Wordless Wednesday - BFFs

Froufrou loves everyone - especially Barbie

Frou likes warm bodies. Any new visitors get a Frou installed on their lap within 15 minutes of sitting down on the couch. I am constantly peeling her off me so that I can get up and do things around the house. 

She had decided to make use of the dogs when I am not available for cat-warming duties. It used to be that Bender was her favorite doggie to snuggle with, but I think that he had dropped his Kong onto her head too many times. 

The 'new' dog definitely got a look in, but that love affair ended when Olive growled at Froufrou for licking her face. Bender loves it, but the greyhounds don't find it as enjoyable. 

Frou isn't silly, she knows when she is not wanted. Well most of the time anyway! I think she realised that she would get the most cuddle time with the dog who lies down the most - Barbie. She moved on to sharing Barbie's bed with her during the day.

Then she started kicking Barbie in the face when she tried to sleep on the couch at night. Barbie doesn't seem to mind, though she draws the line at face-licking. She will get up and leave if Frou insists on that part of the snuggle ritual. 

Olive the Tattletale

Mouse was cat safe, and as Olive's sister, I thought that she would be too. I was happy to be right as the only thing that annoyed me about Zelda was her attitude towards the cats. Here is a video of the first time Olive met Frou-Frou.

Olive has been really good with the cats for a dog who has never actually seen one before. She has lumbered after them a few times when they have run from her, but she is very easy to call off. Now that I have seen what real prey drive looks like, I think I have better perspective when a dog cries or bounces when they see a cat. As you can see here, Frou is the one doing the tasting - giving Olive a lick on the nose. 

Frou is the brave cat, Mittens is still a bit traumatised by her experience with Zelda and is hesitant to come into the 'dog' half of the house. 

I was sitting in the lounge room updating dog listings for GreyhoundAngels, and I heard Olive barking. When N went to investigate she saw that Frou was on the kitchen bench, eating the food that I had boiled up for the dogs. Olive was tattling on her!!! Tattle tale!! Not sure Frou will give you any more kisses now, Olive! 

Kitty-cat environmental enrichment - Kong Wobbler!

I haven't posted about the cats for ages because there are always so many dog stories to tell. Well last weekend I decided I would get the kitties a Kong Wobbler as they haven't been enjoying the same freedom now that Miss Zelda is staying with us.

When I first introduced the Wobbler to the cats they weren't interested at all. In fact, when I tipped it for them they flinched away from it a little. I wasn't sure how to get them interested, so I left it in the laundry with them, and also asked some advice from my dog trainer/friendly Kong representative. She suggested a lot of strategies, but when I went into the laundry I realised I didn't need to try any of them. The Wobbler had been emptied of kibble in my absence.

I decided I had to see the kitties using it and I wanted to know who was getting the most food out of it. I left my little GoPro on the floor recording and left the room. I have sped up the video but this is the result, Frou is definitely queen of the Kong Wobbler, but Mittens gets a go as well. 

Click here to go straight to youtube if the video doesn't work. 

They obviously didn't like surveillance, knocking the camera over during one of their little playfights. I am glad they like their Wobbler though. I think the next purchase will be a water fountain as I know that Mittens will really enjoy one of those. 

Who is the top cat?

The addition of a third cat to the household has certainly kindled some rivalry between them. Mittens has always been the bottom cat, and it seems nothing has changed for her.

Today Bumblebee was lying in Mittens' place on the cat tower. She wanted up, so she started hissing, spitting, growling and yowling at him. He simply ignored her and dispatched her with a few swishes of his tail. She gave up after a few minutes and disappeared.

The battle between Froufrou and Bumblebee for ascendency continues. Frou has taken to launching running attacks at Bee, swiping as she gets closer, but never quite connecting with him. Last night Bumblebee caught a cricket. He was ineffectually batting at it with his big fluffy paws. Frou soon realised he had caught something, so she ran over, grabbed it with her paw and then promptly ate it. Bumblebee didn't complain, perhaps he didn't have time to. Frou certainly believes she should be the top cat, but I don't think she has convinced Bumblebee of that.

Bee doesn't really have to do anything to prove himself. He is the big, regal, king of the cats.

He does show his youthful, three year old, exuberance often. He likes to play, and he loves to hide behind the curtains. He also finds himself inventive hidey holes. I left my sleeping bag draped over the chair in order to fluff up the down.

Maybe he wants to come camping with me? 

It's Froufrou's birthday!

I tried to explain to Bender and Barbie that cats are not like dogs, they aren't so much into big celebrations, or road trips, or anything much other than lying around on the couch. They didn't listen to me and insisted that we do a birthday photo shoot for Froufrou, who turns 7 somewhere around Christmas time.

I consented, if only because I thought it would be cute for the blog. I had to tie Barbie's party hat elastic into a knot so that it would stay on her head.

They protested that I took too long to take the picture, but it's done now.

Happy Birthday Little Frou Cat!

Wordless Wednesday

Eurovision Party - Entertaining with dogs

I am not sure that my American followers will have even heard of it, but the Eurovision Song Contest is a perfect occasion for a party. Basically a bunch of European countries compete against each other in a musical and choreography extravaganza which is well known for it's tacky outfits and daggy pop songs. 

We invited a bunch of people over for the party and we had to be a little creative with seating, as not everyone would fit on the couch. I cut a piece of carpet from the offcut rolls we had after redoing the lounge room and put it on top of an esky as a seat. It goes without saying there was no room for our spoiled pooches. 

Good thing Barbie has a nice bed! Bender was a bit like a one dog tornado as people arrived, so we kept him out the back until everyone was safely in the house. Barbie politely greeted the first few people and then just went to her bed - there's no point wasting too much energy!

We all hung around the kitchen for a while, eating chips, dips and salami and ham. Bender was very interested in what was on the bench.

Even pats from one of his favorite friends didn't distract him much. He was good though, he didn't do anything apart from stare. Not even much drooling. A Eurovision party usually involves dressing up in silly outfits, and there were some very impressive ones.

Bender cosied up with a lot of people feet. He started with my feet and then moved on to other people's. Notice all the pizza on the coffee table, and neither dog even looked at it!

Even Froufrou came out to investigate. All the people and all the laughing scared her a little, but she knew there was attention to be had. She overcame her fears to be patted by almost all of the party guests. 

I was very proud of the puppies by the end of the night. They were so well behaved and accepted attention calmly. We don't usually have a lot of people around at once so I wasn't sure how they would go. They were exhausted the next day though. Entertaining can be so very tiring for dogs. 

Froufrou has gotten so brave now. There was a time when she would hide under the couch if someone came over. 

Froufrou and Mittens in a Battle for Supremacy...

OK, so we have had a houseguest for the last week, and she found it very strange that I went running for the camera when I saw Mittens and Frou Frou on the cat tower at the same time! I didn't know what was going to happen, but I was pretty sure something would happen....the cats have a bit of an ongoing war for high ground in the house. It's a strategic war and very rarely leads to a physical confrontation, usually there is just a lot of posturing. With the cats, possession really is 9/10ths of the law, and so whoever occupies the high ground the most stakes a claim.

I won't make any more comments here as it will spoil the ending, but let's just say, there was a clear winner this time.

A very rare occurrence...

The kitties have not been on the kitty tower together, until now. I slunk off to grab my camera because this is such a rare thing and I knew it wouldn't happen again any time soon.

They shared like this for about 10 minutes before Frou had enough and left. Mittens can't out muscle Frou, but sometimes she can be more stubborn in the war of attrition.

Preparing for a new couch

We currently have three couches, they were all acquired second hand and are all sporting a bit of damage from the cats. One of them is stained because it was outside on a verandah for 3 months when we lived in a shoebox posing as a house.

Anyway, we have decided to finally do away with them - I think at least two of them will make good couches for a student share house somewhere. The first problem is that we need to divert to cats away from scratching couches to something more acceptable.

Enter: the delux kitty tower.

I have been meaning to build them one of these for ages, but I never got around to it. N was in a spending mood when we were at the pet shop, so we settled on this tower as it was the most stable of them all. Mittens has voluntarily jumped onto it and settled down on it, but Frou only went on it when I put her there. Neither has had a scratch at it yet.

The woman at the pet shop suggested that when we get our new couch we can use a repellent type spray to discourage the kitties. I was wondering, is there an attractant type spray we can put on the tower to draw them to it?

A kitty has gotta earn her keep...

Lately we had a influx of rats and mice into our garden. I'm not sure if it was something to do with the weather, or the fact that the garden is an unruly mess, but I got sick of seeing all the mice and rats scurrying around outside.

You would know that Froufrou and Mittens are inside kitties. Frou is an inside kitty because she is an efficient, ruthless and indiscriminate hunter. Mittens is inside because she has no street smarts.

With Frou in the house, the small rodents never make their way in to the house proper, but they do get into the ceiling sometimes.

Anyway I decided that we would have to do something about all the rodents in the garden, so I started letting Frou out for a few hours a day. She had an immediate and devastating impact on their numbers. For the first few, she asked to come inside and ate her prey in the laundry.

Now there are no rodents left, she is going to be re-confined to the house. Well done Froufrou, but I'm not going to let you go on to hunting the birds and lizards.

Wordless Wednesday

Nicknames - inspired by Nibs and Ambam!

Our friends Nibs & Ambam did a post recently where they told everyone their nicknames. Everyone in this house has a whole list of nicknames, so I thought I would share.

Barbie is known as: Black dog, Needle nose, sticky beak, slowpoke, Princess, the Hound, Barbs, shadow, lazy dog

Bender is also known as: pup-pup, boof head, boofer, doofus, blondie, Mr Barky, Benderman, Mr Bender, "shut up!!!"

Mittens is also known as: evil cat, squirrel, possum, nutso kitty, fluffball

Froufrou is also known as: Frou, evil frou, skitsycat, barrel, froufattiefatfat, limpet, leech, lap barnacle

Like herding cats....(Frou's new trick)

Ok, the inspiration from this post came from Rescued Insanity. I have two kitties, and while I believe one of them is constantly controlling the world with her kitty mind and constantly has an evil look on her face, the other kitty is much more trainable.

Froufrou, who we can also call 'keg cat' loves her food and is also very attention motivated. I have taught her to jump across from the couch to the chair, to the table. As she is a keg she is not particularly athletic but I thought teaching 'hup' might help to make up for the treats she is getting. This time she is being trained with pieces of kangaroo sausage. Kangaroo is low in fat, though the sausages do have a significant amount of salt added to them. I think it's better for her waistline than cheese, and she is just as willing to work for it.

Like Shiva, Barbie likes to interfere with cat-training. She cannot resist the yummy kangaroo sausage smell.

And for those who want more doggie cuteness - here is a short clip of Barbie playing with one of her first squeaky balls - I found it when I was clearing out imovie and thought it was too cute not to share.

Bender and Froufrou - when there were only two!

I haven't always been surrounded by a menagerie. Bender and Froufrou came first, within weeks of each other, though Froufrou was close to fully grown, when Bender was a rather small pup. Bender initially thought that cats were for eating, but then they became very good friends. Bender is about 18 months old in this photo, and Froufrou would be 2 and a half years.

Another point of view...

If you have enjoyed my posts about the animals I met on my recent trip to Europe, but want to read about the trip from a different perspective, and see some more photos, head on over to my other blog....

perthcyclist

And back to normal programming - sharing is caring, and the Bender, Froufrou and Barbie like to put it into practice by all sitting on the same couch, even though they have three to choose from. Mittens is conspicuous in her absence - she doesn't share the philosophy, at all.

Wordless Wednesday

Keeping your dogs in the kennel for long periods of time...

Recently we went on an extended holiday in Europe and had to sort out the dogs and cats. We were gone for 47 days, and after much deliberation and angst we decided that the kennel was the best place for the dogs - that way we would know they were safe and wouldn't get into any bad habits. For the cats, we found a housesitter - for half the time. For the other half of the time we needed to use a pet sitting agency that sent someone around to feed them, take out the rubbish and bring in our mail.

The dogs stayed at The Paw House with Claire and Leigh. The dogs have stayed with them twice before, and they both really love dogs. All dogs. The dogs seem to enjoy it there as well. When we checked in they asked if the dogs wear coats, and I said that they probably would just take them off. They said they would try and give the dogs coats anyway but they would also get blankets to curl up in. They encouraged us to email them for an update when we were away, so we did. At that point, Bender wasn't wearing his coat, he kept taking it off, but Barbie was accepting hers. About a week after Leigh sent the email, Barbie started removing her coat, so now she is really really fluffy!



See! That is one fluffy greyhound butt! For those of you who don't have greyhounds, the butt area is where they often lose hair in kennel environments!

She does have a couple of flaky spots which Leigh pointed out to me before we left - one on her thigh, and there is one on her chest. He said he had been watching and hadn't seen her licking it so I am not that worried. I'm sure it will clear up with her indoor life but she will moult all of that beautiful fur she has grown too, so I will have to make the most of it.

Understandably, after 47 days they were very happy to see us.

As we left though, it seemed that the dogs were quite attached to Leigh. They both had eyes on him until we pulled out of sight. When we got home we didn't leash them, they both went straight to the front door and Barbie practically pushed past Nic to get inside. They both pranced around the house to investigate. Bender spent more time snuffling around as there were two people he didn't know in the house during the time we had been gone. Neither paid any attention to the cats. Froufrou got up in Barbie's face, and Barbie just ignored her. Bender almost trampled her as if she didn't exist. Both of the cats seemed a bit put out that the house, and the humans, were no longer exclusively theirs.

The cats were looked after for the first three weeks by a student who does housesitting. The cats took a little bit more time to get used to him because they are used to being in a house full of women. They seemed to do OK with him though and he gave us some email updates as well. After he moved onto his next housesit, Paws in the Park took over. The cats got plenty of cuddles and attention from Lauren, though they took over the house. There were no boundaries any more. When we got home, the cats were waiting in the window and they were hungry. They were both competing for attention, but Froufrou was still the boss. When we ignored them they started climbing all over the kitchen bench and walking along the TV cabinet like it was a normal thing for them to do. We had to start enforcing the rules again. They did interrupt our sleep a little when they decided they wanted attention - Mittens by sprinting into the room and jumping onto the bed, and Frou by doing these strange little meows until I told her to shut up.

Anyway, we have a few days now for everyone to settle back into life before we have to go back to work.

Now, I have decided that I will give a shout out to a new blog each Thursday. I am going to mention blogs that I like, blogs that are new, blogs that maybe don't have many followers yet. I want to introduce them to the pet blogger community that I have enjoyed so much.

So for this Thursday Blog Shoutout, it's 28 Legs!

While I've been away, Desma (who is the trainer who helped me get Barbie to get her Canine Good Citizen Award), has been working on her blog, 28 Legs. Desma is particularly interested in animals in film and TV, and she has gotten TV roles and ads for many of her animals. The latest one was an IKEA ad involving her Bengal cat, Gunny. Her dogs also do agility and tracking. Check it out and say hi!

Youtube - home of the troll

You guys will remember this video:

Well it's the first video on my youtube account to approach 1000 views. I only made it because I was doing some training with the dogs and Froufrou wanted in on the action, so I got her to sit, and then filmed her and the dogs interacting.

Through youtube keyword magic, this video has become linked to a video of a little girl carrying around a dead squirrel which her pet greyhound had killed while walking on leash with it's owners. Since then I have had 3 comments about it not being a sit, and the cat only doing it because of treats. Hello! She is a cat. She doesn't do anything if there is nothing in it for her.

Anyway, apparently people who like dead squirrels don't understand the process of training cats. They also don't understand what a 'sit' is as opposed to a 'squat' (which is what they do when going to the toilet!). Got 12 dislikes and 2 likes too.

I am wondering if I should disallow comments because of the trolls. I won't ever reply to a troll but it is mildly irritating. Most people who want to comment on my videos do so either via the blog or via facebook. This is really the first video I've had that has gotten any kind of notoriety on youtube. The nature of it is that videos sit around for a while and then all of a sudden are linked to something else and they go gangbusters.