Oh, go on then
Paddy latest
Never mind the collapse of the British government, or the gigantic bluff being called by Iran, or the fact that we in the UK now take 30 million cholesterol drugs a year rather than actually change our diets to prevent heart disease - here are some photos taken yesterday and this morning of Paddy!
Although we've been keeping him in the spare bedroom since he arrived on Friday in order to acclimatise him before giving him full run of the house and introducing him to a remarkably calm Pepper (we've been exchanging their scents, but Pepper doesn't seem that bovvered), this morning we shut the door on a snoozing Peps and allowed Paddy to wander the landing and go down the stairs. No pressure. Indeed, in textbook kitten style, he kept dashing back to "his" room. He's back in there now.
He'll be out again tomorrow, for longer, and eventually, we'll let Pepper see him when he's in the protective pen we've hired from the vet's. (It's massive. I've been inside it already.) Paddy is alert, boundless, humorous, confident and going through that phase of biting your fingers.
I have been sleeping with him in the spare room, so he's not alone during this formative period (after all, he spent the first seven weeks of his life in a house full of kids and other cats and dogs), and I've been waking up in the night with his little face staring straight into my eyes. This means: get up, I want to play. He's a handful alright, and that's the fun of it.
Of all the toys we bought him (and this happened when Chilli and Peps were kits, but you sort of forget), it's the rolled-up ball of newspaper that he likes the most. I imagine this is how new parents feel. Although perhaps, in my case, less asthmatic.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 3:44 PM
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11 Comments:
Absolutely brilliant Andrew, more of the same please!
He really is cute. There's nothing cuter than a cute kitten is there?
Lovely markings - he's rather similar to my cat Ingrid, who's half Bengal. Though she's more orangey than Paddy. Are you sure there's not a bit of Bengal in there somewhere Andrew?
I'm interested to see how he'll get on with Pepper. We were thinking of introducing a kitten, but we're concerned they'll hate each other and then what would we do?
It seems it's not the case with yours.
Keep us posted.
Cute :-)
Still think you should enter him at http://kittenwar.com/
Aw shucks etc. He is so cute, it hurts. re: rolled up newspaper v. bought cat toys, my cats preferred conkers to anything from a shop so stock up this autumn! Nice big irregular ones. Does he do that sideways jump kittens do? Oh, I am broody.
My cats have pretty much ignored bought toys as well. One Christmas I (stupidly) bought fluffy baubles for the tree, only to come down every morning to find them all over the floor all soggy and balding; they're in the loft now. This Christmas we had a new-ish kitten who insisted on climbing the tree to steal a little stocking, which he would take away to terrorise at his leisure.
I just clicked on a Paddy pic (hoping to make it bigger) and found the Flickr site. Wow! What a fabulous site, with some truly incredible photo's.
When I first got my wee girl kitten (18 months ago) I didn't have any toys for her, so I did the rolled up paper thing. Although now whenever I tear or screw up any scrap paper she always comes running up to me expecting a game!
Andrew: random question: my partner is also asthmatic and this is one of the reasons we can't have a cat (that, and the fact that at the moment we have nowhere to physically put a cat, but I'm hoping that will change soon). How do you cope? Do you kind of get acclimatised to having cats around or does it make your asthma worse?
(Apologies for the mundane question - I think the photos are gorgeous, though.)
Px
I used to be allergic to cats too, but had a very mild 10 minute NLP-type session with the wife's psychologist colleague. It was quite Paul McKenna-esque (visualising myself in a room of cats, then visualising that scenario in the third person etc, while all the time the quack dug his thumb into my hand) but it totally and utterly worked. Even though it seemed like bollocks, I've never had problems around cats since.
I have fairly mild asthma. It first visited me when we first got the cats, ten years ago (shortness of breath, wheezing etc.) I've been on meds ever since, which irks me, as I do everything in my power to sidestep conventional medicine. I've got used to having the cats around, and always wash my hands scupulously after stroking them. I think Paddy's arrival, even though he's small and not that furry, has reignited my asthma somewhat. It's certainly been worse since he arrived, but then I have been sleeping in the same room as him. As he settles in, this will become unecessary and I can get back to normal. It depends how bad a person's asthma is - I wouldn't like to advise anyone to throw caution to the wind. I've managed mine for ten years. The pleasure of having cats around outweighs the discomfort of occasional wheezing.
Actually, I think you can acclimatise yourself to things and thus lessen the allergy. I had hayfever as a child, which disappeared for ten years until I moved across the country to Cardiff. Then it was back with a vengeance- but only for a couple of years. The same with asthma. I don't need to use the "brown inhaler" at all for that now, and the blue one only three or four times a year.
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