27/2/13 Snow Cat!

The snow has mainly been washed away now by rain but yesterday Bubbles did decide to be even braver than her earlier wide-legged strides on the patio and ventured right out onto the grass where she bounced around on the snow, enjoying the feel of a light sprinkling of snow on her fur!

I, meanwhile, stayed shivering indoors, with about three layers of clothes on!

It feels quite a lot warmer today. In fact, this week is forecast to be positively tropical with temperatures reaching as high as eleven degrees. I mean; rain and eleven degree temperatures! It's almost tropical. Well maybe not tropical but is is almost reaching our usual summer climate - in January!

20/1/13 Snow!

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! It has been absolutely FREEZING! The snow has fallen in blizzard conditions (which made for an interesting driving experience including getting slightly stuck trying to reverse.... ummmm but I won't go into that now!)

Bubbles was unimpressed when I flung open the back door, she stuck her head out but received a faceful of snow flakes. She yanked her head back inside at top speed, said "Miaow" really loudly then went to recover her composure by filing her nails!

She has not been able to play outside all week because of said snow (her choice not mine), however, today she bravely set foot outside into the crunchy white carpet & crept about the patio, taking giant, wide-legged strides in the snow!

13/1/13 Pinetrees

I decided to write this week's Blog post as a tribute to all the cats who lost their lives in the devastating fire at Pinetrees cattery, Staffordshire and to all their owners who must be going through the most unimaginable grief.

I am probably not the only cat lover who cried when reading one of the many articles reporting this devastating event and I feel also for the poor cattery owners who have not only dealt with the aftermath, the responsibility of telling the owners but also the grief of losing some of their own animals.

As a cat owner, I personally agonised over the "should I / shouldn't I" dilemma of whether to send Bubbles to a cattery or not during our holidays. Deciding eventually on the option of boarding her at a cattery as a preference to leaving her at home because I felt she would value the companionship of other animals and people, I knew people would constantly be around during the day to check on her to make sure there were no problems and predominantly I believed she would be safe.

My heart goes out to every owner who boarded their cat believing them to be safe then returned to this terrible tragedy.

6/1/13 Happy New Year! Balloons

Happy New Year everybody!

We performed the annual Christmas decorations taking down ceremony (well we dismantled the tree, untangled the lights, took down the tinsel etc) during which my other half was dangerously close to electrocution as he inadvertently dangled the still plugged in Christmas tree lights alarmingly close to Bubbles' full water bowl!

Bubbles was fast asleep upstairs; blissfully unaware of the shenanigans occurring in the living room. After her evening nap she came down to see us, marching boldly through the door then FREEZING as she surveyed the landscape. "What? No tree?" she seemed to say, giving a nod in the ex direction of the Christmas tree. Then her eyes narrowed to slits as she noticed the remaining balloons, no longer tied up safely in the corners of the room but floating freely about the floor.

Surprisingly, Bubbles marched straight up to one. Now, readers of previous posts will understand this is a very unusual phenomenon because Bubbles is not at all keen on balloons! She walked, or rather, bravely marched past it, lay down on the wooden floor and watched it float stealthily around. A few moments later, deciding there really was nothing to this balloon lark after all, she got up, walked towards the balloon and tried.... to take a bite!

"Bubbles! No!" I shrieked, moving considerably faster off the settee than I had for weeks (owing to my excessive Christmas food consumption.) Bubbles looked shocked at my outburst and backed away from the balloon. My other half and I looked at each other, grabbed the balloons and shoved them behind the settee. Bubbles looked impressed. Now the lounge was, finally, a balloon free zone!