General Chat

a Friday the 13th in February?

You get another one in March!



... unless it's a leap year. :-)


maybe it will be my lucky day, though

We moved household a long distance two weeks ago ... at the last minute one of three cats disappeared ... could have been hiding in the big house among all the stuff left behind that a 'junk lad' was coming to take the next day, could have got out the open door during the hours things were being taken out and loaded ... movers were anxious to go, they were driving me and the other two cats to our new home where the tall dude was already waiting for us, I had to leave ...

the cat (indoor cat from birth) is still in the house, which the new owner is gutting and renovating ... a neighbour has been feeding her but can't catch her

I am hoping the experts, animal rescue people, may be able to trap her today

meanwhile, cat number one is home from her vacation getting enemas at the vet, having decided to get her bowels impacted ... again ... within days after our move, and used up a nice chunk of the funds we had left after all this ... !

so here's to Friday the 13th, may it be a good one for all :-D

Aaw, do hope you get the other cat back soon. It obviously didn't want to move. :-)

its the territory thing with animals they have laid their scent around THEIR area so woe betide any animals who want to lay claim to any of it .

Hope she can be trapped and be persuaded she can claim a new area

We have rehomed a couple of cats over the years and kept them in house for a week each time then let them venture as far as they were comfy in the back garden

They soon settled in

the other two ... the missing one's mother and ... aunt? complex relationships in a feral colony! cat #1's grandmother was cat #2's mother, but #1 and #2 were born in the same season

(the ferals have now all been trapped and rehomed, thanks to the new neighbour who didn't just feed them as I had done for years, she built shelters for them in her garden, and they multiplied ...)

anyway #1 and #2 are very happy in the new house ... many windows to look out (the other house was big but dark, this one has two windows in every room) and rooms full of unpacked boxes to climb on ...

except that ... these two don't really like each other ... and while #1 was at the vet for three days, #2 who is the missing one's mother decided she was an 'only cat' and was ecstatic

and as soon as #1 returned, she started stalking and attacking her

why can't they just get along?!

Good luck with the cat catching :-) We have moved ( lots) with cats, dogs, rabbits and the odd gerbil, and getting the animals safely from A to B is always the most stressful bit. On a short removal van journey one of ours got out of his basket and found the only hole between the back and the cab and poked his head through it, fortunately a family member was driving the van lol.

I haven't found Friday 13th any more unlucky than any other day... but that's probably a matter of perception ;-) find me a 'lucky' day these days!

Sorry forgot to say Good Luck in your new home!

find me a lucky day ... too true :-)

maybe we need a 'lucky day' thread where we can all post when we actually have one, just to keep the hope alive :-D

One cat we had, when I was a child. Mickie, was allowed in or out, whatever she fancied.
She moved 9 times in the first 11 years of her life :-S
One move was from Scotland to Cornwall - on the flying Scotsman, with her (adult) kitten, Tabby. Both were on harnesses, and didn't like them!
Not only that, when we arrived in Cornwall, we heard one half of our caravan (it was huge - came in 2 parts) had had an accident under a bridge, so we had to stay in the Manor house. The caravan park was a new venture for the owners, so it was basically just half a dozen caravans in the woods.
Apart from the owners being in the middle of renovations - floorboards etc up, the house was reputedly haunted, and Mickie wouldn't go upstairs unless either me or my sister went upstairs. Tabby disappeared in this house :-(
Eventually the caravan was mended, and Mickie never went anywhere near the house!

A few moves later, dad drove us from Cornwall to Hampshire - in a Reliant Robin!! I had a crate of fish under my feet. Mickie was (again) on a harness. Unfortunately she got car sick, and erupted from both ends. Dad thought he'd solve the smell issue by using Sal Volatile.
So, there we were, cat vomit, cat poo, fish and Sal Volatile :-( :-(
Mickie lived until she was about 22, moving out of the house at the age of 16, when my niece was born, and taking up residence with a couple of pensioners down the road :-D

you could have that made into a film Maggie :-D

I hope you manage to get your puss back JC - I'd be devastated if I lost my Caddy

the story of Tabby does not instil hope in my heart!

at least we know she is still there in the house (and getting fed, although I fear the new owner will be finding her toilet at some point), and through days of open doors while moving and work has been going on, she has resolutely stayed indoors, so there's every reason to hope it will all work out

at least we have a cooperative new owner, who has given the neighbours the key so they can feed her and try to catch her

We lost a cat during a move when I was little, she got out of the car during a stop at my grandparents' house, but she was found next day.

I just feel so awfully guilty about this all ... the move was hellacious, me trying to work at my job and simultaneously pack 30 years of my stuff and the tall dude's stuff and friends' and family's stuff they had left behind over the years, and the detritus of my work (the days before computers ... boxes and boxes of 'paperwork'), and when did I decide I needed 15 antique glass pitchers (just the tip of the iceberg of 'collected' things) ... the tall dude only able to help minimally because post-stroke he is weak and exhausted after 15 minutes, and me not in great shape and feeling my age ...

and not to be able to just settle in and sigh with relief when it was over because of the poor abandoned cat

I want a lucky day sometime soon!

Forgot to mention - Mickie was an extremely aggressive moo. She'd claw you as soon as look at you. The only people who could do anything with her were my dad and me - and I used to dress her up in doll's clothes (probably why I still have a nasty scar). The pensioners she moved in with reported back that she was a lovely, gentle cat. :-S :-S
Joonie, you know where the cat is - that's a bonus :-D

As for 30 years worth of 'stuff' - I know where you're coming from.
I moved 28 times before I moved here, 25 years ago, and I've collected soooooo many books. I blame my mother. The only book she ever kept whenever we moved was an Enid Blyton book. I hate Enid Blyton books.
I'm now galvanising myself to sell them on e-bay. Even at £1 a book (+ P&P), I will make a small fortune, and I know some are worth more.
I'm starting with 4 boxes of books, somehow 'acquired' from my mum's husband (the fascist) - all war books - but someone will like them.
The ones I've bought throughout the years are more interesting :-D
But they have to go too - eventually,

I hope your cat can be trapped. I'm sure she'd rather be with her mummy. At least if they can catch her soon, you will have nearly settled in, and things will be less hectic.

My least favourite day (possibly 'unlucky') isn't Friday 13th but Thursday 14th - and I have no reason why!!

and the latest news ...

a neighbour on the street we have left to whom I had not spoken for several years (long and unpleasant story) ... my mum suggested she ask him to assist, since in the past I had helped a lot with their cats (I was the expert on 'pilling' cats) and my mum had met them a few times

so she phoned them and chatted and he leapt into action in conjunction with the crotchety controlling cat lady and my mum and he were emailing about what to do ... and I finally emailed them my thanks too, much as it galls me

he got a key from the new owner and has been going in and feeding the cat after the workers leave but wasn't able to catch her

they set the trap last night ... when he asked what the cat liked to eat, I said just dry food, but maybe a tin of tuna in the trap would be a good idea

today he reports (he is native Italian speaking)

'very, very smart cat; she eat the tuna and the dry food that we place prior to the cage but she did not go in!'

mm hm, well, and why would she go IN the cage (trap) when you put the tuna OUTSIDE (in front of) the cage??? :-S

so I have gently pointed this out to him, and they will be trying again tonight ...


books, maggie, I'm afraid my heirs, successors and assigns are going to have to deal with mine :-)

you just never know when you might want to read that Margery Allingham again ... or when you might get around to reading some of the many many you have picked up over the years or been given and just not got around to reading ...

that's what retirement will be for, right? :-D

let's hope it works and he catches her

Joonie, I'm getting rid of the war books and nasty sexist things by Hank Janson first - I know I'll never read them.
Then I may 'advance' to the others that are just drying out in the central heating. :-D

Just noticed you've got Hoares in your tree. So have I, but my Hoares were in Hampshire. I also have ancestors from St Austell, Probus, Kea, Ruanlanihorne and Lanivet, - generally around the tin mines of that area - but they were Johnson and Truran.

Hope your neighbour is successful tonight - at least the cat is still there!! :-D

Hank Janson - that brings back memories from my teens - they were rather racy books if I recall - well probably not racy by today's standards, but for a teenager in the 50's, very alluring :-D

Judging by the covers, Ann - yes 'racy' and, I've no doubt verging on a 'Me Tarzan - You Jane' attitude!! :-|

oh ............... I remember seeing those books in certain book stores. Never actually bought, or read, any of them :-)

I've never read them either.
They belonged to my mum's second husband :-0

(known between my siblings - and their are four of us - as 'El Fuhrer' or 'El Fascisti') Not solely because his political allegiances were totally different to ours :-D

The cat is caught! Yaaay. The neighbours now have her and I will decide who will go fetch her in the next few days, and how ...

maggie, you reminded me of the Angélique books my best friend in high school was completely mad for (I don't think I ever read one) ... and it turns out there is quite the Angélique cult and there were still three books left to be translated into English ... I got back in touch with the friend a couple of years ago and I may just see whether it has happened yet and surprise her with them

go to google images and ask for

angelique sergeanne golon

and you'll see covers that are a bit 'racy' :-)

... I think they must have been less so in the day because I know my friend got them at the library and that was in the 60s

... oh my lord, I see there are now translations, and when Angélique goes to New France the book is called 'In the Land of the Redskins'

somebody needs new translators



anyway,

THE CAT IS CAUGHT, YAAAAY!

:-D :-D :-D :-D

Really pleased to hear it Joonie, I hope when you get her home she settles in nicely :-)