[Rolebama]

A few of you have mentioned being cat owners, as was I. We have had cats as part of my household for over 70yrs. Some of the situations they get into fill books, some of which I own, and one thing is common among them, and that is the haughtiness of the 'I did this on purpose'. This is not reserved for house cats, nor is the 'It must be my turn now' attitude.

[Drivingforfun]

We've never had cats but our Border Collie is similar ... he has this ability to find the part of the house that will get the most "traffic" and lay there while people step round him, then become indignant looking when someone nudges him or heaven forbid stands on his tail

Here he is in the kitchen door but also cleverly stopping people from getting between the sitting room (to his left) and the dining room, but in fairness this occasion he just wanted someone to throw the strawberry 😊

[olduser]

When I was a child we had two cats, mother and daughter, we thought the mother cat had had sex with a Hare, the daughter cat had long back legs.
At that time it was fashion for men and boys to have greased down hair, all shiny and oily looking.
There was a product called Brylcreem, very popular and did the job of sticking hair down.

The daughter cat loved this stuff.
If anyone sat in an armchair with Brylcreem on, the cat would jump onto the chair back and start to lick it off.
I assume on the grounds that every cat knows you must keep your fur clean, and the Brylcreem is nice anyway.
But a cats tongue is like a rasp so it was like having your scalp filed!

[Beelzebub]

Originally Posted by olduser

At that time it was fashion for men and boys to have greased down hair, all shiny and oily looking.
There was a product called Brylcreem, very popular and did the job of sticking hair down.

Has that changed? Why did no-one tell me?

[Rolebama]

I remember brylcreme as being used by Teddy boys. They used it to hold their quiffs* in place.
*I know that is spelt incorrectly, butr no two sources seem able to agree, so I went for the phonetic version. 😁

[NMNeil]

We have 2 cats, it seems like more, but it's just 2, and as they say; dogs have owners, cats have staff.

[Nick]

I've never really been much a cat person, more of a dog person - although I've never had either of my own. that may change in the near future but for now we have none.

I've always had this thing that dogs really bond and love you, whereas cats more use you - they come and go as they please, expect you to feed them but if not then they'll either catch something to eat themselves or go to someone else's house that might feed them!

[Drivingforfun]

@Nick

I do like cats but always thought of them like teenagers, and you're the parent: you're a necessary inconvenience who provides a base for sleeping & food, which you have to keep topped up for when they turn up (at a completely weird time) to help themselves to and then sod off for another 36 hours

[Nick]

Haha, that's a good way to think of it - my eldest is definitely becoming this way - the way of the cat!

[NMNeil]

Cats have a nasty habit of giving you 'gifts', such a dead birds. So yesterday I let one of my cats into the house without knowing he had a 'gift' of a gopher. Problem was that when he proudly dropped it on the floor in front of me it wasn't dead, and it was off like a shot.
So the wife locked herself into the bedroom, the cat is frantically trying to catch the gopher, the gopher is frantically avoiding getting caught, again, and I have no idea what to do. Shooting it inside the house was out of the question (choice of 12 bore, AK-47 or Glock 9mm) so I just stood by until the cat finally caught it again, and cat, with gopher still in his mouth, was picked up and put outside.
Now I have to make it up to the cat who thinks I don't love him anymore because I did'nt want the 'gift'

[Rolebama]

Our succession of cats have brought us birds, mice, frogs, leaves, twigs and bits of dead grass. All animals still alive so we could learn to hunt them indoors,

[olduser]

The mother cat of the mother and daughter pair mentioned above, was a hunter, and also hunted by the local Tom cats. ( which when she was not in season, caused much fur to fly)

Once the mother cat's daughter grew up, many live animals were brought in to be placed in front of the daughter to practice on.
Mother would patiently re-catch if the creature tried to escape, eventually mother would eventually wallop daughter but to no avail.
Daughter, would sit looking at the creature, and mother, then give any attendant humans a look of, please excuse my mother she is so crude but what can I do she is my mother.
Eventually mother would take the creature outside again.

The mother would spend lots of time playing with an empty cotton reel, table tennis ball, or marble.
We had, what was fairly standard in those days, a fringed carpet square with linoleum around it.
From the cats point of view, good grip on the carpet, and slippery on the lino.
This gave the cat the opportunity to, 'loose' the plaything under the edges of the carpet.
With the plaything, 'lost' the cat would walk away, re arrange some fur and generally ignore the lost item.
Until it was time to attack again, with a big pounce battle would resume.
Should the cat slip on the lino, it never happened, the cat would have laid down to attend to her fur or have a nap, but she never had slipped.

Daughter cat would sit and watch the whole performance intently but never join in.

When mum got bored and stopped the game, daughter would retrieve the plaything, and carefully guide it into a corner, adjusted it until it would rest there in the corner, then wander off looking for a Brylcreem victim.