Hattie Rees 2002 - 2019

We said good bye to our dear old cat Hattie this evening. She was a wonderful friend to us for such a long time, through babies, two house moves, getting a big foolish dog, the dog's friends dropping in to visit, the babies growing into teenagers and their friends staying … through all that she maintained her sturdy poise.

Hattie had several favourite places to hang out, and tonight we laid her to rest in a nice shady spot under the mock orange that she liked a lot. We can talk to her as we hang out the washing, just like we used to.

Thank you Hattie, we love you x

Chris, Elf, Marcus and Michael

Dogs and cats agree

Everyone loves the little blue pool.

Assorted mammals, on the flop

Mammal workshop

This evening Hattie and Winston and I had a mammal workshop. As senior mammal I facilitated, and both the others really took on board what I was asking of them, stretched themselves, took ownership of their dog/catness and made some meaningful steps, going forward.

Essentially I sat next to Hattie on the bed, Winston came over, and without them realising it I rubbed Winston's ear with Hattie's tail for a while. It was awesome. I guess they both thought "Hmm - that must be some other furry part of me".

That's Super-Duper

Here is a list of various good things, to balance out my somewhat whingey list from the other day.
1.    Marcus is officially Australia's 12th ranked under 8 chess player. He is practically unbeatable at school now.
2.    Today I bought the Assassination Vacation audiobook with my iTunes voucher from my birthday in March (thanks Sal and Matt). It is John Wilkes Booth-tastic.
3.    In related news, the World Book encyclopedia (1979 edition) calls confederate general Stonewall Jackson "the bible-quoting lemon-sucking infantry genius". How much work do I need to do before I die, to earn a description like that? Lots.
4.    I like the quiet moment when you drive under a bridge in a rainstorm. A hiatus.
5.    There She Goes by The Las - perfect pop song from 1988
6.    The Devil With the Green Eyes by Matthew Sweet - perfect pop song from 1993
(I have tried and failed to embed little samples of these tracks - I'll try again when I am not doing it over dial-up).
7.    Hattie is a very predictable miaow-er. If she hasn't seen you for a while, you get a miaow. Pat her on the head - another miaow. Pat her again - another miaow. This goes on for about another 4-6 pats, with diminishing returns. Lately I have been taking advantage of her predictability, and dueting with her on Downtown by Petula Clark.

8.    I like the fact that "cyborg" sounds a lot like "sideboard". I can see a day when I have a long, low cyborg, maybe with beautiful walnut veneer. When someone asks 'where are the salad servers?' I will say "top drawer in the cyborg there" - and they probably won't notice a thing until the cyborg's drawer opens automatically, and it maybe does a bit of a dance.

Some daily rushes from my new documentary

It will be titled I Hear Your Nose (Do You Smell My Ear?)

Pupdate 2

It's safe to say Winston is now house-trained. We still shut him in the downstairs bathroom at night, but things have moved along nicely. Up until a week ago I was carrying his increasing bulk down the stairs to the bathroom, as he was reluctant to go. That was obviously a terrible habit to get into, so I changed to coaxing, cajoling and just slightly shoving him with Elf's help. He is now trotting down the stairs happily, right into the bathroom. He seems to be happy to know that that's his place for the night. We still put down newspapers in there, but we have had 5 or 6 dry nights in a row. I think soon we might start to leave the bathroom door open at night so we can go in and use it during the night. I think he will just stay on his bed, hopefully until at least 6am.

He and Hattie mill around together in the kitchen at feeding time and basically ignore each other. Winston actually touched Hattie the other day while he was transfixed by his food bowl being carried past - she turned on him to hiss, then realised that he didn't even know she was there. They regularly get close enough that you can slip between them and pat their furry heads at the same time. A little electrical current runs through you, its kind of special.

Snuggle up, quadrupeds!

Hattie and Winston have been close enough for me to touch both of them simultaneously today. Twice! There was some occasional light hissing but Hat seems to have twigged that Winston doesn't want to eat her.

Michael plays games

Lana stayed for a sleep-over last night. In fact I watched the soccer from 5.15am this morning (see below) with Marcus and Lana beside me, sworn to silence. They made so much noise getting up that we were joined by Winston. Winston subbed in for Hattie, who had been on my lap but now left the field. I think she will be on board for the full ninety minutes against Ghana, though.

Last night after dinner Lana and Elf played the boys and I at Pictionary. It went fairly well. Michael is not usually very interested in organised board games, preferring to invent his own (such as Mrs Cat's Miaow Money). His drawings were very beautiful - this one for MIND was my favourite.

Between dinner and getting going with Pictionary, Michael asked me for a game of chess, for the first time ever. We only got about 3 moves each in before the scheduled Pictionary kicked off, but he was keen enough to insist that we continue it in the morning.

This morning we did resume, and he stuck at it right up to the point that he had just a king left, to my 4 or 5 pieces. Then he waltzed off in a huff. But - he had remembered the set-up, and all the moves. He listened to my advice and remembered it. He was patient. Best of all, as Elf was still asleep and I was trying to corral three kids and the dog in one corner, it kept him quiet for about an hour.

Once the huff had run its course, he was back at the board, setting it up again and then inventing some chess variations. He has now got out the chinese checkers (which he has never played, as far as I know) and is working on a version of chess using those pieces - eg purple is the king, red is the queen etc.

Mammal News

Mammal Five and Mammal Six have been spending more time in the same room lately. We have re-erected the toddler gate at the top of the stairs, but it's always open. When Hattie comes up looking for her food, we slip around behind her and close the gate, to enforce a period of co-habitation. Winston usually keeps to his bed - we have stopped putting the lead on him, and can now just control him verbally. Hattie is giving him a good old hiss if he gets too close, and he responds in exactly the right way - turns and heads in the opposite direction immediately. Hattie has spent up to ten minutes looking reasonably relaxed, sitting by the heater and watching Winston. She always ends up over at the toddler gate, trying to squeeze through, so then we let her out.

Today we will stop shutting the gate, so that she doesn't start to think of the living room as a kind of cat trap. We'll see if she still is prepared to hang around and play Happy Families with Winston then.

Pupdate

Winston the labrador cross has joined our family, and so far its all going swimmingly. He is going to be a very big dog judging by his paws, but he has a lovely temperament so we will just have to take him as he is. As I type on the laptop he is lying by my feet on his bed, (in fact partly on and partly off it), and he's just done a puppy fart. Life is very different.

Yesterday was pickup day. The boys and I were going to drive out to the country after Marcus' soccer match, but Melissa the breeder needed to come into town, so we actually picked up Winston at Salamanca Market.

I felt very strange walking off with a big puppy on a lead, through the crowds at Salamanca, with him tripping me up every third step. We actually had to take him in a lift to get back to where I'd left the car, so his introduction to city life was not exactly gentle. We've been lent a harness thing, but with the wriggly boy in hand I couldn't work it all out, so I popped him in the cat carrier instead, squeezed between the boys.

We brought him straight home, shut the gate and let him out. He was a little slow to emerge from his crate but he eventually snudged out. I had him on the lead for the first few hours so that if Hattie showed up I would be in control of the situation. She duly met us at the front door, sized up the situation, arched her back a bit then left at a dignified trot. Winston didn't seem particularly interested in her, and hasn't since either.

Imp and Ed and the girls, the neighbour kids and other kids we don't even know have all been traipsing through to admire the pup. He's been very good with everyone, except for a slight tendency to gnaw people's shoes. He loves his bed and is very keen to head for it whenever he's inside. He has not yet gone looking for trouble, which is terrific.

Last night we put his bed in the bathroom and shut him in. He whimpered and yowled for about fifteen minutes then just fell asleep. He woke up to poo and wee on the floor, near where we put the the special puppy training pad. That was OK though, its the easiest room to clean, and the same will likely happen tonight. If we get practically a full night's sleep again we'll be happy. Yesterday we had a bit of a messy time indoors but today after a wee on the floor this morning he has been taking himself outside. Luckily the weather has been superb all weekend so we have been able to leave a door open and spend lots of time trotting him about the garden.

He is sleeping a lot. We took him for a little walk this morning, just up to the park, then off the lead for a flip-flop around. He looks so funny when he runs, like he's about to trip over his ears any moment. The feet are terribly, terribly big. Anyway, it was the first walk of his life, and I had to carry him home, then he slept in the sun on the lawn for an hour or so, occasionally prodded by slightly disappointed neighbour children.

Our kids have been enjoying him a lot. In his energetic periods he happily chases Michael around and around the trampoline. Marcus is extremely keen to train him, totally, now.

Cat education campaign

Tansy The Rainbow Cat lives next door to us. Despite her hippie name, she is quite aggressive and spends more time in our yard than we would like. She has even tried to get in our cat door. Hattie is not very good at defending the homestead, and usually comes off second best in fights. About a week ago Elf noticed she had a sore flank, and she was acting quite strangely. It turned out she had a bite that had become an abcess, and it meant an expensive trip to the vet.

The boys responded with some supportive yet instructive cards for Hattie.

Bird news

This magpie walked in the back door the other day, and started eating bits of cornflake under the breakfast table. I think in another life he did real estate valuations - he gave the whole place a good going over, pretty much like he owned it. Ignored Hattie the cat in a fairly haughty way. After about five minutes he'd seen all he needed to and wandered out the front doors.

These guys stayed outside, thank goodness. They are pretty destructive, so I don't particularly want them around the house a lot, but it was very amusing to watch Hat's reaction to having three cat-size birds trying to psych her out.

Our dependants