A post about Lui

 This morning I had to say goodbye to my beloved boy Lui. We had a normal start to the morning where I got up, greeted him, gave him his breakfast and had my own. But when I went to get ready for work I could see that he was not well, so I took him to the vet where they could immediately tell that he had developed a blood clot, apparently caused by an unknown heart defect. There wasn't much to do apart from ease his suffering, so that is what I chose. I brought him home and we laid him to rest in the garden. 

I'm feeling quite devastated but I want to record some of my memories of Lui. I had him for 12 years, ever since my 24th birthday when my friend Carol asked me what I wanted for a birthday present and I replied, "a kitten!" At the time Jon and I were living in a flat where we weren't supposed to have pets but luckily my landlord was forgiving and even installed a cat door for him. The first night I decided to set some ground rules of not having the cat sleep on the bed, so we shut him in the lounge and I warned Jon not to give in even if he cried. Well, he did cry and I lasted all of ten minutes before I got up and let him into the bedroom. He was so happy as he launched himself at the side of the bed and pulled himself up on little kitten paws. He slept where he pleased after that.

 I have to say that having a warm furry presence curled up next to you is one of the best parts of cat ownership. Lui liked to get right under the covers and curl up in the crook of my elbow with his head next to mine. He could stay there all night taking up half the bed and of course I would let him... easing my arm gently out from under him if it started to go to sleep.

He always had an obsession with food. When he was young a vet told us he was overweight and to put him on a diet. We got quite strict with weighing his food and the meals always seemed quite small. Lui thought so too, and so began his obsession with getting more food out of us any way possible, usually by pestering with loud and annoying meows. He would scavenge from rubbish bins, even our neighbours had to weight the lid of their bins to keep him out! (Fortunately he stopped this habit as he got older.) He also loved to be in the kitchen while anyone was cooking and would move in swiftly on the dirty dishes as soon as we sat down to eat. (I ended up turning a blind eye to this in the end, if the dishes were soon to be washed anyway, and one of his nicknames was 'Busboy' since he got them so clean!) We relaxed the diet after a while but food remained one of his life's pleasures. I'm so glad he ate and enjoyed a normal breakfast on his last morning.

 Lui was fairly sedentary, so to help keep his weight down I'd encourage him for walks around the property. I'd often pull a dead leaf from the flax bush and pull it along for him to chase. We live on a quiet street, and sometimes in the evenings (preferably after dark) Lui and I would go for a walk along the street. He absolutely loved that. I would walk slowly along and he would follow behind at a distance, pausing to sniff fences and look up driveways and investigate under parked cars. We'd go a little way up the street, sometimes to the corner, and pause a minute or two, then turn around and head home. That was his favourite part and he would trot along close behind me, until we got almost there and then he would dash past with a "prrrrrraow" to get home first.

 His meal times were breakfast and an afternoon meal. It was supposed to be late afternoon but due to the persistent pestering, it gradually got earlier and earlier till it was about 1.30pm! After that he would find somewhere to sleep for the afternoon, and this spot would vary depending on the season, the weather and his mood. The first thing I always did on arriving home from work would be to look for him in his various possies, and say hello. He'd raise his head and let out a happy "prrraow", and I'd spend a few minutes scratching him under the chin while he purred. Then I'd go about my chores, and we'd meet up in the kitchen to cook tea.

My darling boy, I miss him so much and I don't honestly think there was a more loved cat in all the world. He was happy and content his whole life and I'm grateful I could give him that life. Lui has been a staple fixture on this blog since I started it - my mum once said that he is a very well-documented cat - and he inspired my occasional series "Weird Cat Behaviour". All my older posts about Lui are found under this tag.  As you can see in these photos he loved to sleep, and he is sleeping peacefully now. Thanks for reading. xx

The last week in May

Here are some of my phone photos from this week. I'm still trying to unpack and organise the house. I also had to finish painting the french door frames, and as you can see, the paint hadn't finished drying before Mr Lui came wandering through. Little paw prints all over my new floor... bad kitty! A little bit of baking soda on a damp cloth took it right off though luckily.

I've started a new crochet project! More on that later, but it's a blanket. Makes me happy to be working on another one. 

I found some cushions and blankets to unpack this week! Made me feel much better to have some handmade goodness on the couch again. Lui approved too and could hardly wait for me to get up one night so he could steal my seat amongst the cushions.

The weather has been changeable - northwesterly storms ahead of southerly storms, red sunrises and frosty mornings, apricot sunsets, stormclouds followed by rainbows. Winter is here though and it's time to get used to frosty mornings again. I wish I knew where I'd packed my winter woollies like my hats and gloves, and my winter duvet and pyjamas! This weekend I'll be having a good dig through the boxes in the garage, here's hoping I find something useful and not just more stuff that needs to be organised away...

Weird Cat Behaviour #7

WEIRD CAT BEHAVIOUR #7

Killing a bird and eating it under the Christmas tree.

I killed a bird, I liked it!

The taste of that chewy chaffinch.

I killed a bird, just to try it

I hope my stomach don't mind it.

It felt so wrong, it felt so right

I'll throw it back up tonight.

I killed a bird, I liked it!

I liked it!

(Weird human behaviour: writing alternative lyrics to Katy Perry songs. I didn't do it all on my own though... thanks to my mum for being as silly as me!)

Weird Cat Behaviour is an occasional series on my blog. For other weird things my cat has done, click here.

Around the garden with Mr Lui

 On autumn afternoons Lui likes nothing better than to scamper through the leaves. He ducks under branches and sharpens his claws on trees. Sometimes he takes a running leap at the tree, gets about halfway up, then realises he's not getting any further. (And so this is a good tree to feed the birds in.)

 Often I pull a piece of flax off the bottom of the flax bush and drag it round the paths of the potager. He hides in the vegetable shrubbery and pounces when it goes past him.

Do you like my new arches? They were a Warehouse bargain, which I couldn't resist and so got two. One at each end of the main axis path. The one at the far end will have beans growing on it, and I'll extend the bean fence to go on either side of it. I'm not sure about the front one yet - I'm not sure if I want something as permanent as a rose. Maybe sweet peas? Or possibly a scented climber?

 I'm very happy with these arches. They help the potager feel more enclosed. When the lavender hedge has grown and gotten bushy it will be even better.

 The fuchsia has gorgeous glossy black berries on it. I've read somewhere that these are edible but I'm not game enough to try. They are just so black and shiny and... poisonous looking.

 These berries are from the rowan tree (sorbus). One of the streets I walk along has them growing along the roadside. The street is red zoned so they'll probably be bulldozed eventually, along with many other beautiful established trees and shrubs. The funny thing is, I'd just read an article in a library magazine about how easy it is to grow sorbus from seed. So I grabbed some berries, pulped and sieved them, and sowed the seed in a punnet outside. It needs the cold from winter first, so all going well the seed will pop up next spring. Yeah right... I can't help thinking, but there is nothing lost by giving it a go.

Oh the cute!

Lui and I have a cute new book to share with you today. Yes, you read the title right, it's called Crafting With Cat Hair. Yes, that does mean you use your kitty's excess fluff to make cute little things. Don't shave your cat though - the book's author expressly cautions against it.

The first project you can make is a cat hair finger puppet! Customise it using your cat's own colours of fur! I do think this is super cute, and I'd like to make a little mini Lui. Probably I would just use shop bought wool roving, since Lui's lovely black and shining white fur combines to a not very attractive grey mass.

Step by step instructions are included for collecting cat hair. My favourite is this: "Even if you usually forgive your cat for scratching you, you should still do your best not to get scratched in the first place." Good advice.

This book is translated from Japanese. Japanese craft books are the best! They have nice projects, cute turns of phrase, and beautiful photographs.

And at the back of the book are bios of all the kitties who contributed their hair for the projects!

Don't you think you should go and order this book right now?

Weather watch

 More snow today. The newsreaders are trying to add excitement by calling it a "Perfect Storm" and a "Once in a Lifetime Event", but they've been unable to romanticize it for me. It just means cold fingers and wet feet and black ice on the road when I need to drive to work. I'm hoping it thaws and melts away as quickly as it did last time - three weeks ago - and then we really will have had enough snow to last at least 50 years.

On to more positive thoughts! I took a break from watching sleet blowing horizontally past the window to check on my seedlings, and was impressed at their progress. The orange cauliflower in particular are bursting forth, followed closely by the freckles lettuce. (Even the tiny seedlings have miniscule burgundy specks on the leaves - so cute!) The purple broccoli is also unfolding a bit more slowly, and I have noted movement in the sweet rocket and lavender areas too. The only slowpokes are the tomatoes, and I can't really say I blame them.

 Lui got a bit stir crazy this afternoon and went outside for a play. There was a lot of leaping, scuffing the snow, pouncing in holes, and mad dashes for shelter. I played with him for a bit, then came back inside for a coffee and a muffin and a book beside the fire.

The Supervisor

 He has his own chair - all the better for watching from.

 And my chair too as soon as my back is half turned, for that all-important supervisory nap. We work hard around here!

Weird Cat Behaviour #3

WEIRD CAT BEHAVIOUR #3

Making a bed out of anything you shouldn't be sleeping on. This is the tablecloth, which is quite a bit larger than our table. Lui never normally sleeps on these chairs, but as soon as they were draped with a clean white cloth he had to get up there and sit on it. Then he burrowed in, all the while pulling the cloth a little bit further off the table. See that stain on the carpet there? That's where the vase of flowers landed. Thanks Lui!

Weird Cat Behavioiur #2

WEIRD CAT BEHAVIOUR #2
Sleeping on surfaces much too small for you. Especially when you have a lovely warm cat bed and it's on the chair right next to the stool you are sliding off, but you just refuse to sit on it out of principle.

In which Lui has a big adventure

Bright and early on a Monday morning, Lui sat looking out the open back door. Suddenly his ears pricked up and he leapt up, knocking over his stool in excitement, and ran out the door. What had he seen? Just two ducks, taking an early morning stroll across the rooftops.

Full of eagerness and spring cheer, Lui leapt up on the roof to join them. "Surprise!"

"Bugger off!" quacked the ducks, and flapped across the short space from the neighbours' house's roof to our garage roof. There they sat, regally surveying the landscape and ignoring the lashing tail and fanatical glare coming from just metres away.

Poor Lui - he just wanted to cuddle one! Just one! He just wanted to wrap his paws around it and hold it tightly, and maybe wash it a bit, and watch it flap and then grab it close and cuddle it again. That's all!

Silly little feline. You don't even figure.

Darling, this neighbourhood isn't what I thought it would be. Let's go!

Right you are, dear.

Oh well, thought Lui. I know how to get on the roof now! It's just a jump and a flap from here to the cherry tree. Those smart-ass blackbirds won't know what hit them!

Weird Cat Behaviour #1

the first in an occasional series

Eating from the compost heap
Well, it's actually a pile of vege scraps ready to go on the compost heap. I kept coming out onto the porch to find them scattered everywhere, at first I blamed hedgehogs until I actually caught him in the act. I guess you have to sample everything - you never know where a little scrap of jellimeat might be hiding, after all!

Potato peelings - yum yum!

The Sad Saga of Funnelhead

This is Lui, currently known as Funnelhead. The thing on his head is an Elizabethan collar. It's on there to prevent him scratching and licking at his neck where there is a small lesion.

This is a saga because it's been going on since late last year. He would let the wound almost heal and then scratch the scab off, opening it again. We've been to the vet countless times... opinions differ on the cause (most likely an allergy, but it's not clear to what) and the treatment (ranging from the lovely collar to steroid pills to flea treatments to hypoallergenic food to the suggestion of biopsies and skin grafts).

Poor Lui was a miserable cat when we first put the collar on him. It was much too big and would drag on the ground in front of him and trip him when he tried to walk. The next day I trimmed off a good third of it and it was much lighter. His whiskers poked out the front and he could walk without crashing into furniture. He could even get out the cat door again, although it would take a couple of goes to get into the right position. (Crash, bash).

I have to smile whenever I get a glimpse of him strolling past in his Sunday bonnet with the big bow. It bobs back and forth as he walks and, at the right angle, it certainly does look like a funnel..

Right now we are coming to the end of the latest regime of pills, and crossing fingers, toes and paws that the itch has stopped for Lui! If only, if only he can leave it for another week or so then all will be well.