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

I haven't written a journal in nearly 2 years - too much to do and so many things to sort out...

So, this may be about a small thing in our lives, but he is very interesting and very funny! To us anyway. In 5 years time, I'd like to look at my fat, placid cat and remember the early days.

We adopted Gravyhead a year ago. He was a scrawny, feral, tiny monster, but one day he looked inside at the sofa and the food bowl, took another look outside at his feral, half-starved family and decided it was a no-brainer! He hasn't left the sofa since! The name came from how keen he was to be fed, his head was down in the bowl before the last drips of gravy came out of a cat food pouch - he got a lot of gravy on his head! After neutering, lots of vet visits and a lot of love, he has turned into a fairly independent, but loving moggie! All he asks is a couple of cuddles a day, a bowl of biscuits and a comfy sofa or bed to sleep on when it's hot. And he likes to come and watch while you hang out the laundry.

So this year, with Gravy's mama spawning a new litter (no chance of grabbing her for a vet trip!), we decided to take on another one. Hotpoint! The first incursion into the house ended up with him jammed under the fridge and unable to get himself out! He's a tiny, ginger and white hellion! Mama punted him and his 2 sisters a bit early (around 4 weeks old) so he's had to fight for a lot in his little life. Currently, he's fighting every houseplant, soft furnishing and vertical blind into submission! He's not exactly shy with the household fittings at 7 weeks old!

He's happy running around the house, but not so happy with humans getting close, so today started the slow process of human training! He lives mostly in the hedge at the moment so is a tad flea-infested and picking up all sorts of bugs. We would like to get him to the vet as soon as we can but we need to get him used to being handled. Gravy is being a star and has taken over Mum duties and pins him down for a good wash and telling off at various points in the day.

So today, though it's harsh, there was no food for Hotpoint til he came to the bowl by my side and allowed a few strokes along his back. The second he flinches, the bowl is taken away. Gravy is being fed from the same bowl at the same time (he gets extras later!) so it's double duty on the stroking front to show that it's all OK.

3 pot plants and the cords for 4 sets of blinds have been lifted out of the way to save on the cleaning up and mass destruction!! This may be a slow process...

wow I love their names

and your patience!

Cat training

It's the course before Cat Herding.

It's more social training, but the cat herding is what DDD has to do whenever it's grub time. I'm sure the sound of the cat food cupboard opening sends a siren round our part of Cyprus and every stray for 10 miles tries to get in the house!

It's around 34 degrees C at the moment so they are in every open door and window!

Hotpoint is now at the stage of accepting strokes if he's very hungry and has his nose in the bowl, but will rather not fill himself up if you continue. It'll take a lot of time but it'll be worth it! He's currently dozing under the sofa, cos his little legs won't spring him up onto it!

aw, bless!

I had meant to post to this as things progressed, so that I could see how Hotpoint was getting on. He's doing really well, getting to that gangly, adolescent look with the long legs and feet to trip over. He's as funny as ever and turning into a very pretty boy.

He's become so friendly lately, asking for cuddles and yesterday even jumped up on my lap for the first time.

But mainly, I think it's because he's lonely. Our Gravy boy went missing 3 weeks ago and hasn't been seen since. People keep saying they knew cats that went missing for 6 weeks and then turned up again, but Gravy never even had an overnight jaunt, he was a real home-loving cat and had to be punted off the sofa to get some air occasionally. We live rurally and have no roads around us and very few neighbours so no obvious accidens are likely. But Cyprus is rife with farmers with Lanate.

He's gone and I miss him loads. So does Hotpoint.

oh Deaks - that's so sad when you had given him such a loving home

Still no sign of Gravy - there is no way he is coming home.

But Fat Lad, as Hotpoint may now be renamed - is 2.8 kilos at 3 months old and after a quick vet visit last week to get rid of some nasty ear mites and the random fleaishness, is now fit indoors company!

He has taken to following us around like a dog, sits on the end of the bath while I'm in it and now whinges when we don't give him strokes. He's following when I hang out the laundry too (not sure what is so interesting about my laundry, but they all seem to love watching!) and likes to jump in the open washing machine! He has also taken up night-time residence on my patio chair!! I may have to buy him his own soon.

But he is still a complete batty-boy and there is no safe plant or vertical blind in the house! I hope he grows out of that soon!

Yay for Fat Lad

You may not be surprised to learn - the Cat Protection lady went home with an empty basket . We now have Soxs - a nine month abandoned kitten. She doesn't know how to play - but she's learning fast. Strangely she has a fascination with the pool and sits by it for hours staring into the deep end - I think shes hoping for a fish.

This summer has not been good for Hotpoint !

First he was poisoned, almost a year to the day when Gravy went missing - not a coincidence I fear! Luckily, he came home straight away and we noticed that he was in a bad way so a quick trip to the vet, 2 days of antidotes and he was back on his feet!

A fortnight later, he came home with the last 2 inches of his tail degloved so another trip to the vet and an amputation of his end tail bones. A week in the vet clinic for that one. His balance was a bit off for a while but he recovered well.

One month after that, he came home limping badly on his back leg. Cue yet another trip to the vet - one leg broken in the thigh region so 2 days in the vet for sedation and cast putting on. Then another 3 days in the vet when he pulled the cast off 2 days later. Then another 3 days when ditto happened...Then another 11 days in the vet when he pulled off the subsequent 3 casts while still in the custody of said vet (it became a battle of wills between him and the vet - the vet refused to be beaten by a cat and so didn't charge us for those 11 days! )

The vet gave up first and sent him home without a cast to live in a small cage til the leg healed. As we sat in the office waiting for , there was an almighty yowl, the nurse got a mop bucket, the receptionist got the first aid kit and the vet handed him over with a large bandage on his hand and one of those 'Thanks very much, but please don't bring him back' expressions on his face .

So huge vet bills, 5 casts and 6 weeks of living in a very small box later, Hotpoint is back on the prowl. He *seems* to have learned his lesson and is staying close to home at the moment, but I think that's mainly to torment and bully Horatio.

Did I mention Horatio? Yet another who just moved in one day. Gorgeous, softest furred, pale sandy ginger & white boy who is about 5 months old now and is the biggest, softest sap in the world.

I AM turning into the mad cat woman of Cyprus (DDD loves them more though, he has conversations with them!)

Good grief That cat knows no fear!

Hotpoint sounds like my kind of cat!

He is the funniest cat I've ever had. He's a big lad (5.5 kilos) and likes to think he rules the garden so has nightly fights with the stray toms in the area who wander through. But get him on his back and he will lie for hours having his tummy stroked!

His balance is still a bit off - with the gimpy leg and the short tail - and the look of disgust on his face and the 'I meant it really' when he falls off the sofa or patio table is hysterical!

But DDD says he will post him to you tomorrow Sho, if you want the vet bills!

er...
thanks but no thanks!

We have Pippin The Wonder Cat and he's enough. He's the one the neighbourhood cats beet up and steal his dinner money.