The Cats

My Cats

Current

 Paws is our first cat.

 

 That's her when we first got her. She came from next door, where our neighbour's have around seventy cats.

It's a cat problem, you see. They took in strays, at first, and fed, vaccinated and neutered them.

But of course, more kept coming. And as castrating/spaying costs a lot of money, soon they couldn't do it anymore. So now they're overrun, and most of the cats have coriza (cat flu).

Anyway, Paws came to us from them. We reckon she was born in October 2011. She's Samy's sister, we believe. (See below.)

She's a super playful cat, picking things up with her paws (hence her name) and juggling with them. She loves to be stroked and purrs a lot and is perfectly adorable. Paws also likes to sleep on top of the fridge.

On March the 25th 2013, she had kittens!

Three of them. (See below.)

This is Paws, now. She has a red collar...which she scratched a lot and now it's very fluffy.

Samy is our second cat.

That's what she looked like when we first got her, only slightly thinner and more ragged.

She, like her sister (Paws) came from our neighbours. She was extremely shy when we first got her. We couldn't go anywhere near her, at first. Soon we managed to tempt her inside to have some food. Then we got to stroking her a little.

Her name, Samy, came from "semi-déplumé - French for "half-plucked", really.

Our aunt joked and called her "semi-déplumé" and then my sister decided we should call her "Samy"!

On August 9th 2012, she had kittens! (See below.)

This is what Samy's like, now.

From being very thin, she's now gone to slightly overweight!

She's still very shy, though.

Humbug is Samy's son.

That's him as a kitten. He's an adorable little fluffy thing.

Pretty clever...

...pretty stupid...

 (You ever seen a cat fall out of a tree?)

...and an absolute failure.

He's horribly fluffy, adorable and cute. Humbug sleeps in ridiculous positions (like the photo above).

His name, Humbug, doesn't derive from "hypoctrite" and the "bah, humbug" stuff.

It comes from an English black and white peppermint - Houm's colouring. I would put a list of his nicknames, but it would take too long. Despite the photo above and below, he is BLACK and white...I just had the flash on.

The most annoying thing about Humbug is his tendency, at night, to come onto the bed and tunnel under the duvet (purring all the while) and start eating my feet.

Either that or he sits on the bedside table and throws everything off it (books, papers, pens, whatever).

Then he scratches the wall, making a nasty sqeaking-chalk noise...recently, he tore a hole in the lampshade.

Toufkin is our last cat.

 

He's a non-purebred Havana. Very sleek and shiny, he prefers my sister to me.

He, like his half sister (Paws) came from next door. We believe his birthday is on the 17th May 2012.

He really likes Humbug, and they often sleep together on our bed, or the sofa, or the armchair, or the sofa bed.

Toufkin's name was made up by my sister. She says now that if we'd known we'd adopt him, she'd have thought of something better!

Touf often sits on chairs, waiting for you to come over and stroke him...which means instant death unless you're wearing gloves or have your sleeve pulled over your hand. He bites you and scratches you and mauls you - all the while looking at you in an adoring, playful manner.

Given Away

Malteser is Samy's kitten.

 He, strangely enough, had Siamese colouring. When he was born, he was gingery. Then he grew silvery tips to his feet, tail, ears and nose. That gradually darkened.

He liked trees a lot, and would constantly run around the trunks and then dash up them.

Eventually we gave him to some nice people who live a little while away from us.

 They had two Jack Russel puppies, for wich reason we were a bit anxious of sending him there. But he seems to be fine!

(That's a photo they sent us of him.)

Now, as you can see, he's a full chocolate point! Although he is, admittedly, a lot chunkier than a purebred Siamese.

Mintus is one of Paws' offspring.

That's him, when he was a kitten.

Mintus changed names a lot - at first we thought he was a girl (Clover), then a boy (Clovis), then some name beginning with M which I can't remember...then Mintus.

Absolutely adorable and fluffy, when he lived with us he played a lot, especially with his mother.

His fur changed from brown to black to brown to black.

He suckled her until we gave him away, which was at the age of six months or so.

Now he lives with our uncle and his partner and her daughter!

Deceased

Treacle is/was Humbug and Malteser's brother.

He and his siblings were all born outside in a cardboard box.

Two of his siblings died (see below), and Treacle somehow ended up with three and a half legs.

Me and my mother rushed him to the vet, where they said they'd have to put him down, as he wouldn't survive. I didn't want to, though, and so we got them to stitch up the wound and give him some antibiotics. 

He was fine! An absolutely adorable little cat.

Very playful, indeed. From a fluffy kitten, he went to being very sleek and velvety...and then furry again!

 

 Treacle loves/loved water and played around with the water in his bowl, and with the rainwater which collected in plant's saucers.

Another thing he really likes/liked is/was the hammock!

He thinks/thought that was the best invention on the planet...lovely to just sit on, and thrilling to run up and down while it swayed madly.

Treacle died when we were in England for two or so weeks, and he was being looked after by our neighbours.

When my mother phoned for news of the cats, they said they hadn't seen Treacle for two to three days.

We came back as soon as possible...well, we think he must have eaten a poisoned rat or something :'(

Mouche is/was Mintus' brother. "Mouche" means "fly" (the insect, that is) in French.

He was a very fluffy little kitten, quite bear like, in fact.

He got coriza, though, quite badly.

It glued his eyes together a lot and...well, coriza in kitten's is not uncommonly deadly :'(

Chanson is/was Mouche and Mintus' sister.

(At least, we assume it was a girl.)

She was the smallest of Paws' kittens, and died after a few days. We took her to the vet, but they couldn't do anything.

She was a tiny kitten, mainly black but with a little white.

"Chanson" means "song" in French.

*Sadly no photograph.*

Milky Way is/was another of Samy's kittens.

We assume it was a she, was the first of Samy's kittens to die (at one day old).

A possibility of her death was that the entire family was attacked by another cat or a weasel (or something) - one kitten died, Treacle lost half a leg and another was injured.

My father says she had an open wound on her chest.

(I never saw the body.)

Liquorice is/was the last of Samy's kittens.

He (we believe it was a he) died after two days.

He had a slightly swollen foot, which may have been bitten by something.

Other Cats

This cute tortoiseshell cat belongs to our neighbours - the cat people.
She's a very sweet, young cat, who's already had two litters of kittens.

 I'm afraid I can't remember her real name >.< I'll have to ask them next time I see them - and her.
But we call her Swirl.
She has a head a bit like Paws'...I wonder if they're related...

She's really cute.

Here's another cat! I don't know its real name (if it has one) but I call it Gooseberry...hehe.

 He/she often comes into our garden.
It's pretty shy, but not half as shy as some of other cats.
 Gooseberry likes our cats...

 ...although they sometimes chase eachother.



This is a cat we call Peach.


 We're not sure if Peach is a boy or a girl, but he/she has very pretty colouring!
There aren't any other cats near here with that peachy fur.


Ploum is the name given by our neighbours to all black and white cats...

...especially those with a black nose or chin. Ploum, here, is the biggest of them.
He's also Grand Ploum - Big Ploum. He's probably the granddad of all the other ploums.
We believe he's One-Eye's (a ploum we haven't seen for a while...) father and therefore Humbug's grandfather.

Gingerpaw is a young female cat, with an almost identical twin sister.

 She is, evidently, named after her ginger paw.

Gingerpaw is almost a year old, although she looks like a kitten.

Sadly, it seems that our neighbours' cats are getting smaller and smaller with each new generation.

Gingerpaw is very sweet, though quite shy.
Our neighbours call her and her twin  Ploumette - female ploum - despite her ginger patches.

This is a cute tabby kitten who - as far as we know - doesn't have a name.

We just call him (I think it's a him) Tabby! He's a shy cat, who we don't see around much.

This is Tourne-a-Gauche.

 Tourne-a-Gauche means Turn Left. He's called that because he had an ear infection and after the vet operated on him, he was left (hehe) with his head constantly looking to the left.

 He still has that ear infection, but other than that he's pretty healthy. Tourne-a-Gauche often comes into our garden, but our cats chase him out.