The Cats are 6 today

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Last year, at this time, we mentioned that Biscuit had finally ventured into territories unknown – my lap! Since then, although it’s not been a regular thing, she does snuggle-down every so often. Not so Bon-Bon – or so we thought! Back in September, for no reason at all, she suddenly decided to try my lap as well. Hardly a permanent residence, as the experience only lasted around 2 minutes, but a major leap forward (literally)! More recently though, she had a change of heart and decided to settle down for longer – a couple of hours in fact. ‘That’s a one-off’ we thought, only to find the following day, she did the same… and the day after… and the day after that! Who knows what goes on inside of a cat – especially our two!

Patsy, continues to provide a first-class six-weekly grooming service and although they’re still pretty feisty when we take them there, dare I say it; they’re getting used to her, and the ritual.

The cats still love the garden – and they’re out there at every opportunity. They love the sun (obviously), but they also enjoy the rain and, the snow. Biscuit has now completely lost the urge to jump over the fence into our neighbours. She did it a few times a year-or-so ago, giving us heart-failure, thinking she’d run-away!! Bon-Bon doesn’t doesn’t even think about it (although her heavyweight ‘design’; would probably prevent her leaving the ground!)

This year, we weaned them off the wet-food (Purina) sachets. They love it, but every so often it resulted in a ‘loose tummy’- and long-haired cats with that condition makes it a bit stressful for cats and owners alike! So, we’ve kept them on the dry food and supplement it with Sainsbury’s ‘basics’ chicken breast pieces – they love chicken and it doesn’t seem to matter where they are – as soon as they hear me cutting it up, they’re there!

Whereas humans tend to prefer still or sparkling water, Biscuit and Bon-Bon have a preference for ‘pond’ or ‘rain’ (or both!). Even if we change their water indoors every hour, they always prefer drinking-out.

The morning routine is that I’m normally up first, and whereas in past years, they’d race downstairs and sit by the patio doors waiting to be left out – things are now different, in that they tend to lie-in for a bit.

They certainly know their names and it’s possible to call Biscuit by hers when she’s in the garden and she’ll come running – just like a dog. Meanwhile, Bon-Bon upholds the breed and stands her ground, only coming in when SHE wants to. The only way to get them both in, when we’re ready to go to bed, is to get behind them. They say you can’t heard cats, but you can with our two. When they were kittens, they used to regularly chase each other, but that’s now a rare event – I think I’ve only seen them do it once or twice this year. There’s been one scrap, where they exchanged eye-contact for a few seconds too long, and the next moment they were cuffing each other – it didn’t last long though!

Bon-Bon’s second home is the ‘cat tower’ – still going strong after all these years – whereas Biscuit prefers the end of our bed, but only after  she’s presented herself for a comb-out. Bon-Bon’s party trick continues, in that if you offer her your open palm when she’s sitting down, she’ll respond by offering her paw for a sort of handshake – another dog-like gesture! The other behaviour is that she has a habit of head-butting my fingers when I’m grooming her. Originally, I didn’t know what this meant, but recently, it became clear – she wanted to use my fingers to clean her eyes. Trusting or what?

They’ve not grown very much in the past year – I guess they’re full size now, but Bon-Bon’s fur during the months of November/December/January seems to just get thicker and thicker – and in truth, almost impossible for us to groom. Thank heavens for Patsy!! A few hours with her and she’s a new (and thinner!) cat.

So, all-in-all they’re much the same, but sleeping more, eating more, and chasing each other less – not a bad life ehh?