Rosie is gone.

I've never known anything like it.  Rosie had Ace, Worrals, Rebel, Gypsy, Cecil and even Pixy taking part in a vigil of cuddling next to her on the sofa on my lap during the day.  She died in Simon's arms as he took a turn cuddling her about 9pm.  She will leave a large hole, but as she was very depressed when Saffron died, I wonder if that's what set it all off. 

Better News

Well, Rosie is still with us and from the razor sharp spine and place where your fingers meet at the back end of her spine she has a little, little pad of flesh.  I am feeding her with a malty high calorie paste, chicken, and Felix double delicious as she's gone off kitten food.  She had a vitamin B injection and has chalky stuff night and morning to try to stabilise her bowels.  And she's drinking cat milk and broth which I make for her to keep herself hydrated.  And she can purr....

I'll try to download and post some pics soon, I've been more concerned with shoving food into Rosie than taking photos, and making sure she gets it not the ravening horde, and Pixy, who is a ravening horde on her own.  Kelly mustn't have anything except kitty food because of his runny bum; and we are winning.  He is now leaving me sticky turds on the covers [what do I call them, not antimacassars, so much as antimakellies] and needs much less frequent bum wiping.  But I have  no intention of upsetting the delicate balance of his insides when I know fine well that when he nicks anything but grain-free kitten food he proceeds to produce goo.

we have gone mostly grain free except for bribery and corruption of Rosie and of anyone except Kelly to keep them away from Rosie.
And on the sofa right now I have Ace, Worrals, Gypsy, Pixy and Rebel.  Simon has Leo, and on the computer desk/cat storage are Cecil, Piper and Rosie.

A lion cut and other pics

The time came for Leo to have his fur cut short, and this time we decided to go for the complete lion cut.  We were not prepared for the difference it would make!  suddenly our grumpy old sod was gambolling like a kitten and ready to be friendly.  Not only has he been suddenly receptive to being stroked, he has become a lap cat, and has been friendly to the others.  That fur must have been heavy and uncomfortable!  so our brave little lion is going to be keeping his lion cut, and we'll have it done as soon as his hair grows longer than short haired.
And right now he feels all plushy...

Leo approves of the new sofa!  we got it [I love freecycle] while he was being clipped, and he investigated it and decided we got it for him for behaving himself at the hairdresser

Kisses for daddy even! I know he looks silly [I do dig his moon boots] but if he is more comfortable, I don't care; he can't see himself so he doesn't care either.

Daddy's favourite scarf.  He sleeps on Simon like this at night

a box full of orange.

Pixy Neferkiti Merybast is a diva. Had you guessed? 

"Er, ok, I won't go on the computer."

Worrals appears to have decided that Kelly is her kitten.  She has been washing him whenever she sees him.  And a much better solution for his nethers than to be wiped by us when he leaks [which he is doing less and less.]

Rosie does look a bit ratty, she took Saffron's death very hard but we are trying to build her up.  Loving her trio of kittens helps, though as you can see, she exploits them!  We have moved to grain free food now and are hoping this will make a difference to all of them. 

Week one of the new year but Piper steals the showf

Four way cuddle puddle; we got a new cat bed courtesy of Freecycle and the rubbish tip trio are joined here by Rosie, and you can't even see the bed beneath them as they fill it ....

we got another cat storage tower [the one to the left of the pic] and I thought the arrangement by reflection of stripy and orange cats was amusing, from left to right Linnie, Cecil, Saffron, Dora

Piper just went and sat on Cecil

I love pics where they cuddle each other -this is the new bed

for the toe fetishists; Piper sticks his feet up in the air

I love this tummy shot. He's not as fat as he looks, a lot of it is floof

Kittens galore!

Through our grief over Leila, it is impossible not to smile at the antics of kittens.  They are playful and sweet, and Ace chatters, prootles and pipes all the time he is playing.
Piper was awakened to the fact that he is a BOY [not for much longer] by the arrival of Pixy, who was considering going on season before we had her missy bits out on Monday, but he tries to hump his brothers with, one has to say, a remarkable lack of understanding of what he's doing.  And I had to laugh at his attempt at the missionary position with Kelly, who was protesting faintly as Piper grasped his neck and vibrated rhythmically at ... Kelly's left leg.
Piper is also a bit of a tea leaf... he has figured out how to fish packets of food out of the box, rip open the bottom, and lie on them to squeeze food out.

 

Now he's off with that to take it into the tunnels where it won't be interrupted.  Fortunately the tunnels are wipe-clean.
We had a nice day so the window was open, and Piper found his way out, as did Pixy.  I hasten to add they cannot get out of this run onto the road.  It's a little cramped at the moment as the wheelbarrow is in there for the winter, because my coal is where the wheelbarrow usually lives. 

Leo doesn't venture past the windowsill but he really enjoyed the sunshine and the air.

Pixy has settled in so well, you'd never guess we've only had her two weeks.  She is a loving and affectionate little cat and shouts when she wants something.   We decided to have a medical t-shirt for her, not a buster collar, because I could see her going through something with the intent of taking off the buster collar on her way ... only she got out of the t-shirt once on the way home, and then within 30 seconds of being let out when she got home, so my struggles to put it back on, hands in cage, bumping along in the car were all in vain.  She's a pest!  but she's not going at her stitches, so I gave up.  Apparently she didn't want to look like Santa's Little Helper in a red babygrow...

 Saffron is still with us, she's very much in need of snuggles with either daddy or me, and she now finds the lump uncomfortable to sleep on unless she gets on a lap and jiffles thighs apart to give her somewhere to stow it.

 Kelly adores, or rather adored, his fleece-lined kitten tunnel, but it's seen a lot of use, and it's seen more use in the last month than in the previous year, and a wire has popped, so it's in the bin now.  I'm looking for another one for him.

Believe it or not, this floor had been hoovered two hours before this picture.  The kitties like to spread the love around.

Cuddle Puddle ...

And this is the more usual view of the run at this time of year, a selection of hopeful cats hating the squirrels who bury the crisp packets they raid from bins in my garden.

Accidents and Arrivals

Hey guys!  We've been BUSY!

The kittens settled in well, and as we had one or two nice days, Ace even found his way out into the run! 

Have you seen? they let slip the kittens of WAAGH

Other than that, it seems to have been a period of non-stop incidents and accidents.

First of all, with Kelly’s poor runny bottom [and his inability to wash it because of his problems of phantom limb syndrome over his tail] he climbed the back of the chair, onto Simon’s shoulder and launched …. And crash landed.  I think it was the lack of tail, but he’d have landed safely had not he caught one paw on a stone step up into the back room.  

So, Kelly has two broken fingers.  “Mummy, don’t photograph me in the bandage” he said.   

MUM!  I told you not to photograph it!

Well, he gave me very little chance to do so, because it wasn’t many days before he had got it off…. So there’s only one pic.  And of course, he got it off on Saturday just after the vet closed.  So I put on a figure of eight bandage with micropore because he was a little hellion and wouldn’t let me get the proper splint back on.  Two of us struggled and had to admit defeat.  And that bandage came off overnight.  Third time lucky, I hope …

Meanwhile, the planned new addition to the family arrived, in the form of Egyptian Mau, Pixy Neferkiti Merybast [nefer means beautiful, which she is, and Merybast means beloved of Bast, the cat goddess.]  Poor baby, whilst customs in Paris were cleared quickly she and her transport were stuck for a 2 hour stop in the Chunnel, so we eventually collected her at midnight, and then had a 2-hour run home.  She is, not unnaturally, OFF humans at the moment after something like 18 hours in a carry-crate.  She’s very shy, and likes her big crate, where she can watch without being inundated by kittens. 

If you think I look pissed off, you got it in one

And then Ace!  At least he managed to provide me with ‘entertainment’ on Friday so we could go to the vet in the morning – because his sewn up eye socket burst forth with blood and pus.  Well, I’d seen this with Leo, so I wasn’t panicking, and bathed it with warm salt water, and Dr. Jenny gave him an antibiotic and said she wanted it left open to continue to drain and carry on with the warm salt water and let her know how it went, and did I still have some loxicom [yes, Kelly’s for his tail and subsequently his paw]. 

Piper, bless him, has been no trouble at all.  He’s still very shy, and unwilling to be touched, but will permit strokes if he is settled down.   I suspect it was he who managed to open the study door so all three of them – even Kelly – found their way upstairs to join us in bed.  And he's even made friends with Rosie. 

Meanwhile, Saffron’s lump is now quite ugly, but she doesn’t seem to notice it and though she may be uncomfortable at times, and a bit knacky, she’s her own sunny natured self most of the time.

And Linnie?  Linnie is just Linne, and decided that the cat igloo we had been going to take for Pixy was his, nice.