Oscar, the cat

One of the coolest everyday things about my life is our cat Oscar. Most of you have met my husband, but only a few have met our cat, as he’s quite hard to transport and doesn’t like being away from home! Anyway, here’s a small section about my (other) favourite housemate.

I adopted him from a colleague who got a job with a lot of travel involved and didn’t want to torture him. Guess what??? He ends up with us, flying halfway around the world anyway, spending about 50 hours in a cat carrier and 7 months in quarantine. Oops. If he was human he would have a lot of frequent flyer miles!! He was born in Texas, moved to Mexico City, then Singapore and now he’s here in Australia. That’s too much travel for a cat!

He was named for the boxer Oscar de la Hoya because he likes to scratch mirrors and glass. Other than making a very annoying squeaking, he also looks like he is boxing.

And this is why I adore him:

1. He’s the sweetest cat I’ve ever come across, and he is cuddly with everyone, even people he’s just met. I have had people saying he’s a dog that just looks like a cat. I’m just lucky he’s mine.
2. I can pick him up and swing him on my shoulder, and he will ride there around the house with me. He is perfectly calm when we clip his nails, clean his eyes and ears and listen to his heart. Really. He does not try to take your skin off. Ever.
3. He will eat out of your hand. Guaranteed. He eats out of everyone’s hand. Even the vet’s, after she gave him his shots.
4. He likes to fall asleep on our clean, black clothing. And leave a big pile of fluff. Annoying, but cute.
5. He will crawl under the blanket to sleep on my stomach. And snore. Loudly. I’ve tried to record it, but it never seems to work. Stay tuned. If I succeed it will definitely get online!

Worm Farm photos

I wrote about our worm farm before, but here are some photos I have of setting it up.

It’s been going pretty well, but I think we are overfeeding it, so we might have to feed it less food. If worms were cheaper I’d have preferred to start with 2000 (rather than 1000), as the farm is barely coping with the small amount of food from 2 people who cook at home about 2-3 times a week. Although come to think of it, we throw in a huge mound of cat litter regularly.. I think that might make the difference!

Snoring cat

Oscar snores very gently as he sleeps on the couch next to me. It doesn’t sound like respiratory distress but apparently it’s a sign that he’s very relaxed. Sometimes he licks his lips in his sleep and huffs too. It’s very cute.

Anyway, I was trying to find out if it was a cause for concern and I found this hilarious website! For example:

LAP FUNGUS DISORDER

Symptoms: Having taken over a human lap, the cat proceeds to spread in all planes. This may be accompanied by secondary symptoms such as high volume purring, dribbling, kneading and snoring. The condition is highly contagious and several fungoid cats may infest a lap simultaneously.

Treatment: Topical treatment with proprietary anti-fungals is ineffective. Prompt treatment (as per Irritable Lap Syndrome) is required to alleviate the worst symptoms although in a number of cats, such treatment actually exasperates the condition. This disorder manifests itself periodically through the affected cat’s life and there is no long-term cure.

Thank god it’s the cat and not the husband!!

Reunited with our cat

I picked Oscar up from the wonderful people at Spotswood quarantine on Friday, and he has been settling in at home very very quickly.

He’s broken one thing in the house already (he likes to bat things off shelves and watch them fall). His favourite perches are on the kitchen shelf, on top of our books on the bookshelf, the mantelpiece, and in front of windows. Anywhere he can feel High & Mighty!

Today morning he meowed and went around the house all mad for no reason (we forgot he likes to do that sometimes), but now he’s looking like he’s settling in better. He keeps trying to go outside, but we’re not letting him out for another week until he gets used to this house as “home”.
So far, he has met P’s family and some of our friends and they’re charmed to meet him. P’s dad even joked, how about we do a cat exchange (with their cat Aggie) – he likes Oscar that much!

Anyway, you’ll probably hear lots about him as time goes by, so watch this space!

Oscar is here!

We went to visit Oscar today at the quarantine center. He has finally arrived! I am SO excited. He’s lost weight, but he’s slowly settling in and I can’t wait till he’s home!

I’m baaaack!

After a very long and busy silence in which we:

1. packed for a 2 week trip around the south of Mexico
2. drove a rental car around Mexico for 2 weeks – dealing with Mexican roads, traffic, drivers and corrupt cops along the way
3. had a stressful but excellent trip
4. bought souvenirs, visited some “unmissable” destinations and endured 33degree days with 100% (not kidding) humidity
5. drove back to Mexico City (14hr trip that ended at 5am)
6. ran around frantically trying to tie all the loose ends before we left for good – and dealing with Mexican beauraucracy/ inefficiency
7. got the cat ready for quarantine – vet visits, de-parasiting, shots and more shots, too much paperwork
8. packed again
9. flew to LA, where I was detained at LAX for not having the cat’s paperwork in my hand – I slept at the airport like a homeless person and was at the airport for a grand total of about 30 hours!! I cried, slept (very little), hugged Oscar the cat, sobbed in public at the Singapore airlines check-in counter, made some friends and somehow survived without any (visible) scarring
10. flew home to Singapore – to shop, eat, catch up with friends, fight with my family, congratulate my brother and sister-in-law on her first pregnancy and eat some more (we also bought a waterproof/ shockproof digicam)
11. flew to Oz after being very nearly bumped off our flight: that meant an extra 4 hours of travelling on a non-direct flight. But I was politely persistent and irritating, so we got put back on the flight, much to our relief!
12. and finally arrived in Australia – where we have spent the last weeks finding 1) a home to rent 2) a car to drive 3) all the bits and pieces to keep ourselves clean, fed and happy
13. and Peter started work.

Whew.

Anyhow, we now have a new address (no phone yet, but we’re working on it), a new used car: Ford Fiesta Ghia 06 manual (woohoo!!!) and salvos/eBay/new furniture. Along with the house we’ve rented, we’ve inherited a very persistent and fast-growing morning glory plant that threatens to take the roof off the house. It has climbed as high as the TV antenna, and is growing a vine in the bathroom, as well as blocking up both the bathroom and kitchen fans. From Wikipedia:

In some places such as Australian bushland morning glories develop thick roots and tend to grow in dense thickets. They can quickly spread by way of long creeping stems. By crowding out, blanketing and smothering other plants, morning glory has turned into a serious invasive weed problem.

Then of course there are the cockroaches. Peter has killed one every other day (there are probably 20 more hiding), and yesterday night we bought insect spray and bait and there have been 3 casualties since. YUCK.

I have had a phobic fear of them since I was a teen and I found a black one that was as long as my index finger and as wide as my thumb on my blanket. I tried to shake it off and it flew around me in large circles before landing on my head. My frantic screeching brought my father who somehow disposed of it in a blur of tears (I don’t remember how). Anyway, I hate them. So now before I enter the kitchen and bathroom I look around and if I see one I run out and grab my heroic husband who smacks them, picks them up and disposes of them while I hide behind him.

THEN today morning we found someone had filched our brand-spanking new, very nice door mat!! The cheek of it!! Argh. Why would anyone want to steal a door mat anyhow?? Anyway, we are either going to buy a nice one and chain it to the door or stick a ratty old one up the front.

The other significant piece of news is that Peter now has a shaved head! (and I cut my hair, but that was ages ago!)

Here’s a family photo, with Oscar, who I miss very very much:

From Us

What do you think?

Anyway, that’s all for now. Hope everyone is well, and let us know what you’re up to!