How cute is this? Crossed tails and everything. Enjoying some raw egg to make their coats shiny (and get them out of my breakfast plate).
Here’s Bert’s switch maneuver.
And a peaceful resolve.
Archive for the ‘animals’ Category
Awww…
September 30, 2009Cat Hog
September 29, 2009
It was awfully quiet and I was feeling lonesome, so I went in search of our kitties and found Daddybird hogging them ALL!
Hoopoe
September 26, 2009Hoopoe birds are quite striking and I find them very interesting, but they are hard to catch on film. They usually fly away before I can get my camera out of my purse. Here is a little snippet. We even get a few flashes of his crest although he doesn’t furl it fully.
Stalker cat
September 22, 2009So, for three weeks, Oliver has been hating Bert. His freak out reactions gradually decreased little by little, but even now he still growls and hisses at him.
Oliver used to drive us crazy because he would howl piteously as if abandoned even though we were in the room. Or, he would go into another room and begin the howling. All this time I’m thinking we are going to get evicted for noise.
Now, Bert and Oliver are playmates, chasing each other around. Well, actually, it’s Oliver doing the chasing. He follows Bert everywhere, sneaking up from behind or the side and attacking. They aren’t using claws and teeth, so it really is play even though it looks like dirty tactics. Oliver is quite the “sneaky snake.”
Now, he only howls when he can’t find Bert or someone (read Daddybird) has picked Bert up and thereby disrupted the play.
Neither has stopped for a nap, yet, so I don’t know how that will go. They have to stop sometime.
Bert has always been good about playing independently and entertaining himself. Oliver has always been high maintenance needing to be played with. This is how the game of fetch came about. I’m not sure how long Bert will put up with having to entertain Oliver. It will be interesting to watch.
American Ingenuity
September 22, 2009Pet stores are fairly rare here and not necessarily fully stocked. We went to one of the “best” and they had three brands of cat food to choose from – the cheap brand we were already using (and which seems to be giving the cats digestive trouble) or two really expensive brands. The only litter scoop they had came with a litter box. There were no separately available tools. AND they were all out of litter. They had a few cat trees, but they were short and one was covered in powder blue shag carpet – way too foofoo for two male cats. They were also not particularly sturdy.
We have very high ceilings and Bert, especially, wants to be as high as he can get. He climbed on top of the dining room chair and stared longingly at the ceiling the other day. Plus, there are plenty of interesting things for them to see out the window, if they can just get high enough to see over the balcony railing.
To order a nice, big cat tree via the internet and have it shipped here is prohibitive. Finding a carpenter who could build us one would be time consuming and possibly impossible.
So, while at Ace “Hardware” (I use quotes because they have very little hardware) we found tall metal shelving for a fairly reasonable price and I had an epiphany, alright, it was just an idea, but a really, really good one.
We bought two sets of shelving.
I cut up the box to make the wire shelving easier to walk on for cats.
I was very frugal, this is what is left of the boxes the shelves came in. 
I cut up cheap fleece blankets to cover each shelf. These can be removed, laundered and replaced (unlike carpet covered cat trees.)
I added dangling toys. Daddybird gave me a hard time for putting the Star of David on a tree for Arab cats.
Again, I was being frugal. The stars were attached to some felt place mats I bought for another project.
We will connect the two shelf towers with heavy duty plastic ties. I have to run to the store to get them, so not quite complete, yet.
And Voila! The best cat tree in town.
You know what they say – You can tell how crazy a person is by the size of their cat tree.
Oliver’s day
September 22, 2009Oliver had a big day today. #1 Sores on his lips & tongue #2 First ride in the car #3 First trip to the vet #4 Two shots & oral medication #5 Ride home in the car #6 Feeling better fast #7 Played with Bert AND had fun doing it. Major progress made today. Now he is deep asleep. Whew!
Oliver, again
September 7, 2009When he is awake, Oliver is a busy kitty. I was sick this weekend, so I spent a fair amount of time locked in the bedroom with him (still keeping Oliver & Bert apart). Oliver is getting so big. My “baby’s” growing up.
Bert Video
August 31, 2009This is Big Eyed Bert whom we picked up on the street Friday evening. You can’t really see how skeletal he was, but you might get a glimpse of his razor back spine. We had hoped that Oliver would like a playmate but, you can see in the background is Oliver having a hissy fit. We have kept them separated ever since, mainly to give Bert a chance to put some meat on his bones and to give Oliver a break, too. It can’t be easy having an intruder in his home. Amazing that it took only two weeks for him to become spoiled and possessive.
Bert is doing well, eating voraciously, and even had some camel milk last night. He even showed some interest in playing with toys for the first time last night. He is constantly looking for a place to nurse, so it is clear that he was separated from his mother too early, long before we found him. If Oliver doesn’t warm up to him, we will have to find another home for Bert. But, first he needs to get to a healthy weight.
Laundry Ball
August 25, 2009How to entertain your cat for about 2 minutes on laundry day:
For those of you not particularly interested in my cat, my apologies. We haven’t been out much, so haven’t been having any new cross-cultural adventures or taken pictures of interesting or amusing sites. We don’t currently have a car, I’ve been sick, and, lets face it, it is HOT outside, although not nearly as hot/humid as it was last year at this time. I’ve also been having DVD marathons with the DVDs we purchased on vacation. You probably don’t want to read my critique of Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 6, or whatever.
Our first box of books purchased in Wales arrived yesterday, so that was exciting. Unfortunately, the concise history of India that I purchased has turned out to be extremely dull. What is it with historians? They take an incredibly interesting topic and make as dull as humanly possible.
We will probably get a car next week, so hang in there and we’ll try to have an adventure or two. We’ve been here a year and have yet to see a camel up close. What’s with that?!
Living the Travel Channel 