Shut In!

If anyone else had gone through the same thing as me I don’t think they would have survived it. I innocently wandered into a garage to take a peer inside and have a sniff around when, before you could say ‘catnip drops’ the door slammed shut. I am not a stranger to this situation – for some reason it seems to happen quite frequently to me – so I did what I always do and meowed, and meowed and meowed and meowed. Nothing. I waited and waited. Where was Katty when I needed her?? Typical.

I meowed for ages. My throat got really sore and my tummy started growling – someone should have heard that at least! Questions kept going through my head: what if I was shut in here forever? What was I going to have for tea? It was also quite boring because after ten minutes I had surveyed and sniffed all the contents of the garage and so there was nothing new to get into. It got later and later and soon I could see under the door was getting dark – it was night time. This is the time when I am usually hunting and finding my supper in the hedges or lolling around in the lounge and finding my supper in the kitchen. As it got later I imagined Scooby in his nice warm bed, eating his treats (and mine?). Scooby had never been a robust cat like me. I could imagine him whimpering in here scared as a mouse. But no I was different. To conserve energy I decided to curl up in a corner and went to sleep – no human was going to get me out this time - the funny creatures always slept through the night.

I must have slept well it was my stomach that woke me up in the morning eventually. I started scavenging around for some food: a piece of grit on the floor, some engine oil... I licked the ground hoping there was something that my nose had missed. After deliberating for a while about what to do (there's always choices to be made) I figured that I should restart my meowing. I had heard the phone ring then sounds of a human voice – people were around. This time it worked! After less than ten minutes, the door rattled and then opened. I walked out into the sunshine, had a look at my captor and sauntered off. I hope I don’t get locked in anywhere overnight again, looking back I don't know how I survived it!

2004 - 2009: Morgan's 5th birthday!!

My Pawly Paw

What do you think is worse having a hurting paw or going to the vet? I think I would prefer a hurting paw. I definitely didn’t want both of them so where did I go wrong that ended with me hopping round a vet’s room and then a needle in my back? I never told them my paw hurt. I never complained or whined – not once – so why did they grab me and stuff me in that horrible cat carrier?

They started paying a lot of attention to me soon after it started hurting. That amount of attention is usually a bad thing so I tried to run out but they had locked the catflap and were picking me up, looking at my paw, feeling my leg – “get off! get off! get off!…” Eventually after a lot of banging on the cat flap they let me out but when I slinked in later with my mouse even that didn’t pacify them

The vet did her usual prodding and poking – I sat there frightened then they put me on the floor. I tried not to limp too much and thought I could run away – I did try in true Morgan style but they picked me back up and plonked me on the table for inspection. It took me the rest of the evening to get over this unpleasant incident it traumatised me. Then they started doing purr-culier things like locking me in the house and making me eat ham. Well it tasted like ham and smelt like ham but had this weird gooey bit on the top of it. Well I munched it all up whatever it was.

Oh yes, thank you, my paw is a lot better now.

Hop-along -Morgan

Morgan is poorly. Well, not really poorly as such, just hopping along on one foot as he has – we don’t know how – hurt his foot or leg (he is not telling us which). It (whatever it was) happened on Thursday when we were at Tesco, Morgan came through his flap limping quite badly. When we got back we talked about whether to take him to the vet – should we make him go through the trauma of an expedition to his idea of hell or should we leave him to limp? He seemed well enough in himself, so well in fact he presented us with a mouse later that evening, but it was decided not to risk further injury and so after ten minutes of fighting him to get him in the cage and after having to push him in it, we drove him to the vets. Although it wasn’t his idea of a great evening out we thought it would be for the best.

After a long wait with a big friendly dog who seemed to take a shine on Morgan (though the feeling wasn’t reciprocated) it was Morgan’s turn to be examined. Considering it took us ten minutes to get him in the cage he wasn’t very co-operative coming out. The nice vet looked at Morgan and checked his health and temperature (with a thermometer up his bottom so that didn’t go down very well, as you would expect) she also looked at his paw and felt his joint on the leg. To understand the next bit I will have to tell you Morgan’s history: Three weeks after we got Morgan he broke all four bones in his paw (trust me, its best not to ask…) the result: all his four bones in his paw were wired together. As four years and a half have now past his body is rejecting the wire that had now mended his paws. So back to the vets… there sticking out his paw was a piece of shiny metal wire… was this the culprit? To be honest we don’t know for sure but in case it was a jab of antibiotics were given on the scruff of his neck and painkillers were prescribed… So what are we doing now? Morgan is still limping and we will keep our fingers crossed that the painkillers are helping him and easing his discomfort. Maybe it is his wire, or perhaps his strained his muscle in his leg but we hope it will get better for him.

We will keep you posted.

The Story Behind the Picture

Aahhhh, aren’t they sweet – they may look like to brothers enjoying each others company but it couldn’t be further from the truth. A second after this photo was taken Scooby jumped up and off the bed in the biggest huff because Morgan had dared to sneak up onto the bed he was sleeping on. But perhaps it was Scooby who was the nicked Morgan’s bed in the first place. You see it has been Morgan’s adopted bed for weeks. Morgan likes to change his pad every so often to make sure he has the best place nearest to the radiator but not too near as to burn oneself. Also its essential that it is a soft bed - but not to soft as to drown in it. He decided that this week my bed was perfect. If you wanted Morgan you would go in my room expecting to see him curled up on my duvet so I was naturally surprised when it was Scooby occupying the space. But then in came Morgan. He seemed stunned that anybody had the audacity to sit in his space. You could see the cogs working in his brain wondering what he was going to do. After a moments deliberation he thought – oh what the hey, and jumped on it regardless of Scooby’s presence. He actually looked like he would be contented with sharing..
In the meantime I had spied a perfect photo opportunity and grabbed my mobile in unmitigated haste. Scooby turned round for the photo. Click – what a great photo. I actually thought the pair of them might learn to share but it wasn’t to be.
Scooby wasn’t contented. Little more than a second after I took the snap he was up and off, whining a little in the unfairness of it all.
Looks can be deceiving.

My creamy Christmouse and snowy New Year

I hate the snow. It’s so cold on your feet so for the last two days I have been lying on my bed by the radiator trying to keep warm. Scooby has braved it one or twice to hop, skip and jump to our friends for his chicken and fuss but I’ve stayed sleeping all day. I need to anyway to sleep off my Christmouse lunch. No not a mouse or bird, not this year. It was yummy cream – better than a mouse!! I had the cream on Christmouse day when a empty bowl of cream was left behind on the cupboard – the humans said it was empty but it wasn’t though it certainly was empty when I had had done with it. I stuck my head right in the plastic Tupperware containing and got every morsel out though whether it ended up in my tum or on my face is debateable! That coupled with my favourite fish and a chop of chicken made my Christmouse Day and partly makes up for the snow now.

Advent and Christmouse

It’s nearly Christmouse!! We know when Christmouse is upon us when food smells come from the wardrobe and we also know when we get our advent calendars. I can hardly wait and nor can Morgan. Morgan is so excited that he started ripping my advent calendar apart with glee he was kicking, biting it and scratching it with his claws – it does not have a back anymore and the front is all ripped. Personally, I don’t care as long as he doesn’t eat my treats. He nearly did but it was taken away from him quickly and replaced by his own after which he slinked off as if embarrassed by his momentary loss of control or perhaps embarrassed by his failure to eat all my treats. I have been trying to be useful this year by helping them wrap the presents. I love wrapping paper – it is so crinkly and tempting to play with. I like ripping it up and then getting under it (I copied that from Morgan). So we are enjoying Christmouse very much and are very excited. I that you have a happy Christmouse – we will!!

Scooby: The Pathetic Predator

Scooby brought in a mouse. Scooby doesn’t kill his mice, he just likes to suck them so he then dropped it in Katty’s bedroom and it ran off. I could hear them scrambling around and shouting. I offered to help but they shut me out. They were in there for ages. They got a really wet fishing net from outside and tried to catch it in it. I think the mouse was a bit thick because they managed to. I saw it kicking about when they carried it outside in the net: I offered my assistance again but they locked the cat flap so I couldn’t help. Embarrassed by Scooby’s useless killing skills I brought a bird in the next day and showed him how to kill it in the kitchen that but he didn’t take the blindest bit of notice. He preferred sticking his head in a bowl of food. Alas, I’ll have to do the killing for the both of us.

Scooby's Bad Week

It has been the worst week of my life. If anything could have gone wrong it has and as I’m pawing this I am dazed and trying to get over it. I will tell you my troubles.

It all started going wrong on Monday… I got locked in the garage. I only nipped in to have a sniff round but I slipped in and a second later, bang it shut. It was very traumatic for me. 45 minutes I stayed in there. I wondered if I would ever see daylight again. It seemed an eternity before I heard Katty shouting for me. She must have heard my sad meows:

“Scooby, where are you?”

I meowed and meowed “Here Katty, please save me”

I heard her rustling around everywhere then finally I heard keys in the lock. It was music to my ears.

That night the next awful thing happened… the dreaded fireworks started. As soon as I heard the first bang my ears went back and my tail started going. I hate fireworks they frighten me. They are too loud and hurt my ears. They seem to start up every so often and don’t stop for ages and ages. Me and Morgan spend a lot of the time inside when the fireworks are going off. It scares Morgan as well you see – and if it scares Morgan it must be something to be scared of. I can still hear fireworks now and I wish they would stop.

Then the unthinkable happened on Wednesday. I got taken to the v-e-t. It was quite a shock when I was shoved into a carrier and taken in the car. I guessed I wasn’t going on holiday because when I do Morgan usually comes too and you can always hear if Morgan’s getting put in the carrier. How could Katty do this to me? First I had been shut in the garage and then my worst nightmare became a reality. Suddenly I found myself sitting in the carrier in the vets (I smelt it was the vets) staring out of my carrier at this big dog. It was huge. I cowered inside and though Katty was talking to me I couldn’t take my eyes of such a big animal. Soon I was carried in to see the vet (who I’m not on good terms with since last time I went) and I hoped the carrier would keep me safe. I gripped on to the inside whilst they tried to drag me out and in the end the top came off my world (the carrier) and I was in the vet’s domain. Prodding and poking, stinging me and putting cold things on my fur I couldn’t get back in fast enough. It was horrible horrible horrible. I sat dazed for the rest of the day wondering if I had had a nightmare. Morgan hadn’t stirred through the whole of the event lying in blissful ignorance upstairs. It’s alright for some.

Morgan's Week

5 good things that have happened this week (from the best):

1. I had the biggest chunk of chicken for tea yesterday – yum yum yum…
2. …And I got to lick out Scooby’s bowl because he was too full to eat it all!!!
3. I managed to wangle to be able to stay on the comfy bed ALL DAY on Tuesday instead of being turfed out in the morning and being stuck with the uncomfortable kitchen chairs
4. They put a litter tray in the kitchen finally so when I don’t come in until the early hours and I need the loo I won’t have to wee on the cupboard again.
5. I have officially become the resident dishwasher which means I get to lick all the dinner plates clean! I tried something new and loved it: tomato and garlic pasta sauce!
   

5 bad things that have happened this week (from the worst):

1. Scooby scared me… he came out of the house smelling of deflea potion and so I hid and went without any food all day…
2. …though when I reluctantly came in they restrained me and put it on my back anyway – yuck yuck yuck, it stank and stung!
3. I had a big fight yesterday and now have lots of scratches on my poor poor ear
4. I am getting confused. When I jump on the kitchen table I get laughed at and tickled but then yesterday I got told off and called naughty. What’s going on there?
5. I keep getting thrown out of the kitchen whilst the humans are eating but I only hang around because someone slips me food on the sly.

Morgan's presents

Katty’s fallen out with me. I don’t know why, she’s not very grateful for someone who has just been showered in gifts. I missed her you see. She disappeared for a week and I stayed in a cat hotel. Whilst I sat there next to Scooby and stared longingly outside at the birds flying by I was miffed so I figured that the only way to not let it happen again was to appease the humans and I began the day I got home. Three mice I brought them the first day I was back – none which they were thankful for so I went a step further – above and beyond the call of duty. I got her a robin (well actually 2 counting the one I got yesterday too). I had heard Katty say she liked robins as well but she didn’t seem to like the ones I bought her. So now she’s not speaking to me and she says she has fallen out with me. There really is no pleasing some.

Me and my new bed

A bed fit for a prince: Might not look like anything special but it isn't half comfy

Bed and Breakfast

I wanted to tell you about my new bed. It’s so comfy and soft and though I wasn’t very sure of it at first because it’s right on the floor and not up high but its so comfy. I get bored of my kennel you see. It’s nice for a time but I like somewhere new to settle down and this is the purrfect place. Katty wanted a photo of me on it so I could show it off to everyone but I’ve been a dirty stop-out and stayed out all night last night, the night before and the night before and no-one tells me what to do. So if you want to see a photo I will add one to my blog next time I decide to spend the night inside.

I also wanted to tell you: guess how many breakfasts I had today? 2! Mum gave me one and then Katty unaware and half asleep gave me another one. They give us really tasty food for breakfast - not like the cardboard rubbish they give us usually - so I had two helpings and Scooby only had one! Yummy scrum scrum!!

Scooby and the white and black cat

Well it was me who saw him first of course (Morgan was too wrapped up in the bird he was stalking). A white and black cat it was – not the same markings as me and not as beautiful. If I was Morgan I would have gone up hissing and spitting but I’ve got better manners so I went up and introduced myself timidly. I was a bit annoyed that this cat had entered our terrain but I don’t like confrontations or arguing so I was calm thinking I could reason with him to go away. This cat wasn’t having any of it and he started hissing and spitting at me – what a cheek it was my territory in the first place! He scared me a lot and we ended up fighting horribly. He hurt my chin which is still iced with a speck of dry blood where he stuck his claw in me. I think though, looking back, he was really more upset than me. It turns out he was lost. 3 weeks he had lost his home – 3 weeks without a proper meal! I would have starved to death after a day!
I saw him over a number of days hanging around but it all came to ahead a few days ago when our next-door-neighbours caught him in a cage. As the humans were talking I came over to the cat to empathise with his entrapment – and he had the audacity to hiss and spit at me again!! Well now he has all but disappeared… they say he was taken home which is both good for him and good for me – least things can now get back to normal (if there is such a thing in our house).

Solved: The Mystery of Morgan's Fluffy

Well that’s that puzzle solved – no more fluffy’s for Morgan. I look at him licking himself after his tasty meal and wonder why he thinks that a fluffy craft pom pom (pictured left compared to a 2p coin) is food! He has loved them for a while now and I often wondered why after giving him one it disappeared. Time and time again I brought them back from town and loved to see the way he played with them and growled at you when you came near. They only cost 6p and it made me smile how he preferred them any day to a cat tree – simple pleasures I thought. He would throw them in the air and run around with them sticking out his mouth – I put a video on the page a few months ago when he was going mad with this ball. Funnily enough, however, they never seemed to last long. We just thought they were getting stuck under somewhere (although I had looked everywhere and couldn’t even find them). It didn’t even enter my head that he could have swallowed them and if anyone had suggested it I would have laughed out loud – why would he? So when I watched in astonishment as he lay there and swallowed it in front of my eyes I couldn’t believe it. I can’t imagine they taste particularly nice but he obviously thought so – or perhaps he’s just a bit nutty.

Scooby's Birthday

It was my birthday on the 16th! That’s what the humans said anyway. Now I’m 4 (well actually 25 in my years so I'm older than Katty!!). Katty was spoiling me rotten: cheese, chicken and this posh meal (which in all honesty I didn’t really like I just choked it down to please her). I had fun though it got a bit worrying when they all started their annual caterwauling contest and so I bolted out the cat-flap to get away from them. They then kept putting this cake that was on fire in front of me and so I posed obediently not knowing what it was all about. The best part of the day was the presents – you should have seen what I got: treats, 2 gourmet meals, catnip, chicken treats, milk and a ball with a bell!! All for me!! I am so lucky. I leave you with the photos of me with my booty and me looking apprehensively on as my cake burns.

The Evening Encounter with Mr Squirrel

It was really exciting. I was outside minding my own business mulling around – well actually I was playing cat-and-mouse with Katty who wanted me to go to bed – and I heard a massive bang and scrabbling over the road. I ran to the roadside, my senses going into overtime. Morgan was chasing a smaller creature (whose identity I couldn’t work out straight away but it turned out it was a squirrel) across a shed and along the fence over the road. The squirrel then jumped from the fence onto this telegraph pole and scampered up it. Morgan sat at the bottom looking incensed that he to could not climb that high. The squirrel just stood vertical clinging on to the pole with all its might when I, in want of a closer look slunk over there and sat a bit behind Morgan so as not to prevent him continuing his attack. Morgan sat there like he could have stayed there all night when he relaxed his body onto the cold road. I too would have kept a vigil until the squirrel was forced down to meet his match however Katty wasn’t having any of this pussyfooting around and you should have seen Morgan’s riled glare as he got picked up and taken inside just after I received the same fate. I slept well after the evening encounter and needless to say dreamt about squirrels.

Morgan's Worst Day

Friday was the worst day EVER… ok maybe not ever but they took me to the V-E-T-S. I tried to put up the biggest fight when they had trapped me and were attempting to push my bottom into the cat carrier. I grabbed on to anything in reach (which turned out to be Mum’s skin) and clung onto it for dear life “noooooooo” I wailed. I only managed 7 minutes of struggling with Mum and Katty (my record is an hour and a half so I was quite disappointed). When they have you in that carrier there is nothing you can do you see. They can take you ANYWHERE. I was quite despondent in the car and when I was taken out I was carried into that place I smelt The Smell. I was at the vets.

They prod you and poke you; they pull open your mouth and your eyes; they stick things in you… I tried to get off the table but no such luck. Instead I stood there helplessly being held by Katty. As soon as they put the carrier back on the table I couldn’t get in there quick enough. “I’m safe at last.”

Home has never smelt so sweet before. I had to lie down and take it all. I refused to talk to anyone and Scooby had run off when he saw the carrier so I sat and sulked. I only managed to sulk for awhile before I smelt another smell, a much much much more appealing smell – FISH! I got up and jumped on the cupboard hungrily, unsurprisingly Scooby appeared. Lovely, lovely fish. My favourite. I ate the whole bowl in less than a minute. I think I deserved it much more than him.

Scooby's Week

3 bad things that have happened this week:

• I got de-flead. Now Morgan and me stink of chemicals and I feel I have to reconsider my relationship with Mum.
• I got conned. Katty persuaded me to jump through this big blue hoop by putting a treat under my nose. When I had got through the hoop and was about to claim my treat Morgan came and bit my side and so I had to run after him to get him back. Consequently I didn’t get my reward.
• I got left downstairs one night because I was too late coming in. To add insult to injury I ended up downstairs with Morgan.

3 good things that have happened this week:

• I got some mackerel in tomato sauce. I’m not a great fish lover myself unlike Morgan, however this was divine
• I got my dinner before Morgan got his. I am usually the last to eat because Morgan always jumps on the cupboard and sticks his face in the bowl.
• I got a big cuddle from Katty.

Hoops, treats and trespassers

I think they want me to do something but I am not quite sure what it is. At 4.30 every afternoon Katty keeps tempting me with my favourite treats and then making me walk through a hoop to get it. She doesn’t like it when I walk round it or under it because she doesn’t give me my treat. It’s a bit odd but it’s best to go along with the humans and humour them, they can’t help being purr-culiar. If there's a treat in it than I'm there! Scooby’s afraid of the hoop but then he would be because he’s a wimp.
I had the BIGGEST shock of my life yesterday: another cat came into MY garden. I went mad “get you and your smell out of MY garden” I hissed. I hate it when other cats burgle my gardens. I’ve already had Scooby gatecrashing three years ago and have only just about got used to him. I’d never seen this cat before but you can’t take any chances with them… this area ain’t big enough for the three of us and I was here first.