An Idiot and His Cat: A Diary

[mulhuzz]

He caught his foot in a chair whilst climbing and the sound I heard was one of the most terrifying things I've ever heard.

I untangled him and now we're friends again.

Delicate ground here I know, so I'm trying to tread carefully, but....

No. That's too blunt. I'll come back when I can phrase my question better.

Blunt is absolutely fine...

Well it seems to me that if a person had a cat's personality they would be the last person you would ever want to associate with.

PS- I phrased it worse this time cos I couldn't remember what I said last time.

Lol. Not too keen on cats Tom?

I don't mind em, I love all animals, but cats as pets just don't cut it for me. They seem so aloof and independent. Everything has to be on their terms, which is fine, if that's what you want.

I suppose I've just got too used to unconditional love.

originally we wanted a dog (actually, a puppy) until we ruled that out because we both work fulltime long hours (10+ hrs/day each usually) and getting an older dog which doesnt need too much training or taking for 5 walks a day (means no husky for me which i am incred sad about) means taking one rescued. which we would do, if we were Czech. Not being Czech means being confronted with the mistrust that you're going to up and leave in a year and bring the dog back to the shelter.

our friend runs a small shelter over the border in Slovakia (actually, her mum does, since she lives here) so our new plan is to go and get a dog from there and take her advice on best breed that means we can both have a dog and give the dog everything it needs.

the reason we ended up with a cat was simply because Jil couldn't leave it there to likely die. I have visions of training him to be an absolute ninja, but in all likelihood I'll be happy if it just doesn't always hate me and doesn't kill anything.

[RED-DOG]

He caught his foot in a chair whilst climbing and the sound I heard was one of the most terrifying things I've ever heard.

I untangled him and now we're friends again.

Delicate ground here I know, so I'm trying to tread carefully, but....

No. That's too blunt. I'll come back when I can phrase my question better.

Blunt is absolutely fine...

Well it seems to me that if a person had a cat's personality they would be the last person you would ever want to associate with.

PS- I phrased it worse this time cos I couldn't remember what I said last time.

Lol. Not too keen on cats Tom?

I don't mind em, I love all animals, but cats as pets just don't cut it for me. They seem so aloof and independent. Everything has to be on their terms, which is fine, if that's what you want.

I suppose I've just got too used to unconditional love.

originally we wanted a dog (actually, a puppy) until we ruled that out because we both work fulltime long hours (10+ hrs/day each usually) and getting an older dog which doesnt need too much training or taking for 5 walks a day (means no husky for me which i am incred sad about) means taking one rescued. which we would do, if we were Czech. Not being Czech means being confronted with the mistrust that you're going to up and leave in a year and bring the dog back to the shelter.

our friend runs a small shelter over the border in Slovakia (actually, her mum does, since she lives here) so our new plan is to go and get a dog from there and take her advice on best breed that means we can both have a dog and give the dog everything it needs.

the reason we ended up with a cat was simply because Jil couldn't leave it there to likely die. I have visions of training him to be an absolute ninja, but in all likelihood I'll be happy if it just doesn't always hate me and doesn't kill anything.

That's a great plan. Keep us informed.

Now. What does your alias mean ffs?

[celtic]

I'm guessing mullhuzz=mulhearn?

[mulhuzz]

in non-cat related news...

finally went and took a structured Czech lesson today. learning it on my own has not been easy but I was surprised how far I was ahead of the beginners class.

my issue is that I know a lot of words, but not a lot of sentences. Anyone who has tried to learn a language, particularly something *hard* like Czech (where the noun and adjective both change based on gender, count and case....like Russian or Latin) will know what I mean there.

My class is just three people, with a school that *only* teach CZ to foreigners (my thinking being, this must make them good at it, if they've been open 10 years with no other revenue streams) and the other guys aren't native EN which means that the teaching is done exclusively in Czech (near enough.I have quite a few friends who teach English to non-natives here and they all tell me they wouldn't dream of using Czech in their lessons because it really impairs learning in the long term. Using the native language (they have a fancy word for it but i can't remember what it is...transitional, maybe) means the word doesn't exist in the taught language in your brain, merely as a signpost to the native language word. Thats fine if you have to learn to be 'conversational' quite quickly, but quite bad if you're aiming to achieve fluency in the long term. It makes the 'middle bit' where you're quite good but not fluent really drawn out, apparently.

Anyway, as proof of my newly venerated CZ skills, here's the title of this diary:

Ten idiot a jeho kocour : Denik*

*probably wrong.

[mulhuzz]

I'm guessing mullhuzz=mulhearn?

some variation of that, yeah.

it's also a portmanteau of my name and 'fuzz' - that being the nickname i've had since childhood. My 'wrong' (as tikay put it) hair should offer some clues as to why

[Doobs]

Evening Tom

More importantly, what else is crapping in my garden?

I am used to the neighbours cats leaving presents in my garden (must return the favour one day).  At the weekend I found 5 big piles of poo whilst mowing the front lawn.  They looked to be dog size, but it seems unlikely a neighbour would start letting their dog do this, so I thought maybe a fox?  My first impression was definitely dog. Looking closely at them they definitely looked to be grassy in composition.  I'd say each pile had 4 or 5 decent sized poos.  I expect it would have to be a huge cat to do this.  We live near some woods if that helps. 

Up until this week, I have never seen piles of poo of that size in my garden.

Almost definitely fox or badger. Fox scat is usually quite a dark colour and if you look closely, you may see small bones, feathers or fur.

Also, fox crap is incredibly smelly. Much more so than that of a badger. When your dog comes back to you smelling like Satan's toilet brush, you can bet he's been rolling in fox poop.

Right, will have a good sniff next time.  Am away at the minute and the garden waste bin (where it ended up) will be gone by the time I get back.  All the piles were close together, so guess fox is long odds on.

[mulhuzz]

Cat lost ball under decking thing by window.

Cat went to retrieve.

This is so thin I couldn't get a fist under it. Jesus.

Click to see full-size image.

[mulhuzz]

Cat appears to be trying to eat his own foot. Normal?

[bobAlike]

Cat appears to be trying to eat his own foot. Normal?

If you mean he's chewing claws then yes.

[mulhuzz]

Cat appears to be trying to eat his own foot. Normal?

If you mean he's chewing claws then yes.

That's probably it. Yes.

[tikay]

Boy oh boy, you did well in that quiz thing.

Unrelated, but did you used to be a poster on the Newcastle Poker Forum?

If so, did you know, or know of, a lad named "cowhead"? (Sunderland supporter).

[mulhuzz]

Boy oh boy, you did well in that quiz thing.

Unrelated, but did you used to be a poster on the Newcastle Poker Forum?

If so, did you know, or know of, a lad named "cowhead"? (Sunderland supporter).

I do know Mr Cowheed.

He is one of my favourite humans of all time, for reasons I can't really explain. Especially with him being a Sunderland supporter.

[mulhuzz]

Toon is helping me with my Czech homework. Presumably because he thinks the quicker I'm done with this, the quicker he can be fed. Cat logic.

Click to see full-size image.

[tikay]

Boy oh boy, you did well in that quiz thing.

Unrelated, but did you used to be a poster on the Newcastle Poker Forum?

If so, did you know, or know of, a lad named "cowhead"? (Sunderland supporter).

I do know Mr Cowheed.

He is one of my favourite humans of all time, for reasons I can't really explain. Especially with him being a Sunderland supporter.

Ha, "Cowheed", being the regional accent I suppose.

I gather he was not immensely popular on NPF? To be fair, not many were.

Think he once told me - he may have made it up - that there was a thread or board on NPF called "Cow Corner", where they all dissed him.

He's a regular Next Door these days, & we've developed quite a friendship. It was a slow-burner, one of those friendships that started out really badly, we fell out (unintentionally, my fault really) first time we met. Now we are all cooey-wooey. Strange, some of my best friendships started like that.

[mulhuzz]

Boy oh boy, you did well in that quiz thing.

Unrelated, but did you used to be a poster on the Newcastle Poker Forum?

If so, did you know, or know of, a lad named "cowhead"? (Sunderland supporter).

I do know Mr Cowheed.

He is one of my favourite humans of all time, for reasons I can't really explain. Especially with him being a Sunderland supporter.

Ha, "Cowheed", being the regional accent I suppose.

I gather he was not immensely popular on NPF? To be fair, not many were.

Think he one told me - he may have made it up - that there was a thread or board on NPF called "Cow Corner", where they all dissed him.

He's a regular Next Door these days, & we've developed quite a friendship. It was a slow-burner, one of those friendships that started out really badly, we fell out (unintentionally, my fault really) first time we met. Now we are all cooey-wooey. Strange, some of my best friendships started like that.

He has the wonderful talent of saying the most extraordinary things.

I don't remember a Cow corner, but certainly Cowheed stickers. I don't think it was meant badly at all as I think, at least I hope, most people know him as a funny, if not slightly insane, bloke. I'll be a bit sad if he took it all the wrong way. from time to time I see him win or run deep in a BH next door and that pleases me. Especially since he's recently engaged/married.

Ask him about Pet Taxi, Tikay. I promise you, some of the best stories I've ever heard. Guaranteed to make you cry with laughter.