Paw bouquet

Not the worst way to wake up but at 5am I was padded awake by the ginger one. He was fast asleep, curled up on my neck with all four paws paddling in a dream and right in my face.

Kitten film

The night time scratcher

The ginger menace keeps waking me up at 4am! If we shut him out of the bedroom he rips the carpet to shreds and if we let him in, I'm woken in the early hours by a very loud purr and the cat wrapped around my neck.

There's no way to stop it that I can think of. We've put masking tape on the carpet outside the bedroom door, covered this with a doormat, put a scratching post up and our piece de resistance is an air freshener with a movement sensor, so when he does come to the door, a waft of vanilla sprays into the air. It's not that effective, he still scratches and wakes us up but it does protect the carpet.

Any other thoughts are welcome!

More pear noshing

Raindrop chasing and other deliberations

Oliver's a little confused this morning, it rained quite heavily last night and our single pane windows are covered in condensation. This is causing havoc with his usual early morning staring out the window routine, but at least the raindrops sliding down the glass are fun, if a little wet, to catch.

Last night was a good one, he was calm so we left the bedroom door open. No scratching at 4am and I woke to find him curled up on my neck. A gentle push and he was lying against my back purring.


This is a photo I took of him yesterday eating my pear core - it's the first time he's eaten fruit (do most cats do this?) though he is also partial to cucumber. He became really possessive of the pear, once I'd taken the picture he picked it up and took it to his tunnel to gnaw on it further.

Kitten video - he's so small!

From then to now

Today's the 26th July 09 and we've had Oliver for nearly 3 months. He's grown an amazing amount and is more cat then kitten. He's been to the vet's 3 times, twice for injections and once to be weighed for worming. He's also booked in to be snipped and chipped when he's 6 months in September.

He's been to Kent to visit Tom's parents. He met their 6 year old cat Max, sniffed him, hissed at him and Max disappeared for the rest of the day. We also took him for a weekend at my parent's in Wiltshire, he loved being outside, but hated the journey back.

He's met friends, is terrified of strangers and although is yet to go out on his own, is happy being on a lead and walking round the communal gardens of the flat block. He's friends with the cat nextdoor and has seen a fox through the window. He's put up with SingStar nights and sat on my knee as I sang very loud out of tune kareoke. He loves hiding in the drying washing, helping to make the bed and generally getting under foot.

Since kittenhood he's loved me more then anyone else. If I leave the room he follows, he'll pick my lap first and if we let him in the bedroom at night, he sleeps on my neck. On the flip side I'm the one he play fights with, stalks and scratches - my right hand is covered in war wounds whilst Tom's is smooth.

He loves routine and hates it when we don't come back in the evening. He loves his luminous green play tunnel - though is now too big and it collapses whenever he tries to run through it. He loves his mouse on a string and carries it, stick and all around the flat. He get's very possesive of dried pasta - carrying it around and burying it under the rug in the hall and this morning, decided he likes to eat pear cores.

He makes the best chirupping noises when happy and little huffy hisses when play fighting. He pounces and pokes, climbs and leaps and has funny turns when he runs round the flat without touching the floor.

Day 1

We got him home and let him out in the living room, where he ran under the table. He was pretty friendly from the start, he hardly cried in the car on the way back and was easily tempted out with a toy or two. We spent the weekend playing with him. On Sunday Laura, Hannah and Emil came over to see him.

Caturday

We got Oliver when he was two months old on Saturday 9th May 2009. He was asleep so the seller gave the small bundle of sleepy fluff to FB and it was love at first site. He was beautiful, we didn't need to debate about health, looks or temperament we just took him. He wasn't big or stupid enough to be called Bungle so we stuck with Oliver. He very soon became known as the Ginger Prince, he was prince of the flat and we were there to serve.

The purrfect name

Naming a cat should be easy huh? Not when Book kit and Film boy are involved. We each had hundreds of names but managed to veto every single one the other thought of. With my love of books I wanted a literary name - Willoughby (Sense & Sensibility), Carbonel (King of cats), Orlando (the marmalade cat) etc etc. Tom and his love of films and comics wanted Gambit (X-Men) or Silvio (Sporanos). Laurence suggested Achilles which I liked by Tom vetoed. In the end it came down to two - Oliver and Bungle.

Search for a prince

We looked at loads of animal shelter websites with no luck, so went elsewhere and found a personal ad with kittens for sale. The kittens were in Catford, a ginger male and two females - black and tortoiseshell. We already knew we wanted a ginger cat, so phoned up and the seller said she'd keep him for a week.

The Prince's Arrival

We'd wanted a cat for ages but living in a rented flat meant we'd signed a NO PET contract. In April we let the landlady know we wanted to move and as it was full on credit crunch she gave us a heavy discount to stay. Before accepting we asked for one more thing - a cat.

Hooray for the crunch the landlady accepted and we started a cat search!