Diary
31 January 2001
Cold, wet, foggy and miserable, again! All cats spent the day indoors going out only for calls of nature, all except Thomas of course.
30 January 2001
Thomas cornered Buster behind the sofa today and you would have thought that murder was being committed, what a racket, cats screeching for England. Black and ginger fur flying all over the place. However on examination of both parties it transpired that it was all noise, no sign of injury to either.
29 January 2001
Last night there was a terrible commotion from downstairs at around 11.45pm. Georgie, who was on the bed with me started to growl which is most unusual. I went down to the kitchen where Runcie and Thomas were to find the cat flap out of the door and the litter tray (clean thankfully) knocked over. Thomas and Runcie were looking very wide eyed. I put the cat flap back and locked it then tidied up and went back to bed. Now we have an abundance of foxes in this area and during the mating season (now) they get very noisy. They have ventured right up to the back door and used the drinking bowl of water that I leave outside for the cats, I did wonder whether one had come that far tonight or maybe it was the black and white cat again, who knows?
28 January 2001
I still have an agoraphobic in Thomas. He will go outside provided I am there and he has ventured down the path with Runcie but as soon as I go start to go back indoors he beats me to it! He is quite happy now at being left in the kitchen at night and is even happier is Runcie chooses to stay with him.
27 January 2001
I think Spring must be in the air. Thomas and Runcie played "tag" this morning all over the house for about 30 minutes. I could say I don't know where they get the energy from but, when they spend in the region of 85% of their lives asleep I suppose it stands to reason they have a little energy to let off.
Thomas is becoming a lot more trusting of other people now. This afternoon he curled up on the lap of a complete stranger who visited, he had no intention of being moved when the time came for this person to leave. This prompted a novel way of removing an unwanted cat from the lap, stand up and let it fall off. This was someone who was obviously not that used to cats as all Thomas did was to hang on! However, with a little persausion a very bemused cat eventually parted company from the lap in question. Just need to get him to go out on his own now.
26 January 2001
Runcie is about 13 years old and in human terms if there are roughly 6 years to every 1 of hers that makes her 78 years old.
I think it is about time someone told here that she should be growing old gracefully.For a start she has taken up with this 30 year old toy boy called Thomas and is all over him, washing his face, nuzzling up to him as if there is no tomorrow. Then she is kicking hell out of a toy mouse, throwing it in the air and trying to bite its head off. Very unbecoming behaviour all round.
25 January 2001
Quiet day all round again. Strangely enough it was raining, in fact during the afternoon we had some very large hailstones. As such all the cats found their niche. Georgie on my bed, Buster on the spare bed, Runcie on the sofa and Thomas on the landing. Hard life isn't it?
24 January 2001
I am quite sure Thomas has a fear of leaving the house in case he finds he can't get back into this treasure trove of food, milk, warmth, toys and love that are kept there. I spent the morning tidying the garden as it was such a lovely day and Thomas came with me, however, never was I allowed out of sight and if at anytime I went back into the house there he was, 2 steps behind me.
23 January 2001
You know how it is, you're watching something on television that you really want to see and the phone rings. It is a call you really want to take, so what do you do? Hit the record button, best of both worlds. Unless that it is you have a cat called Thomas! The remote control was on the sofa as was Thomas, Thomas decides to stretch and turn over. Now, not being the lightest of cats when his body rolls onto the remote it manages to press the "stop" button without me noticing. So, when I go to watch the end of the programme I missed whilst on the phone? Got it in one, I lost the last 7 minutes.
22 January 2001
This morning I became an Auntie for the first time and whilst I was hearing the news on the phone Thomas and Runcie decided to have a celebration time of their own. Thomas chased Runcie round the lounge and up the stairs and then Thomas came flying back down the stairs with Runcie in pursuit, back round the lounge into the wastepaper basket. Now that was fun! Lets do that again, the wastepaper basket bit anyway. So bits of rubbish were strewn around the room obviously good fun, for them anyway! A few days ago a friend of mine had a dream about my cats. This dream had a new addition in the form of a male mainly black cat with the ends of of paws looking as though they had been dipped in white paint. 
Nothing you may think unusual about that but, today I found myself eye to eye with a young male black cat with a white face from the nose down and the end of his paws looking as though they had been dipped in white paint! I am assuming this was the cause of the upturned bowl problem mentioned earlier. Now in the dream this was the cat that sorted out the problems that Buster and Georgie were having with Thomas, that may be, but, I DO NOT want him moving in. He can sort the problems out then he can go home.
21 January 2001
I was out all day and came home to no accidents and four warm sleeping cats. The activity didn't change much during the evening either, a break for some food and back to sleep.
20 January 2001
Now there has been something going on for a few months that I haven't mentioned in the diary although there is a short reference on one of the cat's pages. Thomas has been having a romantic association. This started fairly early on after his arrival and the little female in question is certainly the one in charge.
Runcie greatly missed Lester when he died and has turned to Thomas for a bit of comfort. As the other two were very anti, Thomas accepted this paw of friendsip readily and this has now blossomed into a "love affair". Evenings have been spent together on the sofa and Runcie has no objections to staying in the kitchen at night with Thomas. I wonder if Runcie realises she has a "toyboy"? She should be very pleased with herself at her age!
19 January 2001
New catflap now fitted. This seems to be working well. There have been no more accidents and Thomas is quite settled at night in the kitchen.
18 January 2001
You know that feeling when you snuggle under the duvet on a cold night, you're all warm and cosy and just in that limbo area between being awake and being asleep when! More commotion from downstairs. There I was at 11.30pm in the kitchen being faced with cat food all over the floor, an upturned milk bowl, Thomas's bed in the middle of the kitchen, an overturned litter tray, a completely broken cat flap and no Thomas.
Checking outside I found him there, not looking frightened this time and not wanting to come in. Now whether something came in and tried to pinch his food I just don't know, I just hope it is not another stray cat!
17 January 2001
Well, I don't know who was more startled! me or the cats. There I was quietly sitting at the PC upstairs when I heard a terrible commotion from downstairs. Buster and Georgie were both upstatirs, Runcie was asleep (don't know how) in the lounge, now, where was Thomas?
The kitchen was a disaster area, cat food all over the floor, an upturned bowl of milk and one broken dish. The cat flap was hanging off the door and Thomas? well he was outside looking like a frightened rabbit. Nothing else could be seen so I have no idea what caused the problem. However, he is ok now. Oh, and good news, Thomas used the litter tray.
16 January 2001
Ok, so the plan of action started last night:
Give Thomas a room of his very own, after all Buster has laid claim to the dining room and the double bed in the spare bedroom. Runcie has the lounge and the hallway. Georgie has the bed in my room. So what does that leave Thomas? The kitchen and the conservatory.I shut him in the kitchen last night with a blanket tucked under the radiator and a litter box. He was quiet and clean.
15 January 2001
Thomas is still "marking his territory" around the house. I had him checked out at the Vet and it is not a bladder problem more likely to be anxiety about being left alone with the other cats.
We have a plan of action starting from tomorrow, I'll keep you up to date.
14 January 2001
I was missed! Having spent the morning trying to clean the oven, not my favourite of jobs, I found I was having to step around ALL of the cats, it seems they weren't letting me out of their sight.
13 January 2001
I think I was missed! It is a little difficult to tell. Runcie was more demanding and vocal than usual. Thomas wouldn't let me more than 3 steps away from him at any one time, Georgie stayed in during the evenings and Buster, well he just slept as per usual.
8 January 2001
Sad day for the cats I am out all week from 7am until approx. 6pm they haven't had this since last October! As such I won't have much to say unless there are any interesting issues during the evenings. Will restart 13 January.
7 January 2001
Cooked fish today, you would think they had never been fed. 4 totally tone deaf cats wailing at me from the 4 corners of the kitchen it could have been very musical but mine appear to have no talent. Thomas has decided that he is a meat eater and ate only half of his coley fillet, not to worry though, Georgie "helped" him out. Runcie demolished hers in a very methodical no teeth kind of way, but she would not allow anyone to assume she had finished and licked the bowl completely clean.
Thomas has been reasonably clean, until now. He has started again, same spot, I think a visit to the Vet is in order.
6 January 2001
Typical weekend weather, cold, wet and windy which had the normal weekend result of having 4 cats finding various warm spots around the house to spend in the art of sleeping all day..... oh to be a cat!
5 January 2001
Thomas had his first taste of a beaten egg this morning.He didn't follow Runcie's lead and just drink, he tried to kill it first!
He elongated his body and stuck his left front paw straight in the bowl. It got wet!! He shook his paw and shot me a look which seemed to say "what are you trying to do to me now?"
4 January 2001
It seems I got it wrong! Evidently he didn't say he was an expert cat trainer, he said he was an aspiring cat trainer! Maybe that's because his training technique failed?
3 January 2001
The same friend who suggested the diary to me considers himself an expert "cat trainer", so today he put it to the test. Runcie whom he calls "pincushion" due to the fact she digs her little needle like claws into you at every opportunity wanted to sit on his lap. He gained her attention and told her to follow his finger and sit on the gap on the sofa.
She followed his finger, promptly ignored it and plonked herself on his lap and stuck her claws in! He doesn't as yet understand that a) you can't train a cat to do anything they don't want to do and b) she's female!
2 January 2001
It's always the same isn't it? When you don't keep a diary you find you could have written reams! When you do........nothing! Basically because of torrential rain and a cold wind all 4 cats have found a warm spot in the house and simply slept. Hopefully there will be more happening tomorrow.
1 January 2001
So, here we are another New Year and all is reasonably well in the household. Georgie and Thomas sat on the bed together this morning, albeit one at each end, but apart from ensuring they kept one eye on each other there were no other incidents. Quite an achievement. 
Thomas is discovering the joys of being an indoor and fed cat. He spent a good part of the day "killing" his Christmas present, a catnip furry mouse, I am sure it must have been killed 10 times over but he never tired of the chase. I just hope that if the occasion arises he is equally as keen with the real thing. Just the one problem, Thomas is "marking his territory" around the house. Always seems to be the same spot, could be a bladder problem or could be a behaviourial one, time will tell.
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