Whatever's the matter with Maurice?

Oh! how I wish we had a cat. We still say, even after 20 odd years without one, that "WE have always had cats". In fact when we had to have our last one put to sleep through old age (she was 22), we made a deliberate decision not to have any more animals, as we thought we were old, not going to get any younger, and might well not be here that much longer to care for a pet - and here we are 20 odd years on, and although we would both love a cat, we are not really in any position to care for an animal. The joys of arriving home to a lovely purrrrr, and even a gift of a mouse! Wonderful.

Printmiss have you thought about taking on a senior cat? Cats Protection often have older cats which can be hard to home because most people want kittens.

JessM The cats very rarely get treats, (apart from liking the crab pot!) They have tinned food at 7.30am and 5.30pm and there is a bowl of dried food available for snacking as required.

I do wonder if Maurice is going a bit senile, I just heard Mr P telling him to get out of the bath

We went on holiday to the wilds of Spain and the English owners had left their cat behind. He looked so unkempt and sad but DS1 made a fuss of him and fed him the dried food which was left for him. (We all made a fuss of him but DS1 was obsessive!) When we went to the supermarket we bought him some of those posh little pots of food which he loved. After that he refused the dried food and a couple of days later started grooming himself and by the time we left he looked really happy and healthy. We complained long and loud about him being left like that and can only hope they made proper arrangements for him.

There is a long and interesting article in the New Scientist this week about the psychology and behaviour of the cat. Tail straight up means I want to be your friend apparently.
I think he's a cat lover though and anthropomorphises a bit. Am unconvinced by his idea that rubbing against other cats, or human ankles is "affection". I have had this kind of "affection" from cats that I have never seen before (while out delivering leaflets).

Cats can sort of "scent mark" by rubbing JessM so you could be right.

The tail straight up thing is usually taken as a positive sign, i.e. the cat is happy and probably does want to be your friend.

Of course, there is another theory..............

Or they have learned that the behaviour elicits feeding behaviour in humans perhaps?

No JessM the other theory is that the upright tail is actually an antennae to beam information back to the mother ship!

I was talking about the rubbing "affectionately" against any human ankles.

But who cares when you have a dear furry face coming up to you and being affectionate? it's just lovely, and questioning the motivation takes some of the joy away. I like my delusions.

"Phoenix" we have thought of that, but where we live now, we have neighbours who are truly proud of their beautiful gardens (puts ours to shame!) and there are several cats who live on the park already and these cause a lot of complaints. Another reason we did not have any more animals was that we had hoped that when we retired we would be able to go away more - that didn't happen - never mind, we have so many really happy funny memories of the cats we have had, and I am just dotting down some details of my (and our) life and I am finding cats are mentioned nearly all the time - I think I should write a book about them.

Printmiss had you thought of fostering cats for the Cinnamon Trust? They often need short term fosterers while they look for a more permanent home. The cat would probably stay indoors and you could get your cat fix. You may even end up with a long term foster indoor cat.

Thanks for that NfkDumpling will look into it, have a word with the other half first, see what his reaction is.

Evening all, hope you don't mind me reviving this.

Maurice is now "under the vet" for hyperthyroidism. When I took him for his most recent blood test (and that's a story in itself, cat in a gimp mask...) I was telling the vet about the daft verse and saying that with hindsight all the things I mention in it I now realise were signs of the condition.

Adrian (senior vet) said he would love to see it so I emailed it to him, changing the name from "Maurice" to "Mouser" to protect the guilty! He has just emailed me to ask permission to put it up in the waiting room.

I'm quite chuffed that it might amuse and might ring alarm bells with other cat owners and perhaps persuade them to get their moggies checked out sooner rather than later.