love cats

I can see why humans and cats have stuck together over time. In winter they act, quite conveniently, like a hot water bottle that you don’t need to fill up. They snuggle up to you and help keep you really warm.

The only problem is that often Fritz doesn’t want to sit near me, he wants to sit on me. He used to just sit on my legs. Recently, however, he’s taken to jumping up on my body, rather than the couch, and making himself comfortable. First it was my legs, now he jumps right onto my stomach. Although I appreciate the warmth and cuddles, this also entails him prodding his little feet into me while he circles round a few times trying to get his seating angle just right. I know, I’m a wuss, but he’s a reasonably heavy cat, and it’s bloody painful at times!

He is growing up to be a very cute cat though, and much more inclined to come and seek cuddles than he did before. He seems to do as he’s told more as well, and actually seems to listen to the ‘Stay’ command now when we open doors.

Now, if only I could train him to give back rubs and clean the house…

it’s a cats life

I’ve noticed recently that when I go shopping I end up spending more time trying to choose flavours of food for my cat than I do for myself. The choice is overwhelming. When I didn’t own a cat I assumed all cat food was stinky stuff with sardines in jelly, or miscellaneous cubes of meat in a gravy-like goo. Now the stuff doesn’t smell too bad at all (as far as cat food goes) and comes in flavours like ‘Seafood and Chicken Mornay’, ‘Fine Salmon Mousse’, ‘Tuna Fillets and Whole Prawns in Seafood Sauce’, ‘Tender Lamb Morsels’, ‘Turkey Morsels in Mousse’, and so on. The other day I even spotted one that had ‘Foigras’ in the title!

At first I thought they were all probably the same kind of thing but just in different forms and textures. But there does seem to be differences in flavour between them all. Some Fritz loves, some he won’t touch.

When we first got Fritz we researched what was the best thing to feed him and everyone recommended food brands that are stocked at pet stores (Hills Science Diet, Advance, Royal Canin, etc.). Although these are supposed to be healthier than supermarket varieties, the price is just ridiculous. And as much as I love my cat, I refuse to spend more on his food than I would on my own.

Ironically, too, I’ve tried feeding him the more expensive food and he doesn’t touch it. His favourite food is the Dine wet food range, especially the mornays. For dry food he loves the Optimum range, but he also surprisingly chows down ‘You’ll Love Coles’ dry cat food (in the orange packet). When he was a kitten we gave him wet & dry food from the Whiskers Kitten range, but he’s gone off Whiskers since. We also occasionally cook him up some fresh meat so he has something warm to eat - we just put it in a bowl and microwave it. Which was a bit of a mistake actually, because now when we microwave anything containing meat he catches a whiff of the aromas and runs over, sits patiently, eyeing you off, waiting to be fed.

Ah, it’s a cats life!

love cats

Thanks Amy!! I loved it!

it doesn’t rain, it pours

Our beloved Fritzybubby.

There was no ‘Sun’ in our day today. Yesterday we had 3 chooks and 1 cat. Today, we have 3 chooks buried in our vege patch, and 1 missing Fritz. We woke up this morning and something had got into our yard. We suspect it was a fox. The chooks were all headless; feathers scattered across the yard. Our chooks are were very friendly, and very very docile, so from what we can see there wasn’t much of a struggle. Going by the feather trail, they were probably woken sometime early this morning while roosting in their wire hutch. One was killed near the hutch, the other two at the other end of the backyard. It’s pretty common for chooks to die as a result of fox entry; they have wiped out our flocks before on two other occasions. We’re pretty sad though; they were really good chooks and like all chicken’s we’ve raised they were saved from a battery setup. So they had a good life for the 2 years they were with us, but it’s still really sad.

With the chooks buried, we went to go investigate whether Fritz was Ok. And sadly, we still have no idea. It’s currently 6pm and we haven’t seen Fritz all day. He has never stayed away for this long; he always comes in for a sleep in the afternoon, especially when it’s cold like today. We have a few theories.. the worst is that the fox got the cat too, and has taken the body away somewhere. The other also-bad theory is that the fox chased the cat away and Fritz is lost and/or injured somewhere far enough away that he’s not responding to our calls. My Mum’s more optimistic theory is that he’s gone off on an adventure somewhere in the neighbourhood and will probably come back.

I guess all we can do is wait and hope he’s Ok.

Update: Sunday, 11pm - 24hours since we last saw Fritz. Not looking hopeful; but fingers crossed he might show up in the morning. Not sure he’s anywhere near us though - one of his rival cats was eating the food we left out for him earlier. And with some coaxing, the cat even stuck around for a pat. Poor Fritzy If you’re still alive, I hope you get my message by human-to-cat telepathy that I hope you’re ok and please come back!!

The early days

“Are you my Mummy?”

On his favourite sunny windowsill

All grown up

Update #2: FRITZ IS ALIVE!!! and also now a permanently an indoors cat once again. He was picked up on our street by a ranger, with little details given to us about where or why. His tag is missing, which is weird, because the little metal ring that held it on is still on his collar, and crimped together well enough that it wouldn’t have allowed the thickness of the name-tag to squeeze through. Looks to me like its been removed by someone. And if so, I’m pretty sure who did it. Our neighbour hates cats. But no point theorizing now. The $50 that was going to pay for a nice tasty birthday lunch instead went towards getting the cat out from the pound. But what can I say - it’s the price you pay for love. And after going into the pound I’m glad we went to see if he was there - that place is truly sad and awful. Cement floors, no cushioning, cold, and all the pets in there are so lonely and sad. If the world was ideal, and I owned the pound, I’d employ someone just to go play with them all.

early august gardening, and how to make liquid fertilizer with chook manure

 

It’s only August and the garden is already blooming with colour and life. Although most of the seeds in the vegetable patch have taken a while to germinate in the wintry weather, they’re getting there, with a good sprinkling of blood and bone followed by a big dose of our homemade liquid fertilizer, last weekend, about to give them a big boost.

We always have a few buckets of liquid manure placed in a clear, undisturbed area of the chook pen, all in different stages of maturity. They’re filled with a potent concoction of water and chook manure, which we continually dispose of into the newest bucket in the cycle as it arrives.

This is not only a good way of getting essentially free fertilizer for your garden, but also a way of keeping your chook pen clean and in turn minimising bad odours. The water works in a similar way to how many humans use water in their toilets - putting the manure in to water not only helps the smell dissipate somewhat (at least temporarily) but also helps the manure soften and break down quicker, making it a fantastic instant plant food once it has matured (you’ll literally notice the effects of it almost straight away).

After a couple of months the brew has aged enough to not burn or kill your plants, and is ready to use.

Simply fill 1/3 of a large watering can or bucket with the chook poo brew, and 2/3 with water. This can be applied liberally to all areas of the garden, particularly the vegetable patch and ornamental’s.

You’ll find that after you’ve poured most of the watery stuff from the top of your brew bucket(s), that a thick sludge will remain in the bottom. To get the most out of this glorious goo, fill the brew-bucket with water again, give it a stir, and again dispense 1/3 into a separate watering can or bucket, and top up that up water. Repeat for as long as you need or want to. We find that one bucket of brew can be diluted about 7-8 times before we either a) start getting tired! or b) can’t get much more goo out of it.

That said, we find that even after all the dilutions, some sludge always remains at the bottom, along with some leaves, straw, and anything else that has been unintentionally scooped in to the buckets when the manure has been added. Rather than discard this, we scoop this with a trowel and put it around the base of our fruit trees, followed by a good watering in. You could also put it around shrubs or ornamental trees if you think they need a boost.

Hope all that is easy enough to follow, and happy poo-brewing!

das wildschwein!

SO CUTE!! Many thanks to Uli1001 for the pic!

crunchy baked kitty biscuits

This recipe for crunchy baked kitty biscuits is the perfect treat for your feline friend - easy and inexpensive to whip up, and probably much healthier and lower in salt than commercial pet treats.

welcome!

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Cheers,
Ash & Canaan