Cats - Mammals of the Feline Persuasion

Cats

I have a cat. Her name is Pepper. She is somewhat of a malcontent. She doesn't eat the cat food we leave out for her anymore. We can only presume that she has found another source of nourishment. j

I quite like cats. Fluffy and all.

Apparantly, declawing cats is a thing. Taking their claws out via surgery. The human equivalent would be chopping off the last joint of all your fingers and toes. And then walking around on them. 
There is another option. You can get these little rubber things and put them on your cat's claws so they won't scratch up your couch or whatever. Makes it look like you've painted their little claws.

...

Cats is a terrible theme.

Cats. That's a musical, right? Yeah...

C A T S  ~  You can make SAT and AT and AS and SAC and CAT and CAST and A

Catdog. That's a super hilarious cartoon about a double ended animal. One end is a cat and the other is a dog. Kate laughed so much when she saw it first that it looked like she was aphysiating. It's pretty funny but not death-worthy. Would recommend.
Horrible Quality Episode of Catdog

Right. Well. Cats.

Yeah. I'm done.

- Orla

Mission 008: Become Youtube

After Danielle's fabulous post there doesn't seem to be much left for me to say about cats. Except maybe I apologise for this theme.

When I was younger I had...a maximum of 22 cats I think at one time. Now that I write that down it sounds far too big though. I definitely had 15 at one point, I'm sure of that. My brother would often referred to them as my army of cats. He consistently accused me of attempting world domination with my small army of malnourished felines.

To be clear I didn't decide to build some obscene collection of cats, it just sort of happened.

It started off with a couple of stray, unfriendly cats that would hang around our farm. My Dad encouraged their presence because they were an extremely effective method of pest control. When I took to feeding them leftover food I began the slow process of gaining their trust. Felix, the first cat I named, was quite old as cats go and had clearly been through a lot of hardship in her life at the hands of humans. It took nearly an entire summer before she'd even let me close enough to touch her. She was an awfully wary individual, with watchful eyes and some of the sharpest claws that I've ever felt pierce my skin. But slowly, so painfully slowly she learned to regard me as a neighbour that you are not particularly close to but you know you can always go to them for help if anything were to happen.

Felix had kittens at the end of that first summer and like Danielle has described they are just a bundle of cuteness and fur. Not to mention so adorably trusting. The appearance of Macavity, Midnight and Cuddles (don't judge me I was, like, nine) was a major stepping stone to becoming the loyal and trusted comrade of Felix, their mother.

Looking back I understand why my brother viewed my past-times with such disdain. It's hardly usual for a kid to have a dozen cats come running to her full belt after whistling the first note of The Irish Washerwoman. Still I loved them and I think in some weird animal, dependent way they loved me too.

One of my best memories was one Halloween when I was eleven I think. There was a costume competition being held at my local library and myself and my friend decided to enter. Originally I was going to dress up as a witch, the Roald Dahl kind, with fake claws, bald head, blue saliva, the whole lot. Then my friend announced that she was going to go as that as well. Obviously we couldn't both turn up like that - worst case scenario we'd have to share the prize. Unthinkable for eleven year old Kate. So I changed my costume to the traditional witch, hat and broomstick type. With one vital detail that would make me stand out from all the other young witches. I also had a black cat.

As I humoured my friend telling her she was bound to win I was secretly confident that with this original twist of mine I had the game in the bag.

Chubby (a clear indicator of my developing irony), was a scrawny, runt of a kitten if ever I've seen one. As light as a drumstick and as fluffy as a split pillow, he was my golden ticket. I presented myself to the judges with a wide-eyed, terrified kitten sitting in my witches hat. I was just as terrified as him.

Needless to say I won. The judges were amazed, my friend was inconsolably jealous (served her right stealing my idea and not even doing it well) and all the other kids were enthralled by my pet. (FYI that brief hour of fame was unbearable. I mean people actually wanted to talk to me.)

Okay this has gone on long enough.

Kate

MISSION................................................................COMPLETED

p.s. chubbie pooped in my hat.

On Cats

Hello everyone. I welcome you all to this solemn Danielle Tuesday. I am charged as guilty of not putting up a post this day last week, and I am terribly, deeply sorry. I apologise to those I have wronged, and to those I have disappointed. My country, my family, Asia, my cow, and more importantly, myself. The punishment is coming up this week, and I am going to eat as many large marshmallows I can in one minute. If I don't make it through this, please tell my family that I tolerate love them.

In other news, CAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! is our theme for today, which I think is a sign that we've finally hit the lowest point so far in our attempt to comittedly blog every week during fifth year. Not the lowest point we would ever reach though, I would guess, you just hold on to your seats and watch as it all goes downhill from here. I am sure watching these events unfold would be very riveting indeed.

I jest, I jest. We are all extremely fantastic writers and it's a wonder we haven't landed a book deal yet. For real. My history teacher said so. She said I write "fabulously."

ONTO THE TOPIC. Cats. I like cats. Cats are cool. They're very... cool. Cats are of the cool kind. I'm a fabulous writer.

No but seriously, I really don't see any other word that would describe cats. They're cool in, like, the 90s sense. They're very apathetic, expects the best services to be laid out in front of them, and gives absolutely nothing in return. This is why it's so satisfying seeing them actually reacting to something, because it's kinda like hearing the wall talk back to you. Also. KITTENS. ARE. THE. FLIPPING. CUTEST. They're so tiny, and heartwarming, and awwww-inspiring, and I'm tearing up right now just thinking about them. I would really like to have my own kitten when I finally acquire my own house. For the reasons I just listed, yes, but also because they're not overwhelming like dogs and puppies are. They're not of the jumping-in-your-face-and-licking-you-to-tell-you-that-they-appreciate-you kind. They probably don't even appreciate you and would only notice you've gone away because there is no food on their plate. It's heartbreaking. What was I talking about again? Ah yes. They're the perfect stepping stone from a goldfish to a puppy, is what I'm trying to say here. Cats or CatDogs. But yeah, kittens are nice. Acquire one.

Kate: This post is for you. You missed school because of me, obviously. Gawd, Kate.
Aoife: You're inspirational, as always. Sorry I couldn't be there! But I'm sure you had a fantastic time.
Orla: I love you, and we love you, and as my brother would say: You're the greatest! No but seriously you really are an awesome person for realzies and I'm bordering on uncomfortably cheesy here but we are all incredibly lucky to be your friend.

That's it from me guys. My long awaited and eagerly anticipated punishment is due this week, so you can expect that. Also, I'm not proof reading this, because. Why.

Love,
Danielle.