Adventures in the Mouse House

I've been too busy to share kitty stories since we got him.

Really, he's Jason's cat and he just about tolerates me, and Jason has stuck up the odd picture on his Flickr account.

Some of you will know that I have been making jokes for years about not having a cat because I'm holding out for a Norwegian Forest Cat, when in actual fact I've always known that if and when we got one it would be in the sort of situation that we did and choice wouldn't come into it. Not only is Tabs a big very furry cat, but he has stumpy little legs, which indicates that he is part NFC or Maine Coon (he's not nearly as big as my friend's full breed NFC). So how weird is that?

For the most part he's settled in very nicely. He has less than zero interest in all the rodents, so I needn't have bothered with all that extra security. The only exception is that he is fascinated with the gerbil that lives on her own, but even that is fascination rather than any sign of predator-ness.

Problems arise when he has to go to the vet, which has been quite a bit. On his trip for repeat vaccinations the vet noticed some nasty gingivitis and he's been on antibiotics ever since. He hates the car trip, so the vets gave us some cat phermones to calm him down, which seemed to do the trick. Until last Friday when there were several dogs in the waiting room, when he promptly went ballistic again. He has now taken out BOTH the vets at our practice. The vet had wanted to sedate him to chip him, but seeing as it took him 3 days to properly come round from the sedation he had on the way here, we were somewhat wary. Our pet sitter is a veterinary nurse and came to our house to chip him before we went to Scotland. He wasn't exactly well behaved for that either, but it was done successfully. He doesn't seem to have given her any problems while we were away.

He's not very bright. In the light of the antibiotics, this is a Good Thing. He watches us mash them up in his Felix every day and then devours the lot. He also thinks that his reflection in the patio door is another cat, with amusing consequences. (Could be worse - Ismay's Maine Coon cross keeps running smack in to her patio doors).

I just wish he was more keen on being groomed - the amount of hair he sheds is bewildering and vaccuuming is far from my favourite activity.