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Cat-alogue


taxi4ballet

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Speaking of cats being attracted to humans, I saw A Street Cat Named Bob yesterday and found it immensely touching. Some funny camera shots, too; the immediate surroundings seen through the eyes of a cat. Off topic here - the film also made me realise how much I miss the sight of Covent Garden and the places I went to … out of sight however not out of mind so to speak.

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  • 3 weeks later...
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After reading recent Balletco comments about cat cafes, I decided to see if there was one in Edinburgh as I would be spending a few days there with DD. I was pleased to find "Maison de Moggy' and, after spending far too long looking at cute photos of cats on their website, I made a reservation for us to spend an hour there.

 

DD has been missing our cat hugely, so I thought she would appreciate the chance to spend a bit of time with some cats. Also, the chance for her to take yet more selfies wasn't one to be missed!

 

I was slightly apprehensive as we stood outside the cafe waiting for our turn to be let in, but the whole experience turned out to be very enjoyable and I wouldn't hesitate to book a return visit in the future. There are around 12 cats living in the cafe and, even though they are all in 2 main rooms, they can be surprisingly difficult to find! There are baskets, shelves, boxes, chairs, hidey holes, etc for them to play in, sleep in, or hide in. We were given instructions that the cats were not to be picked up, but there were a few toys we could use to play with the cats, or we could just sit down by them. It was a very, very relaxing way to spend an hour and a lovely way to catch up with DD and see her enjoying herself so much.

 

I was told that all the cats were brought up together as kittens and, if any of them appear to be unhappy living in the cafe at any time, there are homes available where they could move to. They did all seem happy and healthy to us (well they were mainly sleeping, pretty much like our cat spends most of its time doing!) and did not seem bothered by having around 12 strangers moving gently around their home. There was an interesting mix of people there - some were fairly local and visited the cafe regularly, whereas others were from America and just visiting before heading back to the airport.

 

Hopefully the cafe will be there in a year's time, as I would really like to visit again. While I appreciate that not all cat cafes will be such a pleasant place to visit, I was very impressed by this one. If you're thinking of visiting, please pre-book your hour slot on their website, as it is not possible to just walk-in off the street.

 

Finally, many thanks to Balletco members who gave me the idea for this visit. I honestly had no idea that such places existed! I have learnt so much (not just about ballet) from this Forum.

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Hull, good to read about your visit to "Maison de Moggy" and that it was a positive experience.

Our paper's intrepid reporter visited the local cat cafe and has said a report/review will be appearing in this week's exciting edition. I await with interest.

Edited by Jacqueline
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The newspaper review was positive I am glad to say, as my only concern was for the safety and welfare of the cats. It appears the chap who has opened the cafe already has another one elsewhere. He says he has suffered from depression in the past and found the company of cats to be very therapeutic. He hopes the cafe may be similary helpful to people who have conditions such as autism and may expand the therapy side. It is essentially a cafe though, so all are welcome. He sounds as though he is responsible as far as the cats are concerned and I hope it is a success.

As appears to be the norm, you have to make an appointment to get in which costs £5, then you pay for whatever you eat and drink of course. I will go and check it out for myself as I am still interested to know why he chose this location.

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Latest trip to the vets - £92.00!! Kept us waiting half an hour, the room absolutely stank from the previous cat. And I really wish I saw the same vet - they all seem to have just graduated from Vet School. Having said this she was very thorough and Tia had antibiotics and anti-inflammatory injections she has some sort of respiratory infection. She has the most weird meow at the moment - but her runny eyes and nose have cleared up. If we could get tablets down her then it would have been less expensive. At age 14 we're not taking any risks with her. We don't have pet insurance - does anyone have any experience/can recommend a good plan or is it just a bit too late to take out now?

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Probably!!

We took Toscar in his last year to Tim Couzens then based in East Hoathly. He is mainly homeopathic but spends a good half hour for the appointments but was no more expensive than our more local more traditional vet...who I did not like...and I rarely take a dislike to people like I did him!!

Tim was lovely however and in the last month even said he would drive over to our house if Toscar deteriorated drastically in any way....which fortunately he didn't ....but died in our arms at home.

I'm so glad I found Tim though as both he and the other lady from New Zealand at the Practice then were wonderful with Toscar and took all the stress out of visiting the Vets with an older cat.

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 At age 14 we're not taking any risks with her. We don't have pet insurance - does anyone have any experience/can recommend a good plan or is it just a bit too late to take out now?

 

 

I think it gets more expensive as your pet gets older.  A friend gave up her pet insurance when her cat passed a particular age and the premium doubled.

 

When I got Chip from the Dogs' Home I got a free month from Pet Plan but when they sent me details for continuation but it was £20 or so a month.  I went for Tescos instead!  Chip is only between 4 and 5 though.  

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I'm still not sure whether I was seeing things this morning...

 

Driving along a fairly quiet road, I was approaching a zebra crossing when I saw a cat walk towards the crossing and sit down. It looked both ways, waited for an oncoming car to pass, and when the road was clear it trotted quietly over the zebra crossing, and away up the path.

 

:o

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Hi LinMM

 

East Hoathly is not that far away, so worth looking into. Her meow is virtually back now and she seems fine. It was a long lasting antibiotic as we can't get tablets down her so I think she's over it. She's quite fit otherwise (touching lots of wood)

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Last few times I was at our local vets, they were selling/promoting a plastic syringe like device for getting pills down feline throats. I well remember the struggle with our cat, holding her under one arm while trying to prise her mouth open and get the pill in her mouth. Then you were supposed to massage her neck to encourage swallowing the pill.

She would then hold the pill in her mouth before spitting it out elsewhere. The vet made it look easy but animals sense your unease and play on it. This syringe is placed in the cat's mouth and the pill is launched down the throat before the cat has a chance to object apparently. What could possibly go wrong?

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Me and my other half tried the green syringe device - still didn't manage to get the pill down the cat, well yes we did, down the front of the cat when she spat it out

 

Edited for typo

 

PS why can't I use the smiley faces?

Edited by porthesia
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We used to put Toscars pills into bits of chicken ....make a sort of hole and hide it in the piece.

Sometimes it worked.

On other occasions we thought it had worked but would then find the pill on the floor near his dish later!!

 

By far the best were the homeopathic powders because these we could just mix in with his food and he more or less accepted this

 

A pity you can't get all these pills in powder form or liquid and mix into the food.

There would still probably be days when they would just not touch the food though!

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  • 7 months later...

Spotted the other day as I gazed out of the window: one of the local cats - and there are a lot of them - sitting comfortably curled up on top of someone's motorbike :)  I guess the engine must still have been warm - or perhaps the cat has aspirations to higher things?

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  • 3 weeks later...

My eldest daughter and her boyfriend finally wore us down and Orion and Nova arrived on Sunday.  Two small black balls of fluff that are so far tearing out our heart strings as Nova (not my cats and I didn't choose the names) has been unwell since his inoculations, de-fleaing and de-worming on Monday - another trip to the vets today for anit-inflammatory injection and he is to have another anti-inflammatory injection with the 2nd part o the inoculations.  I had forgotten just how much fun and how cute kittens were.

 

They have yet to meet Tia as we made the decision not to have her inoculated this year as she had a funny reaction last year. She's 14 years old and should be fully protected from the kittens - just not them from her.  Keeping fingers crossed it all goes well!;)

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Thank you for that Ellie. We were adopted by a sick stray a number of years ago who has stolen a big part of our hearts. Funniest, most loving cat we've ever had. Unfortunately the resident cats have never taken to him, which he really doesn't understand! 

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  • 6 months later...

I have to share ...

 

I have 2 cats ... siblings ... born on a farm. We live rurally, but not on a farm.  One cat hunts and catches the occasional bird ... in the past 7 days the other cat has brought us 3 baby rabbits, a frog, several mice/voles/shrew, innumerable birds and today ... a mole!!!! There can not be any wildlife left! 

How I long for the days when the only thing he could catch was a worm! 

 

The only positive I can find is at least he kills them and doesn't bring them home to play with! 

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We’ve had a weasel once too, he had the head in his mouth and luckily we spotted him and shouted to take it outside as it was still alive. 

Moles used to be our laziest cats prey - he lay beside the mole hill until they started to poke their noses out and then would pounce. Could take all day. 

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We back onto woods, so we have had innumerable mice, voles, shrews etc. (often several a day). Birds galore (I think they have wiped out the entire Goldcrest population 🙁), including robins at Christmas and quite a lot of live ones which are “fun” to try to get out.... Squirrels, three rare dragonflies, a spate of slow worms (they found a nest in our garden), and a large raw turkey breast (I don’t like to think how they got hold of that....🤔😐).

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Our cat laid in the shade of the hedge today as a pair of wagtails walked all round the garden. I was ready to scare them off as they got closer to his hiding place but he barely made the effort to even look at them. For some reason he has no interest in birds. 

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  • 5 months later...

Earlier today, while on my way to work, I was a little stunned to see, in a window of a house adjoining the pavement (UK usage!), a cat which had clambered up the (ordinary plastic, I think) Venetian blind in a window, pushed its way between the slats so that it was against the window, and was attempting to perch on the part of the window frame surrounding the fanlight (!)

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We arrived back at my parents house who had two cats at the time ( over ten years ago now) one Boxing Day to see books all over the floor! At first we thought the cats had just been chasing each other and getting over excited but then ....and cannot remember now who saw it first...saw a poor blackbird sitting right up on the top book shelf!! 

Goodness knows how long it had been there for ages I should think but luckily seemed okay.

My dad got it and went out and put it on the garage roof and it eventually flew off but it was a miracle it didn't end up as Christmas dinner for one or the other of them!! 

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  • 6 months later...
  • 2 months later...

We had to close our cat flap ‘ in’ door , new rescue cat Tabitha was creating too much carnage, reducing the baby starling population plus a few headless mice. Her new nickname is Killer Queen . Simba never hunts or catches anything . 

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I had a male cat called Toscar and he was hopeless at catching birds ....not that I wanted him to be good at it ....a bird would have had to practically drop in his mouth I think. He did all the right moves though that sort of low squatting and creeping along the ground stuff but the pigeons he stalked would just flutter off a few yards as if to say what on earth do you think you're playing at! 

I wonder if female cats in general are better hunters and catchers!

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Unfortunately my two cats are both expert hunters and we back onto woods - so the summer months are a constant conveyer belt of dead/alive/half-dead/mutilated animals or birds. I have become quite adept at catching live birds in a tea towel and removing them outside again. I wish I could say I am as expert at trapping rodents....

 

We have had - besides the expected selection of mice, shrews, voles, birds etc. - several large squirrels (thankfully dead - not sure I could chase a live squirrel around the house!), a spate of slow worms (they found a nest in the back garden and helped themselves), several dragonflies, a raw turkey breast (?!), and a live magpie (how they wrangled that through the cat flap I’ll never know!). The magpie perched on the curtain rail for over an hour after I got home from work before I finally noticed it was there! And yes, we managed to get it out of the nearest window, although not without a lot of flapping and panic (mostly on my husband’s part) and mess.... 🙁

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