Lovely warm spring days always put me in a good mood. I am recovering well from my little infection and when the hair on my chest grows back I would look my normal beautiful self again. SS has some friends visiting from France this week. They are going to the northern beaches for lunch tomorrow and my friend Charlie-chien is invited. I don't like children or travelling so I don't mind not being taken along, as long as SS brings some nice tasty morsels back for me. Charlie, being well travelled and used to young children, should enjoy the little outing.
Sunday, 30 September 2007
Monday, 24 September 2007
Celestial matters
Time for pretty pictures as I gaze at the night sky. There are lots of animal constellations but few feline representations. However, the Cat's Eye Nebula, one of the first planetary nebulae to be discovered, makes up for the lamentable omission by its spectacular appearance captured in this picture by NASA's Hubble space telescope. Wow!
Sunday, 23 September 2007
Weekend
SS's family members all returned to the house after dining out last night to celebrate the upcoming Moon Festival. I went into hiding very quickly when I realized that there were going to be more than just Eva and her mum. I have never liked noise and the whole gang was bound to produce decibals way higher than my sensitive ear would tolerate. Not even the idea of possible tasty morsels would tempt me to stay. Besides, they were likely to be indulging in sweet, unhealthy foods anyway.
SS was up late this morning and caught me sunning on the lawn. That meant just one thing - brushing. Why couldn't she leave me in peace for my morning sunbathing? The only compensation was the sharing of milk afterwards; she put some into her murky fluid known as coffee in her mug and some into my bowl.
Thursday, 20 September 2007
Stressed out
Wednesday, 19 September 2007
Visit to the vet
I knew it was coming and there was no avoiding it. The cat-carrier has been cleaned and aired. Must be time to pay the dreaded visit to the vet. SS has been concerned about my lack of appetite and I have developed a hard lump on my chest recently. Anyway, we went yesterday.
There were all these half-wit yelping dogs in the waiting room. I just looked at them out of the carrier window in a cool dignified way. The vet was quite nice and it didn't hurt at all. The lump only turned out to be granulation tissue and SS was given antibiotics to feed me and stuff to clean the wound.
On returning home I dashed to my hiding place and didn't come out for dinner. I was so cross with SS for putting me in a carrier and resolved not to respond to her calls. But hunger overcame my will and I had to emerge for breakfast this morning.
On a more cheerful note, it's good to hear that nine members of the Geelong Cats have been selected for the All-Australian AFL team. We cats have to support each other, even these sporting ones are really brawny humans taking on our name.
Monday, 17 September 2007
Spring weekend
Glorious spring weekend and I am happy! SS came home with lots of yummy food on Saturday. I had turkey, corn beef, yoghurt and cheese for lunch, milk and liver treats in the afternoon while lazing in the warm sun and morsels of cooked chicken at night. There was some cake making activity as well but as that did not concern me I just dozed under the rocking chair. We felines are not keen on sweet food - nature's way to help us keep a trim figure.
Wednesday, 12 September 2007
Psssst....there's a cat in no.10 again
I suppose you've all heard that there's a cat in no.10 Downing Street again, after poor Humphrey was kicked out. Sybil would hopefully fare better as she comes with the family rather than the house. For those of you who haven't been keeping up with the going ons in the British PM's lodge, Humphrey was the cat who took up abode there in the 1980's as a stray, kept company with Margaret Thatcher and John Major, only to be 'retired', aka disposed of, by Tony Blair's wife.
Don't confuse Sybil's connection. She is not the Brown family cat; she is the cat of Alastair Darling whose family lives in a flat above no.10. The Browns live in no.11. This is just in case you want to go to pay your respect when you're in London.
Ah, for us felines we must look back with pride to the Churchill era when Nelson who used to sit in a chair next to his illustrious master in both the Cabinet and dining rooms!
Sunday, 9 September 2007
Public holiday???
SS was home on Friday, which was unusual. Must be a public holiday and related to what Charlie was saying about "a-peck". Don't think it was a sickie as she looked well enough, eating all day and went shopping in the afternoon coming back with loads of food. She only ever buys food! I try to eat up too to avoid a trip to the vet as SS has been a bit worried about my loss of appetite. Will do the disappearing act when I see the cat travelling-cage being cleaned and lined.
Tuesday, 4 September 2007
High on cocaine, whoopeeee
An eastern suburb kitty overdosed on cocaine and benzodiazepam allegedly after licking a plate from its owner's party. Not that I am any expert, but for us kitties a dose of catnip would probably achieve similar sensation without the potential danger and certainly a cheaper alternative. Fancy living with people who serve platefuls of cocaine at a party and allow their cat to have a go at it!
Monday, 3 September 2007
Pet ownership
It has been noted in a recent survey that ownership of pets has fallen dramatically. Just look at the figures:
In 2000, Australians kept 4 million dogs as companions. By this year, the number has dropped to 2.75 million, a plunge of 31 per cent. Cat numbers also declined over the same period, from 3.2 million to 2.3 million, a fall of 28 per cent.
Do consider, many scholarly studies have measured and confirmed positive roles that companion animals play in health and social life such as animal owners having lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol levels, higher survival rates after serious illness and suffering less from loneliness or depression. It is also well known that companion animals tend to enhance family life.
It is a sad state of affairs as pets are being increasingly pushed aside by the accelerating pace of modern life - more technology, less time - and humans are no longer inclined to make effort for the altruism required to keep dogs exercised and cats engaged.