A nice surprise

A while back, I posted about a great boarding facility for cats called The Cats Retreat. The cats have been there twice now, once for only four days and the second time for a fortnight. It took a little while to get to us because it was posted to our old address, but I was surprised to get a card from Glenda complete with a disc of photos from their stay with her. I’m sure she won’t mind me sharing a few of their “holiday snaps”.

Mojo was out and about everywhere by the looks but Rosie was a bit more reluctant to venture outside into the screened enclosure. I have my theories on this. The fortnight we went away coincided with some pretty hot weather. Glenda is kind enough to air condition the indoors on those really hot days. Mojo loves the heat but Rosie, like me, struggles with it and prefers to stay in cooler temperatures. It really wouldn’t surprise me if she stayed inside purely to make the best of the cooler temperatures.

Thank you very much Glenda!

A very moggie Christmas

Thankfully, the time of the Christmas tree is nearly over

Mojo and Rosie would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas! If you have cats, I hope you have got plenty of tinsel on the tree for them to pull off and chew to bits. It may make a huge mess but at least it distracts them from the food cooking in the kitchen.

New fishy friends!

Playing with the latest additions to our aquarium.

We started off our tropical tank with a small amount of mollies, a yoyo loach and one very big cat fish. The mollies have since gone to the aquarium in the sky having lived their short life span. Unfortunately the catfish put an end to any plans to have a self-replenishing group of mollies as he’d just gobble up the young as soon as they were born. The yoyo loach seemed a little lonely, so he got some new friends to play with last year. They’ve all grown bar one which we think is just like a runt of a litter. While the others have quadrupled or more in size, he remains very small.

Still the tank looked a little empty, particularly with all the bottom feeders. So off to Pet City we go to get four rosie barbs to add to the tank. So far it’s all happy families and no losses. Fingers crossed it stays that way!

The Cats Retreat

We decided that after the hassles of moving into our new house, that we needed a bit of a holiday to recover. The cat park hasn’t yet been put up here and I didn’t entirely trust the moggies not to trash the joint if they were left unattended with only a daily visit from our pet minder. So for only the second time ever since we have had them, they went into a boarding shelter but one that is exclusively for cats.

They previously spent four days at The Cats Retreat in North Maclean while we were moving out of our old house and they seemed to cope okay so we decided that another two weeks  wouldn’t hurt them in the slightest. If you have nervous cats or ones that aren’t used to being boarded while you are away, I really do recommend this place. Auntie G looks after her charges very well and she is able to pick their personalities very early on to cater for their individual whims. I was a little worried about how Rosie would do given she had a recurrence of her skin problem but it has healed up nicely. Mojo has put on a little weight while he was in which is fantastic as he usually goes off his feed when a big change is in the air. And Rosie managed to lose a little of her winter flab as well I think. Auntie G even caters for nervous owners – I could send the cats an email and even a few photos from our trip away and in return, I got an email about how they were finding their boarding experience and photos of them during their stay.

I’m sure that given a choice, the cats would rather stay home and not have us go anywhere. But as a home away from home, I think they’d both agree it is a wonderful place to stay.

The moggies get their blog back

I have decided to give the moggies their virtual home back. I started off this blog all about the cats and somehow it evolved to encompass a lot more than that until it was more about me and what I was doing and only a little bit about them. So I’m returning their blog to them and anything that’s more about me will be at Eucalyptus Country. Until I change my mind of course.

The cats have settled in well at our new home – we have moved to a peri-urban area. So it’s close enough to convenience but far enough away not to be bothered by it. There are cut-outs in the walls throughout the house to facilitate natural light and air flow and the cats are enjoying using them as short-cuts between areas. We got some new furniture when we moved in and the moggies didn’t miss out either – they got a new scratching tower which blissfully does not look like the leaning tower of Pisa. It even has hidey holes in it – not exactly a Funky Hollow but they like it all the same.

The Secret Life of Cats

I do sometimes wonder what the cats get up to when I’m not home. Take Rosie for instance – we just went out for nearly 4hrs and she was sitting in the exact same spot as she was when we left. Mojo on the other hand was doing the usual prowl around the perimeter of the house, ensuring that there are no intrusions from the outside world – not so much as a whisp of air gets past him.

Sometimes, when my imagination takes me, I wonder whether they are secretly plotting. There COULD be some secret tunnel into my house whereby hundreds of cats gather in my house to plot the demise of the human race. After all, they already have us under the paw and they know which side their milk bowl gets placed. You might think I’m crazy and if I was actually serious about this, you’d probably be right.

But there are things I can’t explain.

Like at least 4 to 5 neighbourhood moggies who have taken to hanging out around our house. They don’t fight, they don’t cause a fuss. They just sit and well, they wait. A few of them have even waltzed right on into the garage of our house – almost as if they think they live here. I can’t explain why my house has suddenly become a magnet for moggies.

Has the word gotten out about the plush pet beds? Or maybe the cat park and promises of a bigger, better one at our new house? Or maybe Mojo’s boasting about how he gets roo meat at least two times a day and more if he asks for it? Hmmm….

I swear, if I see a white fluffy persian start frequenting my turf and he just happens to answer to Mr Tinkles, it may seriously do my head in.

( Yes, Cats & Dogs is one of my favourite movies of all time – maybe I’ve just watched it too much lately. )

Hey buddy - this is a two cat household ONLY!