I was having a lovely nap, and dreaming of an endless ball of wool, when daddy started shouting and woke me up :(.
I opened my little catty-eyes and saw that he was watching lots of male humans running around, after a ball, in a really big garden. This wasn't a normal garden though; there were no trees or anything, except grass. There were lots of weird white lines all over it too, and there were no fences, just thousands of humans all around it. I didn't like this; I wouldn't be happy if there were that many other cats in my territory.
Daddy kept shouting at the humans, which kept me awake and hurt my poor catty-ears.
I got fed up and went into another room, but was now wide awake.
I have now decided to chase a pen, but can't decide which one....
...not sure what to do first...
.
..clean sheets! Oh, how I love clean sheets!
I shall now be enjoying these for a while...Purrrrrrrrr!
...us cats have a favoured paw, and even a favoured claw, when pouncing.
I have watched daddy, and other humans, when they are eating (in case they drop food) or doing other humany things, and they always seem to use one upper-paw more than the other. Daddy uses his right upper-paw more than his left one.
Cats are similar. Just like daddy, I'm right-pawed. If I swat anything -whether it be a shoelace or a mouse- or if I tap it, to see what it is, I always lead with my right paw first.
If I need to use my left paw (or I've found something to be safe using my right paw) then I use it too.
If I'm really enjoying a game with daddy, by attacking a shoelace or a wire, I will then go for it with both paws and maybe grab at it, to bite it.
When I'm pouncing on things while hunting outside, I'll always use both paws, but lead with my right paw; this is the one that will come down on a mouse, bird, or frog first.
Us cats go one further than this though; we also have a favoured claw (or 'lead') on our favoured paw. This is usually the middle claw, but I prefer my claw just to the right of my middle one.
This claw will be the first one out, as I pounce on something, closely followed by the others.
I make sure that I pay special attention to this claw when I sharpen it on my favourite sharpening tree.
So, there you have it humans, something you might not have known; cats have a favoured paw and claw.
Watch out for your cat next time it pounces and you'll see what I mean ...
*Below is a picture of my 'lead' paw, with a little bit of my back paw showing.
I've had so much fun this morning that I forgot to have my mid-morning nap!
Frederic's daddy decided to sweep up all of the leaves, in Frederic's garden, into a big pile.
Firstly, the pile was all different colours; red, yellow, purple, brown, orange.
Secondly, it was huge! There could well have been hidden meeces, squirrels, or sparrows under there.
Lulu and Tinkerbell joined me and we started off by running into the bottom of the pile, as far in as we could go, just to see if there were any surprises there.
Then we switched to pouncing practice, on the middle of the pile. I thought I'd found something, and got excited, but it was just Lulu's paw.
After that we tried the biggest possible catty-leaps into the top of the pile. Tinkerbell got stuck, with her bum and tail poking out. Lulu and I found this funny, but Tinkerbell wasn't amused and had to spend quite a while cleaning her face with her paw.
We didn't find any treasure in the pile in the end, but it was great fun looking.
Frederic sat near the pile, and watched us, unamused. He had just been brushed by his mummy, so was not going to venture into the leaves with us.
When I got home, daddy picked me up and tried to cuddle me, even though he knows I don't like this. He made a sound like 'poo, you smell funny... and why are you all wet...'
I squirmed out of his arms, then miaowed loudly until he fed me.
Then I purred for a bit and caught up on my napping.
That time has come again, when humans have lots of fiery things in their gardens; the things that make really loud noises and hurt my sensitive catty-ears :(
I was outside for quite a while last night, as daddy wasn't home, and kept having to run from garden to garden when I heard the noises. My catty-instinct always tells me to run, as it might be a big scary animal chasing me.
I did try hiding under lots of things, but could still hear all of the bangs and whistles, so that didn't help. It made my ears twitch so much that they started to itch and I had to scratch them with my back legs.
By the time daddy got home I was very upset, and miaowed at the door as loud as I could to be let in. Luckily daddy heard me above all of the bangs.
Daddy put some food out for me, which made me happier, but I still kept jumping while eating as the noises could still be heard indoors :(
After I'd eaten I went to curl up next to daddy, on the sofa, as he was warm and I knew I'd get some attention.
I tried to sleep, but my catty-senses were on full alert, with all of the noises outside, and my catty-ears were twitching and turning like mad. I did fall asleep here and there, but kept getting woken up, with a jump.
Daddy tried to keep me calm and didn't even get angry when I accidentally ate some of his dinner.
I hope these fiery things aren't around for too long. I really don't like them.
Think I might stay in tonight.
Daddy has been out today, and I have been indoors. He doesn't usually leave all doors, to different rooms, open when he goes out, but he did today.
Because of this my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to do a bit of exploring.
Firstly I ran, then slid, into the room where daddy makes his food (I think daddy thinks there's a complicated reason why cats run and slide across floors, but actually we just do it because it's fun).
I jumped up on one surface where there were two clear plastic things, one containing white grains, the other containing black grains. I sniffed the one with white grains in, then licked it.
I recognised it. It was salt. I like things that taste of this. Sometimes daddy eats a bag of flat crunchy things, covered in salt. If he leaves them lying around, and I smell them, then I go over and lick the bag and all of the flat, crunchy things, if I can get to them.
I didn't recognise the black grains in the other clear, plastic container. I sniffed it and it made me catty-choo lots and lots. I didn't like this, so I didn't lick it. Daddy might have to give the container a wipe.
I jumped down from this surface and up onto another one. There was a plant on it with a label that said 'Basil'. I sniffed it and it had a very strong smell. I decided to bite and chew it. It tasted horrible, so I spat it back out.
I went into another room with a long, wooden thing in it that I've heard daddy call a 'table'.
It had some kind of cloth on it. I wanted to see what was on this table, so I jumped up, but as my paws grabbed at the cloth it all slipped off the table, and I fell back to the floor with it.
I wasn't very happy about this, but did a little catty head-shake and was okay.
I thought I'd try a different room, the one with a bed in (but not the one daddy sleeps in / my bed). There are lots of things piled on this bed, so I had fun sniffing and exploring. There was something that looked like one of the sheep I'd seen in a field, but made of plastic. I swatted it a bit, then it made a 'fsssss' noise and became flat. I didn't understand this, so turned my attention to some wires, sticking out of a box, which I practiced pouncing on.
After a while I spotted a shelf that I hadn't been on before. It had a really good view of the garden and any birds that might be outside. I spotted some Sparrows and started catty-chattering at them. I got very excited and my tail started swishing. This made me knock some things off the shelf which smashed on the floor. The smashing sound made me jump, in fright, and knock more things off of the shelf.
I ran onto my usual bed, a bit scared, licked my paws, then fell asleep.
When daddy came in he seemed unhappy and shouted 'Bruce', so I just pretended to be really deep in sleep.
*??
