h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello. 42 cats eh ? Second time I have seen this number tonight. (See Radio 2 Coffee Bar from Phillip Phlopp)

I have only had 7 cats. Can I join your conversation ?

Jen

Hi Jennifer. Sure you can join my conversation. You can join any conversation you want. You'll know if you're not wanted. People act rude and start throwing things. (Just kidding. I've never been ordered out of one but I have been ignored. Just persist.)

Why 42? In the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy (a book by Douglas Adams) 42 is the Answer to the Question. The problem is, they didn't ask the question properly so they have to try to discover what the right question was. If you haven't read the book(s) it is a classic, funny read (upon which this site is based).

Seven cats is great. So far, my humans have only served five house cats. Innumerable barn cats but I don't think they count as they cannot be properly served by their human pets. I believe that cat-adoration is an indication of a well-rounded, properly-raised human. What do you think?

Good Morning !!

Thank you for answering my question.

I truly believe that if you have never loved a cat you are not a complete person.

Stroking their warm, furry little bodies. Feeling them nestle up under the chin. Bearing the scratch marks on the skin.

Oh, I could wax lyrical all day but I'm going to the dentists.

Jen

Ugh! Cats hate dentists. Hope your experience is tolerable.

Hi.

My experience was tolerable. The subsequent pain when the anastheatic wore off was indescribable.

Three of my cats have had teeth removed. Oh bless. Poor little things. I told them it was for their own good, but they didn't understand.

Their little mouths are puckered.

Jen

I've never had teeth removed - yet. But I'm only 3 so I guess there's time. Hopefully it will never need to be done. My friend had only one fang removed. She looked pretty silly but we didn't laugh at her to her face. (Cats can be prideful.)

Also, glad your appointment went well.

If there is one thing I have learned in life, it is never to laugh at a cat.

Out come those pretty little claws and the scars are practically there for life.

I have so many scratch marks on my wrists it has been thought I have been trying to do away with myself.

As if.

Jen

I once had a cat - it was an ex-kindigarten (pre-school) pet. My family did its best to love it but it was mentally scared for life. It left many scars on me. Fortunately for me my skin healed better than the poor cat's psyche.

Ah, your long lost cat had a tough life. Poor thing.

A tough short life. It eventually ran away sporting any amount of exema, leaving a trail of vet bills behind.

Ah, absconded with no forwarding address. It happens with cats. Where do they go to ? Do they get locked in sheds, hitch rides in cars ? Find a kinder person to live with ?

Ah, who knows.

Hmmm... No wonder you were leary of cats at first PT. That one sounds a bit suspicious - like maybe it wanted to be wild anyway. Some critters just don't know when they have it made. Of course it is pretty hot there. Maybe it needed the cool north (as in waaaaay north) wind.

Cats don't survive too well in the wild around here. To quote Crocodile Dundee there are plenty of "crawling nasties" to take care of them. The proper order is for a cat to have a pet human and so not have to worry about the wild. Perhaps you weren't properly trained?

Quite possibly. I think that a young life in a pre-school would have caused any cat to realise, wrongly, that humans are untrainable.

Where we were living at the time was one of the coldest coastal places in mainland Australia. Nothing like inland Northen US, but wet and chilly all the same.

I suspect that the cat may have survived. There are lots of things for cat to eat in the wild in this land. Australia was made for cats and rabbits.

Dear PT

Not to mention the kangaroos and the wallabies !

Jen

Can you please remind me again where you are ? Crocodile sent shivers down my back bone. I got the shakes to the knee bone. Shaking all over.

J

I am in Adelaide (near the centre of Australia's southern coast). There are heaps of kangaroos near where I live - my parents live about 40 minutes drive south of the city and have kangaroos outside their house.

For myself, I have possums in my roof. They look cuddly and sweet (like their photos) but they are noisy and _very_ smelly! Two fell through my ceiling a few weeks ago and it took about 4 hours before we finished cleaning up. Just as well they didn't get onto the bed - possum piss (the natural gift of a nervous possum and these possums were very nervous) would be very difficult to clean u.

Well, I never knew that about possums. How on earth do they get in the roof? Did they gnaw through your ceiling? I suppose they must be a bit like skunks with their smelly habits.Yuk !

Only domestic pets round here, although I did see a rat running on the waste ground where the local yobos throw their left overs from kebab, Chinese and fish and chip shop.

Possums, being the warm, sweet, doe-eyed, furry creatures that they are, can climb hardwood trees (no bark) vertically with ease. They are a bundle of muscle, razor-like claw, fur and cuteness in fair proportion.

If they elect to dismantle your house, they will. The only thing that ever saves us is that they prefer to fight than get themselves organised.

The koalas are noisier than the possums but don't live in roofs - only in trees. They make deep gunting, rough sounds (the noises can be heard over a fair distance). If you meet one on the ground, steer clear as their claws can take your leg off (well, mostly off). Fortunately they don't have a lot of reach...

People who live in the main suburbs of Adelaide (we are less than 20minutes from the city centre by train), don't get Koalas but they do have to put up with the possums...

Wow, and I thought a squirrel in the attic was bad. Too bad you don't have (or use) the rural U.S. method of pest elimination. What did you do to get them out of your house? Open the door and say, "Shoo!"?

Possums here are not cute. They are grotesquely ugly and fortunately rarely seen except in the headlights of our car. (No, we don't try to hit them.)