Whew, I feel dirty after that last dog post! Time to clean up with some awesome kittehs.
We have a handsome pair this time: Millie and Huxley (who, I’m, told, is named after Thomas Henry Huxley). This is the entry of reader Gayle Ferguson.
Pictured are Millie (left) and her step-brother Huxley. Millie purrs like a little machine and displays the slanted eyes of contentment. She’s supposedly the progeny of a pure-bred Abyssinian mother and a wandering stray (whoops! somebody left the door open!) though I see nothing but Abyssinian in both her appearance and personality. Sharp and inquisitive, with much to say, Millie is an extremely accomplished hunter of birds, mice, rats and skinks, which she brings to my bed as frequent offerings. She loves her step-brother and cleans his filthy self at every available opportunity, though only half his size. One of Millie’s many quirks is to growl at any visitor who approaches my front door; another is that she refuses to drink the water beside her food bowl, instead preferring to take her water from an identical bowl placed at the plug end of the bath.
Huxley is the worrier of the pair. Coming from a ‘disadvantaged’ kitten-hood, he is timid and has love only for his mother (me!), the arrival of any other person sparking a state of panic. Like a true Mummy’s-boy, Huxley loves his cuddles and is the most passive and malleable cat I have ever come across, being happy to lie in any position you put him in! Not a hunter, perhaps as a consequence of his generous lower end, Huxley once presented me with a cicada on a stick. One of his quirks is that he will only acknowledge his love for me when within the house — in the garden I am a stranger to him, and a stranger to be feared. Recently we have began to increase the number of zones within the garden where he can love me. Patience and time. Not liking to wait for his breakfast, Huxley will punch me awake in the mornings, with his little accomplice sitting neatly behind him. Though both well over a year old now, M and H still play chase in the garden every evening and love to stalk each other in the house too!
I think they deserve to win because they’re so damn pretty!
Dear Millie and Huxley!
2. In other news – Lucy Varas got over her stomach ache, which was a load off my mind.
Apparently she couldn’t resist nibbling some tinsel, despite strong advice to the contrary.
Okay, that reminds me: when I was a kid we had a cat who ate and threw up tinsel at Xmas. I wrote a song about it, to the tune of the old Christmas favorite, “Silver bells.”
Silver Balls
Silver hairballs
Silver hairballs
‘Neath the green Christmas tree
They are making a terrible mess;
Little hairballs
Laced with tinsel–
They are saying to me
That my cat is in gastric distress.
Hear him retching
Hear me kvetching
At the mess in the house–
At the smell of cat vomit and pine;
He won’t eat tuna,
Won’t eat chicken,
Doesn’t look at a mouse;
For he wants food that dangles and shines.
Ha! That’s purrfect. You’re lucky if they come up hairballs!
OMNEG, JC! That is just wrong.
That is getting emailed straight to my mother. Or, maybe I’ll just sing it to her, since I’m supposed to call her in a minute… :-))
My mother now thinks you’re a brilliant songwriter :-))–though I could hardly sing for laughing!
Haaaaaaaaaaa!
If only Lucy had had that sung to her, she would surely have recovered sooner.
I have a cat that is loving in the house but stares with something akin to horror if I approach him in the garden – again, like Huxley, he had a disadvantaged kittenhood so perhaps it is a common trait.
Beautiful kitties!
And there is nothing more fun than pulling a string of tinsel out of a cat bum!
oy. No.
That will not do.
Bootiful kittehs!
I’ve known several cats which reacted completely differently to known people when outside, as opposed to inside.
My last cat, however, behaved exactly the same outside and inside. Except when she sensed that we were intending to bring her inside for the night, and she wasn’t quite ready to come in. I would have submitted her to the contest, but she died over three years ago, and I just assumed it was for living cats.
No, there were a lot of late contestants. But it was hard on the judges.
sob.
Oh, don’t feel dirty over the border-collie post. Border collies are different, and not like other dogs. They are so neurotic, they are practically cats!
And I mean that in a NICE way!
Mine has the same quirk. I speculate, totally without evidence, that there may be some instinct that says “Don’t drink from a water hole that has dead meat nearby.”
I could test this by putting the food in the bath too and see if she stops drinking there!
I’ve always assumed from observation that it’s normal for domestic cats to drink away from food. However contaminated water doesn’t seem the correct reason to me because surely cats tend not to eat carrion ?
My supposition (I’m an urbanite & know nothing):
Ancestor cats in the wild must have avoided devouring a kill near water because of the increased threat from other, bigger predators who stake out water hoping to kill other prey animals
Also I suppose carrion animals such as Hyenas & vultures may also be more likely to interfere near water
Therefore… cats choose to eat where there is a lower risk of losing their meal &/or of finding themselves being eaten/injured
Michael
Keeshu drinks from the bathtub.
Those are 2 good looking cats. May you enjoy their love for many years. Hurray for Millie & Huxley!
I have a cat who curls in the bathroom sink, looking forlornly at the faucet, while I put on my sunscreen in the morning. He’s done this since I adopted him a half dozen years ago, although I must say it’s much harder for him how with his weight gain. Some cats have no self control at all.
My kitteh, Clio (who takes care of my mother for me since we can’t have pets in company housing) does that, too. Water in a bowl! Really–disgraceful. Running water, please, from the sink. Well, alright, *one* lap from the bowl, *if* it’s just been filled *and* it has an ice cube in it. It’s just so hard to get good help these days.
Oops–hit post before I meant to.
M and H are *gorgeous*! Love the abyssinians!
A very rotund cat of my brother and sister-in-law’s once reduced me to breath-exhausting screams of laughter by joining me in the living room where I was reading late one night, getting up onto the table next to the couch, and curling herself up in a large pewter bowl which sat on it. She fit very snugly. Very snugly indeed.
Sink water and tub water, even with soap and bath oil in it. Bryxie snuck up behind her and pushed her in a couple of times. She did the best foolies; always got Keeshu’s goat. How I miss that cat.
Why is they wrapped up around that heart?
My Kitteh prefers to drink from a running tap in the bathtub, even though I bought her her own little fountain to drink from hoping that the running water would be to her taste. It’s in the bathroom too, she deigns to drink from it occasionally but mostly she hops into the bath-tub and looks at me expectantly when I go in.
Those are some really cute kittehs too.
My boss’ cat insists on drinking from his bidet! Whenever he goes into his bathroom she runs ahead and waits for him, looking up expectantly!
Millie is also a licker of fawcets (which is why I put her water bowl in the bath). Lately she has been jumping up on the side of the bath when I am in the shower and I have to drip water down my fingers for her to lap up! She often stands up on her hind legs to do this, which I encourage! It is adorable to see her lapping and blinking as the drops of water go on her face.
Your boss’s cat has a bidet?!
Yes, but he only uses it for drinking!
I would call that photo “Kink cute” but, then again, I’m shameless.
I see that baby Kink is pictured in his litterbox on kinkthecat.com.
When are we gonna be able to make comments?
Here is Millie giving Hux a bath:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_gBrDp9Nqc
And here is Millie being adorable in her basket:
Awwwww–now I miss my kitty. 🙁
Yay Gayle, yay Millie and Hux!
I loved the bath video.
Look, your really precious misspelling of kitty is really cute. Really.
My picture of Al is genuinely funny. C’mon. Share it.
Or I’ll kill him.
They are rather good looking.
You know, when I read stories like this, and watch videos such as the one of Huxley in his basket, it tends to support my take that cats are autistic.
Correction: Oops, that was Millie in the basket. I still hold that cats engage in autistic behavior.
You don’t have any notion that that comment might be taken as hurtful?
A statement of fact? Or do you hold that autistics are somehow wrong?
So what do you see Millie’s behavior that points you to your tentative diagnosis of autism? Do you know any actual cats, or just what you read and see on YouTube?
And don’t be deliberately obtuse with regard to how that comment could possibly be hurtful.
Gorgeous kitties & a wonderful picture of them! Abyssinians are one of the few cat breeds that make me wish I weren’t so committed to “rescue” cats. (I’ve yet to find an Aby in a shelter…)