Op zoek naar tijdelijke opvang

This blog concerns Dutch people only. If still interest, please use google translate! 

Hoi! Een bescheiden vraagje van ons, Tiger en Grey.

Ons baasje heeft de mogelijkheid om een droom waar te maken, of om ieder geval een stap in die richting te zetten. We weten natuurlijk hoe dol zij is op haar geliefde IJsland, en hoe erg wij, hoe lullig het ook klinkt, haar hiervan weerhouden. Onze actie om onze emigratie te crowdfunden heeft geen rooie cent opgeleverd, dus helaas kunnen wij niet zelf onze reis bekostigen. Dit is een enorm bedrag wat nodig is, want de IJslandse kroon is behoorlijk in waarde gestegen afgelopen tijd, en ons baasje schrok wel toen ze laatst weer eens ging kijken wat ons projectje gaat kosten.

Ons baasje zinkt steeds dieper weg in financiele ellende, en noodlot hangt boven ons hoofd, maar ze heeft nu een naar huidige omstandigheden interessante baan gevonden, in IJsland. Hiermee zou zij als het goed is, zo snel mogelijk in staat zijn ons alsnog ook in haar droom te betrekken.

Echter gaan dingen nu zo snel, dat het onmogelijk is ons meteen mee te nemen. Bij familie of vrienden zijn wij niet welkom ivm allergieen, andere huisdieren of gewoon helemaal geen interesse. En Tigers status als Kitty from Hell werkt er ook niet echt aan mee. Maar tijdelijke professionele opvang is voor ons voor zo lang onbetaalbaar, met 7 euro per dag voor gemiddeld 200 dagen kun je je dat wel bedenken. Dat is alleen voor miljonairs betaalbaar.

Wij zoeken daarom iemand die ons voor 6 tot 12 maanden in huis wilt nemen, tegen een voorlopig bescheiden vergoeding. Met daarop natuurlijk dat ons baasje ons eten betaald en onze kattenbak vulling en wat zakgeld voor leuke dingetjes. En dierenartskosten. En last but no least de kosten die gemaakt worden om ons ook naar IJsland te laten verhuizen mocht ons baasje definitief daar blijven.

Wat houd dit in, die emigratie? 

Jij (of jullie maar we houden het op jij) krijgt een schema waarin staat wanneer wij naar de dierenarts moeten voor entingen en gezondheids verklaringen. Dit zal vooral in de maand voorafgaand aan ons vertrek zijn en dan met name de laatste week. Maar dan zal ons baasje ons weer ophalen omdat zij samen met ons moet reizen. Dus eigenlijk zal het betekenen dat je 1 of 2 keer naar de dierenarts moet en dit zit aan een strikt schema dus wij vertrouwen volledig op betrouwbare medewerking. Wij zijn tot dusver heel makkelijk met naar de dierenarts gaan.
Vooral Grey zit al in de koffer zodra hij weet dat hij mogelijk op stap mag. Tiger is iets meer uitdaging, die gaat er wel in, maar dan moet wel heel snel de deur dicht. En moet ze heel even uitrazen. Maar met rust en kalmte is dit zo gepiept :)

Grey is een rustige lieve kater die enorm graag bij je wil zijn. Hij is fors en heeft flinke nagels maar vind alles best als hij maar geknuffeld word, inclusief bellyrub. Hij krabt wel aan tapijt, maar laat voor de rest alles met rust.

Zo slaapt Grey het liefst, op zn rug, dicht tegen je aan. Cheek to cheek

Tiger is wat éénkennig, maar als ze je mag, kan ze ook een heel aanhankelijke poes zijn. Ze is alleen wat wispelturig en haar wilde verleden kan soms opspelen. Zit niet aan haar pootjes, staart en oren, die strijd kom je niet ongehavend uit. Ze is ook soms wat baldadig, en laat het altijd wel merken als ze aandacht wil of ergens niet mee eens is. Ze gaat met dingen gooien als water of voer op is bijvoorbeeld. En helaas krabt ze bij mij wel aan mijn bank maar dat is omdat ik momenteel geen krabpalen kan veroorloven. Maar bij een opvangadres garandeer ik een jumbo krabpaal. Tiger is zeer stressgevoelig, maar dit uit zich gelukkig niet in braken en of diarree. Wij zijn beiden vlo en wormvrij, onze inentingen komen via de emigratie procedure omdat ons baasje ons nooit ingeent heeft en het zinloos is dit nu 2 keer in een half jaar te doen. We zijn op dit moment gegarandeerd ziekte vrij omdat we 7 jaar min of meer in quarantaine leven. Wij zoeken mede hierom voor een adres zonder andere katten!

Wij hebben er geen probleem mee als wij in een kamer moeten verblijven, en hier onder toezicht uit mogen. Wij zijn dit ons leven lang gewend, hoewel dit niet wil zeggen dat wij nu zo leven. Maar bij de ouders van ons baasje leven wij ook zo zonder problemen als we daar tijdelijk heen gaan voor vakantie opvang. Onze eigen kamer hebben geeft ons eigenlijk rust in een nieuwe omgeving.

Wat wij dus concreet zoeken:

Iemand die wij kunnen vertrouwen en ervaring heeft met katten.

Iemand die niet rookt omdat Grey snel last van luchtwegen heeft

Iemand die niet té netjes is, want wij zijn soms rausdauers en laten onze sporen na.

Iemand die vanaf begin juni beschikbaar is voor minstens 6 maanden. Indien wonend in Zuid Holland kan vakantie opvang geregeld worden, maar voor de rust van de katten liever niet.

Iemand die ons binnen houd. Wij willen graag naar buiten maar zijn gewend binnen te blijven, en dat houden we graag zo. Ook omdat wij niet geent zijn. 

Iemand bij wie ons baasje ten alle tijde, ook onverwacht langs kan komen om ons te bezoeken. 

Iemand die ons baasje vertrouwd en misschien ook wel gewoon wil houden?

We vinden het niet leuk, maar Grey zou ook best in Nederland mogen blijven. Hij is waarschijnlijk de makkelijkste om een adresje voor te vinden. Tiger is zeer eenkennig en erg op mij gericht, zij gaat sowieso mee naar IJsland, en hoewel het mijn hart breekt te moeten kiezen, moet ik voor Grey zeker de optie open houden om hem een nieuw huis te gunnen, met iemand die een fijne lieve rustige knuffelkat zoekt. Hij is gewend aan (rustige) honden en zal waarschijnlijk ook geen problemen met andere katten en of kinderen hebben. Hij is dol op aandacht, van wie dan ook. Hij laat het toe nageltjes te knippen en laat vrijwel alles probleemloos toe. Hij is ook dol om ergens mee naar toe te gaan, of hij dan ook los kan lopen weet ik niet maar ik denk dat hij ook wel een camping kat kan zijn, of voor iemand met een vakantiewoning die hem mee wil nemen. Hij is alleen wel een slimme meester in en uitbreker, springt op vensters van twee meter hoog en ziet elk deurtje en kiertje als een nieuwe uitdaging. 

OP ZOEK NAAR TIJDELIJKE WOONRUIMTE IN DE BOLLENSTREEK?

Het is wellicht ook mogelijk, dat iemand met toestemming van de woningbouw(!), tijdelijk in mijn 3 kamer appartement (sociale huur) in Lisse komt inwonen. Dit is echt tijdelijk, voor zolang de katten er verblijven en voor maximaal 12 maanden (tot ongeveer 31 mei 2018), en uitsluitend met inspraak van de woningbouw.
Hierbij moet de woningbouw nog beslissen of ze jouw als hoofdbewoner aan gaan merken en de huur rechtstreeks aan hen betaald, of dat jij een verhuurder bent en de huur via mij gaat betalen. In dat laatste geval wil ik wel een contract dat je ook inderdaad die huur gaat betalen, want ik zeg de huur op als diegene niet betaald. Ik ben goed van vertrouwen en ik hoop jij ook!

Wellicht is het dus een optie voor iemand die dringend woonruimte nodig heeft?? Gemeubileerd is optioneel maar het is allemaal wat sleets.

An update about us :) Bad news for Grey...

We havent been active on this blog for a while. We both have become an age older and more quiet. Well it mostly counts for Grey. Tiger still has her night time madnes moments. Every January for some reason she has her 3.30 momentum, last year it was throwing down books from the shelve and then look at me like: Did you see it? Did you see what I just saw? Shall I do it again? Yes lets do it!

This year, after I took my television to the dump in early 2016, Tiger has no longer a help in jumping up the shelf anymore. But she started to annoy with the humidifier thing. My house is so damn dry its of no good for our health, so it is a blessing to our air quality. But this machine isnt the best to have it on all day long. Making the carpet moisty and give markings on my furniture. So it is sometimes off, the water resevoir being empty. And so it became Tigers new target. To have the whole thing down on the floor. Every night again and again. Always at 3.30.
Then I decided to put it on the floor while not in use, and she lost interest. She only sees fun in dropping things on the floor from a certain heigth. But then she found something new. My aquarium is long time serving as my Lemax winter village protector. No more fish nor water, I have my lemax village in it, away from cats paws and dust. It works great. But the electicity sockets I just had to have on top of it.  The aquarium is too small to have it behind the houses, and the fake snow might cause a fire also. So it has to be on top of the aquarium.
And now every night, Tiger was trying to push all this electricity to the right so it would fall on the floor. The noise was horrible, her bumping the wall echoed into my bedroom as if someone was brutely knocking on the wall, or better so, kicking footballs against it. My little dragon sure knows how to keep me awake.... driving me insane. And it used to be a sign her water ran out or her food if she started to be annoying. But no longer there is a reason I am aware of, she just does this shit in January every single night at 3.30....

Tigers health is still a bit concerning, talking about her stresslevels. In 2015 I had a big renovation going on, when we had to move out for 2 months. Grey isnt dealing bad with it, he loves it to go out and Tiger didnt really show too much stress either though she feels more exciting than Grey does.
But I changed around a few things in my house after the renovation now there were no cats around. But ever since we returned, Tiger shows stress behaviour. She was all covered in bad spots last year, looking like a neglected stray cat. I gave her special calming down food, and Feliway spray. Things got a bit better, but her belly remains an issue, she still licks it when ever she is stressed out on something. I see a clear difference between grooming and stresslicking. I for once thought it maybe was me causing it, I live under stress, and am totally not happy with my current life here. And her stresslevels rise and fall, but her legs stay hairy at least for now. She is mostly stressed out if I am with my computer.

Grey on the other hand.... has become an old age cat, and sleeps all day and I suspect him to be older than I was always told. I think he is 2-4 years older. He has always been a wary eater, seeming to have troubles with chewing. I never really had a chance to look at it closely. The one time I did, I didnt notice something strange.
I noticed Tiger is behaving badly towards him since a few months, and the last weeks he also seems to change behaviour. He is very clingy to me, he often crawls in my arms now when I sleep and stays there until I wake up. He wasnt to be close. And so I noticed this week his bad breath. He has always been sensitive to touch his cheeks. But its getting worse. Yesterday I felt like he was not himself. He is even more calmer and he has a worried look in his eye. Im sure he is trying to tell me I need to help him. And now I had a chance to look inside his mouth, and what I saw shocked me, and made me cry. His molars were covered in brown grey grub, his gums inflamated as can be. It doesnt look good at all, and might be even beyond a normal cleaning would help stage.

Cry because he needs a vet as soon as possible to treat him. But dental care is extremely expensive. Even more so if teeth need to be extracted. I cannot afford it. And right now I am very very afraid I have no other choice than loose him soon. Either by putting him down or to let him die in pain...
Last year I started to save money for cases like this. Because I know this problem would come sooner or later. But thanks to my financial crisis I had to use this money for other things. :( If I cant even afford to stop him from suffering... do I need to let him die in pain??? The horrible thought....  He is such a lovely wonderfull cat... and despite it will make it easier, much easier for me to move to Iceland, I hate the idea. :( It was my plan to take them both with me, and to see it as a help from him to make me go faster, is not making it easier. I know I wished for nature to help me, but now nature knocks on the first door.... Damn....


Keeping it all updated here, at least try to... and if someone wants to help me fund his dental care, it will gladly be appreciated. Just contact me. Even if it is only the pimairy intake... to know what will need to happen next.



I hope I find a solution soon.... I really do. More bad luck I cannot handle. :(

Update: his teeth seem to have improved a little bit, and as soon as work is on the rise again, he goes to the vet to get his preps done for traveling to Iceland. And so does Tiger. 

Can you help us relocate to Iceland?

Our owner doesnt want to stay longer in Netherlands. The craving to be reunited with her heart is getting too big. She has been researching the emigration of us again, the site has been much clearer now, and the costs seem to be lower than expected.

We rely on crowdfunding though to make it possible to move all together by May next year. Can the readers of this blog help us out a bit??? We would be forever thankfull.

Keeping you all updated about this project here too, but we dont know if we can reach that many people. Please help us share the word???

Follow this link to get to our crowdfund page where you can share or maybe even donate a bit if you can and want to. 

Crowdfund to get Tiger and Grey to Iceland too

Tiger pissed off...

On a sunny afternoon, Tigers eyes colored beautifull seagreen. I wanted to take a picture, but she just wanted to show her back or sleep. So I pinched her softly on her bun. But she was not happy with that. My new target became the evil face of Tiger. But gosh, can she look more silly than in her modus angry on pictures???? :-)

Hard to believe, but here Tiger is pissed off!

But it doesnt last long, before missy snuggle a lot purrs and comes to hug again. And show her seagreen eyes a bit :-)

GREY Update

As a single I can find myself now in the weird situation to wake up now with a man in my bed, called Grey and shows 50 shades of Grey. He indeed has a lot of ways to show he is there, by snuggling up, scratch me, bite me, demands me, meows me etc.

Grey has turned out to become a very very very almost annoying sticky snuggly, huggy, oochie woochie, laptop cat. It started a few weeks ago, when he suddenly nestled himself on the lap of a friend. Next time she visited, he dropped himself on my lap, the second time ever he did this.

I realised he only sits on the lap if the person is sitting on his favorite spot on the couch. At the same time, Grey developed the habbit to come sleep very close to me at night. He snuggles up to me, most often to my chest, and expanded his new habbit by starting to pur and beg for his head to be scratched as soon as I wake up. I am very amazed how lovable he has become by now.

Since he discovered my I-pad (and more the special cat games on it), he even made my lap his home, and as soon as I sit on the couch, he comes snuggle up with me. For almost a year he was rather independent, and didn't like to sit on my lap, what a change! And his affection is still growing, thats why, 50 shades of Grey, I meet another one every day! But he can be very annoying, because he literaly demands attention by softly biting and sticking the nails into your arm. But he is now the cat I always wanted. I can finaly give all my love and attention to someone, and it does me very well. Knowing that I am not custom to hugging and caressing, it is very good for me to let the happiness hormones run free, those I need so much to stay happy and positive. Petting animals is proven a good therapy. It can make me feel so well when he is crawling up on my chest to be petted and he gives me headknicks back. I love this moments, it fills a void. A human need that no human can give me.
So there is my 50 shades of Grey since I have no interest at all in the book. And yes I did read a part of it, it is just not at all my thing. And that has nothing to do with the sex, but with the way it is written. It is not my uhmm style. If I can use that word without being misunderstood. But well... it is a cat blog, and we are talking about Grey, who had his name longer than this book exists. I think...

I may have mentioned before that I was afraid Grey to have asthma. Or well people say I should be afraid he has, because I never believed it. Medication doesnt work, he doesnt look he is suffering or short in breath, he has not the loomy eyes nor typical position. He coughs while he eats and continues when done, he can run off and walk around still trying to cough something up. He is not into the hold of an attack, nor gasping for breath.
I observed him closely for a few weeks, and noticed it is just a very sensitive cat for hairballs/hair in the throat. He always coughes when he has or is grooming. He has episodes of a lot of coughing a day in september/october and may, the months in which cats shed their fur. Als he is feeling better if I did vaccuum cleaning. And after eating cat grass.
I doubted the diagnosis for respiratory disease because he never seemed to suffer any other way, no snotty nose, teary eyes or lack of appetite. The idea of asthma did not match, his lungs were clean with a last year vet visit, just before I first noticed him to cough.

Grey has special anti hairball food, but that doesnt seem to work. Well most foods dont reduce the hairball itself, because the hairballs are there and not stopped from entering, but give the hair a silky layer so they will not tangle into balls, but instead will be passed out naturally with the faeces. And I sometimes see hairy poo so that does seem to work, this hairball formula. Nothing to worry. And at the moment I didn't hear him cough for days.

I really feel happy about this because I was afraid a possible disease would make my future plans more difficult, because I am considering moving to Iceland together with the cats. Iceland is Europes most complicated country to take pets too. Not being able to get them in by car (easiest and cheapest way) I have to rely on air transport, expensive and Iceland authorities may be very critical about permissions, especially knowing they come from Egypt and possible having respiratory diseases which in most cases are a threat for local animals. I have to find a way to stop Grey from coughing as I plan to move earliest in september 2013, which is a time in which Grey usualy suffers coughing the most.

So, I think Grey is a happy fellow here. He must be the first EMRO kitty to go live so close to the Arctic circle. Amazing if you think about it... coming almost from the equator. Well I have requested a price quote for their travel. I have to see how much it will cost to take them. Because otherwise I may be smarter to spend the money on a very good homestyle foster family. I dont know yet... they really have the biggest word to say in my biggest dream. Last year I let go my dream to go live in Iceland, and then I said to myself why, if you didn't even try? The signs all point towards Iceland. So here I am giving it a try. And I see my sweethearts live with me in the land of my dreams.... I won't give up on them! And so I also take count of the worst case scenario.

Happy Holidays

A long time I didnt post about my two sweets. They are still alive and kicking, or should I say destroying?
First of all, I want to wish all of you who take time to read this blog, very happy and warm holidays. Christmas has just been passed, but I can't pass by this picture. Unfortunately this year I didn't manage a picture for xmas with both cats. Tiger was extremely 'annoying' with the christmas stuff. She herself would say she had a great time, and believes I never ever had taken in such a wonderfull toys as the glistening balls and ornaments for in the tree. It so happened that my tree didn't show its glory for longer than 2 hours, before it came down after a slide of Tiger in attempt to get one of 'her' toys. Of course not hers, but she is Queen of the House, so naturally all belongs to her. Tigerlogics...

Tiger and Grey are doing very well, like I said. I have some stories to share on their own. So I leave it with this greeting for now. And some pictures not shown so far.

REVIEW ~ PeeWee Litterbox Part 2

2 weeks have passed now. Something has changed, but not the PeeWee litterbox. I still did not have to refill or add new PeeWee litter in it. My big bag of PeeWee litter material is almost done though, since the other box uses quite a lot. Honestly I have to replace it by a PeeWee too, or find a way to use it as a PeeWee.

The thing that has changed, is that my cats now use the PeeWee as Pee box. It no longer is just Greys box, Grey prefers too poo indoors. And Tiger helps to make the dust fall through the maze of the PeeWee by digging.
Everything works perfect. No smell, not at all. And very economical. With a PeeWee Box that is!

So.... 10 stars and thumbs up for PeeWee. Never again something else.

REVIEW ~ PeeWee Litterbox

We used to have a very very good littermaterial called Cats Best Hygiene Plus. Expensive, but it lasted for a loooong time. We could manage 2 - 21/2 month with one bag. Mom could flush the waste through the toilet so all were happy. But prices rise... rise... and rise... Expensive, yeah but still on the long term cheaper than the cheapest clay litter material available. And we like to have clean paws, not dusty dirty paws.

Then we got noticed of the Swedish PeeWee Litterbox system. Also expensive but gosh, more or less the thing that mom used to do during the time she still had rabbits. Sifting the waste from the woodgrains from the still good woodgrains. She wished there would exists a sorting system for this.
And now, lucky us, who got the chance to test it. Grey believes this is IT. Tiger doesnt care as long as it is diggable. Mom wants it odorfree, dustfree and low maintenance. So there it is... PeeWee.

In brief how it works

When mom went last week to buy a box, they were sold out. Pitty pitty, but the salesman ordered the low version, because that one fits in our current covered box. Mom however already took a bag of pellets home, and put some in our current litterbox.

Here is our first impression (without the PeeWee litterbox!):

Tiger: I dont care what you put in it, as long as it is diggable it is ok for me. I jump on it straight away, I even go there for fun just to cause a mess.

Grey: Puke mom... what is this crap? You know I hate smelly litters, this pine smell is too much, I hate the smelly poo of Tiger. And I don't feel right using a covered litterbox. I use it, but not happily. Didn't you notice? I am NOT going to pee here, I am going to pee in my basket. The poo... ok I do in the box... but with my head out and ass in. So I don't have to suffer the smell. My nose can't handle this. Covered boxes arent my thing anyway.Like I said....

Mom: Bah I don't like woodgrains that dissolve into sawdust. The other stuff was clumping and so much cleaner. Now Tiger is digging like an idiot and after 2 days it looks messy. Not a single woodgrain remained in tact. But, I must say no smell (except pine trees) and the sawdust looks dry and clean, does not at all smell to cat pee and all is still dustfree.  Tiger however manages to get lots of woodgrains out and through the house. She always does, probably even with the heaviest litter available. I have to wait for the box to arrive to see the best results. Still I believe in the system. After all it can't clumb or else the system would not work. At least then the sawdust will fall down and less woodgrains will get dissolved as most pee will drip down to the underbox. 

It was not amusing that Grey pees every day in his basket. I took them away now, because I cannot keep up with my own laundry, but 2 baskets every day is not going to work either.

Luckily the litterbox arrived quite soon. And, the other day I installed the litterbox. It appeared to be too difficult to cut holes in it so it makes it possible for the door to swing in and out in my covered litterbox that keeps smells locked in. So I put it next to the old litterbox. But I hoped and begged Tiger would not prefer this one, she is such a vicious digger, I am convinced all the woodgrains would be shattered all over the floor in no time.

Thats the box!

Here is our second impression:

Mom: Lets put the woodgrains in... Ohhh Grey is right beside me, lets see what he..... wait... Grey I did not yet finish putting the littermaterial in! Ah well.... I see he must have a terrible need... A huge amount of urine is seen in the underbox. I better put some grains in there, like the instructions tell me to do. Poor Grey must have been in need for some time. He refuses to use the other box to pee.

Grey: Ohhhh finallyyyy I need to pee soooo bad! What a relieve! My own airco litterbox, always clean, always tidy. This one is mine! Finaly she understands me. I am going to hug her when I am done here. Ohh heaven is crying out, down in the litterbox.


Tiger: Hmmm interesting, but I prefer more privacy. I see Grey has been first. Good for him, I guess we have now our own litterboxes. 



I agree. It looks to me like they both have their own boxes now. Tiger mostly uses the covered one. Thank Goddess she does.... but she needs to help Grey sometimes with the digging. Grey does not dig often. He is like a cat with obsessive tidynes, he doesnt like getting his paws dirty. Many times I have seen him balancing on the edges of the litterbox to pee without touching the littermaterial.

I guess so far this box is a succes. With the original litterbox it looks like a brilliant system. If from now on the littermaterial will only be 7 euro's a month for 2 cats.... I'd be so happy!

Here is a demo, but it is in Dutch.... 

As soon as I can find the English version, I will put it up here, but the you tube shows it all....

Tigers Second Birthday

 HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY TIGER!

My little queen turns 2 years old this weekend. So, since I never have any excuse for a party, not even my own, we just celebrate it here, even the animals birthdays. Any excuse is good enough to party. But celebrating the birthday of your plants is silly, as well is celebrating the anniversary of your fridge, cupboard, toilet, house spider or whatever. So there comes in the cats. Call me insane, but I am human and I too love to party, but if it is only my animals that company my life, I have not really another choice (well to continue live a life without party would be). Tiger agrees.
Let her tell the story by the Queen herself:

Yeah it is the first time that my birthday is celebrated. I believe it should be a national holiday, because no one can't deny my existence.
Oh well, mommy got the brilliant idea to celebrate it one day earlier. How dare she! She thought it was nice and all that, not have to work the day or day after and she was in the mood for a birthday moment. You should have seen the grinn on her face. And also the grinn on mine. I was of course not planning to join in this party. It is MY birthday and no one elses. And most of all celebrated on the day itself.

So... after mommy had her dinner, and simply forgot our oops my grilled salmon (ah well I am not so mean, let Grey also have a bit, and that furry black thing mom brought in recently as well), she prepared our celebration. She put the ribbons and confetties on the table. I ignored it. Grey ignored it....
All I did during the evening was making a belly slide across the table, making it fall on the floor. And she thought I would be ready now. How silly human....

Not interested yet....

I snuggled up on her lap while she watched a movie. Ah well she fell asleep and I had to wake her up to go to bed. Finaly we prepared for the next day.... but first she went outdoors with that furry black thing. Why does she do that? Why do we have to stay in and that thing not?
Ah well... time to sleep. At least that furry thing stays out of the bedroom at night. Mommy is all ours :-)

The next morning, about 4.30am

Goodmorning mommy!!!! I nibbled her toe, and was searching through the pile of books and papers laying next to her. I wanted the pencil, but it was fetched to a book. Tried hard to get it separated but no.... You can imagine I woke her up quite well this way, and it was so early!!! And Grey of course is kibble alarm pur sang, when mom wakes, he demands kibbles. She woke up happy!

The morning ritual of course is that computer. I managed to get on my throne. Simply be charming, purring, be nice, walking circles and when the chance is there, run for the keyboard. Ah heaven, I managed 3 times! Mom calls it 'stoelendans' and I always win! Most of the time she throws me off instantly.

Finaly the door to the  livingroom opened and it was my time! All this time waiting for this moment, to snuggle, attack, catch, chew, tear, drag, wear, knot, tie and throw the paperthingies!
With a huge slide I attacked the 'enemy' from the back all over the table. We tumbled over the floor, but with a firm bite I could take the prey back on the couch. Rolling over KILL MAIM FIGHT SLAY.... die (ok the last one is impossible as paper is dead but you get the point). If you think what is this horror curse? I hear mommy sing it sometimes when she is angry. And sometimes she plays music like that. It is not an evil song she told me, honest, she is no barbarian.

The prey fought back few times, wrapping itself around my legs and tail. But I just run, run and run... sometimes tumble or jump.
Along I took my prey around the couch, to the windowseal, wove it through the window shutters, over the floor and tried to hide it under the 'dead' sheep.
And then ohhhh I got so tired after all this hunting and killing, mommy went out with the furry black thing. Grey is so jealous.... he freaks out, he thinks it is not fair that that furry black thing goes out few times a day. But he is too stupid to understand that if you let a harnass be put on, mommy will take him out. But no... Grey hisses and bites when she willingly wants to try learn him. He should not complain. They can't all be like me. I wouldn't need a harnass. But mommy is too stupid to understand that. I can find my way back home. But also for me I can only go out with a harnas. I have my pride (I have many as you know).

So well, she and the furry black thing went off, and I decided to decorate the house while they were off. Did I have fun???? Now there were paper ribbons all over the place.

And then I went to sleep again.... for the rest of the day I will. Life is good. Oh... later we have our birthday dinner of course :-)

But first sleep... they saw my eyes closing slowely, my tiny head too heavy to keep up. I need sleep.... 

Grey's Third Birthday

Happy Birthday to my sweet Grey!

On Liberation Day here in Holland, we celebrate much more than the liberation of our country. It remarks also the day that I liberated those two precious souls from a life without a loving home of their own. One year ago I signed to take Tiger and Grey within my life.

Grey has also his birthday put on this day. We can't be sure since he was born on the streets of Alexandria, but it cannot miss a lot of days, since the one who rescued him, saw all the cats very regular. I think it is a nice symbolic day and keep it like this.

I decided to celebrate it, thinking they would enjoy playing with birthday ribbons and decorations. In fact I just bought all this for just a picture. But it ended up a whole new tradition. Along with it, there is something called a confetti frisbee. You have to remove the outer paper and just throw it in the air like a frisbee and it will all shatter in thousands of colored pieces of paper. Very nice to see, and lovely to see the cats trying to catch the papers from the air. Sadly it all goes too fast but love the idea.

So here are a few pictures of this. I could not take photo's of the frisbee however as I had no hand free and didn't want to miss the moment.

Here are a few pictures taken :-)

Tiger getting caught up

What the heck is this thing????

Just some pictures :-)

It going to look a lot like christmas.... or not?

I didn't expect anything else. But this year there probably won't be a christmas tree for me. Maybe I have been concerning too much, and have been too sure that crazy Tiger would more than love the christmastree.

In the first place, of course the packaging. Why is it packed in cardboard.... one of Tigers biggest loves. One of the biggest loves of many cats by the way. When I put the box on the floor to open it, Tiger is there first to annoy me with pulling the cord that keeps the cardbox closed. That cord is of course also irresistable. I was hoping Tiger would entertain herself with this cord for some time.

But no... that cardbox... you can go in and out of it. FUUUUNTIME!

So, after Tiger got serious with making holes in the box, I removed the box out of her reach. Of course leaving behind a slightly pissed off Tiger. But... then she saw that the tree was forming and decided to take her chance on this one.

 It didn't take long before the tree ended up in 2 pieces on the floor. And Tiger chewing on it.

Too bad for her, I got the tree back up. Without anything in it, I decided to let the tree just be, she couldn't do a lot of harm to it now. And, to be honest, this tree is too heavy for the base it is standing on. I need to work on that one next year, so it won't fall so easily. I mean, even when I put the lights on, and I pull very slightly on the electricity cable, it falls.

After a week I bought myself some decent looking plastic balls. Not this ordinary red and silver shiny ones with sometimes squares on it. No, pretty turquoise ones, with glitter and not shining. Just how I like. And I bought the silver and chocolate ones too. I am very traditional, I would not easily change from the common red, gold, silver and green. But for me there is somehow this weird feeling that turquiose, bright blue, silver, grey and even lilac are colors of this season. Maybe in feeling more for the New Year, but I am very happy with my tree this year :-)

It could not happen that both cats could resist gently tipping the balls in the tree, trying to invoke a new kind of toy. Mainly Tiger was very obsessed with the tree, but after a time, it was common, and I started to 'punish' her in cat language whenever she tried to molestate (play) with the tree. Eventualy the tree stands here now for a week without being touched. Well, Grey tried once, but he is very sensitive to my voice. Don't need impress to get the message clear to him, so easily scared. Tiger on the other hand, is very commited to everything she does, and especially to what she wants. Not easy to punish with for example water, she loves it and thinks it is a game when I use a syringe to scare her off.

HURRAY! Tiger is fully recovered!

Just a short message, because I want to scream out loud....

In one of the last blogs, I mentioned Tigers progress. And... I can tell you the biggest miracle has happened. Tiger is fully recovered! Last week I noticed her reflexes had returned. Today I found out all her senses are back! She is aware of everything now, resulting in the motion cats make when their paw get dirty or wet... trying to shake of the dirt! She does whenever her toes touch something unexpectedly. Also I can no longer touch it unnoticed, no more squeesing, unless I want to get hurt. And.... she walked backwards! I tried to trick her with the laser light, and she did walk backwards perfectly! She could not have done if she didn't have full control over her motion.

This morning I was woken up by her and Grey. It can make me so happy, to have these two in my life! And I just got emotional about Tiger's miracle, and like she can do so well, she came snuggle up in my arms, and licked away the tears. Can I have this moment forever? 

My little girl!!! So proud of her :-)

To buy a cat in the bag...

It is a Dutch saying. Maybe it is quite simular in English,  but we say this when we bought something that is in the end quite useless or even one big mistake.
Of course, I took this saying not literally because I love my kitties to death and never ever considered them to be a mistake. But... Grey in the end found a new hobby which makes him for a change star of a blog!


Grey is very very attached to this particular bag. Though I have many of this big shoppers laying around the house, this yellow one is his favorite. He now spends a lot of his time exploring the wonders of it in and out. First time I caught him, it was filled with paper, since I use this one to collect paper waste. As you can imagine, the paper was shattered all over the floor. Before I knew it, I noticed this bag to be moving around the house. I expected Tiger to be in it, but a grey tail revealed the truth. It was Grey.

I really got a bit nervous when he managed to put his head through the handle. Because if I would come up to help him out, he would be scared he did something not allowed (he usualy is, because he has probably been chased off so many times in his past he is so easily being cleared out of the place). And if he was running away it would seriously be hazardous standing on the bag that strapped his neck. On the other hand, it was a matter of time for Tiger to arrive and terrorise him as well.

I decided to watch it from a distance, and take pictures. Luckily he took his head out of the handle. And then the bronze monster arrived on the scene. With a huge leap she jumped up on the bag, making Grey come out of it.

Together they explored the bag a bit more. Then Tiger left, she had some more management jobs to do. For she is Queen of the House, some rather important jobs have to be done and contact being kept.

Grey on the other hand, decided to have some good sleep on this new love... the yellow bag.
No picture of this available :-(