the big day

Well, friends, it seems as though I've not written anything for eleventy zillion and twelve years! I'm sorry about that, but I've had an incredibly busy few days. They've been so busy in fact thatI'll probably take another few to update you! Today though, I'm gonna concentrate on the show.






When I left you, I was busy partying cuz it was my fourth Birthday. Thank you to all of you who stopped by to wish me a happy day! It wasn't too bad actually, despite the necessity of being bundled into a PTU. But more on that later.





The student who we were talking about before came back on Friday to take the last photographs she needed for her big project with me as the star! Before, she'd taken the photos of me having my show bath, but this day, she wanted to see how a ladycat with as much floof as me is groomed for the big day. When she arrived, the human showed her how it was done, while she took photos with one hand, and stopped me walking through talc with the other. You see, talc is used in the floof of very long-haired cats to keep each hair beautifully separate from the ones next to it. This gives the coat a very full, floaty look, and as the human uses baby powder, it won't even hurt me if I lick some of it off. There were some other things to do too, like a final brush, comb, fluff, eye and ear clean, nail clip etc, but they were over fairly quickly. Then came the part I don't like.





Friends, the PTU might have been about twice as big as it needed to be, yes. It might have been wire at the top and front so that I could see out. It may have had slits in the side so that I could see my human, but does that mean I have to like it? I think not. As soon as the human put me in there, I started my singing, and when I sing, boy can I sing for a long time! This wasn't to be though. As soon as they got in the car, the human took me out for a cuddle.





Now, I must admit to having trained my human that when we travel on trains together, she must give me my own seat. I expect this in a car too, so I fidgetted and thrashed in the human's lap. However, the car was small, so it was either sit on her knee or go back inside the PTU. I didn't want to do either, so ended up settling down squished between her fat leg and the PTU side. I did try and escape onto the floor and under the seats a few times, but that heartless wench said I couldn't go there cuz I'd get my beautiful floof all dirty and dusty. A ladycat needs her space, for goodness sake!





The drive wasn't too long, but when I got to the end, relief was short-lived. I was put back in the PTU and taken to a house that I'd never been in before. The human says this is the HG's house, but she didn't warn me that when I went through the door I'd find... Mr Big! I don't like him. Well, that's not true. Perhaps it's more accurate to say that he scares the brown stuff that a ladycat never talks about out of me. Why? He's never done anything to me except try and be my friend, but I have my reasons, and I don't care whether peoplekind understands them or not! There was also a stranger there. I went very, very quiet in my PTU, thinking that if I was very quiet, they wouldn't notice me. It must have worked, cuz a few minutes later, the human took my PTU upstairs to the bedroom we'd be using, and this before either of the peoples had managed to do something horrid like eat me up for lunch!





When I got parole from prison, there was already a litterbox and food and water down for me. The human gave me a cuddle, then left me alone to settle in and scope out my new territory. There was a lot of snoopervising to do. The room itself was pretty boring; a floor, some boxes, a bed to lie on, but it had an easily accessible window sill! I sat there for hours, well, when I wasn't snoozing on the towels that were so thoughtfully left on the end of the bed for my convenience. I could hear the human's voice coming from the floor below, so I was comforted enough to catch a quick nap.





The next thing I knew, the HG was opening the door and coming to give me a cuddle. I'm still not sure about her, so I backed off a bit, but soon consented to allow her to snuggle the floof. She seemed to like it. Me? I'm not telling.





Turns out that me and my human weren't the only ones using the bedroom though. When it was bedtime, the strange ladypeople came up to sleep too. She's strange though. She didn't look at me, or talk to me, or do anything to coax me out from my hiding spot under the bed that I darted to when I first heard her come in. This was very strange. I watched her for a long time, but she didn't give any sign that she knew I was in the room. Thinking it safe, I slunk out from underneath, but she still ignored me. I then went to sit by her feet, but still, she carried on doing her own stuff. I'd never had this reaction before, so I jumped on the bed, a lot away from her, mind you. Still, nothing. I crept a little closer. I nudged her a teeny bit just to see if she was actually a real people or not. Then she smiled, tickled my head, and said something to my human along the lines of the fact that it's better to let a scared cat choose to come to you, and that if you ignored them, they tend to do it quicker and got comfortable more quickly. She has me here. I can't even say she's wrong! That night, I wasn't afraid to get on the big bed to go to sleep. Well, she can't be a threat when she's snoring!





The human feels the need to tell you here about her own culture. She says she doesn't want peoples readers to think she jumps into bed with everyone. In Irish culture, it's fine for friends to share a sleeping place. She says that in English culture, if they do this it usually means that something naughty is going on, but not so with the Irish! Myself, I don't know what the problem is. We cat's aren't too choosy about who we sleep with, and it doesn't mean something naughty is happening. I'm pleased to see that she takes a leaf out of our book. Perhaps there's hope for her yet!





Anyway, back to me. I'd hardly closed my eyes when an alarm went off, causing my human to bounce out of bed and start manically doing things. Ok, that's perhaps a bit of a lie. The HG came in to help get her up though. When I say help, I mean that she walked in like a zombie,, flopped on the end of the bed, and almost begged, "Do we have to do this?" My human grunted something back at her, and it must have helped, cuz shortly after that, she was up. There followed a flurry of activity. Litter trays, food, water, bowls, litter, blankets, disinfectant gel, comb and brush all had to be packed, so the HG ran off to look for a bag to put it all in. I had to be floofed, but I felt that I'd much rather hide under the bed in the most inaccessible corner which meant the human had to crawl under there, bang her head hard and say a lot of nasty rude words before she hauled me out under the tummy. Then she had to change her clothes cuz of all the floof that came off me. We left, but we were late in starting out, and when we did get there, the queue of peoples holding their cats was so, sooooo long! We must have waited easily about 45 minutes before the vet lady people checked me over to make sure I wasn't sick and couldn't spread anything to other cats. They have to do this before they let you into the show. The whole time while in line, I talked to my human and the HG, and the stranger ladypeople who had come with us, and I talked to some other cats further down the line who were talking too. We had to shout to make ourselves heard above the peoples nonsensical babble, but we managed. Do you know, they actually had the nerve to shush us!





The vet lady people was nice and told me that I was a wriggle bum, but a good girl. Then we were in. We found the pen set aside for me, and you know what? It was full of goodies! I got two different types of food and some new litter to try, and the human got a tiny chocolate easter bunny. The human and the HG took this all out though, and spread my fluffy white blanket on the base of the pen. Then in went my litter tray, my water bowl, some water, and finally, me!





On my first show, I was very scared, so the human had no trouble keeping me in the pen while she got out her brush and comb and did the final floofing grooming in the show hall, but this time I wanted to come out and see everything that was going on. It took a lot of time to floof me just right while stopping me from making a bid for freedom. There was a handsome gentleman cat either side of me too, so can you blame me for wanting to get a better look? Eventually though, I was all set. Just as well too, as judging started shortly afterwards, and the human had to leave.





I was one of the first cats judged, and I was very well behaved. The judge didn't like the shape of my face though. She said it was too triangular, and that I had too much nose, so I didn't get my gold card, the CC that I need to get closer to being a champion. I did get first place though! As soon as the human could come back, she was straight in to give me a cuddle, and by this point, I was so confident that I actually growled good and hard at her whenever she tried to put me back in my pen! She says I've never done this before. I had lots of cuddles with different peoples during the afternoon, and although I didn't purr for all of them, I was comfortable enough that I didn't cry and scramble to get back to my human like I did on my first show. As long as I could see her, I was Ok. I had a really, really long cuddle with one of them too. The human says that the peoples at this show were the nicest yet. She got to cuddle lots of cats, and they even offered to help her out with doing the tipping of my ears, something she can't quite do due to her eyes. It's the first time anyone's actually offered.





The human left me from time to time to go see the stalls of things to buy, but I didn't mind too much, specially cuz the Hg bought me a nice new ribbon and feather toy! There was also nice food in my pen, which assuages the anxiety of losing a people somewhat, wouldn't you say? There was even more pleasure to come though. The human, thinking I'd not win much, had entered me in two extra classes, so that's six in total. She thought that we'd win first in the open class, that important one with the gold card, which we did, and then maybe first in one of the others. However, when she looked at the boards, she was in for a big surprise! not only had I won my open, but I'd been placed in every single one of the side classes I'd been entered for! In total, I got 3 firsts and 3 thirds, so at the end of the day, you could hardly see me for all the rosettes on my pen! That brings my total to 11 rosettes in 4 shows. Not bad, eh? My human says this is the first time a cat of hers has been placed in all classes, and she says she's super proud of me, as I must have been a real poppet for the judges. Just goes to show that I'm getting more comfortable with stranger peoples all the time!





She left the show on a high, but I was pretty tired. I was so tired in fact that I didn't even sing much on the way home. Consequently, I ended up staying in the PTU, but as it was big and had a comfy cushion on the bottom, I didn't mind all that much. Don't tell the human though!





I'm hoping the student has taken pictures of me on show day. If so, I'll be sure to post them when I get them!





Tomorrow I'll have even more exciting news. I'll tell you all about my human's trip to see a litter of six kittens. You remember those ones we told you about five weeks ago? The ones that were only born? Well, on Monday, the human got to snuggle them all! See you soon, I hope.

Wordy Wednesday and Pat Rick

Friends, it seems as though my human is now only going to allow me to blog once or twice a week, and I dislike her for it! Her excuse this time is that she had the HG and the HG's manpeople down to stay for a good few days, and just didn't have the time to write for me, but as I've said before, excuses are tiresome. I have a lot to tell you about today, so let's go!




Let me start by dealing with Caboodle. I appreciate all the comments left, and all the posts on other blogs. Please know that even if I don't comment, I am reading. I plan to do more on this story over the next couple of weeks. One of you asked for pictures, and those I now have, but as usual, I'm going to need help to put them up thanks to the human's broken eyes. I'd also like to know what they are before they go on the blog. Would one of you mind helping me do that? I'm also going to post references to links that Whicky left for me that tell the other side of the story. Dana has promised me an interview, so that will go up probably along with the pictures. We'll string this out over a few weeks, as we don't want the blog to only deal with sad things, and this situation is sad for all involved, not just the cats. I'm not losing sight of that, and don't want to add to rumour mongering. That's why both sides of the story go up. Then you can decide for yourselves.





As I said, the HG came down to see us, and so did her manpeople. I'm going to call him Mr Big from now on, cuz he's the biggest manpeople I've ever seen! he's also very, very scary. I had to run real fast away from him whenever he got anywhere near me, which he did with frightening regularity. The human and the HG tell me he was only trying to make friends, but I didn't want to be friends with Mr Big. He's too big and I'm too small and I, well, I'm not going to admit that I was ascared of him. Let's just say he made me uneasy, Ok? A ladycat doesn't lose face by admitting that, does she?





As much as I hate to admit it, I was actually disappointed with the Hg. I mean, she didn't bring me toys or treats or tuna or nothing! She did, however, bring a stupid dogface with her that she called Nikki and Noodle and Poodle and lots of other names that she says are nicknames. It doesn't take much to confuse a Dogface, so I wasn't surprised that she answered to all of them, and even to ones that weren't her name! I know better. My name is Tia. Sometimes the human calls me fatcat. That came from when I started to put on weight when she got me so that I was a propper cat and not skin and bones. She always kisses me when she calls me that, so I don't take offence. She also calls me poodin or puddin depending on what she feels like, and I don't mind that either, but I won't answer to anything else, and I'll only come to Tia. The HG decided that me and Nikki were going to be friends too, but I had other ideas. I don't usually hiss, but when she came close, I spat at her good! My human says my hiss isn't scary at all. She says it sounds almost as though i have a lisp when I do it, but I know it's super threatening, and so does Nikki! Every time I did it she backed away from me, and I won! One time when she was lying on the floor I got in her face for a sniff and really just to show her that I was boss and would greet her on my own terms, but the HG mistook this for me thinking about being friends with her.





The HG is good at cuddling, but she isn't trained as well as the human yet. Whenever I passed the HG, she'd reach out and touch me, but she wouldn't give me a treat! Not even once! She says that if she feeds me, the Dogface will get jealous, but I say stuff the Dogface. Tell it to go away and leave me and my treats alone, and it'll all be Ok! She wouldn't though, whereas the human will give me one for no apparent reason other than that I come to her. She says the treats are good for my teeth and that's why I get them, but as I rarely chew them, that argument is spurious.





I had a practice show bath on Sunday, and this was a real show bath. First I had to be de-greased, and then I had lots of different shampoos applied to me. There was one to make my colour stand out, and another to give my floof some body and volume. The HG helped with putting the shampoo on me and washing it off, and here's where she really did come into her own.





When the human baths me, she just ignores my shouting, and she washes my bum and my tail whether I want it done or not. of course, I don't mind it being done, but one can't give in without a good bit of singing and squirming, otherwise they think they've won, and adopt this ludicrous notion that they might have trained you. The human doesn't put up with it, but the HG, well, most of the time she had to get the human to wash my bum and tail cuz she didn't wanna put me through it cuz I made a lot of noise. She also said she felt sorry for me all the way through, and that she probly wouldn't do this to her cat. Go HG! That's the kind of teaching you need to instill in my human! Sure, it means that I end up super floofy and clean, but seriously, one bath every few years is enough for any self respecting ladycat! And when it comes to hair driers? Well, HG, every people should take your attitude which is to say "Oh no, human, you can't do that to her. I feel so sorry for her!" Then you remove the poor cat from the nasty drying monster and just cuddle them in a towel until they are dry. As much as I hate to admit it though, I do actually need the dryer, as my wet floof makes me very cold cuz there's so much of it and so little of me. If you're gonna wet it, ya need to dry it, sadly. The end result was worth all the pain though. I've never been as floofy in my life!





After my bath, I was really beautiful, or so said the human and the HG. However, dogface Nikki was obviously jealous of all the attention getting a bath gets you, cuz when she went outside, she rolled in... Ah, I'm a ladycat and it's not polite to say the word! Ok, Ok, she rolled in poopoo! She was covered from head to tail in the stuff, and she stinked! Not content with me having the limelight, the stupid hound had to go in the bath herself, but she's not so good about it as I am. She splashed water everywhere, and it took the human and the HG to get her dry. They even hoovered her cuz there was so much dead hair on her and it was all over the house! She's not as lucky as me though. She only got to use baby shampoo and not my posh show stuff, so even though she had a bath, she didn't get the mostest attention. Hah!





I have another gripe. Because of stupid Nikki who likes to eat stuff, I couldn't play with my toys when she was here cuz she'd eat them and chew them all up. I couldn't even have a go with my ball in a track cuz mr Big sat on the beanbag right in my toy corner so that I couldn't get to it without going close to him. I wasn't gonna do that, so I had to be content with ribbon time with the human in the bedroom. Ribbon time is great. It's where you have to chase the ribbon all over the room real fast and jump on it and pin it down with your paws. You gotta be real careful though not to put the claws in too hard or bite too hard, cuz you don't wanna hurt the ribbon or else it'll not come to play again.





Although the HG is nice, her manpeople and her dogface are not, and I was glad to see them go. I'll be gladder to see the HG return with tuna and toys and without dogface Nikki though. I wonder if that's possible?





I got some really exciting news today. You remember I sent out some packages a couple of weeks ago? Well, the first two have arrived! Amy and the House of Cats
got theirs this morning, and Chrystalat the Daily Dose
had hers yesterday. You need to go check out their blogs to see what the furries think. Apparently everything was a big hit with my friends at Chrystal's place, but the excitement is still going at Amy's, as I haven't heard if my pals there liked the things I sent yet. I hope they do! The Random Felines should be getting their stuff in the next few days, as theirs was sent out a bit later.





To top off things today, the human says we have to celebrate something called St Pat Ricks day today. I'm not sure what this is, but some peoples talk about patting when they are touching dogfaces. Rick is a name, so maybe this is the day to celebrate patting peoples or dogs called Rick? I'm not sure I like this idea. I'm not getting within patting distance of a dogface in case it slobbers on me, and I don't know anybody, dog or people, called Rick. The human says that Pat Rick started in Ireland. Well, they do say the Irish are a little crazy, and with evidence like this in the public eye, I'd be a fool to disagree! The human says that the day is associated with green. I can understand this if it refers to the patters turning green with disgust and feeling sick when they pat the dogfaces called Rick. I would too. Now, call me stupid if you will, but I see nothing to be celebrated about patting a Rick, so you'll pardon me if I don't, eh?