A little post about Ben...

Those of you who read this week's Cats on Tuesday post will know that we lost Ben this week.  He was our little house rabbit who had lived with us for six years (we think he was about 11 which is a great age for a small bunny to reach).  We originally got him and his partner Lucy from a rabbit rescue organisation where they'd been taken by their previous owner after she acquired a dog that killed her other rabbits and then decided to go after the last two.  Lucy died a few years ago and that's when Ben moved into the house with us.  He was a shy, gentle little soul who gave us (and his wonderful vet Aga) a nervous breakdown every so often when he had to undergo a dental - we were never sure if he would make it through the anaesthetic or not!  He used to like to sit cuddled up to Mrs P, or he could be found on his footstool next to the radiator (often with Posky trying to get on it with him).   Anyway, here are a few photos of the wee man himself.

This is the last photo we have of Ben - this is him

doing his 'An angry - I haz it' face...

...and here he is being squished by Posky.

Who could forget the way he stole the limelight from the cats

during the pumpkin photo shoot last year?

Or how he gamely joined in with the cats' 'Drama in the Garden!' productions.

He was a bit of a star.

Pets Forever and Cats on Tuesday - A bit of a sad photo shoot...

Some of you may remember me mentioning my friend Cath's cat Pusskins who had his leg amputated late last year.  Well, he's recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer and will probably only live a few more months.  It's so sad as he's come through being a stray, the problems with his leg and also having a tumour removed from his neck.  Cath asked me to take some photos of him that she could have framed, so yesterday afternoon we had great fun in her garden with me prone on the concrete slabs trying to get some shots of her two errant cats (the other one is called Henry and is a bit camera shy).  Pusskins is fine at the moment, he doesn't look or feel ill, isn't in any pain, and lives life to the full.  These are a few of the 120 pictures I took! He's a bit of a star.

Linked to Bozo's Pets Forever meme and also Gattina's Cats on Tuesday :O)

Pets Forever...

His greyness...

Because the vet commented that he was such a star when he had to have a blood test etc Posky takes pride of place in the Pets Forever slot this week.  They still talk about Mrs P's behaviour at the vets - and not for any good reasons :O)

It's now British Summertime and the clocks went forward an hour last night.  It's better for me as I always wake up at 5am for some reason, and now that it's actually 6am on the clock it somehow seems a lot more reasonable.  The cats don't care as long as breakfast for them is first thing on my agenda for the day.  It was funny this morning as I'd arranged to pick Cath up at 7am to go for our weekly walk - but guess who'd forgotten to put her clocks forward and was left running around like a dervish trying to get dressed whilst I fussed her cats? (Well one of them anyway, little Basil is very friendly, and oh so tiny compared to our monsters.  He's even smaller than Pepper and she looks small against our other three), Henry is a martyr to his nerves, and Pusskins (or Tripod Boy as we call him since he had his leg off) just cast suspicious glances at me from the cat climber. Obviously my cat-whisperer routine needs work.

Pets Forever - Update on Mrs Pod

Well ten hours after leaving her with the vet, I was able to go collect Mrs Pod last night.  The vet had cleaned her ears out and discovered that both ear drums were perforated.  I have to collect a special ear cleaning solution on Monday to keep them spick and span and hopefully free from infection until they heal.  She should be a lot more comfortable now anyway, poor girl.  

As for her behaviour, it seems Mrs P had been slightly, er, shall we say, 'unco-operative' with the vet: she loves everyone except for vets - and for them she reserves a powerful hatred and loathing which is a wondrous sight to see in a small tabby cat.  And did I mention the violence?  There was a student vet in with us and he looked a little fraught, as if encountering Mrs P was making him rapidly re-evaluate his career choice.

The other news is that her kidneys aren't functioning at full strength, she'll have to go for regular check-ups and tests to see if she needs any medication etc.  She's supposed to go in on Friday for a blood test and have her blood pressure taken.  She will be very unhappy about this.  Also, I'm going to try her with a special food for cats with renal problems to see if she'll take to it but the vet said it can be introduced over a period of months.  What's the betting that she won't eat it but the others will?

Talking of food, she was absolutely starving when she got in, and started screaming about how LIVID! she was with us for leaving her at a place where they PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY ABUSED HER! and deliberately WITHHELD FOOD! until she was on the point of collapse.  Two plates of dinner slightly mollified her and she agreed to sit on my knee and glare at me for the rest of the evening.

The bill came to £410.  Gulp.  For the second time in two weeks I am very, very glad she's insured.  David had left the vets to go wait outside before I paid the bill as he felt sick and faint, (his face took on a strange similarity to Jacob Marley's ghost and I think the vet thought he was going to keel over on her nice clean floor).  Whether this was because he had a premonition of the cost or because he was tired and hadn't eaten is debatable.  He did the same thing at the theatre once when we were watching David Tennant in Love's Labour's Lost, and also fell asleep watching DT in Hamlet a few months earlier - I had to keep prodding him in the ribs in case he started snoring.  I'm sure poor DT must now be paranoid that his acting talents induce either narcolepsy or vomiting in audience members.

As for the other cats... Pepper sat up on her back legs and waved appealingly at David so is his favourite girl at the moment, Posky is still being Posky, and Charlie had his umpteenth plan at losing his collar foiled (it's an ongoing war between us and him - we put collars on him, he goes out and 'loses' them).  Unfortunately for him his latest attempt at being a free-range cat was spoiled when a kind soul found his collar in their garden and returned it to us.  'Curses!' he muttered before slinking through the cat flap...

Anyway, back to Mrs P, we would both be very grateful if you could all send healing vibes and purrs for her ears and kidneys, and sympathetic thoughts to the vet who has to meet her again next Friday.

Maiming vets is tiring work...

...and here's something we should all be publicising.
There are so many animals in adoption centres in need of good homes,
Mrs P, Posky and Charlie all originally came from the RSPCA.
They all say spread the word about March 15th
(and Charlie added 'or else'!)

Annual Purrformance Review from the Cats...

Posky here, our friend Cody over at Cat Chat posted this review of his Mum and we decided it was high time we had our say on that strange woman we live with.

Quantity of Output
Posky: The problem here isn't quantity but quality as far as I can see it.  She writes a lot of drivel.
Pepper: I like it when she puts up a post about me.
Charlie: No, she puts up far too much about you Pepper.
Pepper: I feel nothing but compassion for you Charlie...
Charlie: And enough with the Buddhist crap!
Posky: Moving swiftly on... Mrs P would you like to add anything?
Mrs Pod: Well it would be better if she only posted about us wouldn't it? I think this blog suffers from an excess of diversification.
Other three: Eh???

Quality of Output
Posky: Hmmm, tough one this.  She does try with the photos (she's very trying), but I don't think she's caught my full gorgeousness on camera yet.  Did I tell you about the time I won those cups at the cat show...?
Charlie: Oh dear god he's off again.  Look, I'm sick of her shoving that camera in my face.  Next time she tries it I'm going to have it off her and bury it in the litter tray.
Pepper: Do you think you may have issues here Charlie?  I like the photos she puts up of me because I look pretty and everybody says so.  I think it's interesting when she talks about me and I wish she wouldn't put up photos of other things.  They're not interesting at all.  What's that photo of a candle about?
Posky: Back on topic here people!  Are we satisfied with the quality or not? What about you Mrs P?
Mrs Pod: I think she's ok with the photos, and the imagination isn't bad, although I don't think she captures the nuance of our thoughts accurately.
Pepper: (Whispers) What does 'nuance' mean?

Client Pawticipation
Posky: Well I think we're all agreed on this, we might as well live in a black hole for the amount of contact opportunities she gives us.  Show of paws? Yep, agreed, she's rubbish.  Next.

Pawticipation
Posky: I didn't even know we could enter contests and go to parties.
All: General rumblings of discontent and revolution...  Pepper conspicuously wipes a tear from her eye.

Client Catisfaction
Posky:  Well given the limited exposure she gives us, what do we think?
Pepper: People like it when she posts a photo of me, they write and tell me.
Charlie: No they do not! Anyway, I don't think anyone likes this blog at all, and that's all I have to say on the matter.
Pepper: I am sending out loving thoughts to you Charlie because I still feel compassion for you and I think you're unhinged, can you feel them?
Charlie: You'll feel the back of my paw in a minute, you little...
Mrs Pod: SHUT UP! I think we can safely say that reactions are 'mixed'. She must try harder, she's got an MA for goodness sake, you'd think that would mean she could keep people interested for the length of a posting.

Overall Rating
Posky: I'd say two paws, and 'must do better'.
Pepper: Me too, and it would be better if the blog were called 'The Magic of Pepper'.
Charlie: Well I say two swats. I just like the violence.
Mrs Pod: I give her four paws.  She knows how to use the tin-opener.

Comment from Barbara: I feel shame.

For more cat reviews - some a great deal less critical of their poor slaves than this one got to The Cat Blogosphere.
More pets can also be found at the lovely Bozo's Pet's Foevever site.

Cat drama...

Charlie was unaware that at any moment almost 15lb of hairy grey Posky was going to land on him from a great height...

For more pets visit Bozo and Pets Forever