about in the middle of the street when you go and walk the dog, which causes you to either strap him in Arwen's harnass, which he btw did not appreciate, or go back home with a nervous dog who wants his walk and pulls at your arm as if he'd rather choke than have to go back into that house, so you can lock the cat in. Lovely.

He already gave me three presents these past weeks, and two of them within 24 hours of each other *sigh*
One day he came home with a half dead baby bird, which he then dropped so the dog could grab it and run of with it. Luckily he dropped it when I told him too. I put the bird back outside with the cat next to it ( it was so injured it wasn't going to make it anyways). Then, I had to pretend I was going to take away his prey to get him back interested in to the damned thing, which finally, he killed and ate...

It is never fun to say goodbye, but today, I have to. I am going away for three weeks, to take care of my parents dog and cat while they are in Greece. I will miss my five babies, but I am sure my boyfriend will take good care of them (he better or else....:P).

I do this every year, because the dog knows me and it is already 14 years old which, for his breeds, is extremely old. Add to that that the animal has been traumatized by his past and has abandonment issues, and you see how it is just easier to have someone he knows there. Though technically not a cat, I might post his story here some time. We rescued him in Spain.

This might be the last year though I will babysit him...he is very old as I said and they are treating him with some serious medication which relieves the pain he is experiencing, but it does not take away the cause (he has arthritis, as so many dogs of his breed). The fact that you take away the pain, makes the dog do movements which exacerbate his condition without him realizing it. It is only a matter of time before his joints just cause so much pain that even this heavy medication cannot camouflage it. At that point, we will have to let him go in peace. He has had a full life and the pain would be excruciating for him.

Fortunately, that day has not arrived yet :) And it is fun to go have a couple of weeks to myself. Sure, I will miss my kitties and boyfriend, but I will get to focus on some stuff I need to get done, and best of all: I live in the city, and my parents on the countryside...God do I miss seeing 'greens'. It makes me relax so much. And, since the dog needs to get his walk regularly, it forces me to take a walk through that green street, which is so utterly relaxing. Best way to get up in a good mood, really.

This also means you might get less blogs from me, and if you do, they will be about some 'guest stars', or second-hand info about my kitties, which I hopefully will get from my boyfriend ;)

These days I feel like I am living in bear-country. It is unbelievable what indoor cats will come up with and go through to get to their goal.

About three years ago, there was our Prinny, innocent of all vices, discovering the trashcan open because it was over-filled , which was back then a plastic bag hanging in the kitchen. This was the first time she learned this could hold hidden treasures. She raided it...and so the circle began.

Other cats were added, and taught what she knew. The week after raiding her first bag, she clawed her way into the bag for the very first time. She had learned how to get to what she wanted. We sighed, and my mother gave us a garbage can in which you can hang a plastic bag while it is being protected by thick plastic. End of story...or so we thought.

Raiding of our countertop became a rule of thumb every night, so we hid everything safely away. They noticed that I used milk on my cereal and meowed when I got out even just the cereal, knowing the milk would follow. Soon, I found bite-marks on the bottles in the blue recycle bag. They got through, but the reward wasn't great enough to keep doing it.

It didn't take long though, before they discovered my stack of milk bottles, standing around in the kitchen. They went to work on the heavy plastic, and pierced the bottles, in order to lick up the milk that came gushing out. We sighed in disbelief, and put the bottles in kitchen cabinets (which were already overflowing). A week later, we find they pulled the same trick on the catmilk bottles, which are even a tougher plastic. Someone was ruining their teeth, just to serve themselves.

One day, milk gets delivered to the house. It wasn't even standing there one full hour, when I caught Falcor in the act of applying his fine-tuned technique to the bottles to pierce them. My boyfriend sighed, and put them away.

Yesterday me and my boyfriend were watching mtv and saw once again those stupid ring tone commercials they constantly play here. So I started whining that there were no really good ring tones that were not obnoxious and how I, being a true cat crazed person, would love it if my phone would just inconspicously 'purrrr' at me when someone was trying to call me, and mreow just once if I was receiving a message.

Computercrazy as he is, he went online and found the most bizarre cat ring tones possible. Now here is where it becomes weird: I told him to play them, and we could tell by the reaction of the kitties, which ones were fake and which ones were real. Sometimes they wouldn't react at all, and other ones they would search the room for the 'intruder'.

Especially cat mreows of cats that were angry or scared were taken very seriously. Unfortunately, our Trini turned out to be highly sensitive to the cries, and sat under the coffee table, totally traumatized, for a while. Prinny was stupid enough to walk her way, and Trini lashed out in an act of redirected aggression (this is when a cat is upset at something but cannot get to it, and therefore takes it out on the first person or cat to come along).

I told my boyfriend, however fun it was to see their reaction, to stop torturing them, especially for the Trini's sake. She must have gone through something in her past that made her very vulnerable to this kind of situation. Luckily, she was back to normal less than an hour later.

Well, that's that. Just now, I saw Lulu hopping through the house in a manner thats even weird for her, after going potty. She was basically sitting on her ass, while dragging herself forwards with her front paws. When I took a look at the kitty litter, I found some unpleasant stuff, with some hair in it, long and short. I cleaned it up, and took a look at Lulu herself.

She did NOT appreciate that. I had to hold her with her four legs in one hand to be able to look at her bum, which of course took place under a lot of loud protest, Lulu-style. You see, with Arwen, you'd just turn her around and take a look. Lulu is a different matter. Those paws can bend all kinds of ways, especially when she's agitated. And if there is one thing that awakens the beast inside and outside, its touching her bum.

She completely tenses up in all kinds of ways and makes from everything a big fuss. And cleaning off her tail with a moist cloth did not help, let me tell ya. When I finally did get a good look, the damage wasn't that bad. She was trying to pass a hairball, and that always itches, hence the hopping. I cleaned up what I saw so it would stop itching and tried to turn her lose while keeping track of those four deadly paws coming my way.

Oh well, life wouldn't be much fun if nothing happened I guess *grin*. I doubt that Lulu looks at it that way though.