Cats and Christmas…

Don’t you just love the silly season?? I’m not a big fan of the commercial side of Christmas but I do enjoy putting a few decorations up around the house and just crossing my fingers and hopinig nothing gets broken, torn or chewed up before Christmas is even over. I hadn’t bothered with a Christmas tree before last year – but I got caught up in the spirit of things and decided that it just wasn’t Christmas without a tree. So I got one.

It was a very small one but at least it was a tree. I thought it would be a reasonably good test to see what would happen to a bigger tree. A few ornaments got knocked off when he tried to climb it but when he barely got four feet off the ground before it fell over – well he just gave up and then just ignored it. Well Christmas came and went and the tree stood for around two months before I finally put it away in the back room.

This will be Rosie’s first Christmas here so I thought I would test the waters with the small tree before I got another one. Rosie is a big time chewer so I had my doubts that the tree would still be intact by the time we got back from the Barringtons. Surprisingly, it is still upright and with all its decorations still on it. She’s had a sniff and a chew but basically has left it alone. Woohoo!!! Time to get a big tree!!

Cat lax anyone??

Rosie just isn’t having a good time of it lately. Not only has the warmer weather brought with it a reoccurrence of her dermatitis/hot spot problem but she is shedding like you wouldn’t believe. There are bits of her fur flying around the house….kind of like tumble weed really. I keep brushing her as much as she will tolerate but it keeps coming off and although she is an obliging sort, I’m not quite game enough to get near her with the vaccuum cleaner. I had a bad experience with Mojo trying to vacuum excess fur off him once….let’s just say I still have visible scars from the experience.

Unfortunately she must be ingesting a lot of her fur as well during grooming and since she’s not much of a yakker (like Mojo), it tends to get swallowed along with everything else. So off to the pet shop, after a little bit of investigating online, to get a tube of Cat Lax “a palatable formula for use as a feline laxative to aid in hairball removal”.

I’m always a little bit dubious when I read that something is “palatable” when I have to use it on the pets. After all, the “meaty flavoured” chewable Drontal tabs for Mischa would only be swallowed with numerous liver treats and plenty of encouragement. The “palatable” antibiotic paste I had to give Mojo after his dental treatment, resulted in much hissing, spitting and biting. In the end I had to wrap him right up in a blanket, restrain him between my knees and force the stuff down his throat and pray to god that he didn’t try to kill me in my sleep.

So I give the Cat Lax a little sniff…..smells a lot like that syrupy stuff you make home brew beer from. I look at the ingredients…..malt, cod liver oil, beeswax, parrafin and a few other bits and pieces. Honestly, all it needs is a fair whack of salt and you could almost think it was Vegemite. Surprisingly, the palatable formula of Cat Lax went down a treat with Rosie. She sat there licking it off her face and then came back for more!! Hoorah, finally a “palatable taste” that cats actually find palatable as well!

Now if they can start making that flavour in worming tablets I will be very much appreciative.

Update on Rosie

I posted a while ago about Rosie and her hot spot. She’s now finished her course of antibiotics and it has cleared up quite nicely. The skin has all grown back and the fur is starting to come back too. Hopefully she will be good as new soon and we don’t get another recurrence for the rest of the summer. She and I will both be glad when she no longer needs a weekly flea bath.

Just to add insult to injury, here she is not enjoying her weekly tub. I don’t know about you but there’s something about a wet kitty photo that I find so cute. *hehe*

I’m sure she would vocally disagree if she knew the camera was on her at the time though.

Hide and seek??

This is one of my favourite moments captured in time. It was taken Christmas last year when I had the dubious task of looking after Max (my sister’s cat) and Mischa was staying with me while mum went on holidays. I was working on a scrapbooking project in my study when I heard a small thud – so Mischa went to investigate with me close out her heels. The photo was exactly what I saw when I walked in the bathroom door. Now I’m not sure exactly what Max was trying to achieve here but I think maybe he was playing a little hide and seek with Mojo. Mojo wandered in, busted him perched on top of the shower recess and when he jumped down, he jumped the wrong way and ended up on the inside. Surprisingly, there was no barking, meowing or hissing. Just the three of them staring at each other waiting for someone to make a move. *hehe*

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.

They’re not spoiled…really they’re not!

I prefer to say “well cared for”.

Today I stopped by PetWise which has just opened in Underwood to have a look for a few things for the moggies. With the summer months upon us already, I thought it was time to swap out the furry sheepskin from the cat park entry for something a little less warm. I was thinking of a small polar fleece pet blanket but found something even better! It’s called a pet futon and as you can see, it fits snugly into the exit box in the cat park.

Mojo and Rosie were watching (with great amusement I’m sure) as I struggled to push it out the cat flap and work it into position through the bars of the cat park. They claim to be warm in winter and cool in summer so hopefully it will be a good all year round solution for their favourite snuggle spot.

And here they are, outside in their cat park/palace/human free area.

Surprisingly they share the area quite well, although there have been the odd standoffs at the cat flap if one wants to come in and the other wants to go out.

Part of the Carnival of the Cats, hosted 21 October 2007 by Bad Kitty Cats Journal.