Eat Your Carrots

The Big Bang

Poor Charley Cat just won't go out of the house at the moment. He seems to have been scared out of his wits by all the fireworks of recent days, even though there seem to have been less of them than usual this year. He seems to have gotten into his own mind when it's safe and when it's not safe to go out. He'll pop out during daylight hours, though during our working week that's not an option for him, but he won't go out at night until after 1am. I've even tried taking him out and standing with him, to show that it's safe, but he just makes a dash back to the door and up to bed. Or rather under it. During daylight he sleeps on our bed, at night he goes under it, like he's hiding from the bangs and the flashes.
I'm sure he'll be back to normal after a few more days without bangs and flashes, though there are always some idiots who continue setting off fireworks well after Guy Fawkes night.

What Charley Thinks Of Guy Fawkes Night

He's barely been outside the last 4 days & nights!

Streetfighter

Charley boy's been scrapping again. Lately he seems to have some sort of scrape almost every week - I'd really love to know if he's the bully or the bullied. Judging by the way he creeps into the house and hides, I'd go with the latter. It doesn't seem to bother him too much though, as soon as he's fit again (which never takes long) he's off out roaming again, getting to wherever it is he gets to (which is another thing I'd love to know - can you buy trackers for cats?). If he was being bullied so much I'd expect him to stay around home a bit more.
Anyway, this fight seems to have been more serious than the others as he was actually dripping blood this time. i thought it was from the scratch on his head, but later, by the bloodstains on our bed quilt, found it was from a deep gash on his shoulder. This still makes him wince at times, but he's not bothered by it too much and hasn't affected his mousing ability one bit! It amazes me how many mice he finds - I've never seen one (outside of his grasp).

Summer's Here

British Summer TIme started today, and a lovely sunny day it was too. Charley celebrated it in the time honoured fashion.

On the subject of BST, we were discussing the other night why the clocks change in the middle of the night on Sunday, giving only a small minority of night-shift workers the benefit of a shorter shift. Why not have it at, say, 4pm on Friday, so we can all get off home an hour early? I'm sure that would be a popular vote winner, Mr Politician, especially if the October "going-back-an-hour" was still reserved for those night shifters?

Proud Parents

Sorry to sound like those parents of newborns who want to discuss their child's toiletry exploits over dinner, but I'm going to anyway. Charley boy used his litter tray for the first time yesterday. First time at home, anyway. He knows how to use one when he's on "holiday" but always refused to at home. He took a few looks at the weather yesterday and decided it was too cold and wet to go out, so he chose the tray instead! Thankfully I don't have any photos of it.
On the health front he seems to be 100% again now; drinking is back to normal, as is his appetite, though he's developed a new flavour-of-the-month in tuna & shrimps in jelly. This food is disgusting and it  has whole shrimps in it that just seem to stare back up at you from the bowl!

Worrying Behaviour

I'm still worried about Charley. Although he seems to be back to normal in terms of most of his behaviour, he has suddenly started drinking loads. We hardly ever used to see him drink before, but now he's constantly wanting water and when he drinks, he drinks for ages. He even gets up in the night now not to go out, but to go for a drink. He then goes out a couple of hours after that. It's a might worrying, especially as when I look this behaviour up on the Internet it suggests diabetes or renal failure! I'm hoping (praying) that it's just a mild reaction to his worming medicine (it all started after that) and that he'll settle down again soon. If he's not "normal" by Friday I'm afraid it's back to the vet's for blood tests.

Sick Boy

Charley's sick again. This is the second time in three weeks he's been off colour and has necessitated another trip to the vet and wife taking some time off work. He's had the thermometer where the sun don't shine (although strictly speaking we believe that the sun shines out of there) and it showed he had quite a high temperature. Swollen glands and a touch of diarrhea too apparently, though I have to take the vet's word for the latter of those - perhaps it showed up on the thermometer.

Two quick injections later and he was a different cat, back to his perky self and wanting to be out all the time to make up for the hours he spent not wanting (or able) to leave his sick bed. I really wish I could have an injection that works that well.

A cat's curiosity knows no bounds. Once the vet has finished prodding and poking him (and poking things into him) he just starts sticking his nose into everything and wandering round in a very "interested" sort of way, seemingly forgetting the apparent terror of the last few minutes. I wish I could forget things that easily too!

Calling Card

Oh yes, Steve's back and he's blogging about nothing but the cat again!

There was a bit of a suprise for us when we got in last night; there were bits of blackbird on the bed! Since no blackbirds ever venture into the house alive, and since Charley wasn't carrying it when he came in in the morning, we can only assume that he coughed it up. Lovely.

All of the bedding got washed on the "boil wash" setting and Charley was banished to the spare room!

I Once Wrote This...

I was amused to find this posting by myself, from June 2004. It concerns the cats in the road, and mentions a black one that I called "Satan". He's now known as Charley, and oh how times have changed!

Streetfighter

One night over Christmas I came downstairs to see if Charley was in the conservatory so I could let him in to come up to bed. As it turns out he wasn't in, but White Cat was, and he was doing the strangest thing. He kept going as if to get out of the cat-flap but then "bouncing" back in. I thought maybe the cat-flap was broken in some way, but no. It turned out that Charley was outside the flap giving him a pasting every time he tried to get out! Eventually he did force his was out and Charley was on him, pulling out tufts of fur. Being the good parent that I am I opened the window and shouted "get him, boy!" Maybe that was wrong of me, but I'd rather Charley was boss in his own garden than be pushed around.

After White Cat had fled Charley strutted around proudly, like a victor ought to, and I've not seen anything of White Cat since, except the clumps of white fur that still adorn the garden despite the gale-force winds we've had.

The downside of it is that Charley was ill (almost 2 weeks later) with an infected cut in his paw. It may or may not have been as a result of that fight, but anyway a trip to the vets for a painkiller/antibiotic soon had him right. It makes me feel sorry for White Cat, if he is indeed a stray; each time he gets sick, no one takes him to the vets, he just has to sweat it out himself.