It’s remarkable the level to which some people want to humanize their animals. Take toilet training for example. Take a gander across the Internet searching on the term toilet train cat and see the sheet amount of literature written on that one subject already. But as the photos and videos go on to prove, teaching your cat to use a human toilet for its business is pretty doable.
Though of course it does leave the question just whose job it is to flush.
But at least now we men would have an adequate scapegoat should our woman ever corner us regarding some or other piece of forgotten toilet etiquette…
(Oh and note that this comic marks the first official appearance of what will eventually become the House of C’s regular cast of characters. So welcome Candy, Cain and Coco, courtesy of Craig. Note the name theming and note the title of the comic. Now you’re getting it…)
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Goodbye Dear Coco My Life 02 SEP 2009
I have some sad news which needs to be shared with you all and that is that Coco is now officially classified as being MIA. He has been gone for just over a week now with no sign at all, and I’m afraid that at this point we can only assume that either he has moved out of the complex, was forcefully taken out of the complex or worse, has been knocked over and killed somewhere beyond our sight.
We were first alerted to the missing Coco by a very concerned Tessa and Joy, the two ladies that have taken a firm interest in looking after, loving and watching out for our family of cats during the day while Chantelle and I are out at work, and after an extensive search, offering a reward and chats with everyone that has anything to do with the complex, they have come to the conclusion that Mr. Coco is gone for good. And now we have to concur.
True, Coco had been a little erratic in his behaviour over the last couple of months, becoming more and more unloving and spending less and less time in our house overall, but he was always there come supper time and when the whole family was home, you’d always find him keeping the TV warm by lying on top of it. Whether you like it or not, we raised our furry little girl/boy and he became part of us and no matter what we say about his behaviour over the last little while, we’ll all miss him and his shenanigans and quirks.
So sadly, our family now decreases by one.
Goodbye dear Coco, and thank you for everything you brought to this little family of ours. :(
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Coco, Olympus and Achilles Tackle the Scratching Post My Life 30 JUN 2009
So I mentioned a little while ago that Chantelle and I invested in a brand spanking new scratching post for Olympus, Coco and Achilles, and I’m happy to report that all three were pretty ecstatic with its arrival and clung to it like flies to horse manure for the first week or two!
Of course, the space on top isn’t quite right for all three to lounge simultaneously, but needless to say the attempt shall always be made, leading to some quite hilarious (and often as cute as a button) sleeping poses to observe!
Luckily though, if sleeping on top doesn’t work out for all three, there’s always another comfy solution as these photos below prove:
Damn, my boys are the quintessence of cute are they not? :)
(Oh, apologies for the poor quality of the pictures. Relying on Chantelle’s camera phone as we still haven’t made the effort to scrape the pennies together to buy a digital camera for the house. One day, one day I promise. First things first: I want a big ass flatscreen for the house! :D)
That’s Mr Coco to You My Life 02 OCT 2008
Shame, yesterday I inflicted upon my two kitties the very punishment that you would only ever wish upon your worst enemy, a trip to the vet for a bit of a snip snip and some tube tying.
We’d done some shopping around and eventually settled on ‘The Cottage’ a small little veterinary clinic here in Gordon’s Bay as our vet of choice. Surprisingly enough, the operations to get Olympus neutered and Coco spade are flipping expensive, with the boy costing somewhere around R250 odd and the girl costing around the R400 mark (I can’t quite remember the prices, but those sound more or less right). Apparently the SPCA and vets base their pricing on a person’s income bracket, meaning that perhaps we would have been better off locating a nearby bergie and bribing him to get it done for us. :)
Anyway, determined to do the right thing, we organized the big day and come yesterday, a mewling Coco and Olympus, who had been locked up and without food since 20:00 the previous evening, were unceremoniously handed over and the paperwork filled out.
So signed up for their ops, first set of shots and a bit of FrontLine to deal with the plague of fleas currently infesting our bedroom carpet (coming to the grand total of well, almost a grand – R901 to be exact), the kitties were left behind and the wait began.
Thankfully no emergency phone calls came through the entire day, and late afternoon the time finally arrived for the big family reunion pickup. Chantelle abandoned the guesthouse where she’s been living for the past week and together we headed off to the vet, eager to take our two babies back into our custody.
Inside, the vet saw us and asked if we were there to pick up the two boys. Boys? Nope, definitely not us, we’re here for the boy and the girl that we brought in this morning, right? To which the vet, the receptionist and another member of staff shook their heads, laughed and explained to us that both of our kitties are in fact… male.
Yes, believe it or not, Coco, the girliest cat you will ever meet, the one who hangs around the house, always looks for love, allows Olympus to ‘suckle’ on her/him and who has even been humped by Olympus before, is indeed… a little boy.
Which would explain then why the furry bugger is so big.
Chantelle and I just stood there, mouths open and in complete shock, unable to grasp the fact that Coco is indeed not the Coco we thought her/him to be. Thank goodness we never named her/him ‘Ms Tinky Winky’ or some horribly pink name like that. As it is, I guess we are now officially dropping the ‘Chanel’ part from ‘Coco Chanel’ though.
Anyhow, we transported our two rather unstable and very groggy boys back home where they stumbled around in circles, had a quick nibble at some food, and then passed out on the couch or whatever soft, squishy and warm thing was lying around, close to ground level.
Shame, I feel like such a bastard for allowing their manhood to be so cruelly snipped away from them after only six and a half months of life on this earth. Hopefully I can buy their love back with some tasty, premium pet food then…
CaStuck! My Life 21 AUG 2008
At least I now know that with the proper motivation, little Olympus can get out of almost any predicament all on his own. Like yesterday when I arrived home from gym and called the two of them inside to come and eat. As per usual Coco came bolting in like a bat out of hell and she was soon happily chomping away at the bowl of tuna that I placed before her, while Olympus suspiciously remained out of sight.
Failing to respond to any of my calls, I set outside to find him and lo and behold I spied him off in the distance stuck in the top of a rather large palm tree thingie. You could see he was trying to get out but the dear was well and truly stuck, plaintively mewing away at what I can only guess was the thought of Coco finishing off all the food without him.
To high for me to reach, I continued to call him down and gave him a good ten minutes or so, in which all he managed to show me was that he had indeed bitten off a little more than what he could chew.
Still, I had one more secret weapon up my sleeve, and so I stepped back inside, dished up his share of tuna and went and placed it close to the base of the tree. My world for a video camera, because what followed was pure comedy gold – looking like a slow, caterpillar in reverse, Olympus managed to back down two thirds of the tree before losing his grip and plummeting to the soft shrub below, thankfully from a height that was by that stage pretty low to the ground.
Undaunted by his very ungraceful descent, the boy immediately came charging to the bowl and so my story reached a happy conclusion (with him inside eating and Coco locked outside – the bugger keeps stealing my boy’s food!)
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Coco Pops! My Life 27 MAY 2008
So after a bit of niggling over the names of our soon-to-be-with-us kittens, our buddy Retha has come up with a brilliant solution that leaves both C and I happy at last.
As you saw in the previously posted photos, one of the kittens in brown while the other is black, meaning that Chantelle literally spent half an evening trawling through lists of names for black and brown pets. She liked ‘Cocoa’ as in ‘Hot Cocoa’ as a name for the brown kitten while I picked out ‘Obsidian’ for the black one as I liked the idea of calling my kitten ‘Obs’ or ‘Obsie’ as the need arises (plus it sounds awfully close to ‘Hobbes’, a tribute to the single greatest cartoonist of our time).
However, as is usually the case, no one was to keen on my name and so a lot of niggling and haggling promptly ensued, all to no avail as I fervently stuck to my guns on ‘Obs’.
Until yesterday that is.
During a quick visit at her new digs in ‘Obs’, believe it or not (that is ‘Obs’ as in Observatory and not Obsidian though for those of you who aren’t in the know), Retha came up with a brilliant idea that incorporates my love for word play (I still think ‘Fridge’ and ‘Freezer’ would have made a cool combo!) and manages to make both Chantelle and I happy all in one go.
So from hence forth our two soon-to-be-with-us kittens shall be know as ‘Coco’ and ‘Pops’. You gotta love it! :)
I can’t wait to confuse the hell out of my neighbours when I lean outside and shout for ‘Coco Pops’ to come in! Man, I feel sorry for my kids one day when I get to pick out their names for them! :D
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