Les Chats de France

Late last fall, Steve and his female made their third visit to France…yes, they are incorrigible Francophiles. This time, they spent a few days in Normandy before going to Paris, and as always, they made sure to stop, pet and photograph every chat (that’s “cat” in French) they encountered. And when Steve and the female come home from France, I always love to hear about all the chats they met and, of course, look at the photos.

In the collage above (click on it to enlarge), the top left photo was taken in Beuvron-en-Auge, a well-preserved 17th Century village in Normandy, and the chat Steve is petting had only three legs. Despite this handicap, the chat had no trouble prancing over to the table and meowing for a café-au-lait, preferably without the café-au.

The top right photo was also taken in Beuvron-en-Auge and shows that all cats – wherever they live and whatever they are called – love tummy rubs! And yes, this chat did grab and bite Steve’s arm. Some things are the same all over.

The bottom left photo was taken in the Marais district of Paris, near the Hotel de Sens. The Marais is a very popular area for humans and kitties, and this particular chat was only too happy to have a nice hind-end rub (yes, that oh-so-sensitive spot above the tail knows no international boundaries).

The last photo shows a very nice white chat (my astral twin) in Montorgueil, a pedestrian area in the center of Paris that is famous for its fish, meat and produce markets. This lucky chat actually lives in one of the markets and gets to nap on whatever food he wants. How franciase is that?

So that's my little travelogue. I hope you enjoyed seeing the photos and meeting my kitty amis (that’s “friends” in French) who live in Paris and Normandy. Vive le chats!

Back Home Again Damage Report 2010

Steve and his female (my humans) just returned from their vacation in France, and although they were only gone a little over a week, it felt like a lot longer. We missed them, (we being me and my housemates Bo Diddley and Piglet), but during their absence, we spent a collective 600 hours napping, so mostly, we missed them only in our dreams. And, as usual, we were able to con our pet sitter into giving us an overabundance of kitty treats. Still, when humans leave cats home alone for extended periods, they MUST pay, and Steve and his female are no exception. Here’s the teach-them-a-lesson-for-leaving-us damage report, and with three cats on the job, it’s massive (well, not quite as bad as the house in the photo above, but VERY extensive):

• 45 minutes of serious kitty scorn (we tried for an hour, but we couldn’t hold out any longer)
• 2 unraveled and finely-shredded rolls of toilet paper
• 2 “accidents” outside litter box
• 4 upended wastebaskets with contents batted around and scattered
• Extensive chewing on the leaves of three of the female’s favorite houseplants
• Houseplants used for… well, you know
• Dirt from houseplants plants kicked out onto carpet
• 1 kacked-up hairball on coffee table, with fallout spatter on the DVD remote
• 1 kacked-up hairball on the kitchen floor, from top-of-the refrigerator altitude
• 1 Ming Dynasty vase knocked over and broken
• All kitchen cupboards opened and edible contents consumed (or at least messily checked out)
• Bag of flour chewed open and spread around kitchen floor
• All DVR’d shows deleted and replaced with programming from Animal Planet and Comedy Central
• Ultra-shredding on arm of couch
• All books pushed out of the bookcase and onto the floor (except The World Is Your Litter Box and The World Is STILL Your Litter Box)
• Overwhelming smell of cat throughout the house
• Cat hair on everything

And one final thing… Steve and the female said they saw two very cute chats (that’s ‘cats’ in French) in Normandy, but none in Paris. They did, however, see a lot of chiens (that’s ‘dogs’ in French) in both places… la terreur, la terreur! I’ll have more about the chats and chiens of France in an upcoming post. And now that the teach-them-a-lesson-for-leaving-us-home-alone has been administered and the score has been settled, I admit that I'm glad my humans are home!

Home Alone... Again!

From Saturday, October 16th through Monday, October 25th, Steve and his female (my humans) are going on something called a vacation to a place called France. From what I understand, a vacation is where humans go off somewhere and do as little as possible (hey, wait a minute… that sounds very much like what we cats do all the time! Does that mean that cats are always on vacation?). And France (for you geographically-challenged kitties) is a country in Europe where cats are known as chats.

Anyway, what this means to moi, is that while Steve and the female are strolling around Par-ee and having a wonderful time, I’ll be left home alone. Well, not completely alone because my housemates Bo Diddley and Piglet will be here with me, and our pet sitter will be coming over to feed us and give us doses of love and attention. Still, when the humans go away…they must pay! And as all cats know (if you read the “How to Punish Your Human When They Leave You Home Alone” chapter in The World Is STILL Your Litter Box), I’m talking about destruction. Nothing on a nuclear scale, mind you… just enough household damage to let Steve and the female know that leaving us cats alone for an extended period was a VERY bad idea. And with Bo Diddley and Pig to help me, we should be able to wreck enough havoc to teach Steve and his female a lesson they shan’t soon forget!

Meanwhile, keep those photos coming for our Halloween Cats Photo Contest. We’ve received some great ones, but we want lots more! For contest info, including the email address where your photo should be sent, click here... or scroll down a couple posts. We’ll check them out and post them on our Facebook page when the happy couple returns from their vacation.

Until then, adieu mes amis et collegues chats!

RETURN FROM PARIS COLLATERAL DAMAGE REPORT

As most of you who read my posts know, Steve and his female recently returned from a week’s vacation in Paris. During their absence, I remained at home and was cared for by my pet sitter. Now even though my pet sitter is very nice and does pretty much whatever I want, it was still not the same as having Steve and the female around at all times…for me, it was inconvenient, irksome and problematic. In other words, it was UNACCEPTABLE HUMAN BEHAVIOR for which they had to pay! And if that wasn’t enough, Steve even went so far as to pet a Parisian chat, as evidenced by the above photo. Zut Alors!

Here is the room-by-room collateral damage report for the week Steve and his female were having fun in Par-ee. Needless to say, I had to do most of this on the last day so my pet sitter wouldn’t clean up my handiwork:

Kitchen:

• All accessible cabinets opened and investigated


• Bag of flour opened and spread around floor


• Bag of pasta opened and spread around floor


• Roll of paper towels unraveled and shredded


• Kacked-up hairball on counter near stove


• Excessive cat hair on everythin

Living Room:

• Arm of couch mercilessly shredded


• Chew marks on leaves of all accessible plants


• Dirt from accessible plants flung onto carpet


• Favorite paper bag shredded (I was tired of it anyway)


• Kacked-up hairball on coffee table


• Excessive cat hair on everything

Bathroom:

• Roll of toilet paper shredded into microscopic-sized pieces


• Litter from litter box excavated and flung onto floor


• Hand towels pulled down into litter box


• All items on counter knocked over and/or batted around


• Kacked-up hairball in bathtub


• Excessive cat hair on everything

Bedroom:

• Ridiculous number of pillows on bed disrupted and/or pushed onto floor


• All items on female’s dressing table knocked over and/or batted around


• Sliding closet doors opened and contents thrashed (wherever possible)


• Lamps on bed stands tipped over


• Kacked-up hairball on bedspread


• Excessive cat hair on everything