WELCOME TO CAT WORLD.

[Cathy]

Great to read the update on Izzy, good to see that you are so persistent Thomo.

Are cats in England micro-chipped, over here it can prove ownership.

[Downers]

Great to hear they are settling in
They have been very lucky to find such a nice home !

[Moh]

Good luck with that Thomo.

[Thomo]

It has just been "treat" teatime again, we decided on tuna again this time, and four tins vanished in under 15 minutes. Marmy and Patchy, as we now know her, are still doing well and making progress. The difficulty is when they do come out of the dining room, they are faced with a fair number of curious cats, and I do not imagine that they are used to other cats. Several of our originals do go into the dining room, and there is never a problem, Marmy and Patchy just sit and watch them, it will take time but we will get there in the end. Regarding Izzy, the pain is not going away, I feel that I have let him down, next week I am going to see his original owners, I need to know when they last saw him, as the info coming in from the couple who took him does not match up with what I already know. I need to be sure that if all else fails, I can recover him without worrying about future developments. We all miss him badly, we love him, the other cats loved him, and right now we believe that were he still here, he would help to get Marmy and Patchy integrated, that's just how he is!

[Tripps]

I feared the worst when I saw the headline - but don't worry - all is well.

Cat Cafe

[Cathy]

I wish them well.

[Thomo]

I will second that Cathy, and its good to know that others try and do their best, wherever they live. At the end of the day, any problems regarding cats come back to irresponsible owners, in respect of large numbers of feral and stray cats, and anyone who has been to Lagos in Portugal, will know what I mean, and its not just there, there is a problem in all of the Mediterranean areas. Here in good old Barlick we do our best, I have just been to Stanley House Vets again, and the young Woman in there had provided evidence that all of the stuff that the people who took Izzy told me is nothing but pure bullshitt, they told me that they had him neutered early in 2012. Izzy was booked in for this by his original owners from their new address in May of that year, the appointment was cancelled when he went missing in that month, it was in early June when he arrived here. So, I now have two options, first I will write to them and confront them with the evidence accompanied by Izzy's Vets bills, and if that fails, I will wait a while, get to know the area where he is, find him and bring him back. If I believed that they were genuine, I would not do this, I do not want to do this, but it is Izzy that I care about and not them.

[Thomo]

It is now two weeks since Marmy and Patchy came to live with us, they have been no trouble at all and are now become a bit more adventurous. Last night we took a leap of faith and left the dining room door open and we had a quiet night. They are doing fine and settling in well now.

[Cathy]

Thomo you are obviously working thru a specific list of diplomatic steps, that's great but if these people had Izzys welfare at heart, you would not be feeling how you are. They sound like ferals to me and if Izzy was gone from their lives they wouldn't care. Skip a few steps and bring Izzy home.

[Thomo]

Thank you Cathy, and you are right, I miss Izzy every day and do not really care now about that couples feelings, they didn't even consider ours. But this cannot be done quickly, I need time to assess the situation, and decide what is the best way of going about it. This morning Marmy and Patchy have been quietly exploring the rest of the house, whilst the others were napping, another step in the right direction, encouragement is better than force when it comes to cats. I am pleased with the progress so far and I am now happy that we will get there pretty soon.

[Thomo]

Marmy and Patchy are now overcoming their initial fear of the rest of the house and the other cats, there have been a few "hisses" but no aggression on either side, a dignified respect being shown all round. Having been down this path many times we are now confident of a happy result sooner than later.

[Thomo]

Marmy and Patchy are now making more forays into the rest of the house, this morning Patchy has been into the lounge twice and spent 15 minutes in here checking everything out.

[Thomo]

Three weeks today and the progress of integrating Marmy and Patchy is accelerating, this is Patchy in the lounge this morning:-

[PanBiker]

Peter, just edited your post slightly, you seem to be using the wrong image string when inserting images, you need the top one from the gallery and to use the "insert Image" icon from the editor to insert the string rather than copying it directly into the thread.

He looks like a bit of a mischievous kind of guy, certainly curious in this picture.

[Thomo]

Thanks Ian, I have tried the method you suggest several times, and it has only worked once, with the pic of the Corner Café in the other topic, I find I can paste the link into the topic but not into the insert image box.

[PanBiker]

That's very peculiar Peter, if you have the URL string copied to the clipboard you should be able to paste from the right click menu wherever you have the cursor. Try copying and then pasting it in the Insert image box with CTRL+V instead, you will need to click with the mouse once in the box though to position the cursor.

I did notice that you had copied the Album string rather than the Image URL which will not display the picture although it would copy the string into the post.

[Thomo]

Thanks again Ian, I have just done a test using control+V, and it worked, another one of life's little mysteries!

[Cathy]

Aaw Patchy looks lovely (and very healthy), give him a cuddle from me.

[Thomo]

Patchy and Marmy are both girls, indeed in the current absence of Izzy, all of our cats are females. Its a mistake easily made and is the reason that we added a "Y" to Patch, Patch sounds rather more masculine. She also has a very unusual feature as the very tip of her tail is pure white, Marmy also has this feature. The kittens are now nearly 10 months old, and are very playful and mischievous, they all have different characters, Poppy is the most outgoing, followed closely by Cassie, Florence is quieter and more gentle, and Lola is upwardly mobile. Here they are with Mum, Rosie who is very big now and very laid back.

[Tardis]

Got sent this on twitter last night.

The way it all begins:

[Thomo]

Marmy and Patchy are now spending much more time exploring the rest of the house and meeting the other cats, all is going well. In the dining room where these two have spent a lot of time since their arrival, there were two beds, an igloo and a basket, the igloo was the most popular so yesterday we replaced the basket with another new igloo, Patchy claimed this very quickly.

[Marilyn]

All those cats on the sofa....no....not for me I am afraid!
Just couldn't live like that.
Beautiful cats and all that, but I would feel like I couldn't breathe with all that fur in the house, not to mention being watched by all those pairs of eyes!
Glad the two newbies have settled for you.

[Thomo]

In this house, the fur is firmly attached to the cats. We are quite used to the looks of horror and disbelief when people are told that we have nine, the facial expressions give away exactly what is going through their minds, top of this list will be "the smell"! We get visitors here who still cannot believe that we have more than one cat, and are amazed by the lack of physical evidence and all of the other things that they expect. There are no secrets to achieving this other than common sense and good management. Cleanliness is of course paramount and to achieve good results we have to go all the way with this, the one thing that our cats dislike more than anything else is the vacuum cleaner (suck monster) we have several in the garage that despite the makers claims were mediocre in performance and extremely noisy. more than capable of filling them all with panic. Last year we bought a cordless Dyson Animal, this was not cheap but outperforms anything else that we have tried, it is also very quiet, to the point that most of the cats regard it with bored indifference. A happy and well cared for cat, or indeed any other animal, will not usually be a problem for their owner or anyone else. All animals share this planet with us, and when there are problems it is more likely that it is our fault and not theirs.

An invitation yesterday morning from Sally@catsonlyvets to attend the opening of a new Cats Only Veterinary Clinic in High Corn Mill, Chapel Hill in Skipton. This is located by the side of the Springs Branch near to what used to be Ledgard and Wynns. The building also houses a new water turbine, generating power for the national grid, only small scale, but every little helps. We have used this Veterinary Practice for nearly a year now and the service is first class and easier on the wallet.

[Thomo]

Now 4 weeks on for the new arrivals and all is going well. Patchy spends most of her time exploring the house, but Marmy is not quite as adventurous. It has to be remembered that these two have probably never been in contact with other cats and suddenly being faced with 7, 4 of which are very young is no doubt a bit daunting. Patchy is black and white, and it is noticeable that cats of different colours have differing behaviour patterns, tabby's and black and whites appear to be more readily adaptable to change.

[Thomo]

One of the inevitable parts of having cats is when you know that you are going to lose one at some time. Our oldest and first cat Ellie, almost 17 years now, is beginning to show signs of health failure and old age. She lost weight after her brother Jethro died in 2010, and although always active has never regained this loss. In the past two weeks her behaviour has changed and she has at times become quiet and withdrawn. She can still rush about a bit, but then can just fall down and appear helpless, she still eats and drinks quite well, and we know that any treatment will just delay the inevitable, it is now simply a matter of time. Its like living on the edge, and after what has happened recently with Molly and then Izzy, it is hard to bear. On a happier note, Marmy and Patchy are still making progress, and yesterday Patchy was playing with Lola, one of the kittens, chasing each other around the house. Marmy is a bit more reserved but is doing well and spending less time in the back room, Patchy is hardly ever in there now.