A Meme and some Stormy Weather

Several days weeks(?) ago Abby tagged Oliver, William and Cybil for the Six Unspectacular Quirks meme.

The rules:

Link to the one who tagged you. List the rules on your blog. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours. Tag some blogger friends with links. Leave a comment on their blog to let them know they've been tagged.

Oliver

1. Ollie loved to jump on my back and bite the back of my neck (gently) just like cubs of big cats do to their mothers in the wild.

2. If he was napping and I left the room, he would almost instantly wake up and, chatting loudly, would rush to find me.

3. Our bathroom where we lived had no window and if I was in the bath he took great delight in jumping up and grabbing the light cord, plunging me into darkness. I quickly learnt to leave the door open with the passage light on and make sure the light over the sink was on!

4. After we moved into a house with stairs, he quickly invented another game. He would hunker down on the stairs and then bat us with a paw as we went past. No claws out, but a definite grin on his face!

5. He loved to chase screwed up paper. He would retrieve it, bring it back and put it on a foot, waiting expectantly for it to be thrown again. This game could go on for some time!

6. He would always greet us at the front door when we came home. When my Dad visited he said he had never known a cat so pleased to see his humans.

7. He invented another game. He would jump in the bath (when empty of course!), hunker down and we had to get down on our hands and knees, crawl slowly towards the bath, then pounce, he would jump out onto our backs. This was a really fun game, repeated several times over. It was most fun when played with both us beans because we didn't know until he pounced which of us he would choose!

Oh dear, that's seven, I'm such a rebel:)

William

1. William came after Ollie and he was a pure-bred Burmese with papers and all, so it was with great surprise that as he grew he invented the very same games as Ollie, all by himself! He would occasionally play #4, though he preferred to hide behind the bedroom door and pounce out and pat us from there. He played #5 and #7 frequently. We thought Ollie must have been teaching him from the Bridge!

He once wanted to play #7 when I was getting ready for work one morning and rushed right past me and straight into the bath. Unfortunately it had very hot water in it at the time. I tried to grab him but couldn't. Instead of jumping out over the side of the bath, he swam to the other end and jumped out there! This seemed to take place in slow motion but it must have been only seconds because he was completely unharmed. I inspected his skin as I dried him and there was no sign of scalding or even redness!

2. He loved jumping and climbing and soon his baby climbing post was not tall enough to challenge him.

So Pinky built him something a little taller...

I should mention that the ceiling was waiting (patiently) to be painted. It still is!

3. He loved to play Thundering Herd of Elephants and he was very loud because we had no carpet on the stairs. Funnily enough we used to call this thundering herd of elephants of one. This was a squillion years ago, before blogs were invented!

4. I said he was a climber. One day we caught him two-thirds up the back wall of the house, using the pebble dash for traction! I wish I had a photo of that. He would also climb up onto the roof of the lean-to but then was afraid to come down. I would have to bend over and he would then jump down onto my back!

5. He liked quite a few kinds of bean food, specially if he could steal it. When he was a kitten we had to eat our cereal standing up and even then he would climb our bodies or jump on our shoulders to get at it. One evening when he was older we put some leftover veg (mashed potato, peas and sweetcorn) into one saucepan and left it on the kitchen worktop while we ate our dinner. Pinky went out to get something and saw this:

We were so lucky the camera was handy! Of course it was before digital cameras so the photos in this post are all scanned. As I hope you can see, William was using his claws to spear the peas and sweetcorn, squeeeeeeeeee!!!

One day we heard thumping and banging coming from the kitchen and, wondering what the racket was about, went to investigate. There was Will coming through the cat flap with half a cooked leg of lamb in his mouth. There was still some meat on the bone. The banging and thumping obviously occurred while he was figuring out that he had to turn his head sideways to get the bone through as it was too big to get it through widthways! This happened not once, but twice some time apart, and we never found out where the meat came from. We felt mean taking it away from him but, well, you don't know where it's been. I have to say, though, that on both occasions the meat was still warm so some neighbour must have been surprised! Hmmm, I wonder if William as been teaching Yao-Lin from the Bridge...

6. He liked to sleep next to me with his head tucked into my neck (so did Ollie).

Cybil

1. I adopted Cybil when her bean didn't want her any more because her boyfriend didn't get on with her. I would have got rid of the boyfriend instead, but their loss was my gain because she was the sweetest, gentlest little calico girl you could hope to meet. She was very, very shy with strangers but we bonded straight away, once she had hidden for a little while. By the time I had tempted her out with stinky goodness and introduced her to her litter box (her old one with fresh litter in it so it would be familiar) she seemed to trust me and realise that she was here to stay. She would always run and hide whenever anyone else came to the house (though she would always come to greet me when I came in) and it was some time before she got used to my family and friends.

2. She didn't often go outside. She would go out and have a quick sniff round my tiny garden, then come back in and use her litter box! As she had had a number of homes in her life, including living for some time in a shed because her human got a dog and they didn't get on, I was quite surprised that she would rather use her box than the garden. But on the other paw, she had most likely had enough of the great outdoors and preferred to stay inside where she felt safe and loved.

3. I have very few pictures of her because she hated having her photo taken. I call this one "Cybil thinking on her beanbag" but really it should probably be "Cybil thinking 'oh no not the flashy box' on her beanbag"!

4. Although she was shy of humans, she didn't seem to be bothered by other cats. One night when I was drifting off to sleep I was brought fully awake by a loud caterwauling coming from downstairs. I rushed down, turning lights on as I went, to see a young tabby cat streaking across the living room floor and up the curtains, where he hung by his claws, shivering in panic! Where was Cybil? Sitting unconcernedly on the sofa, with her paws tucked neatly under her, quietly watching the proceedings!

5. When she wanted her stinky goodness she would sit bolt upright, hold out her arm and shake her paw very rapidly. It was the most amazing and cute thing I ever did see!

6. When she wanted me to wake up she would tap tap tap my face with her paw, again very rapidly, but this time lying on her side facing me.

I have enjoyed doing this meme because it has brought back happy memories, but at the same time it has made my eyes a little leaky.

Now who shall I nominate? I think nearly everycat has done it by now! Well, how's about you Tigmut'hep? It'll give you something to do while your boy's away, haha! Livvie, coz you're Burmese so you must have some good quirks! Moe and Mindy coz I think you are interesting and I haven't known you for long and would like to know you better! William coz you need a distraction from the heat there in Albert Kirkey! Hey, this might cool you off a bit. It's a storm we had yesterday similar to the ones you had a few days ago. The photo was taken by Pinky of his garden yesterday at about midday. The vertical streaks are hailstones! Biggify to see better.

If anycat has done the meme before or is too busy, no pressure.

I hope everycat has a restful weekend after such a sad week and I will be thinking of Sprout's family today as they say their farewells to their sweet little daughter, Violette.

XXX