Moggie Madness

After last year’s relatively unsuccessful AFW 365 attempt - a new photo each day for the whole year - Leigh has cottoned onto another photographic challenge. This latest one is called 52 Blessings, you’ll find a photo group on Flickr by the same name which started partway through last year. The idea is that each week, you post a photo of something that you are grateful for and say why. So from this week on, every Sunday this year is going to be a “52 Blessings” day. Well, providing I can keep it up.

This shot is taken from the portico outside the front of our house and it shows a few things I am grateful for. First and foremost, the rain that is pouring down at the moment. After a fairly tough year for the Water Commission, it seems there is some relief finally in sight. The rain is finally falling where it needs to and the catchments are getting much needed rain. I just hope the powers that be can keep it coming.

The second thing I am grateful for is the roof over our heads. Despite rising interest rates, the cost of petrol and groceries, we are still able to manage although other couples and families are struggling. It may not be a posh mansion but it is home and there is a good feeling knowing that the only reason we will have to move is if we want to.

Thirdly, my hedge row of lilly pillies beside the driveway that I planted as seedlings four years ago have grown into beautiful healthy plants, despite the fact that they only receive water from the sky or the fish tank. With the recent rains, they will be flourishing!

We must live in a good area.

I say this because my garage roller door was left open last night for around 12 hours and not a thing is missing from the garage or the house. Might I add that this is not the first time it has happened. For reasons not known to me, I sometimes come home and find the garage door up with nobody at home and nothing missing. My other half assures me that it must be that we must forget to close the door. Apparently, it is not possible to open another person’s garage unless you have the remote because the remote has to be programmed into the unit that operates the door.

My mum doesn’t quite believe him. While she was staying with my sister, she said the garage door went up all by itself, then down and then up again. She maintains that there is no possible way anyone else could have opened the door because all the remotes were safely stowed away. Personally, I think one of my sister’s cats found the remote and was chewing on it. Mum still maintains that it did it all by itself. Insert spooky music here if you please

Mojo and Rosie often follow me out into the garage when I am going to get something from the car like groceries or a jacket I’ve left in there. It seems that the rooms they do not have access to - the cat free zone and the garage - are the source of the most curiosity for them. Mojo in particular often scouts the perimeter and I’m sure he is wondering how that door opens. We generally only leave the remotes in places where the cats can’t accidentally set them off but this morning when I came in the adjoining door, I found him standing next to the hook that the remote hangs off. I wonder, does he know what the button is for?? Is he just waiting to make a break for it??

When we built the cat park for him, we were a slight bit concerned that he may escape from it. Every time I clean the enclosure, I look under the scratched up weed matting to see if there isn’t a tunnel reminiscent of The Great Escape. Don’t get me wrong, Mojo is a very lucky to live here and we try to cater for his needs - he has a cat park, many toys, outdoors excursions on a harness and any kind of food that his little heart desires. But being that he was a freely roaming outdoors cat a few years ago, I’m sure he longs for the outdoors more than what his cat park can provide.

Nevermind, if I get my way, we would like to move onto a nice piece of acreage…..a good five to ten acres would be nice. Imagine the cat park I could build on that!

I can now strongly sympathise with Rosie, Indie and basically any one else who has severely angered Mojo. OMG the little devil has the sharpest claws in the business! I’ve always assumed that any damage he inflicts with them when he’s having a hissy fit is fairly minor. After all, he’s let me have a little dose of his claws from time to time - usually when giving him a worming tablet, oral antibiotics or trying (with little success) to clip his nails.

This afternoon I received the full brunt of what those claws can do. I’d let Indie inside to hide under my computer desk and as per his usual self, Mojo came in and sat poised on the top of the desk, just biding his time for me to either let down my guard or the dog to stick her head out from underneath my desk. All was well until Indie, bless her black wildly thumping tail, managed to knock out my network cable.

Now I should have just switched to wireless. But I forgot Mojo was still sitting on top of the desk, so I just climbed underneath the desk to plug it back in. Everything was fine, until I backed out and went to get up on my chair. The top of my head of course, was the first thing to come above the level of the desk. Consequently, it was the very first thing he stuck his claws into. All damn ten of them and was he going to let go??

Simple answer, not without a fight!

Usually if Mojo gets stuck into something we don’t want him damaging, like the sofa, a pillow or blanket, I just pick him up by the fold of his neck and he retracts his claws instantly. I’ve since discovered this is very hard to do when the cat is on top of your head and you have a whimpering lab in your face wondering what on earth all the screaming is about. So I did what any female would do when in an awkward position and her attackers legs are in front of her face.

That’s right dear readers, I punched him in the balls…..or where they would be, if he had any left. *hehe*

The effect was instantaneous. He let go and bolted for the couch, closely followed by me doing my best impression of Homer getting cranky at Bart….”WHY YOU LITTLE!!!!”. Meanwhile, poor Indie was still cowering under the desk, not game to even stick her nose out to see what had happened to me. She may just stay under that desk until her owners return from Europe.

It is now Day 16 of dog sitting and it seems that the moggies have decided that they will let the “invader” come inside - providing she keeps her distance. Indie is incredibly submissive and thus very well behaved inside as the moggies have stamped their authority on her at every turn. If she so much as shows that she may step a foot out of line and get too close, they nip it in the bud pretty quickly. She’s found the safest place by far is to hide under my desk or my feet….pity it is such a small space for such a big dog because there is very little room left for my legs to go!