Macro kitteh sez: "not that kind uv makro, stewpid."

In 2007, ziggy_and_mika resolve to...

Volunteer to spend time with catching things.
Find a new breakfast.
Put fifty cardboard boxes a month into their savings account.
Lose ten interesting smells by March.
Drink four glasses of mice every day.
Learn to play the hddod.

Get your own New Year's Resolutions:

Argh! Ziggy has never been as comfortable wearing collars as Mika. Once in a blue moon he manages to lose his somewhere, so I keep a few spares and collar-key magnets for the cat-flap in the cupboard. But he's suddenly found a new trick and lost THREE in the last WEEK! This is getting expensive, with the collar-keys being about £15 for two and the collars themselves a couple of quid a pop -- and the cat-flap itself probably won't last for long if he carries on forcing it. He's already broken one cat-flap by barging through without a key.

I would let him go without a collar (the boys are both microchipped and don't wear name tags) if it wasn't for the other cats in the area that I try to keep out of my house. Next door's rag-doll cat Lee-lee is over-friendly and tries to come inside here at every opportunity, which isn't quite so bad, but the Ginger Bastard down the road still terrorises my two scaredy-cats and sometimes chases them right into the house -- they're going so fast that he just head-buts his way through the flap and the lock doesn't make a difference. If there's one place they should feel safe it's inside their own home, and I don't need Ginger Tom trying to claim my staircase as part of his territory.

OMGZ I can't stop laughing at this picture.

Did somebody tell Ziggy a joke while I wasn't listening?

Mika and Ziggy were two years old on Thursday.

Happy birthday, boys!

Date:	2006-03-26 19:36
Subject:	Cake
Security:	Public
Mood:	cakeless

Today I learned that my cats like jam and cream swiss roll.

Little bleeders.

"What?!"

Can cats get ingrown toenails? Or can they break/lose claws?

I ask because since Mika's been home, he seems to have a tiny bloody scab on one of the toes of his front left paw. It doesn't seem to be bothering him at all -- he's still attacking the scratching post with his normal fervour and isn't limping or looking lame.

I'm starting to suspect that when he was missing the other day, he'd got shut in someone's garage and the injured claw was caused by scratching to get out, but that's complete guess work.

I don't particularly want to take him to the vet if it's just a scratch so... could this be serious or am I fairly safe leaving it for a few more days and keeping a close eye in case it doesn't seem to heal up on its own? I know it's possible for claws to get overgrown but I thought that was rare for cats that go outside, running around on concrete and tarmac?

I shall go and read the Cat Manual but in the meantime I figured that there are plenty of you reading this who have more experience as cat owners than I do.

Date:	2005-09-27 17:25
Subject:	They thought he was a gonner
Security:	Public
Mood:	happy

I FOUND MY CAT!

Or rather, my cat came home. He was here when I got home this afternoon -- looking at me as if to wonder what all the fuss was about.

I love my cat. :)

I love both of them! :)

Mika has gone missing :(

Or at least, he seems to have done -- I hope I'm just worrying prematurely.

I haven't seen him since Sunday night.

It's not totally uncommon for one of the boys to be absent for their breakfast time so I wasn't terribly worried when I didn't see him yesterday morning -- put food down as usual.

I went out directly from work yesterday and didn't get home until about midnight, at which point only Ziggy was there asking for his dinner. Again, it's not particularly unusual for them to go walk-about late at night, so I wasn't terribly worried -- put down food as usual.

This morning -- still no Mika. All the food has disappeared over the last 24 hours though, so I figured that either he's been popping into the house when I wasn't there, or Ziggy's been extra greedy. This morning I fed Ziggy and put Mika's food in the fridge.

I popped home at lunch time today, expecting Mika to be there, sleeping in his basket as normal for that time of day, or to mew noisily at me asking for the breakfast he didn't get this morning, but... no Mika. I walked all around the streets calling him, but no joy.

I know it's not particularly unusal for cats to go missing for days at a time but Mika is such a Mummy's boy and this is totally out of character. He doesn't go outside so much as Ziggy and whenever he does go out he's soon back in, mewing at me and pawing for attention. If i'm in bed (with the bedroom door shut) he periodically scratches at the door for a fuss. I've never known such a gregarious, human-loving cat.

He's microchipped and has a name/phone number on his collar so hopefully if anything bad has happened I'll get to find out -- but obviously, much more than that I hope he'll come home tonight. I think it's more likely he's got shut in somebody's shed or garage or in one of the new houses being built down the road from me than actually injured but I can't help worrying.

Come home, Mika!

My cats are dirty stop-outs.

While they seem more affectionate than ever since I got back from Liverpool, it's becoming more common that they aren't home at meal times. I just have to put their food down and go out or go to bed, depending on what the time of day is. They know whose food is whose (Mika always goes to the dish on the left, Ziggy to the one on the right) but if one decides they're full, the other will soon dig in to their left-overs. I'm sure it all works out okay in the end.

They're obviously straying further than I realised -- this evening I popped out to the off licence in the village and the pair of them followed me all the way to the main road, in spits and spurts. I'd walk a few yards, then the boys would gallop from a few metres behind me to a few metres in front of me and stand in my way until I stopped to fuss them for a bit. It's rather cute and lovely but I don't like the thought of them playing near the main road and I figured that I lived far enough away (and near enough to cat-friendly places like playing fields) that they'd be safe here. I guess I have to trust they have some kind of road sense.

Nearly bed time. I wonder where they are now.

Ziggy, fast asleep.

The boys survived their first annual trip to the vet on Friday. Ziggy became very vocal and sang all the way there in the car, but they were both as good as gold for their jabs -- not a peep out of them. The vet also gave them a worming tablet each, aided by a magic long tweezery type of implement to get the pill down their throats with minimal fuss. I definitely prefer this to trying myself, having read all of those "comedy" how-to-get-a-cat-to-take-a-pill things floating around and hearing various horror stories from friends.

They're both a fraction overweight but other than that are in fine fettle and the vet was impressed by their general health and condition. Yay.

Got up on Friday morning and walked into the kitchen to find Mika looking very pleased with the bird he'd caught and brought inside (dead). The trouble was, it wasn't just your normal hedge-sparrow or whatever -- it was a large, fat, bright yellow canary.

I can only hope that it had already escaped from somewhere and was flying around in a daze -- an easy target. It would be BAD if Mika jumped in through some open living-room window, knocked down a cage and brought home somebody's pet for Mom.

Ziggy and Mika are one year old today!

Mika is not amused.