Polly is better!

To continue from last week's post on family pets, I mentioned that Polly had been to the vet because she wasn't well.  Well, I'm happy to say she's back to her usual loud self, eating and functioning normally again.  Phew, thank goodness!

Here's Polly last evening, taken with my camera phone.  We were having a game before bedtime :-D

I still don't know what was wrong with her,  The water infection theory doesn't seem to fit somehow, though being a little stressed does.  There's a new 'cat-on-the-block' who's paying her rather a lot of attention.  Polly doesn't take easily to other cats and is normally quick to see them off, but this one seems a little different.  We think its male, so we keep referring to it as 'he'.  The reason being he's a bit of a hunk!  Drop dead gorgeous, all black with vivid green eyes and a bit muscly.  We've called him Dave.

This is Dave....

He gives Polly every indication that she's the boss, even though he sneaks in when she's not looking and helps himself to her cat biscuits.  If she sees him, she doesn't chase him off, just leaves him to get on with it.  He then rolls on his back in front of her and as a result there's very little animosity between them.  UNLESS the cat mint is involved!

We have a tub with some growing and Dave loves to jump in it and sit in there licking all the leaves.  He then jumps out if Polly is near as if he's made way for her jump in.  She doesn't.  She prefers me to pull a sprig off for her to have a little chew on then she rubs her face in it.  She makes the strangest noises and drools all over the sprig.  The white fur round her face turns a bizarre shade of nuclear green but she's not vain - she's more of a 'who cares if I have green stuff stuck to me face' sort of gal.  No pride, that one.

So, in my usual misguided way two days ago, I pulled off a sprig of cat mint for both cats, setting them a distance apart.  Both were happy to get stuck in, until Polly decided Dave's looked juicier than hers, and went to take it.  For the first time, I saw Dave assert himself and he cuffed Pol's ear!  There was a moment or two of caterwauling before things settled down, then Polly chased Dave off down the driveway.  He didn't appear again until this morning, coming to call for her as usual.  She was very wary of him but eventually went out, sat by the garden gate and gave him warning signals to keep his distance.  The last I saw of them as I headed out to work an hour later was the pair of them sitting together on the patio.

OK, I've digressed a bit though I think it was necessary in order to paint the picture of why Polly might be a bit stressed.  She's getting used to having another cat call round on a regular basis, and I think it hasn't sat easily with her.  Perhaps she'll get used to him eventually, after all she lets him eat her biscuits!

Family pets

When Teddy, our wonderful 14 year old Golden Retriever died in 1999 we vowed never to have another pet.  Losing him was like losing a family member and I recall the pain morphing from emotional to physical and back again happening for a number of months afterwards.

Ted was a handsome dude; a laid back sort of guy and very sociable.  He was always happy when my daughters had their mates round so he could sit in the middle of them as they strummed guitars, or just laughed and chatted.  He didn't care which, he just enjoyed the fuss and attention.  It was easy to include Ted in stuff like that he just went along with everything.  For him it was even better if there was a drop of Newcastle Brown ale shared with him in his bowl, although I'm given to understand he passed up on the spliffs!

I've included this photo borrowed from http://dallasdoglife.com as it's almost Ted's double with the same fur colouring and nice black nose.  The facial expression is one he wore a lot; happy, pleased, joyful.  But Goldies are like that and such a pleasure to own.

After Ted's death, we went many years without a pet, and would probably still be without one now if it hadn't been for a little stray cat who appeared on my younger daughter's doorstep one day.  She was pretty persistent so my daughter having recently lost another cat, decided to take her in.  It quickly became apparent that this little cat was in a pickle!  Within a matter of weeks she'd given birth to 5 kittens in the wardrobe, so as she'd arrived in a pickle, Pickles became her name.  She was less than a year old herself, so in effect she was a teenage mum.  One of the kittens didn't survive, but the other four went on to thrive and become lovely little creatures.  We didn't want to see them go out of the family younger daughter kept mum Pickles and one kitten (Jasmine).  Elder daughter took one and called her Trinity.  She now lives in Malvern, Worcestershire, and we had the remaining two which is my gorgeous Polly and her brother Rastus who sadly got run over a while ago.  Rastus was  a beautiful Tabby and very loving but a free spirit and kept his own hours.  I always feared he wouldn't see old age.

Polly however, is a homely girl.  Very pretty as you can see here - yes this is her!

We adore each other and have snuggles first thing in a morning before I have to get up for work.  She has the world's loudest meow though and even the neighbours can hear her when it's dinner time!

Because Polly doesn't venture very far or get much exercise she's got a bit curvy so that's a bit of a concern.  None more so than this morning when she didn't wake me up.  I just thought she'd overslept (rare for her) but she later showed signs of being off her food, and was lethargic.  We took her to the vet who couldn't find anything directly wrong with her.  I was worried that her being a bit overweight was starting to impact on her health but it appears not.  Its possible she may have a water infection so she's being treated for that.

My fingers (and everything else) are well and truly crossed that it turns out to be nothing much.  Having a poorly cat is as bad as having a poorly child.

I bet you've been there haven't you?