Physco CATS - we need a "cat whisperer"

O woe is me... wonder if I can start EVERY blog post that way... every one regarding the cats anyway?

Siamese... delightful, beautiful, cute, sweet... deep, dark, not too sweet, bratty, catty...and finally - SPOILT ROTTEN BRATS??????????????

Let me explain. We now have 3 cats:

•  One was rescued off the streets. No nonsense, no fuss cat
• One is a Siamese. Paid lots of money for her, looks like butter won't melt in her mouth, and until 3 weeks ago - I thought she had the sweetest disposition on earth. Often you would hear me say "Why do Siamese cats have such a bad reputation? They are too sweet and kind for words". Yeah right - I am EATING those word.
• Lastly the "wildish" kitten who arrived at our house to prove all my theories wrong

Tuppence - (street cat), took 1 or 2 peeks at kitten, and decided to go her own way.

Misty -  (Siamese), initially peeked, then got offended and disappeared for a while. After putting some thought into this matter of:  "this new cat has taken over my favourite sleeping place (Marinda's bed), en my favourite person (Marinda)," - decided to show us how disgusted she is with the whole setup, by pulling out the fur on her back!

Don't even THINK about saying "AG Shame". She is reacting like a spoilt brat. Initially we were totally freaked by this behaviour. We carted madam off to the vet who promptly put her on "anti depressants"... what the heck? Yep - apparently they can get anti depressants for cats. Now I am wondering - who thought that up? Some vet who had a "down looking" cat?

After 1 attempt to get pill down cat, I decided - NAH - we will have to live with a depressed, physco cat. So - since the Internet tells you - don't give them attention when they act badly - we ignored the fur pulling. Since this now no longer had the desired effect, Misty decide - in that case: I will sort this problem out on my own, and proceeded to the room to give kitten a huge hiding by chasing her round and round the room.

In fact - this behaviour continued until she had chased baby to hide underneath the Wendy house - where she stayed for about 3 days with no food and water, while we were away in the Drakensburg. Now you can say - Ag Shame!

Are you starting to get a sense of how mad I am with my "sweet" cat. Well then - times it by another 10.

This gives new meaning to the expression -" I will pull my hair out"!

Leave me alone, can't you see I am a book

O What have we done... woe is me....

We have been desperately trawling the pages of junk mail in search of a kitten. Our old ginger cat (who achieved momentary fame), when she was written about in Gus Silber's book- the parenting guide to PC's. I think that was the title? Anyway, allow me a minute to stray off my point. His daughter came to me for computer lessons, many moons ago. At the time he was writing his book about the parenting guide, and apparently observed Ginger meandering in on the window sill. He liked my computer school (thanks Gus!), and I was mentioned in his book along with Ginger.  As I said... momentary fame!!!

Ginger was old, and grumpy , and surprisingly - she improved with age. As the winters got colder and colder for her - we became more and more attractive - lap wise.

Sadly we had to have her put down due to old age - about 2 months ago. Since then, we have been looking for a "special" kitty. We didn't know what "special" looked like...were struggling to define it. I went from SPCA, to COSanc, and back to junkmail. Nothing. "Special" does not reside in these places, I concluded.

Last week, I half heartedly opened up the junk mail pages again. There was one ad which caught my eye. It was different from the others in that it had a pretty photo of a not so small looking kitten.
A Siamese. We have a beautiful Siamese at home already, so this was starting to feel like it might be "special".

I phoned and could hear these folk wanted a loving home for a stray kitty whom they fed.
Werner and I went to look. Kitty lived outside, with another kitty and an adult black cat who had adopted them when their mom disappeared. She was beautiful, but clearly quite wild. She allowed the family to touch her, but kept a wary eye on us.

We teetered on indecision: should we, or shouldn't we. Finally, looking at those big beautiful eyes - we decided to take a chance. The cats on this farm / plot are in danger - people poisoning them, catching them, and the folks who fed her - had clearly realised something needed to be done.

It took about an hour to catch her. It was almost as though she knew that we were there for her. She lead them a merry chase. The black cat was no help, sitting guard at the door, and warning the kittens when someone approached. Finally, heart breakingly, they caught her. I felt just awful, breaking up the threesome, but realised if we did not take this one, someone else would.

Rueful blue eyes looked back at me from the cage on the back seat of our car. Not a sound came from her.

We planned it all out before we got home. She would live in the girls' bedroom, until she adjusted.

Once we opened the cage, she flew to the windows and disappeared behind the curtains. Oh dear....what have we started?

She spent the night hiding behind the couch. She would not budge, eat or drink anything. She made no sound at all. The next morning as we moved around the room, she came out for a moment, ran to a bookshelf and "hid" in plain few. She turned her head away - and looked for all the world as though she was saying - LEAVE me alone- can't you see I am a book.

The "Popped" question

Yes, yes...some of you have been checking back, I know. Apologies.

Here is what happened....

We couldn't quite wait till Friday to "pop the question". It sort of gradually came out as the days passed, starting with little hints and finally ending in: so can we have the air rifle serviced.

In the mean time Werner had a heart attack... a month ago now. What a huge shock and trauma, it sent us reeling. He doesn't have high blood or high cholesterol and he isn't over weight. It all happened so very suddenly. We thought he had heart burn, the evening before. The next day we thought the same, except this time he was sweating and in a lot more pain than the night before. He still drove himself to the Dr, who immediately got his wife to drive Werner to the hospital. Their kindness, and the quick thinking of the Dr, probably did a lot to save Werner's life as well as minimize the damage.

After a stint in the theatre to unblock a clogged artery, Werner spent another 3 days in ICU. He was booked off work for a month. During that time, he found out where to have the air rifle serviced and took it in.

From the day Arno found this out Werner had taken the gun for servicing,  he began nagging : when do you think the gun will be ready? We finally told him - after Christmas. THAT answer kept him at bay for about 2 days...then it all started again. SIGH.

Last week Werner went back to work, and this week the gun was ready. Mmm...takes equally long to fix a heart and the spring of a rifle gun...makes you think!

In the meantime, back at the ranch...the room which Arno had been keeping squeaky clean (in order to pop the question), had slowly returned to it's former state - like water - looking for the lowest point to flow.

With renewed "Strictness" I informed my son that should he wish to shoot the air rifle, he had better get 85% on his NS test. Today he came home with a 95% thank you.

As I write, Werner and Arno are shooting at a piece of wood in the garden. Looking at those faces...you would not know which is the boy and which the man...the excitement is the same!