Wednesday Winners, New Competition and Lots of Other Stuff

We've got lots and lots and lots of things to tell you today, but we'll start with the most important thing; the winners!





Thank you all so much for telling me and the human about the naughty things you do. Some of them were very bad indeed. Well done to you all, and thanks for taking the risk of admitting your pranks. I promise, I won't let Santa Paws see them.





Our winner for this week though is Pixil and his human Karen. Well done to you both! The human says she's going to check and see if they do the combination you asked for, cuz we think they will only do one colour in each pack. Could you please email us with your address and I'll send her to the post office to post them to you? Thanks so much for entering!





This week is similar to last week, only we've got a different website, still for Soft Claws, and a different question. Here are the steps you need to enter.





1. Visit The new Soft Claws website
2. Tell us one thing that's nice about it, i.e, one thing they did well.
3. I know this is asking a lot for you to admit this, but also tell me one thing nice you do. It's embarrassing to admit you can be nice to the peoples for any other reason than that you're training them, but console yourselves with the fact that Santa Paws will be more generous to you if you're nice.
4. Tell us what size and colour of Soft Claws you'd like.





As before, the competition will run until midnight GMT next Tuesday, and, as before, please don't enter multiple times if you've won already, sept if you're winning the Soft Claws to help out cuz green papers are an issue. If they are, we'd love to see you win more than one pack!





We got some more news today, and we can't decide if it's good or not. I'm going for mixed, and so is the human. We finally got the retirement date for Dogface. She's struggling to do the work hunt now that it's winter and cold and her arthritis hurts. Personally, I think she's jealous of me and it's just an excuse to stay home all day like I do, but the human and the vet peoples believe her. It's hard being smarter than everyone sometimes. Anyway, her retirement is set for Monday 20th which is also the day that the human leaves me yet again so she can go and see other peoples. These peoples are her family though. It's good news cuz at least we know when Dogface will be leaving, but it's bad news for the human cuz it doesn't give her a lot of time to say goodbye.





We're just waiting on confirmation from the Guide Dogs peoples, but when the human spoke to them today, they said it was pretty certain that Dogman would be allowed to take her to his house so she can live with him and he can be covered in Dogface slobber and hair for the rest of his life. Personally, I can't see what the attraction is, but they obviously love each other. Each to his own, I suppose. They're going to officially confirm tomorrow. The human says that if Molly has to go, this is absolutely the best place for her. She's going to somebody she lived with for years when the human first got her, and where she visits to stay when the human goes on holidays. Dogman loves her and she loves him as I've said, and he spoils her rotten. To top it all off, the human will still be able to see her whenever she wants.





Now, for those of you who have come to read my musings for quite some time, you will know that, in times of need, I can be a selfless kind of cat. I sent my human to help train Babycat's people, Bug, even though it cost me dearly. Friends, I'm about to do something similar, and I suspect I'll live to regret this just as much as I did the last time. Now, the admission that follows shall only be spoken once, and shall be destroyed directly after you read it. If I'm ever questioned about it, I will deny all knowledge of ever having said it. Here goes.





I feel sorry for Dogface. yep, you heard me. Even though she knows the people she's going to live with and the place where she's going to live, she doesn't know she's staying there forever this time. She's too stupid to realise that. I'm not though, and I feel for her. That is why I have made a hard decision.





This Christmas, the human is going away for ten days to see the HG's mummypeople. I guess she'd be called the HGG. I've actually met the human great grandmother a few months ago. She's really nice and very warm and soft, and she's the best HGG in the world cuz she always said how yummy and lovely I looked and she always brushed me and cuddled me. She even wanted to take me home when it was time for her and the horrible manpeople to leave (human note: a family friend who is a neat freak and kept cleaning Tia hair off the sofa every time she so much as brushed past it. A real pain!). In short, she's wonderful! Anyway, I'm getting side tracked. Impossible not to when you're talking about a person who thinks you're the best cat ever. So, the human's going off there, and I'd planned a quiet few days in the house without her and Dogface. A girl needs some alone time, right? But i've decided that, for the sake of my fellow cat, or unfellow Dogface in this instance, I need to put it on hold. Reluctantly, I have come to the conclusion that if I want Dogface to be happy, I need to oversee the settling in period. Accordingly, I have made arrangements and will be travelling to Dogman's house with Dogface and the human at the end of next week. I will stay there until the human comes back, and will make sure Dogface has a familiar person to look at while she works out that this is her new home. And if that's not selfless, I don't know what is!





Self destruct initiated!





In other news, I got a new toy today. It's a ball with feathers on the top and it's all wrapped in rope and rattles when you whap it. The human roled mine in catnip before she gave it to me today. Actually, she tried something else first, another toy, but I can't tell you about that one cuz we bought one the same for the Santa Paws. I didn't like it though, or at least, I pretended I didn't. I knew there were more toys in that bag, and why be contented with one when, if you play your human just right, you know you'll get more! She eventually gave in and I got the ball. And oh what fun it is! When you pounce the feathers, they move. When you chase them, the ball runs away! If you try to bunny kick it, it slips out of your grasp and tries to hide somewhere else. Oh, what fun it is! I love, love, love it! I only played with it for a few moments though. Can't have the human thinking that she's worked out my toy preferences, and anyway, it wouldn't be dignified to turn into a big pile of kitten at the sight of a new play thing.





The human also did something today that she's very proud of. It's gonna sound small, but I don't care. I'm proud of her too for this cuz I know how worried she is about it. When she's not with Dogface, she uses a long white stick called a cane to help her not bump into things. It's been so long since she's had to use it exclusively though that she's very nervous now. She needs to build her confidence up. Today on the way out of the work hunt, she got her PA to walk with Dogface and she used the stick, right through the middle of the main corridor of the hospital at its busiest time. There were peoples everywhere, it was noisy, confusing, they kept getting in her way, but she still didn't give up, and made it right all the way to the exit. She was nervous doing it, but now that Dogface's date is set, she knows she needs to get good at it real quick. Well done human for forcing yourself to do it before you absolutely have to. I think if peoples get in your way next time, use the stick to thwap them with. Then you'll be Ok.





In our last piece of awesome news, somebody somewhere thinks my human is the best human ever, or good enough to offer her something called an interview at any rate. It's for a physiotherapy work hunt job. She says an interview is where you go and talk to peoples who have read the application form papers you wrote, then tell them all about you. Well, isn't that what application papers are for? I'll never understand all this time wasting! The interview is near where I am staying for Christmas, so the human is going to take us up there the night before, then go for the interview, then spend the weekend with Dogman and us before she goes to see the awesome HGG.





So it's mostly good news all round today. I'm glad of it. I'm also sorry for the long, long post. She goes from not writing anything to writing everything all at once, but we just had to share all the joy today!

Molly Moves

I'm afraid it's only the human again. I have no news on Tia yet. I'm due to call the lady who has her tonight and ask what's been happening.

I wish I could say I have no news on Molly either. I know this blog is for cats, but I also know that many of you are interested in her progress.

The people from Guide Dogs came out this morning. I was only expecting them to give her her injection and to have the usual general chat about how we were getting on, but they asked to see her working. I took her out while they walked behind and watched. As always, we worked well together. But when we got back, they were to drop a bombshell.

They explained to me that she was struggling when she was walking. Her hips are so bad that she's apparently crossing her back legs when she steps, and when it comes to hills, the walking gets even worse. She's obviously uncomfortable when she is maneuvering me around obstacles, and they felt that it would be in her best interests to retire her.

I was stunned. To be honest, I felt more than a little guilty too. Since she started hydro and her nutritional supplements, she's been improving, so what must she have been like before? Poor thing.

Although I don't want her to go, I can't in good conscience keep working a dog who is obviously in pain. The decision has been made. By Christmas, Molly will be retired and living in a new home. My friend has agreed to have her despite the medical costs, but this is going to be a struggle. I have told him I'll input into her bills, but we're looking at about £500 per year, minimum, to keep her comfortable. I'm hoping that help comes from somewhere so that we can do this between us, but I think it's time to penny pinch. If I have to pay it all myself, I will to make sure she has a guarantee of a good home.

I'm heart-broken at this, both because she's going and because I know she must be very sore. Through it all, she's been extremely cheerful, still eager to see people and always wagging. I'm going to miss her like crazy when she's gone. Seven weeks isn't really long enough to say propper goodbyes, especially when they are overshadowed with the knowledge that time together is coming to an end.

Ah, I'm upsetting myself all over again, and crying at work is not the way to instill confidents in your patients! I will keep you posted of both her and Tia's progress.

Molly Matters

I'm trying to convince myself she does. Well, that's not exactly true. She's all right, as stupid hound dogs go, but she's been taking up so much of my human's time over the last few days that she didn't even manage to post yesterday. I'm a nice cat. I'll talk about Molly before I get onto my stuff, so here goes.

I mentioned just after my human got back that we had Molly news. That news is that Guide Dogs think she has something called Arthritis in her left hind and right front legs. The human says that this is the same as what Fatcat had and it means joints are sore when they move. Molly is only 6, so she shouldn't have it already. I'm never going to get old, so I don't have to worry about it, I don't think.

When the human heard this, she took her to our own vet to have it confirmed. She'd noticed Molly walking slightly funny, but she's done this for so long and been checked so frequently that the human wasn't worried at all. She kind of swings her back left leg instead of bending the knee, you see. The vet (it was our nice vet man again) had a look at her and said that he thought it would be worthwhile having x-rays done to confirm it. That sounds pretty scary to me, but Molly's had it done before. They just make her very sleepy and then put her under some sort of peoples machine that takes a picture of her bones. It's just as well she's asleep. If she was awake and saw bones, she's so stupid that she'd try to eat them, even though they belong to her! I'm sure this is why they make sure she's snoring so hard that she never knows about the pictures.

The human got up really early again yesterday so that she could take her there before she went to the strange work thing. I think when she goes to work she's hunting. She says if she didn't, she wouldn't be able to give me food every day. Hunting is how you get food, so it's logical to assume, right? She never comes back with food from the work hunt, but she says they give her the stupid money things that she takes to the place where peoples hide their kills and swaps it for my food. I still can't believe any sensible peoples would take moneys for food, but she says it's true.

She left Molly with the vet. It wasn't our nice vet man. It was a lady vet but that was Ok, because she wasn't examining her. She took her to a cage thing in the vet building where she stayed until they made her sleepy. My human didn't go to the work hunt though. She came back home and stayed there for a while. (human note: I was lucky yesterday. My PA called to say she couldn't make it in. Without a dog and a PA, I'd lost all my available guides. I haven't learned the routes with a white cane yet, so couldn't go alone. Yippee! Day off for me! Do you hear me complaining?) I was a bit concerned that she hadn't gone until I noticed there was still food in my bowl. It seems as though she had enough moneys to swap, even though she was home for a day.

Hoover lady came over again a little while later, and she and the human went out. They came back with lots of different material. The human says she's fed up with me scratching at the collar, so Hoover lady has agreed to make me lots of different ones out of different materials to see if they can find one I won't scratch. I'm going to scratch anyway, but I think it's more fun to let them find out the hard way, don't you? If I do it really, really quietly, she might not even know! Do any of you have tips for stopping bells from jingling? That would make my life a whole lot easier.

As soon as Hoover lady left, another lady came. Judging by the dog stink of her, she was from the peoples who gave Molly to the human. She calls them Guide Dogs. Even though she was stinky, I kind of liked her. She's good at chin scratching, and she's excellent at admiring my yummy tummy. I even let her cuddle me, but that was after she'd assured me she had cats of her own. A dog people with cats? Ok, so she's not all bad, and it's so nice to hear I'm beautiful.

Speaking of beautiful, thank you so, so much for all of your comments on my pictures, and thank you so much to Whicky for posting them! A huge thank you also to Praline for the header on the blog. Isn't it pretty? I have them to thank for my pretty face staring at you all from your peoples' computer thingies! The human and I are sorry that we haven't responded personally to all of the comments you left. She says she's going to try and do some of them at the end of this post.

But look, I'm getting distracted now! Sorry. It always happens when I'm thinking about more than one thing at once. The human and stinky dog lady made talk noise for a little while, and then she left. After a little while, the human went back for Molly, but when she came home, she was very sleepy and upset. She kept crying all the time, until the human got so worried that she phoned the duty vet. Molly loves food even more than me. I thought I'd be sneaky and grab some of hers last night because it was yummy chicken and rice, which she doesn't usually get. She'll chase me away from the bowl when the human tells her she can eat, but last night, she just stood and cried. Now please don't think I'm going soft, but I actually felt kind of sorry for her, and if you ever remind me I said that, I'm gonna deny it all the way! you could see she wasn't herself, and she never stands with her head drooping like that. I gave up the bowl myself. I knew I could hassle some more food out of the human later, but molly has more trouble with that. Well, she ate, but it took her about four times as long as usual, and that worried us more than anything else. You know what she's like for food. Remember the cat food incidents?

When she showed signs of wanting to go to the toilet, but not wanting to squat, the human called the vet. They said she was probably just very sore from being pulled around for the bone pictures, but that if she got worse, they were there all night and we could bring her in. The human decided to wait and see what happened, but she slept with the door open so that she could listen to Molly.

This morning, she was a little better, but she still won't go to the toilet unless she's really, really needing to, and her walk is very, very slow. The human says her work is all over the place. They missed the door to the office today, whatever that is, and Molly is not even going half her usual speed. She's phoned the vet person at Guide Dogs to see what they say. She'd have taken her already, but the whining has stopped completely, so she's not sure if it's all pain related and whether she should wait or not. She's taking me to the vet tomorrow anyway, you see, so she's wondering whether to combine the two.

That's really all that's happened. My human has some things to tell you before we get to the comments though.

So it turns out that Molly has mild to moderate arthritis in hips, shoulders and elbows. She has an ongoing soft tissue injury to the right shoulder plus, judging by the gait, the start of cruciate ligament problems in the left knee. The x-rays didn't show this, but they don't when it first starts up. They've put her on injections for the arthritis, plus glucosamine supplements. They also want to start her on a course of hydrotherapy, but Guide Dogs want to negotiate a deal with the surgery before we start her. I hate waiting for treatment just because of money, but hydro's super expensive, so Guide Dogs have got to pay for this themselves. I now fully appreciate why she snapped at me, and because of this, I've been able to rationalise it and keep working with her. I've made adjustments in the house to take food well out of her reach. Poor Tia has to climb through an obstacle course to get to it now! I'm going to keep her on, but really scale back the work I do with her so that she can be as comfortable as possible. I doubt she'll work much longer in any case before she's ready for retirement, and I don't want her shipped from home to home before that happens. If the truth be told, I'm kind of relieved in a way that I can keep her without being scared of her. I love her too much to give her bakc, and I really wasn't looking forward to doing that. Update: Guide Dogs have just called me back. We'll be returning to the vet today. I feel like I've spent the most recent part of my life there! Molly last Thursday for skin injections, Tia on Sonday, Molly yesterday twice, and then again today. Tia has to go back tomorrow, and if everything's sorted on time, Molly will be there on Thursday for the start of her hydro. Even if she isn't, we'll be bakc on Monday for the second of her four injections for arthritis. It feels like it's never going to end!

Now that the human bit is done, it's time to answer some of the comments. Miss Kitty, my human doesn't use a flash box thing or Photoshop for photos. Her eyes are broken, you see, so she can't use either. It was the photographer man who took those at the show, and there was no alterings. The blue background is what I was standing in front of. My floof needs no prettification on photoshop either! Clowder, I'm going to get the human to have a look at Flickr to see if it's any better for us to use. Thanks for suggesting it. Hestorb, that's some good effort with all your noise on going to the vet! Did it make them stop taking you? I just tell my human off when she takes me there, but as I do this pretty much every day, it doesn't bother her all that much. She's hard, is my human. The starving kitten miaow that I do doesn't even get me extra food!

To all of you, the human feels the need for me to re-itterate that if we're not leaving comments on your blogs it's because we are struggling with it. My paws aren't good for using computers and her eyes are broke. She can't do the visual verification thing to leave a comment, and some of them just don't work with the software that she has to use. It's a little robot man thing that talks to her and reads what you all say, but sometimes it doesn't read everything. She's so glad that you're all still coming to the blog even though we can't always show you that we're reading what you say!

The human says she has to go now and take Molly to the vet. We'll update you as soon as we know more. Keep checking back to the blog regularly. Even though we won't post a new link on CB, we are going to email pictures to Whicky. If he sees it today, you'll get one of Molly to look at! So although they don't go up at the same time as my regular posts, they'll be there from time to time.