cat for sadness

tear drops on cat fur

disappear in softness

soothing purring

He looks at me and blinks

a cat kiss

empathy across species

we all feel pain

Finding Jimmy -Part 2

by Robert the Serious Siamese.

I told the story of runaway Jimmy, and here is how it all ended:

MyPerson was worried about Jimmy, homeless in the cold, and decided to try and catch him.

Jacob and I were put behind closed doors on the ground floor, with plenty of food and a cat toilet (we were both insulted and embarrassed and refused to use it). 

We went to sleep.

MyPerson set the cat flap door to let anyone in, but no-one out. All of the family went to bed around 11pm.

At 3 o'clock in the morning MyPerson woke up to the sound of thuds and claws scratching on glass.

She got up, went downstairs and saw a handsome, big cat who looked like the one on the "missing Jimmy" -flyers. 

The cat quickly ran for cover behind the sofa.

MyPerson did not want to call the owner so early so she went to clean the kitchen, checking on the cat from time to time.

The cat was purring politely when MyPerson spoke Swedish to him. She tried to offer him food, but he refused and made the tiniest possible hiss to communicate he wasn't ready to let anyone come close. 

MyPerson switched to Swiss German. Her Swiss German is rather limited but it made the cat respond with little miaus.

At 5 o'clock MyPerson called Jimmy's owner to share the good news. During the phone call the cat had gotten bored behind the sofa and ran into a small side room next to the entrance. MyPerson closed the door behind him and soon the doorbell rang.

The cat gave out a big meow when he heard his owners voice. The owner immediately recognized the meow and said "Yes, it is Jimmy!" 

Their reunion was priceless. Jimmy made a zillion holes into his owners jacket, frenetically pawing and purring.

Now Jimmy is happily reunited with his humans,

his brother and the family dog. He swears never to return to his streetcat alias James the Free. He prefers to remain Family Pet Jimmy in his new home.

Finding Jimmy - Part 1

by Robert the Serious Siamese.

A black-and-white cat named Jimmy lived in our neighbourhood. Jimmy and I were buddies -we enjoyed walking the streets side by side and sometimes we playfully wrestled.

Jimmy went through stressful times in October as his family (his brother, his dog and his humans) were moving house. 

Little by little furniture started to disappear and there were men coming and going, making loud and scary noises with their machines. 

On the 29th of October Jimmy had enough. 
He decided to leave and never come back. 

He was now a streetcat named James the Free. 

His owners were heartbroken and worried. They searched for him everyday, walking the streets calling his name. 

But the newborn James the Free no longer responded to his old name.

The family moved many kilometers away, but the lady owner kept coming twice a day to our area to look for her beloved Jimmy. 

Sometimes Jimmy was hungry and he missed the warmth of a home. I tried to keep him away from our house and once I gave him a huge round of cat slapping when he tried to enter my home through the cat flap door.

My thought back then was that I only share my food with my own brother, Jacob. Now I regret my egoistic behaviour.

Jimmy was clever and started coming when everyone was asleep. MyPerson was wondering why all cat food was gone in the mornings. But she thought Jacob was snacking in the night, because he kept getting fatter.

A week later MyPerson actually spotted Jimmy, but only his hindpaws when he made a quick escape through the cat flap door. Soon everyone in the family had had a brief glimpse of Jimmy's black-and-white hindpaws.  

Jacob and I were stressed in the beginning, but we decided to avoid having a fight and  stayed away when we heard Jimmy coming. 

MyPerson planned to activate the microchip function in the cat flap door to only allow me and my brother to enter. But Jimmy had luck - MyPerson stayed true to her habit of procrastinating and being forgetful.

Now Jimmy's owners were desperate and they put up flyers everywhere with Jimmy's picture on it asking people who saw him to call as soon as possible.

MyPerson saw one of the flyers and immediately called Jimmy's owner. She was careful not to give false hopes because no-one had ever seen all of Jimmy. The owner was delighted and sure it was her dear cat who had been visiting us.

Jimmy's owner and MyPerson stayed in touch. MyPerson sent updates on food gone missing in the night and every sight of black-and-white paws disappearing into the night.

It was the last week of November and the weather was getting cold here in Basel. MyPerson decided she would have to try to catch Jimmy...

Three ways to hack any password

By Robert the Cat

This is an experiment. I want to see if I get a large audience with this title.

I learned from myPerson that if you say "x ways to do y" you'll get loads of audience and that the "to do y" is irrelevant as long as your "x" is a number between two and ten.

Now, I personally don't need audience as I'm just maintaining this blog while myPerson is waiting for the avocado tree to grow. Avocados grow slow, at least when they spend their childhood in a dark compost and then are planted in Swiss soil in the autumn.

I think I've mentioned liking technology before, especially keyboards.

I have petite paws, so I can do three keyboard buttons with one paw. I never dare put all four paws down in one go. I'm a bit superstitious in that way. 

But with my nine buttons I'm pretty well off.  

Once I nearly hacked a password. 

MyPerson was so proud of her state-of-the art password "saRew123". It is a very robust password because it means nothing, it combines big and small letters and it has numbers, too. It is still easy to remember and quick to type. And yes, you guessed right: I can type it with three paws.

MyPerson was very proud for having invented it so I almost feel sorry for her. 

Now if you were to use this information to hack into myPerson's bank account, kindly leave your name and address so we can post her bills to you. She hates paying bills. And the time she spends paying bills is away from my lap time. Thank you in advance.

-Robert

Cats and worms

by Robert the Cat

This is utterly embarrassing. Jacob brings home earthworms.

You must have realized by now that my brother Jacob indeed is a few fries short of a happy meal. 

Earthworms are fabulous creatures. They don't belong on the living room floor. They should do their work in the garden. 



What they do best is fertilizing and aerating the soil. They eat old stuff, such as fallen leaves and dead plants, dig themselves down (creating tiny wholes for fresh air to get through and down to the roots of plants), then they poo and that means food for the plants. If you have a compost, they help turning any dead vegetable into nutrient-rich soil.

But my brother, he fetches them and brings them into our house. He doesn't know how silly he looks coming inside, head and tail held high with a squirming worm in his mouth. 

I suppose something must have gone wrong in his early childhood. I mean, really, as we arrived at the house (no cat flap here back then - I surely would have taken off if there had been one), and Jacob just happily walked around. 

I just sat there, not even checking things out. I mean they dumped me on the floor and there was no mom or dad or feedingPerson anywhere. 

I felt abandoned. And there goes my silly brother, strutting about happy as ever. 

When we were a few months old I had kinda accepted my faith (now I'm really happy here, as myPerson is an excellent feedingPerson). 

Jacob and I used to love to play with hair bands when we were little. Jacob still does. You'd never believe we're brothers, as he is silly all the time whilst my silliest trick is the school-bag-trick I mentioned earlier. Here's how refined it can get:

Well I'm no Einstein but I'm a cat. Cat's don't really have nine lives, we just intuitively understand basic physics. And that's more than many humans do.

Again, Jacob might be an exception. He doesn't know that what goes up must come down (I think this is not from Einstein, though -it's probably Newton). 

The havoc Jacob created on a Mother's Day will stay in our memories forever. It could have been prevented with simple physics understanding. But I'll tell you about that day an other time. 

Now I must run off to help myPerson with the filing.

-Robert

Robert's latest worry -A smartband

by Robert the Cat

MyPerson bought herself a smartband called Fitbit flex and now all she does is walk and walk, then she stares at her iPhone even more than before and that's a lot of staring, if you ask me. 

I mean, we cats are notorious for staring, so I can tell when there's a lot of it.  Below is one of our typical stares:

I am not in favour of smartbands of any kind.

If a person walks more than 10'000 steps a day there is much less lap-time for a cat. 

Before the smartband MyPerson and I used to make ourselves comfy on the sofa with a book, or I would generously help her with PC work. 

Well, she calls it work but she just presses buttons on a keyboard, and sometimes I see pictures of her friends. 

Doesn't seem like work to me. 

PC "work" isn't as techy as it sounds. Many cats have unnecessary fear for human-made technology. But mind you, not all do; I've heard of some early adopters who are quite savvy with them iPads.

One kinda funny PC thing me and my brother did was this:

"Sorry, mom -we're having a home-office day!"

She didn't touch her PC for hours! She just took pictures of us (this was before the smartband time).

-Robert

Siamese cat morning

By Robert the Cat

Woke up at 06:03, the sun was up and I could hear the birds twittering their nonsense.

I stretched and sneaked out through my and my brother's cat flap. The flap is microchip operated but myPerson has not activated the microchip function. 

Sometimes I worry about this security breach. There are some nasty cats in our neighbourhood...

I went for my shorter morning round, in order to be back for the alarm clock. There were two days without alarm clock so today there will be one. 

Gosh, I'm hungry!  Too bad myPerson always insists on having her coffee and to wake up the littlePerson before giving me any food. 

Luckily my brother takes care of helping out with the wake-up-the-littlePerson procedure. He also drinks from the tap, and uses the opportunity when myPerson makes her precious coffee. 

I prefer rain water. You find it everywhere! There are insects and larvae in the puddles -an excellent protein source. I also prefer my privacy when drinking. I take pride in the fact that no one has ever seen me drinking. A cat has to maintain his dignity. My brother Jacob, of course, is an exception.

By 07:15 my brother has done his job and the littlePerson is awake. I sit in her lap for awhile. 

I'm her excuse not to fetch her toothbrush herself.  The white stuff she uses smells funny. I think it's peoplemint.  All humans in my family are addicted to peoplemint, they use it at least twice a day! I've made a resolution to stay away from that stuff. 

My claws are itching! I'm going to have a go on the carpeted stairs. They're the best for itchy claws.  I know I don't have much time so I put all my energy into the scratching. It helped! I love those stairs. My brother does too, and I think he heard me 'cause he comes running up and scratches the stairs as well. But a human runs over and shouts at my brother. Jacob can be very quick when he senses trouble so he runs out, almost smashing the cat flap door.

Now comes my morning highlight: littlePerson and myPerson are putting books and boxes into the schoolbag. My special number is to pretend I want to sneak into the bag. I love bags and with my schoolbag trick I get some well deserved attention. They always ask: "do you also want to go to school, Robert?". So I go "mau" and then they laugh and cuddle me. They think it's a "yes". Actually "mau" means "hell, no" but I don't mind. I like it when they laugh and cuddle me.

Now littlePerson walks off to school and promises to be good, and it is finally time for my breakfast! 

My brother Jacob reappears as quickly as he had disappeared before and we eat together. We have signs on the wall to know who's bowl is who's, but I always eat from the fullest bowl. Jacob doesn't mind.

I've a had a good, regular alarm-clock-day morning and I will now go for a nap. The bed is still warm. Everyone's left the building, but I know they will return by the time I'm up and about again.

-Robert