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!

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.

“Just doing a random cobweb inspection”

“I’m watching you!”

“AHA! Caught you red-handed!”

“Only cats understand how truly comfortable this is”

Don’t you just love looking at baby photos?? A very young Mojo – back when he wasn’t quite as cranky, had yet to discover what grass is, hadn’t destroyed a lounge suite by using it as a scratching post and didn’t blink every single time you went near him with a camera.

I remember seeing a photo of a moggie sprawled out across a table, eyes half-lidded with the sunlight coming in through the window, shining on the table. I looked at that photo and thought “that’s one contented kitty”.

I don’t often get an opportunity to take a photo of Mojo in those moments. Particularly now that he is older and has decided that 9 years of photos is well and truly enough. *hehe* But occasionally he will let his soft side shine through and providing I’m quick with the camera, I can actually capture that moment. He really is quite sweet when he wants to be, don’t you think?

1. Being allowed unrestricted outdoors access can be dangerous to the cat – cars, diseases, fights with other animals and malicious neighbours who might leave out bowls of milk and aspirin. Keeping your cat indoors or at least restricting their outdoors access will ultimately keep them safe.
2. Cats are born killers, it is in their nature so keeping them indoors also keeps our wildlife safe.

We have two bird cages in our house, one for peachfaces and one for budgies. The peach face cage can be easily wheeled inside and outside but the budgie cage we cannot shift outside because it does not fit through our door (long story that). Anyway, the budgie cage initially I thought was great because it allowed them heaps of room to fly around, was very sturdy and secure from cat curiosity. There is only one problem with it – the door you lift up to change water and feed has a little door inside it and sometimes the little door sticks on the bar above it. This morning, operating on perhaps two brain cells after having worked all night, I changed the water and checked the feed and closed the door.

I didn’t notice that the little door was still open. Apparently neither did the budgies, until just after I woke up. I heard a strange noise from Mojo and saw Rosie with her hackles up. I went outside to find Mojo with something in his mouth….he had just come in from the cat park so I assumed it was a small lizard. When I went to retrieve it, I was so shocked to find a budgie in his mouth….I thought perhaps it had gotten in the bars of the cat park. It was already dead, neck was broken and then I noticed the budgies were very very quiet. I looked on the top of the budgie’s head and noticed a small yellow spot. Shock turned into horror and overwhelming sadness when I realised this was one of my dearly loved budgies, Spot.

I know that Mojo is a cat and this is what cats do so I cannot really get angry at him. I am very angry with myself for not making sure the door was shut properly. More than anything, I just feel so sad because it was just so quick and there was nothing I could do – I didn’t even hear Spot make a sound. It just proves to me the point that even if your cat is well fed, they will still predate for sport. The other budgies are still safe within their cage, but it’s almost like they know the fate that has befallen their comrade and holding their cheerful chirps for a little while as they mark his passing.

I have laid him to rest in the herb garden underneath the bottle brush with one of the balls he used to play with in the cage. I’m so sorry Spot….I can’t tell you how much.

Rosie hasn’t quite mastered the art of hide and seek – you’re supposed to hide Rosie! Mojo on the other hand is a master at it by now.