Cat update and other news
I know you’re all still on the edge of your seats to hear how I’m doing with Smokey.
She had a good weekend, lots of cuddles and scritches, though she is definitely not as clingy as she was when she first came to me. Having a cat that won’t let you out of the room without following is sometimes quite fun, but I’m rejoicing at the fact that she’s growing more confident. She still doesn’t like the computer or the iPad, though. They take my attention away from cats, which is where it should be in her opinion.
She did really well with my gaming friends. I sorted out a place where she could go and hide, which had food, water, her favourite blanket and so on. In the end, though, she hardly used it.
She insisted on staying in the room with my friends, occasionally drawing attention to herself but generally happy to watch them and blink slowly in the way of cats and when she wanted support she came and sat on me. She did have a mad twenty minutes where she ran from the living room to the kitchen and back again repeatedly - I don’ t know what she was about there - but it was short lived.
Today, she meets the cleaner. That should be fun and games for all as it’ll be her first encounter with that creature of evil, the vacuum cleaner. Also the hissy thing that is the iron.
I changed the litter in her tray and gave the tray a wash; never a fun job but it has to be done. I have to say, modern cat litter is very much easier to cope with (if no lighter) than the stuff we used when I had cats before in the early 1980s to the early 1990s. There seems to have been a step change in cat litter technology in the intervening years.
Her appetite seems to have improved considerably - one thing that’s helped is that I tested a different brand of dry cat food on her, and she much prefers it. The down side is that it’s Iams (the only ‘serious’ cat food you can get in supermarkets) and one of my FB friends says that Iams test on animals.
I’m a bit torn over this news. I see any animal testing as a bad thing (though I accept that in science it’s sometimes unavoidable) but on the other hand at least someone has tested the food to check that cats like the stuff. It seems better than formulating and manufacturing a cat food just hoping cats like it (which the manufacturer seems to have done with Go-Cat judging by Smokey’s attitude towards it). However, I’ve ordered some small bags of alternatives from an online pet store to check against it to see if she’ll like those even better.
Then I won’t tell anyone what brand she went for, in case it has an even worse reputation. Frankly my definite preference is that my cat eats her food and fills out a bit - because at the moment she’s a bit of a thin thing and a thank-you. I don’t want her fat, but I want her flanks to fill out.
In other news
It seems there will be a voluntary retirement/redundancy scheme advertised today or tomorrow. I’m very tempted to get a quote just to see how much I’d get if I decided to go. You don’t have to accept the quote and anyway I’m a bit young to retire - but I hate working for this government so very much.
This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/572657.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.
She had a good weekend, lots of cuddles and scritches, though she is definitely not as clingy as she was when she first came to me. Having a cat that won’t let you out of the room without following is sometimes quite fun, but I’m rejoicing at the fact that she’s growing more confident. She still doesn’t like the computer or the iPad, though. They take my attention away from cats, which is where it should be in her opinion.
She did really well with my gaming friends. I sorted out a place where she could go and hide, which had food, water, her favourite blanket and so on. In the end, though, she hardly used it.
She insisted on staying in the room with my friends, occasionally drawing attention to herself but generally happy to watch them and blink slowly in the way of cats and when she wanted support she came and sat on me. She did have a mad twenty minutes where she ran from the living room to the kitchen and back again repeatedly - I don’ t know what she was about there - but it was short lived.
Today, she meets the cleaner. That should be fun and games for all as it’ll be her first encounter with that creature of evil, the vacuum cleaner. Also the hissy thing that is the iron.
I changed the litter in her tray and gave the tray a wash; never a fun job but it has to be done. I have to say, modern cat litter is very much easier to cope with (if no lighter) than the stuff we used when I had cats before in the early 1980s to the early 1990s. There seems to have been a step change in cat litter technology in the intervening years.
Her appetite seems to have improved considerably - one thing that’s helped is that I tested a different brand of dry cat food on her, and she much prefers it. The down side is that it’s Iams (the only ‘serious’ cat food you can get in supermarkets) and one of my FB friends says that Iams test on animals.
I’m a bit torn over this news. I see any animal testing as a bad thing (though I accept that in science it’s sometimes unavoidable) but on the other hand at least someone has tested the food to check that cats like the stuff. It seems better than formulating and manufacturing a cat food just hoping cats like it (which the manufacturer seems to have done with Go-Cat judging by Smokey’s attitude towards it). However, I’ve ordered some small bags of alternatives from an online pet store to check against it to see if she’ll like those even better.
Then I won’t tell anyone what brand she went for, in case it has an even worse reputation. Frankly my definite preference is that my cat eats her food and fills out a bit - because at the moment she’s a bit of a thin thing and a thank-you. I don’t want her fat, but I want her flanks to fill out.
In other news
It seems there will be a voluntary retirement/redundancy scheme advertised today or tomorrow. I’m very tempted to get a quote just to see how much I’d get if I decided to go. You don’t have to accept the quote and anyway I’m a bit young to retire - but I hate working for this government so very much.
This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/572657.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.