Who's feeding Gizzy?

I'm convinced someone is feeding Gizzy - she's always so picky about her food. Normally she gets one pouch morning and night, with dry food left out for her to munch on if she's hungry.

The last couple of weeks she's been eating us out of house and home, and completely unpicky! One evening she polished off THREE pouches of food!! And she's not a big cat, in size or weight, if anything she's on the thinner side.

As of yesterday, however, she's gone back to turning her nose up at our offerings and not climbing all over us to demand food at every opportunity. So whoever it is that must also feed her is clearly back from on holiday.

I wish people wouldn't do that. She's got a collar and tag on, why would you feed a cat that CLEARLY belongs to someone else?

Cat Patrol

Murphy handed over the baton of cat protection to his eager beaver lieutenant tonight, who showed herself more than capable.

We were watching TV when I heard a cat howl outside, some hissing and something hitting off the French windows. I shot into the kitchen and Maddie was already there at the door, waiting to be released. Door open, spaniel shotgun cannoned out and the garden was immediately a still and peaceful, empty place (other than Maddie cris-crossing it in a frantic attempt to locate something with four legs she could bark at).

She did very well - unlike Murphy, who on such occasions in the past has adopted the technique of haring to the four corners of the garden and barking defiance and warning to the neighbourhood and all in it, Maddie only barked once (in frustration I think) as she ran back and forward across the garden between  the usual points of feline entry (and exit).

Meanwhile we heard a thud upstairs and that was Gizzy in the skylight in our bathroom - safe and sound. Maddie went and did a couple more patrols round the garden as we settled back after the excitement but there was nothing to be found. Job done! 

Meanwhile where was Murphy? Snoozing on the sofa!

Konsiderate Kat

Gizzy has a habit of throwing up when she eats her food too fast - and so it was a couple of nights ago. She was sitting on me (lying in bed) purring away - then, suddenly those noises only a cat-owner knows, signifying imminent disaster!

Ever polite, she jumped down off the bed and threw up on the floor, before wandering off to let me clean up the mess (at midnight) - how considerate!

hot hot hot!

The gruesome twosome have survived the hot weather relatively unscathed. Maddie spends a lot of her time sitting around panting - though why she should be hotter than Murphy beats me! I found the old paddling pool and set it up again. Murphy was confused, and once again treated it like a giant drinking bowl, lapping out of it in an uninterested kind of way.

Maddie ignored it so I lifted her up and stepping in, put her down in the water. I don't think she even noticed it, really - she put her head between my knees for a bosy then sat down in it. Then jumped out and tried to run back into the house, dripping water everywhere. Noooo!

So that was a failed experiment, I really don't uinderstand how they can be desperate to jump into any muddle sinkhole out on a walk but fail to recognise a lovely cool paddling pool with clean water, sitting in the middle of their own back garden!

It is quite wee, maye I need to get a bigger one...

Healthy eating

poor old Murphy - he got a nasty surprise last night. Since we came back from Sicily I've been totally into salads and have finally developed a liking (more like an obsession!) for olives. Combined with the hot weather, that translates into lots of barbecues - which usually involve sausages! The dogs know they'll get one so take up BBQ-watch as soon as it's lit, not moving from the spot until the sausages have been cooked and removed.

Last night we didn't have a BBQ, I made a pasta dish involving sausage pieces (with salad, of course) and we ate that outside. Murphy thought he was getting sausage from Richard, so he snapped at the piece of food and made to gulp it down with every every sign of enjoyment. Too bad for him it was actually a bit of lettuce! He chewed, gulped, chewed some more (the most delicious look of disgust on his face) and then spat it out. You could almost see the word bubble over his head - "I'm a boy, Daddy - I'm not eating lettuce!"

hee hee!

Sometimes I just despair.

Yesterday I wasn't talking to any of them - two or four footed! (Not sure I've really changed my mind, actually, but that's a different story.)

Why? Well! Let me tell you. Having had to shut the back door to keep Maddie in (she was keen to do her noisy rounds again), I was woken at 4.30am by an insistent (and slightly higher-pitched than Murphy's "ahem, I'm terribly sorry but I really do need out" middle-of-the-night alarm) "woof!"

Damn! I dragged myself out of bed (and why is it always me? Cos Richard can't hear anything over his snoring!!) and went downstairs. Sure enough, young Madame had thrown up and wanted out. So she had a quick scoot out (on a lead - I learn fast!) and I had to clear up. guess what she'd eaten this time that made her throw up? An ENTIRE crisp packet! Not shredded or chewed in any way, still in one piece. It could've killed her. Of course it was from Mr Careful himself; when I asked if he'd left it lying around all he could say was that he's left it while he was eating his sandwich. So we're going to work on him putting things like that in the bin BEFORE he eats his sandwich in future. I hope.

Next up, I took them both to the woods for their after-work walk. Maddie's been really good at hopping into the car without running all over the road first so I neglected to put her lead on. Naturally that was the evening a "yoof" was wondering past the gate in a hoodie, so Maddie took off after him and barked at his knees. Harmless enough but not good.

Now Murphy's turn. Duly on our usual walk through the woods and he disappears off to the side to investigate something, returning with the remains of some poor dead animal clenched in his mouth. By the one ear I reckon it must have been a fox. I did my best to wrench his jaw open and we even had a wee screaming match but all that happened was he ran away, munching and gulping as he went. Urgh!

So I didn't speak to him for the rest of the walk. At least he doesn't appear to have had any ill effects. God knows how!

Then last night I had to shut the cat out again as no sign of her. Came down this morning to see if she has found somewhere to settle in the utility room (I'd had the forethought to take all the clean washing upstairs). Of course she had! Look -

Disasters anonymous

Things keep going just slightly wrong. Like how Gizzy got shut in the vestibule last night all night (she made a comfy bed out of the dogs's fleecy towels) and nearly got shut out tonight. She did get shut out on Sunday night & had to spend the night in the utility room (probably on the clean washing).

Yesterday Richard decided to cut the hedge & fell off the top of the ladder, landing on the shears and hitting his head. Lucky he didn't kill himself!

And all this after his having to cancel his trip last week and me a) cycling into the side of our own house on the way to work on Monday and b) forgetting to take my underwear for after swimming on Tuesday last week!

I hope to recapture routine & organisation soon ...