Champion Chuck

Chuck and Chicky went to an informal cat show called Burmezenmiddag ('Burmese afternoon'). It lasted forever, and by the time it was time to hand out the Awards, they were dealing out. chick was hissing at her brother, Chuck tried to be mentally absent, and when he got the award for best castrate male cat, all he could do was hiss and groan.
This is thhe morning after, and they are both feeling better. Happily chasing butterflies in the garden. All stress forgotten.

Saved from the Cats' Claws

Chick's latest trophy: a baby duck that turns out to be alive after I've taken it out of Chick's jaws. Help!

We cannot find mother duck, and anyway, a hastily searched and found website about lost & found baby ducks warns us not to put the baby duck back. The mother is now likely to kill it. The website adds that if the baby duck doesn't die soon, its chances of survival are pretty good - IF you keep it warm and give it a shallow container with regularly refreshed water. And for heaven's sake, don't feed it bread! Hard boiled egg mixed with some toast is good. And specialty foods for baby chickens. That's not in the house though, and stores are closed by now. but an egg is no problem, and a neighbor provides some toast.

We call the baby duck Tjebbe, and put him in a cat bench, on a towel, under an infrared lamp. He is quiet, and warm, and he seems asleep now, though he opens his eyes when you come close. Chick and Chucky are oblivious of this potential prey in the house. I guess that will change if Tjebbe survives and starts making sounds. But first things first. Let's see if Tjebbe makes it through the night.

Paw-Tongue Coordination

Chucky has found yet another high place to work on some personal hygiene. When I took this picture, I was standing on a table to be a little closer to him - close enough to see that his tongue-paw coordination seems to be a little off. When the cleaning paw is on his face, his tongue still hangs out.

Irresistible

Ironing with cats in the room changes the experience. Chucky loves the clean clothes. I think he likes to be the focus of attention, too. But above all, he loves the heat from the flat iron.

Heroine

What I like about Chucky - he loves being saved.

Tree climbing

2 May 2011 Up we go again. There are birds breeding in this tree and they are screaming. It is very effective, because he responds to the screaming birds and isn't looking for nests. From one side of the tree to the other and back.

Flow

25 April 2011 - Visiting the even more rural farm. Chick manages to get on the roof and is now working her way up to the top. Two swallows get very excited, because they are breeding nearby and find a cat's present very disturbing. But Chick is not looking for nests or birds. She is running for the fun of it. She is in cat heaven.

Kangaroo

23 April 2011 - Easter. Chucky practices being a kangaroo.

Up Yonder

Chucky made it to the roof this morning. Once there, he turned a corner and disappeared from sight. After 10 minutes or so, I went to look where he was. Turns out he was chasing some birds that were sitting on a ledge. The birds were looking quite interested while Chucky approached. They knew he could never get there. Chucky jumped from one shutter to the next, and as there wasn't really enough space to turn round, he got what you'd call stuck.
The shutters are part of the windows of the mezzanine, that itself is over 4 meters (12 feet) high. Chucky was balancing almost 18 feet over a very hard surface. We decided to do a rescue operation.

Chucky didn't see the problem. The birds decided to leave when we put a ladder against the wall. Sister Chick cam to watch - always ready to be entertained.

Space, I need space

2 April 2011 - The bed is not as spacious as it looked in the store. FLTR: Quincy, Chucky, Chick, Rushka.

Mouse

This mouse, too, was already dead when I saw it.

Punky

12 February 2011 - Chicky hardcore punkbitch. Purr, purr, purr.

Tasty

29 January 2011 - You'd think I would know my cats by now, but they keep surprising me. What do they want? Food? Milk? No. They want to lick ice-cristals of a frozen table.

Accidents happen

20 January - You fall in the ditch, you lick yourself dry.

Trying to work

3 January 2011 - Sometimes it's hard to get some work done, with all needy furry friends around.

Bedfellow

24 December 2010 - Woke up this morning because of energetic purring. Turned my head, saw a dark piece of tail against the twilight of the morning. Chick had caught something and decided to share my bed with it. Or was it a gift? One second later all three of us were out of the bed. Tw were kicked out and I had jumped out myself. I think it is a dead young rat.

Let's dance

20 December 2010 - It looks like a dance, but it isn't. They are fighting over who gets to sleep in the new Radiator Hammock Cat Bed. Chucky attacks - Chick wins.

Take the heat

6 November 2011 - How is Burma? Must be tropical. Chick and Chucky are Burmese, and it turns out they love the sauna. Especially a hot sauna.

This picture was taken when the heat had been turned off half an hour before. When it's hotter, they lie lower. But they don't want to leave. When the sauna is on, they lie on the floor. When you put them outside for their own well-being, the start scratching the door because they want to come back in.

Look what the cat dragged in

21 August 2010 Professor Chucky studies the shrew mouse professor Chick caught while doing field research.

This is why:
In the Netherlands we have a website called 'Zoogdier gezien' (mammal spotted). One part of it is dedicated to what you could call look what the cat dragged in. You normally don't see mice, and some biologists think that is a pity; they want to know what kind of mice live in the Netherlands. And how many. And where. That's why they have called in the help of the experts: house cats - and their personnel.

In Wat brengt uw kat (what does your cat drag in)( you can send in pictures of what your cat has caught, and where he caught them. Chick & Chucky are happy to cooperate. A day without mice is a day lost.

Come back in

15 August 2010 - He walks on the roof, and he kind of wants to come back in, and he kind of doesn't. But when he finally decides he does want to come in, he needs some help. The roof tiles are slippery.

Sea dogs

25 July 2010 - In the 18th and 19th centuries, young people from the privileged classes went on a grand tour as a final chapter of their education. In the beginning of the 21st century, some privileged young cats go on trips, too, to round off their education. Chick and Chucky went on a boat trip today. A small step for man, but a giant challenge for my furry four-footed friends.
C&C were at easy quite soon. They explored the boat, looked at the birds floating on the water. But when we were about to moor they both jumped ashore elegantly - while there was at least three feet of water between us and the shore. And then they galloped about in the garden excitedly.

Romantic Sunset

11 July 2010

Navy Seals

10 July 2010 - Burmese city cats in action in the Frisian countryside.

Too hot to move

4 July 2010

Practice

3 July 2010 - The picture on the left comes from the internet. It made me think of a picuter of Chucky. A pear tree now, next year the the Matterhorn?

Oops

22 June 2010 - Chucky is making progress. Not too long ago he was begging to to be saved, but now he is getting better at saving himself. He seems He seems about to fall down, but it's not too scary. A fall of less than 10 feet on soft grass is something he'd survive.
Chick is watching. It's easier for her, because she doesn't weigh as much as Chucky. She is less than 4 kg, Chucky's 6,5). The Chick has an uncanny talent to walk up really thin branches, turn round when she get's to a minute fork, and walk balk leisurely while still being way, way up high there.

Ace

5 June 2010 - Let's get this straight right away: this sparrow was already dead. It had crashed against the glass windscreen. That is seems to be flying is Chick's doing -a live bird flying usually uses its wings.

So one moment you have a cozy cat on your lap, the other it has changed into a somewhat frightening predator. The cuteness is only fur-deep. But this way at least one living being likes a dead sparrow, so I got my camera and made some pictures.

The play didn't last more than a few minutes. Then Chick lost interest in her toy that didn't move if she didn't touch it. She moved on to look for new challenges.

Kitty Litter

20 May 2011 - Pansies - making peeing an almost romantic exeperience. No wonder, in such a wonderfully smelling toilet.

Tight Spot

9 May 2010 -
What goes up must come down, but there are complications. There might even be some pain involved.
Chucky has two options:
1) the ripe apple method (based on the law of gravity) or 2) meow till rescued by Chief.

Thriller

Gone & Back Again

1 May 2010 - Chick was missing - all night. This had never happened before. We went out to search the area. We called, promised her love, food, evaporated milk. She did not respond. She did not come home and we went to bed dejectedly at 1.30 am, only to get up again at 6 to continue our search.
And there she was - waiting for us under the big oak tree in the garden. With wet feet and a big appetite. She refused to tell us where she had been. But who cares? The Chick is back!

Meet the Horses

11 April 2011- It's all a matter of perspective: it just depends on where you stand. What is huge when you look at from the ground, is not quite so baffling when observed from above.
Erika (mare) and Hayke (foal) certainly caught Chucky's attention. It looks like there is some interaction between cat and horse in the first picure, but that's not the case at all.
Erika is ignoring the cat - she is stampng her hoof because she is waiting impatiently for an expected carrot. Of course the sound of a scraping hoof scared Chucky - that's why he move up from the ground. Only his flat ears indicate there that he is a little displeased with the big brutes.

Who says I can trust you?

15 March 2010 - From Cold War to Uncomfortable Armistice. Friendship is not yet an option. Chick and Chucky do trust them, but they do sensde that dogs can feel as intimidated by cats as the other way around. And if such a dog turns out to be very tolerant, and prepared to share space, well, co-existence is suddenly an option. Probably. If the dog agrees not all the beds are his any more.

Dumbo

11 March 2011 - Chicky growling means she caught a mouse again. You'd say those mice should know better than to come and live here, but this is a baby - what do they know? Chicky let's him go, and cheerfully sits next to him, waiting to grab him when he tries to run away. The little mouse is not moving. I can easily pick him up. The cats meow and growl at my fee, but the mouse is sitting still. He has huge whiskers and soft, almost see-through ears. I call him Peep.

What now?

Leaving him in the house means death by torture. Outside it's way too cold for him to survive. In the end I leave Peep with a cracker and some water in the attic. Hopefully it will help him through the next week and hopefully by then it will be warm enough to survive in the gardens behind the house.