I was going to discuss politics and religion in this post, until I remembered (1) a promise I made to myself at Yom Kippur not to get embroiled in such discussions any more, as they only seem to cause anxiety and distress, and (2) the tradition some of us used to have when we were on the Nature Network, in which someone posted a picture of one of their pets if the comments started to get nasty – a case of kittehs, if not stem cells, to the rescue. All this is by way of reporting my plan, notwithstanding inasmuch as which, to pre-empt such comments, and even the rest of this post, by posting the following:
Deceptively cute kitteh, recently
Meet Emma, the most recent member of the Maison des Girrafes, who is also known as the SPOS (Seriously Pissed-Off Siamese) and thereby hangs a tail tale.
Emma had been owned by a friend of a friend of our friend Ms J. G. of Norwich – the owner was terminally ill in a hospice, and all that was keeping her from a much-desired release was the wish that Emma was found a good home. Emma had been languishing in a cattery for some time and was becoming somewhat institutionalised. Ms J. G., knowing that there is always room for one more at the Maison des Girrafes, prevailed upon Mrs Crox’s good nature, and Mrs Crox prevailed upon my good nature after reassuring me that the SPOS came with a Full Service History, unlike some of the other residents, whose lack of history has occasioned my spending £££ at the vet.
A resident, more recently. Only this morning at breakfast, in fact. No, you can’t have my muesli. Oh all right, you can lick the bowl.
Emma arrived at the Maison des Girrafes, and her owner died the next day.
Not that Emma is at all grateful. She took a whole afternoon for me to subdue to the extent that I could trim her very extremely sharp claws – a necessary precaution, as she is a fireball of hissy fits and general ill-temper. One is permitted into her presence only to pat her on the head once, after which all hell breaks loose. It might be that she is nonplussed that the attitude of most of the other residents is to ignore her, which she finds insufficiently deferential. But I think she finds the quality of service at our establishment somewhat below her usual expectations.
Which reminds me, I see it’s almost time for Downton Abbey.
Aww, she is cute. The Beast will approve of this post, once he wakes up.
I could tell from the photo that this is a Particularly Vicious Cat.
I’d post a soothing picture of our fish, but that particular function ain’t implemented in this particular, otherwise excellent, blogging arena.
Hmmm. Must have a word with Dr R. P. G. of Rotherhithe. I wonder if we’ll be able to post pictures in comments?
Speaking as Keeper of the Bandwidth:
No.
Fair dues guv. How much would it cost us to do that, or should we just wave our arms around and do charades?
Actually, you *can*.
Someone offered us a kitten the other day. I was tempted to respond:
Though The Boss, who (having grown up on a farm) is used to having a menagerie of assorted animals around, has been wavering.
PS Who looks after your extensive list of non-human residents, Henry? Is there a rota?
Mrs Crox as Head Zookeeper mostly looks after the fauna, though the tasks of cleaning out chickens generally falls to me, and maintaining the fish and axolotl is almost exclusively my department – as is ferrying animals to the vet and paying for them.
COPYCAT!
Miaow.
How old is Emma? Maybe she is just plain scared.
Emma is about 4, and yes, of course she’s scared. Her whole life has been turned upside-down. She finds herself in a house with lots of other cats, as well as two dogs, two snakes and an axolotl. However, she has made herself base in Crox Minor’s office, so when she’s feeling especially insecure she can retreat there.
If in her comfort zone she’s very loving, I guess in a few days, this will get carried over to other places as she becomes more familiar with everyone else. Or, because of her traumatic life experiences, she might remain a very defensive cat everywhere else except in her comfort zone.
We have a cat that was abandoned as a kitten and she has been with us since, but she practically jumps when the neighbor closes her car door a little loudly. She is the Chicken Little of the cat world. Once, she was relaxing on the couch, having calm, peaceful, cat thoughts, when she happened to glance up. By the ceiling right above her head was a helium balloon! The painful decision-making process that went through her brain was visible on her face! After several furtive glances at the intruding balloon(calculating how heavy it might be and how long it might take before it landed on her), she jumped off the couch and went as far as she could go, yet have the balloon in her field of view. For the next few days, she made sure to look up and ascertain that sneaky balloons ready to crash on delicate cat-heads were not directly overhead. We have 2 other cats, they wouldn’t budge from their spots if the sky actually fell on them–they would decide that since the piece of sky that was directly overhead has already fallen, there was no need for panic.
Poor kitteh! Well, as you might have predicted – and not five minutes after I’d written this post impugning her character – I went to find Emma in her ‘comfort zone’ in the corner of Crox Minor’s room we call her ‘office’, and the cat was very affectionate indeed.
Our dog would make short work of cats, so we don’t have any. But that’s a fine-looking cat.
Canis Secundus Croxorum (pictured) would love to chase Emma, but she knows that Emma’s claws are sharp…
I must admit I’m a dog person and not a cat person, but I’m struggling to find the cat cute. Impressive, yes. But from that photo I would say that she is a Jedi, and Jedi are never cute. It’s in the Jedi Code.
I think perhaps if you want to raise funds for the vet, you might consider auditioning Emma for an extra part in Avatar II.
Yes, those eyes are amazing. But to be fair to Emma, she has had a hard time, and as mgg says above, she is rather frightened. She is becoming more venturesome, and occasionally – in her comfort zone in Crox Minor’s room – quite affectionate.
Fish:
http://ricardipus.blogspot.com/2011/09/slight-break-in-motorsports-action.html
Plz to not show to catz. Thankz.
They’re lovely! Haven’t shown to teh kittehs as requested.
My friends have a gorgeous half-Siamese, half-moggy cat who’s lovely now, but took forever to settle in – they also adopted him from a shelter as an adult, and it’s hard for them to get over that kind of experience. In contrast, our own kittehs were born in a foster home (their mother was found and handed over to the SPCA when she was pregnant), and were in a shelter for a grand total of a week before we took them home, and they’ve been lovely and affectionate from the first day (although it did take a few hours to coax them out from under the sofa)
Kitteh 1
Kitteh 2
More kittens. It’s kitteh central round here…
I think they had to trim Maggie Smith’s claws frequently, when she was playing Violet Crawley in Downton Abbey. I’m pretty sure I read that on the PBS website.
As of this evening, both of my little dogs have successfully completed Puppy Obedience class, and the next task is to get them ready for certification as Canine Good Citizens. Ultimately, I’d like them both to be therapy dogs, such that I can take them to visit people in nursing homes or in hospital, or to schools, where children with learning or emotional disorders sit and read to them.
Therapy dogs, eh? How wonderful! Watching the contrasting behaviours of Canis Primus Croxorum and Canis Secundus Croxorum, I can appreciate why you never see Jack Russell terriers as guide dogs.