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The Chicken may be gone but he is not forgotten. We still miss him everyday. Luckily I get regular updates and access visits. Pete went to see him yesterday, first time since he moved out last year and The Chicken was all over him.
Here is a photo journal of our boy since he has been living it up.
He is still gorgeous!
So what if The Chicken has feet warmers? - his belly sags over his back feet when he sits down -
Apparently Chicken is borderline morbidly obese.... he is 6.1kgs and the vet says he should be 4kgs. That is about a third of his body weight!!
As if that isn't bad enough I took Ben to the vet today, and he is a rotund 6.4kgs. Not nearly as bad as The Chicken as he is a bigger cat but I was advised that he should be no heavier and possibly a little lighter.
He is a little tubby on certain angles I guess.
His latest trick is being a flat cat. He sleeps straddling the arm of the couch or sprawled across the back of Patch's chair.
He looks vaguely comfortable... it has taken him a little while to find his feet here. He went to the vet today and had a few needles for allergies that are causing him to scratch and be uncomfortable. Hopefully once they kick in he will be a happier boy. We are going to the new house today to do the pre-purchase inspection and measure up for furniture and things. I will also be deciding where the dogs and Ben are allowed in the house and if there is anywhere suitable to build a run for Ben so he can safely enjoy the outdoors.
I think that he and Patch will take the longest to settle into the new routine. Rocky is pretty laid back - due to his lack of brains I think! - so will just go " uh, new house - ooooh! bright shiny things.... " and be fine. Patch is very sensitive, she is not happy about all the boxes, she is eyeing me suspiciously as things slowly disappear from the house. She and Rocky will be hanging out with the Divine Miss Flo on Saturday while we shift most of our things so they don't stress. I will be stressed enough without having to keep an eye on them and Ben as well as the boys we roped into helping us move.
Must go ration out the biccies for Ben, he is on a weight management diet while the poor Chicken is on a weight LOSS regime. He has to "work" for the food he gets. I have horrid visions of my mum strapping him onto a treadmill and dangling tasty morsels just out of reach in front of him.......
Obviously this is what he considers his due after keeping so many greyhounds in line over the last year and a half. I still get to have access visits and when we move he will be less than 5 mins away. Mum is happy, she has someone to talk to other than herself and The Chicken is the centre of attention.
Life just isn't the same without him, for a little cat he takes up a huge amount of space in my heart. Things happen for a reason though, and The Chicken going to stay with mum allowed us the privilege of looking after Ben.
Ben is a 4 year old Bengal cat that needed a home, and so we opened our home to him. He is settling in well, has grown up around dogs so Patch and Rocky don't worry him. He is a stunning boy, and very vocal!
To make him feel at home he has a cat palace where he can survey the world.
The tower is taller than me! Not wanting the others to feel left out I have given the box to The Chicken to play in, he would not use the tower but will love the packaging that it came in... and while I was at the post office collecting said cat palace I got Patch and Rocky a new toy each. Rocky has appropriated both of them and appears to be very happy.
So all is well, everywhere you look there are sleeping bodies. If only I was one of them!!
No such luck, I am off to work to keep the tribe in the style they have become accustomed to. Oh, and how could I nearly forget? This is Ben... He has already discovered the couch, he will fit in here just fine I think.
Conditioned behaviour. We have a fair bit of it in our household.
When keys of any description are picked up the dogs go silly. Pete was being horribly mean to Rock Star the other night, he jingled the keys then hung my lanyard with the keys on around Rock's neck. He was confused - more so than usual! - every time he got excited from the keys jingling they went again and it was just a crazy spiral after that.....
When the fridge opens The Chicken is right there. When meat is being cut up, The Chicken is there!
Between Pete, myself and The Chicken the dogs have been "trained" not to go in the kitchen. I am not sure how much Pete and I had to do with this, we never intended to have it as a no dog zone, The Chicken just decided one day that was how it was going to be. Chicken has been gone nearly a week now and while the dogs are more playful in the lounge, since they don't fear stealth attacks, not much is different.
Last night I got home from a very stressful 11 hour shift at work and Pete had cooked dinner - bless him - I dished it onto the plate, picked the plate up off the bench and the space time continuum in our kitchen lost the plot and my dinner was magically all over the floor. OOPS. Well, I nearly cried, I was so over it. Pete said the dogs could have it..... called them over, they got to the kitchen doorway and weaved side to side and bounced up and down and got really excited BUT would not set foot through the threshold. Both of us are by this time on the floor, encouraging them to "come here" and they are getting really excited and stretching their necks out as far as they possibly can without moving their feet. I must say, I was very impressed. Presented with spaghetti bol for the taking, they wouldn't budge. From Rocky who will take your hand off if you aren't quick enough with the treats and Miss Cheese and Choccy Thief Patch Rat, I did not expect such restraint.
I just wish I had videoed their line dancing efforts while we endeavoured to get them to clean the floor for us! Shame it didn't work and I had to do it myself....
So apart from chasing imaginary bugs and shadows around the lounge of a night the dogs are being well behaved without The Chicken to crack the whip.
Meanwhile Chicken is having an absolute ball at mum's. He is the centre of attention and there are no dogs there! He is very happy and playful and not appearing to miss me one iota....
There was a threat that he would be held for ransom, methinks this may be the case, now let me see, what is The Chicken worth??
Personally I think he is priceless, even if he doesn't share my taste in TV!
He has gone on an access visit to mum's house while we find new tenants and pack up this house and move to our new one.
We are unconditional on the contract and I am now going to have a very long month waiting for settlement. Not only because I have no patience, also because I will have no Chicken to come home to!
Poor Chicken was getting a bit stressed with all the packing - yes, I have started packing already - and with people traipsing through the house we all thought it would be better if he went for a holiday at mums. Of course, they always know when something is up and true to form The Chicken disappeared into the spare room today and damned if he was coming out....
Lets play spot The Chicken and not get crushed by boxes while chasing his fat butt around the room...
Then we can spend the car trip being serenaded by the noises your average cat would make whilst being drowned....only louder.
What fun. Well, the dogs are happy, The Chicken looks relieved that he is on familiar ground (he used to live at mum's) and that there are NO DOGS!!! Woohoo for Chicken. Personally I think the dogs are celebrating just as much. Chicken is a terrorist.
Patch is a little put out by the changes and the packing and Rocky Star is limping around feeling sorry for himself, he ran full tilt into a concrete pillar. OOPS. I thought he had broken his leg, he screamed and screamed and cried and held his paw up at funny angles and refused to walk. Instant heart failure upon hearing and seeing that, and then to rub salt in the wounds I carried him into the house and managed to donk his head on the stair railing! It was totally unintentional, but he is around 30kgs and I am only 50kg so I was struggling a bit with the crying greyhound and just happened to clip the edge of the stairs with his head. The worst part was that made him go quiet and then he just looked at me all wounded and puffed his cheeks out really fast, his version of hyper ventilating. I felt so bad.... and today he is still limping. He will survive and I am sure that he is playing it up for all it is worth, still, poor bugger. He is not the brightest little button and pain confuses him somewhat.
If my guys could talk that is what they would all be shouting at me at the moment.
I feel a little guilty that I am not spending much quality time with my fur kids lately. I am working full-time and then some. This is a shock to the system for me, previously I was self-employed and basically did my own thing whenever I felt like it. I was home an awful lot more than I am now. Patch has been with us from the beginning, when I hardly worked and she went everywhere with me. Gradually I have increased my hours and been around less and less. I feel bad for this. I am extremely lucky that I chose greyhounds as my dogs or I would have no house left! Greyhounds aren't particularly destructive by nature and they cope extraordinarily well with whatever situation they find themselves in. "Real" dogs would have by now dug up the entire yard, chewed everything in sight, barked until we got evicted and most likely packed their toys and left home. I do not think that having greyhounds gives me license to ignore my dogs as they seem to cope.... and they have their ways of telling me they need attention.
Rocky's way of getting attention is to throw toys and do 360's in the lounge, chuck the water bowl around and whine sadly. Patch gives me death stares if I pat Rocky and not her, then she puts Rocky's head in her mouth, nips at his ears and generally dominates him until he settles down. The Chicken attacks the dogs, attacks me, sleeps on my head - yes, I wake up with a cat on my pillow and paws in my face - nice. The dogs also dig up the garden, shred the mail and steal shoes.
The obvious solution is to spend more time with them, however that is not viable at the moment, so I do what I can with them, when I can. We all went to the dog park the other day and Patch and Rocky had a great time chasing a ball. Ok, so Patch got the ball and Pete, Rocky and myself spent the whole time chasing her to get it back. Effective way to blow off steam. The Chicken didn't get to partake in this outing so I spent a bit of time flicking rubber bands around when we got home and the dogs were sleeping it off. Everyone was happy.
The huge exciting news from Chicken Manor is that we are going to be house hunting in the very near future!!! The list of requirement to house us is quite specific. The house had to have a large flat yard for the dogs, fenced, obviously! It must be Chicken proof - screened windows and no way for him to get out into the big wide world. Ideally we would have separate vehicle access from the yard so we could do away with the complicated gate routine we currently have in place. No carpet is a preference, but can easily be fixed by just ripping it up when we move in. No doubt The Chicken, who has been house trained for around 7 years will feel the need to mark our house as his. Those are just the basics, the list of things Pete and I want is endless too. We can compromise on some things, not those that affect the furry members of of family though.
Our poor unsuspecting Real Estate agent is going to end up loathing us and our requests. We are going to cart the dogs to all house inspections to see if they give the all important greyhound seal of approval. The Chicken will just have to deal with the abode of our choice. I am sure he will have an opinion and let it be known when we move, that is if I can locate him after the packing stage, knowing him he will curl up in a box during the process and potentially be misplaced......
More like laying down the law. This is the world as Chicken sees it. Him clearly on top of the totem pole.
The dogs sensibly bow to his ...uh hem.. greatness.
They must do so or they will suffer a fate similar to the poor defenseless bunny that no longer has any stuffing in his head
I must explain that The Chicken himself didn't brain the bunny. He is the "ChickenFather" he would not sully his paws with such menial henchman's work, he has minions to do this for him. The point is clear though, and fortunately my clever dogs know that crossing him would be foolish at best.
Being such a figurehead is not all good though, the power has got to The Chicken a little. He is brazen in his intimidation tactics and takes the whole thing too far sometimes. I mean really, does this look like a dog that needs telling twice?
I think not. He has been told, and he is behaving accordingly.
I do feel for Rocky and Patch, having been bossed around and bailed up in the dark of night by The Chicken and his evil claws for many years before they even arrived on the scene I know how it is. It is quite comical to describe to people that haven't seen The Chicken in action how one fat, ugly cat can hold a human hostage in the hallway - when you have bare legs and he is on the hunt you DO NOT cross his path - how he can crash tackle you every time you walk out of the toilet - that is if he hasn't popped the door open to investigate - how he can take up half a queen size bed and squash two people into a tiny corner, KNOWING that we wouldn't dare to move him - that he can cause cold chills with his stares - how on earth he gets away with all this. Hmmm, I'm not really sure either, but he does, and he revels in it. He is king of the household, and until the day he dies we will all cower beneath him, and love him for what he is. My little Hitler Cat with the saggy belly and the evil eyes...
Not something I ever thought I would suffer from. I lived in Hokkaido for around 2 years, on my own, in a falling down little Japanese house, in bear country, nobody that spoke english for 100's of km's and slept as soundly as you could imagine. I am not afraid of the dark, I used to do the "night checks" in the dark, so as not to scare the horses. I never understood the concept of putting the horses to bed for the night, then coming back at 10pm when they were all snug and sleepy and scaring the bejesus out of them by shining a torch in on them.... as long as none of them were cast or pissing blood I was content to let them sleep. I did get undone one night though. In winter it gets to around -15 degrees Celsius - GODDAMN COLD! - and as one would expect it snows a bit. I trudged up the driveway in the fresh powdery snow, only to end up face first in it with over 100kgs of Saint Bernard dogs on me. Would seem that Momo and Nana didn't know it was me and came running full tilt out to sit on the intruder. Love that.....
Anyhow, I am either brave or stupid, noises at night don't bother me, I slept through the neighbours house burning down when I was a kid and yet if I hear a meow I am awake in a flash. We have resident possums, they give me the s*&%$ with the screaming and running up and down in the ceiling at ungodly hours. They upset The Chicken and wake the dogs up. The little tell tale click-click of greyhound nails on bare floorboards - where they are strictly forbidden - woke me up in the early hours of this morning.
I got up at 2.30am to find the bathroom rubbish bin contents strewn around the lounge, a glass hurricane lamp, complete with sand, petals and a candle amid the other mess, my teddy bear suspiciously moved from his "safe" spot in the bar and two very happy greyhounds. Patch Rat play bowed and thought I had come to join the fun......Hmmmm, I think not. I put their coats on and sent them outside to think about what they had done while I cleaned up the worst of the carnage, then let them back in with a stern finger wagging and threats to cut their paws off and beat them to death with the bloody stumps if they didn't stay quietly on their beds until I said they could move.
Appeared to work and I had 2 very contrite puppies when I got up for work. I made sure to spend extra quality time with them tonight in case they trashed the house in retaliation for me leaving the other day at 8am and not returning until 10pm. If they don't sleep through tonight Pete may just get his wish for them to sleep outside......
And they still look so innocent.....
