Confused.cat

The Housekeeper has been busy in the kitchen today ...

It's her Father's 88th Birthday and her Aunt's 80th Birthday within the space of a week, so there is a family "do" tomorrow at The Housekeeper's parents house. On the teatime menu is The Housekeeper's homemade smoked mackerel pate and also a very large four layer carrot cake for pudding which will double as a Birthday cake.

The Housekeeper had a committee meeting on Tuesday evening so was able to test the carrot cake recipe out in advance and all agreed it was good enough to make again.

With the pungent smell that only smoked mackerel can make to the house, clothes and hands, The Housekeeper expected that she would have four furry friends supervising the making of the pate this morning, but it wasn't to be. However just as she was finishing the de-boning process everyone arrived in the kitchen so The Housekeeper thought that she had better be kind and offer fishy titbits.

It turns out that three out of four cats DON'T like mackerel.

In the dim distant, a small black cat called Mouse who lived next door and Parsnip, the first Abyssinian that The Housekeeper owned would have removed human skin for a bit of "Mach Pat". But not these guys, that is except for the Amber cat (still wearing her collar) who devoured every bit she was given and came back for more!) This is the cat who won't eat cat treats of any sort and never begs for human food.

This evening it was time to cover the carrot cake in cream cheese frosting and guess what, the boys both sat at The Housekeeper's feet and cried to be fed??????

It appears that two out of four Abyssinians prefer cheesy cake frosting to fish.

Just to be different!

Remembering

Three years ago today, on the 11th September, when the rest of the world also remembers,

The Housekeeper had to say goodbye to her very first Abyssinian.

Raving Parsnip Purrikiss - we still miss you :-(

Litter Louts

The Housekeeper despairs of the Four Abyssinians sometimes. She spent a good 15 to 20 minutes yesterday morning clearing out the litter trays, cleaning them, putting new litter in (we use a clumping clay litter) and sweeping the floor of the outhouse where the trays are.

This morning, there's litter all over the floor again.

It seems to be that there is a fine line between not enough litter in the tray which leads to a gooey sticky mess and and extra cleaning of the trays themselves, whereas a deeper tray of litter means that the deposits are far easier to scoop but the surrounding areas to the trays are awash with litter where the cats have been digging for Australia!

The Housekeeper is very, very happy with the litter that she uses, as are the cats, but it's SO messy!

If The Housekeeper's had more than one toilet in the house, they might have considered a litter-quitter, but it just doesn't seem like the right thing to do when their are visitors coming to stay and having to have to remember to leave the bathroom door open at all times and the loo seat up!!!!!!

What kind of litter do you use?
Do you have open trays or the enclosed trays with a cat flap on them?
Are the enclosed trays more difficult to keep clean?
Do they stop mess on the floor of where they are kept?

Answers on a postcard (blog comment) !!

Parsnip's Story .....

Raving Parsnip Purrikiss was The Housekeeper's first Abyssinian. He was born on 2nd October 1998 and came to live with The Housekeepers when he was almost 10 months old in August 1999. We were introduced to his breeders through a mutual contact, having been told that they had a Fawn Abyssinian who needed to be in an "only cat" environment.

We went to visit. He hid under the furniture (hence why no one else had bought him) cowered and hissed. A LOT. Everything you should avoid when choosing a cat! The breeders had given up on him finding a home and had decided to build him a garden run to live in as a last resort. His saving grace was that he loved to play and when given the opportinuty, when no one was watching, played with a screwed up post-it note on the wooden floor.

A week later, we took him home, with the option to take him back any time within the first year, if things didn't work out. For the first three days we had him, we barely even saw him. We heard him feed at night after we had gone to bed, but by day he hid under the beds and the furniture. After a week of coaxing, he would come out to play with "Feather on a Stick", "The Dr Who Scarf" and the post-it notes but would retreat to one of the dining rom chairs under the table and peer at us through the holes in the table cloth.

Once we had gained his confidence to play, we also started picking him up and putting him straight down, once a day, leading on to picking him up and counting to two and putting him down etc etc etc until we were in a position, about a year later, that we could hold him for long enough for him to accept being stroked. He became, in time, the most affectionate cat  - however it was always on his terms and he only ever sat on a lap twice in his entire life. At bedtime, he would wait until the lights were out, do a full check of every room in the house, and then settle between The Housekeepers where he would purr for England and accept a stroke or two, before settling on their feet for the night.

If The Housekeeper was ever ill in bed, he wouldn't ever leave her side. If she went downstairs to make a drink, he followed her. If she went to the bathroom, he did the same and then returned to his watch post on the end of the bed with his head on his paws, much like a puppy. He really was a true companion.

He is the only Abyssinian we have let out, because he showed no desire to hunt or stray and used to sit happily in the back garden. If he wanted to know where his humans were - he would walk into the house, chirp to get us to answer him, come for a headbutt and then set off again for another laze in the sun. After he had used his litter tray!!!! He never ever used the garden as a toilet but came in to use his loo and then went back out to play !!!!!!!! The only garden presents we ever had were huge moths, which he would deliver proudly at our feet and then devour, and the odd frog. He never killed a bird, for which we are grateful.

The one aspect of Parsnip's personality that The Housekeepers never managed to control throughout all this time, was Parsnip's temper. He growlled like a dog. He hated visitors and would bite ankles and go for hands left in the way. He would sit outside the bathroom door and hiss at anyone who dared go up to use it. Whilst this was somewhat amusing to start off with, having to tell anyone who walked into the house NOT to touch the cat, or put their hands down to him was difficult, because he looked so, so beautiful but friends often went away with a war wound on a hand or ankle.

Parsnip left us far, far too soon on 11th September 2008, just short of his 10th birthday. We had taken him to the vets because he had started walking with his head to one side and was following the lines of the furniture and walls to move from room to room. He had antibiotics for an ear infection, which did no good, followed by a blood test which was sent to Germany for possible Toxoplasmosis, which proved negative.

Each day we watched our beautiful boy get sicker and sicker and the vets had absolutely no clue as to what was actually wrong with him. They eventually suggested that we take him to an animal hospital approx 20 miles away where they were expecting a mobile MRI scan unit that evening and they booked him in to have a full head and body scan.

The results were devestating. Parsnip had a minor deformity in the structure of his nasal cavity. Whilst this had not previously affected him, other than the production of some quite disgusting snot! over theyears, the deformity had accumulated scar tissue and this scar tissue was now pressing on his brain and had pushed his brain backwards and brain damaged him.

Looking back, its no wonder that he was such a grumpy cat with such a short temper and fuse. He had probably had a headache for much of his adult life and we suspect that is why, on the odd occasion that he had to be scruffed by the neck, he always screamed. When he had swiped us with his paws whilst we were stroking him, he would look at us as if to say "Why did I just do that?" - and now we knew exactly why.

Parsnip was the most loyal and fun companion and we have so many precious memories and funny stories that we could write a book about him, let alone a blog entry and we will share some more of his pictures some other time.

He would have absolutely loved The Housekeeper working from home, as she does now. We can imagine him pottering around the garden and putting his nose around the stable door of the workshop where she spends her days, looking pleased with himself with his latest catch in his mouth and THAT chirp.

Even with our four current Abyssinian charges, we still miss him.

Fawn Friday

The Sock Sorter

Fawn Friday was brought to you today by Parsnip Purrikiss

Pictures taken May 2008



Cat Profile - Parsnip

The Housekeeper couldn't possibly complete cat profiles for all the other Abyssinians in her life, without remembering her first Aby and soulmate. He was an unusual character, to say the least - but was dearly loved for the all too short time that he was with us. We will tell his full story some other time!

NAME
Parsnip

NICKNAME
Nip, Nippy, Noodle

BREEDERS NAME
Raving Parsnip Purrikiss

DATE OF BIRTH
2nd October 1998

DATE OF DEATH
11th September 2008

NATURE
Parsnip had a very unusual temperament with a very short fuse. he did not appear to have the usual Abyssinian traits. He didn't like humans much but tolerated them until he had enough.

Fastidiously clean. If he was allowed out in the garden, he would come into the house to use his litter tray and then go back out to play.

CUDDLY
Human - On his terms, at night, lying on The Housekeeper's chest, on top of the duvet, or when The Housekeeper was ill in bed.Not a lap cat. He only sat on a lap twice in the time that we owned him

Cat - Parsnip hated other cats. He used to tell them in no uncertain terms that he hated them by growling at them

VOCAL
Mew - Fairly loud
Purr - When he set his mind to it, but not often
Cry - A throaty "yowl" and a growl that a dog would be proud of!

FAVOURITES:

TOY(S)
Culpepper Catnip Fish - The newer the better

CAT FOOD
Whiskas Chicken

HUMAN FOOD
Chicken

PLACE (DAYTIME)
Under the Ceanothus bush at the bottom of the garden, in the shade. Parsnip was allowed out in the garden as he didn't wander far

PLACE (NIGHTIME)
On Mr Housekeeper's feet at the bottom of the bed

GAME
Chasing the laser light pen dot
Playing fetch with screwed up post-it notes
Sitting on his scratching post, playing "catch" with toy mice

In a Flap

Having had the kitten's litter tray in our lounge for the first week of their residence, and subsequently moved it to the kitchen so that we could tidy up and reduce the mess, we decided that the time had come to get the boys to use the litter trays in the outhouse attached to the kitchen, which is where the girl's litter tray's are, to reduce the volume of litter being trod around the house by both small paws and human feet.

When both Parsnip and then Crystal arrived, the humans spent hours passing both bowls of food - and the cat!! - backwards and forwards through the cat flap to teach them how to use it. This caused endless hilarity and usually resulted in each cat eventually using the cat flap more often than needed, just because they could, once they had mastered it as it became another cat toy.

We knew that Jasper wouldn't be a problem. He's been using both the litter trays when the kitchen door was open and the cat flap (both as a game and out of necessity) but we both realised that Dino would be more difficult.

The first time that Dino went into the outhouse to explore and had the door shut on him by mistake, he cried pitifully to be let back in. The subsequent times all resulted in much vocal encouragement by the humans, standing in the kitchen and a real struggle for a small Abyssinian kitten to work out how to push the flap with his nose and get back into the house. When we saw him go into the outhouse, we had shut the door on him a couple of time, on purpose so that he had to come back through the cat flap and had called him and encouraged him and praised him each time.

To be honest, we weren't convinced that when he actually needed to go to the loo, that he would remember to use the cat flap and I fully expected to come home one day and find either an accident, or him stuck in the outhouse and not able to get back into the main house.

The intention was to leave the back door to the outhouse open for a day over the weekend with the kitten litter tray next to the two which the girls use, but all good intentions were scuppered when The Housekeeper put the tray outside, hoovered up the spilt litter, changed the bin bag and closed the kitchen door, then went to bed.

At about 3am she woke up and realised that she hadn't moved the tray back into the house - but - to our amazement the next morning, there had been no accidents and both the kittens proceeded to prove at 8am the next morning that they knew exactly how to use the cat flap and where their trays were.

Another kitten milestone. Phew!