I must admit that I have been rather neglectful of Puddy since Phill and I returned from our holiday.  Of course, I’ve been feeding her and giving her the odd head scritch and I always give in when she jumps up on the bed and wriggles under the doona (much to Phill’s displeasure), but other than that, I’ve sort of been leaving her to fend for herself. I can’t remember the last time I sat outside with her, trailing grass runners across the yard for her to pounce on. I’ve simply been too busy and too distracted. There’s been laundry to do, a kitchen to clean, showers to scrub, carpets to vacuum, lawns to mow, jobs to attend … the list goes on and on.

That is why today, on my day off, I decided to go outside and spend some quality time with Puddy. She lapped up the attention, flopping and rolling and pouncing and biting – she had a ball and frankly, I enjoyed it too. Oh to be a carefree cat whose day consists of sleeping, eating, bathing and sleeping! Sure would be a pleasant change from having to be an adult with responsibility and stress.

The grass is looking a little dead because of the recent mow and lack of rain, which doesn’t make it the most comfortable to sit on, but I sucked it up for some playtime. I couldn’t find any grass runners since I guess I must have mowed over the majority of them, but I managed to find a longish bit of grass for Puddy to grab at.

I love Puddy’s concentration in this photo – she’s really eyeing the grass (yes, it is grass although it doesn’t really look like it!) and wondering if it’s worth her attention or not. Of course it is – any cat owner will see a cat preparing to strike in the above photo, her left paw about to reach up off the ground to swat at the grass. After all, who could resist something dangling right in front of their face?

I told you so.

It’s a half-hearted one-paw attack since the rest of her body is still flat against the ground. Her attention is obviously not completely attracted. Well, I can fix that, can’t I? With a little more effort on my part, Puddy finally can’t ignore the fact that this annoying dangly thing is really bugging her and she goes for a two-pawed attack.

I love her little claws ready to grab at the grass. Those babies were really long by the time we got back from holidays. Her new scratching post is scratched almost to death (I will have to show you a photo of the damage) in an attempt to keep them under control. I forgot to show my brother how to trim them but, to be honest, I am flat out myself trimming them because I am terrified of cutting the quick, so I’m not sure how my brother would have gone with it.

For more cat-related posts, visit Pet’s Garden Blog for the Carnival of the Cats. I’m not sure who is hosting Weekend Cat Blogging, but I’ll find out and update this post when I know. Have a great weekend everyone and thanks for dropping by, we love visitors!

The worst part about being away from home for five weeks, besides missing Puddy, is that by the time you get home, the lawn has become a jungle. Sure, my brother was house-sitting, but as I didn’t list “mow the lawn” as one of the things to do, it didn’t get done. I must admit, I’ve been putting off mowing the lawn this week because I came home from holiday with a broken toe and the thought of pushing our old-fashioned push lawn mower up the hill, battling the long grass, just made me want to cry. Today, however, I was feeling up to it, so for documentations sake, here is the “before” photo:

Notice the cactus in the back which has appeared to keel over and is now being supported by the air conditioning unit? I went in for a closer examination and discovered a monster of a weed had sprung up behind it and pushed it over. I hate that back corner of the yard. The reddish plant is nice but makes it almost impossible to climb through to the back bit which was just dirt when we moved in and is now dirt plus weeds. I pull out the weeds every month and within days they are back. I want to tear up part of the reddish plant to make stepping stones, but when I asked the real estate I was told I couldn’t – apparently it looks good the way it is. Yeah, right.

Puddy decided to come over and see what I was up to. I don’t know what it is about our yard but as soon as we venture out into the grass, Puddy comes bolting over from wherever she was hiding. Perhaps it’s because I often sit out there with her and play with the long grass runners so she associates us in the yard with playtime?

Apparently she disapproves of the length of the grass … or she’s preparing to come and head-bump me because I’ve lowered myself to the ground in order to get a photo of her and am therefore vulnerable to her attack. Which one is it?

Yup, that would be a head-bump right there, silly cat!

Anyway, I got out the lawn mower and that sent Puddy running off. She’s terrified of it and I don’t blame her – it makes a really loud whirring noise. Our neighbour has a similar one and she’s outside at least a few hours a day mowing her (perfect) lawn and after about ten minutes of the noise I just want to scream. Our lawn mower is not my favourite thing in the world, but hey, it’s a work-out, it was free with the house and … it’s yellow. And yellow things are cool.

So, after a lot of sweating and swearing, I present the “after” photo:

TAA-DAA!

Haha, okay so it’s not totally finished (I didn’t even step foot in that back section), at least the grass is mowed.  I did lean over and prod the cactus to see if I could push it back into place, but it didn’t budge, so that job is delegated to Phill for this weekend. Oh, and see that darker green patch in the middle of the yard? That’s where the weeds were the thickest and I had to mow over that section about twenty times. By the end of it, I was completely exhausted!

I love this flower (weed?). I think it is the only remotely-pretty thing that has ever survived in our garden, so I didn’t have the heart to massacre it with the lawn mower. It still stands there proudly, untouched, next to the driveway. Aren’t the colours beautiful? Puddy gave it a half-hearted sniff and decided it was boring.

This weekend, WCB is being hosted at Mind of Mog and the Carnival of the Cats is at Kashim, Othello and Salome’s blog. We’re looking forward to catching up with all our blogging friends – both human and feline!

Puddy doesn’t get scared easily. Being a former stray, she had to learn to be strong and brave early on in life. I will never forget the first time she saw a rottweiler that was being walked on a leash past our house. Instead of freaking out and running away, she lunged at it, puffed up and hissing and I found myself attemping to pull my cat off the (stunned) rottweiler, apologising over and over to the bemused owner.

Since then, she’s tried to attack other cats, a german shepherd and even the poor mail man, so as a result, she usually goes outside on a leash, or when I am within grabbing distance. Even though she’s a quarter of their size, she thinks nothing of starting something with them!

While she is a brave cat, she does have her limits. The vacuum sends her into a frenzy. Strong winds freak her out, forcing her back inside the house to hide until it calms down. And hair clippers … oh dear, we discovered this particular phobia by accident one afternoon when Puddy was napping and Phill and I were examining my brother’s old electric shaver. We turned it on, it whirred to life and this was Puddy’s reaction, which took about a second to play out:

Her pupils dialated and she stared at the shaver apprehensively. I was surprised at this, since she tolerates more intense noises without a problem and the shaver wasn’t particularly loud. The only thing I can think of is maybe it reminded her of a trip to the vet last year. She had to be put on a drip, so they had shaved a little fur off her front leg. The vet had told me when I came to pick her up that she had been extremely pissed off the entire time and kept hissing at them, but particularly lost it when they started up the shaver.

Poor Puddy!

How does your cats handle loud noises, crazy winds and hairdryers?

Weekend Cat Blogging is being hosted at Life from a Cat’s Perspective, the Carnival of the Cats is being hosted at the House of the (Mostly) Black Cats, and the Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos is at Meezer Tails.

You already know about Puddy’s favourite sleeping place – on the back of our sofa set, since it’s so cushiony and comfy. Usually she’ll sleep in a relatively normal position – in a log shape, or curled up a little. However, the other day Puddy managed to roll herself into a lumpy, furry ball!

Where’s the head? Where’s the tail? It’s a bit hard to see!

I was taking some photos and Puddy must have heard me because she woke up. Well, let me clarify: she woke up but didn’t move. I only knew she woke up because she opened one eye and glared at me.

Stealth mode!

(Too dark for you to see? Click on the photo to view one I took with flash!)

Puddy watched me for a while, the only sign of life being her little beady eye following me around as I took photos. Once or twice her ear flicked, but that was it. She was obviously very comfortable and wasn’t impressed with me disturbing her (I was trying to be quiet!).

It’s getting colder here as we approach winter, so it’s always nice to be close to a warm, fuzzy purring cat who is, in fact, a wonderful substitute for a hot water bottle – as long as you can stop her from kneading your stomach long enough for her to curl up and fall asleep!

Weekend Cat Blogging is hosted at CatSynth, the Carnival of the Cats is being hosted at When Cats Attack and the Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos is being hosted at Life from a Cat’s Perspective.