THE FOUR CATS OF GATTINA ...funny stories about my cats

POOKIE, the special cat

After all the presentations and stuff I'll talk about Pookie today. Pookie is a so called "real" cat. She has a round little face with huge green eyes .Unfortunately when she notices that I have my camera in my hands, she looks at me and then immediately closes her eyes. Because of the flash. Sometimes I am lucky and can get her by surprise but then the eyes are half closed. That's why there are no pictures with Pookie showing her huge green eyes.

Fortunately Pookie is spayed. Otherwise she would carry around at least hundreds of babies. She is very motherly. And then she wouldn't have missed any available lover. Already the way she walks ! Swinging her hips elegantly from one side to the other with her tail proudly up. I don't know why, but she makes me think of the girls behind the station, in the red zone, walking up the street and looking for clients. Only, Pookie would never have taken money or better said cat nips. No, that's not in her character. She is not a corrupted cat, not even with food.

It would have been like the two cats where one said to the other, "What ! you are again pregnant ? who is the

father ?" and the other replies "I don't know ! I had my head in the garbidge can !"

Everything which has been said about cat language concerning the tail, doesn't fit on Pookie. Pookie waggles, waves and swings her tail all the time.

- When you talk to her, tail waves from left to right (or the other way around)

- When you pet her, tail waggles happily

- When you play with her, holding a petty little foil ball in your hands, tail is swinging in big bows

- When you feed her (see above)

- When she watches a bird or a fly (she likes everything very small and petty) the tail wouldn't move only the top slightly.

Conclusion : Pookie's tail language must have been copied from a dog !

Pookie loving, but with a strong paw governs the household. She choose me as her favourite member and I serve her as nap and pet place. She likes to be petted all the time and can 't get enough of it. She never put her claws out on me or bites me. Our son sometimes is a little too rough, so she protests with miauws and then clamps her paws around his hand scratches and bites and then escapes.

She likes to play with Arthur the youngest of the group but only when she wants to, so poor Arthur never knows what will happen, and looks with his big yellow eyes, ears back very surprised when suddenly she hisses.

Kim is her baby even so she is much bigger then her. When our son brought her in his home, she immediatly took care of the little black fur ball and protected her against everybody and everything. And this is still the case.

Pookie & Baby Kim

Pookie & Kim now

With Max there were no problems at all

Max was a friendly, a little clumpsy male cat, who took the whole world for an easy place to live. He went along with all the cats and had never a fight. It was an awfull lost for us when after 19 years he died. But he was still there when Pookie arrived and didn't care who was the boss. He lived his life and didn't want to get involved in any territorial fights. So they became big friends.

With Lisa it was another story. When Pookie saw her first, she had immediately to put the tip of the top ! She hissed and spit and then they jowled together. Quite impressif. But then, they turned their back to each other and now Pookie ignores Lisa, but when we are there she really makes up a theatre scene. She fakes to be afraid, hisses and hides behind the sofa and Lisa makes big eyes and is really surprised by the effect she had created.

Pookie doesn't like to go out, only when her personal sofa is sitting in the garden. Or when she has to go for her buisiness. Otherwise Madame likes to stretch out her body on my bed, her favourite nap place. But sometimes, to my regret, she remembers that she is a cat and would go out for mice or other living stuff. Once she brought us proudly a mole baby which the can opener had to put back in the garden, as it was still alive.

Pookie is not a killer, not at all ! She prefers to show her hunting skills by bringing back her prey alive or worse half alive. And then she would ask us to get rid of it. Which is quite a sport for the canopener. He found a solution. If the mouse is still alive and squats under the sofa or elswhere, he would take a newspaper page, rolls it into a cylinder and tries to get the mouse in there. Sometimes it works. But we also hosted a mouse for several days under the closet in the living room. I had put some cheese under the table to get her out, but then saw the mouse coming out indeed, but just for eating the cheese and then washing her little face. Pookie had lost any interest and was only wondering why the man of the house was under the table on his four knees.

And here is something for men :

Why you should better take a cat than a wife
they don't argue when you are late
she purrs and doesn't fight
she doesn't yammer all the time (except siamese)
she doesn't spend all the money for clothes
she is not hanging around at the hairdresser the whole morning
the bathroom is not occupied for hours
you can watch TV whenever you want
you only need one rag for shoes
you can choose her after age, race and type
you can go to bed with more than one
she doesnt' have an enerving mother in law
she never gets a headache