| I was shop-vac-ing my "Princess Cat Parlour" - I'll | | | | same spot and fell through. My hubby patched the hole |
| explain what this is shortly - when I heard a "thwop" | | | | with a board. Then they fell through just to the left of |
| following by the bagpipey noise that indicates, "In four | | | | that spot - and my hubby patched that up too. And |
| hours the ship blows up, Captain." I turned the vac off, | | | | then they fell through to the right of the first spot and |
| and found the plug midway up the wand - where two | | | | my hubby said, "What's the point?" |
| lengths are joined. I separated them and "plip", out fell...a | | | | I try to lure the Pirates back to Shipyard. At suppertime |
| dead mouse. A rather well-fed dead mouse. | | | | I always serve them their canned food first. When |
| I think it must have died of old age. | | | | they hear me open "their" door, the rapscallions |
| You may be wondering how a mouse can die of old | | | | scramble to see who will get out of the Parlour first. |
| age when it lives in a room full of cats. Let me explain. I | | | | These cats - male or female - can jump from the floor |
| volunteer for the area pound and am always bringing | | | | to one of the holes in the ceiling using pretty much any |
| home adult cats to foster (and often to have fixed.) | | | | prop. The Princesses - male or female - can't. |
| The ones that are housecats - that never want to | | | | But they don't stay there, no way. The minute their |
| touch their tender tootsies on the turf outside, let alone | | | | bowls are licked clean they evacuate to the Parlour |
| tarnish their toes and tongue with dead mouse tidbits - | | | | and finish off the Princess's food. And speaking of |
| they are the Princesses. The Princesses get names | | | | evacuate - they only use the litter boxes in the Parlour, |
| like "Sweetie Pie" and "Halo." I heat their room to a nice | | | | never in the Shipyard. |
| 68EURF; they have really comfy beds; and CBC Two | | | | So why don't I make more of an effort to keep them |
| (classical) playing in the background. They do very well | | | | separate? First of all, I am only fostering. This is not a |
| in family homes. | | | | permanent situation in any event. Plus there is |
| The "Pirates" are the big old smelly tom cats or the | | | | something quite charming about a cat who decides |
| scrappy skinny female cats. All they've known is | | | | that s/he'd rather switch than fight. Warmth, comfort |
| sleeping under the stars, scavenging, spraying and | | | | and classical music have a stronger pull than rain, |
| fighting. The Pirates get names like "Jack" and "Growl." | | | | garbage cans and barking dogs. But the Pirates still get |
| I don't heat the "Pirates Shipyard" as warm because | | | | adopted out as farm cats - except I will only adopt |
| they are going to be moving to farm homes (barns) | | | | them out to a place where there is a very warm barn |
| where they can swashbuckle to their hearts' content. | | | | and all the food they can eat. |
| They only get mats to sleep on and CBC One (talk | | | | "And Saturday afternoons," I say to the new owners, |
| radio) to keeping them company. (For some reason I | | | | "if you don't mind, please change the radio channel in |
| can't get "Two" in that room.) But funnily enough, within | | | | the barn to CBC's Saturday Afternoon at the Opera." |
| a week, my kings and queens of the road migrate to | | | | These grimalkins like both the operatic music and the |
| the sitting room; my Pirates become Princesses. | | | | host Bill Richardson. It seems he's a cat lover. His most |
| And that's why the mouse got to chow down on cat | | | | recent bio says: |
| food and die in its sleep. | | | | Richardson lives in Vancouver with "two small dogs, a |
| How are they able to meander on over? It happened | | | | mean black cat, and a harp on which he can play one |
| by chance. The rooms are side-by-each. The | | | | tune." The tune proves to be Greensleeves and the |
| Princess's Parlour has a drop ceiling; the Pirates' | | | | cat isn't nearly as mean as the bio implies. "I feel badly |
| Shipyard doesn't have a ceiling but the space above | | | | about that," Richardson says about slagging the cat. |
| the Parlour ceiling was nice and cozy. It was bound to | | | | "She must have been being a b*tch the day I wrote it. |
| happen - one day a few of them congregated in the | | | | But, for the most part, she's a very nice cat. |