Cat Tales

Submitted by Matt

"I share my flat with Simba and Misty. Simba is a pedigree Abyssinian, whilst Misty is supposedly a cross between a pedigree Somali and pedigree British shorthair. The Somali breed came about after selective breeding of a long haired mutation that crops up in Abyssinian cats, so purebred Somalis are very similar to Abyssinians but with a different/longer coat texture.

"Simba's name was suggested by a friend's wife, due to his leonine features (which were especially prominant when he was a kitten as you can see from one of the photos). He's very fond of playing fetch with toy mouse. He'll often drop a toy mouse at my feet when I'm watching tv and wail at me to play with him. He likes it to be thrown down the stairs, so it bounces around and he can run after it. Often he'll then bring the toy straight back up in his mouth and drop at my feet to be thrown again! If I ignore him, he'll chuck the mouse down the stairs himself, or alternatively chase his own tail.

"Simba is obsessed with drinking water from anywhere except his water bowl. The water bowl is his last resort, if there are no glasses of water, splashes of water around the bath, if the toilet seat hasn't been left up (!), and there's no dripping taps. He likes to set in the basin in the bathroom and insist that I turn the tap on for him. He knows where he's not supposed to drink from, as if I come into the room when he's licking water out of the kitchen sink he'll jump down straight away, looking guilty, and run off.

"I think Misty is an Somali/British short hair cross. Her coat has the agouti markings of Aby/Somali cats and is what is termed as 'blue' in colour officially for those breeds. She also has tabby features on her face, like Somalis, but because of the crossing her coat hasn't stayed purely agouti, with striping down her legs and tail, and her belly being dappled. She has a kind of warm oatmeal base hue to her grey coat. Her build and coat texture are more British short hair though, with soft fur that doesn't lie completely flat like Simba's, and her face being rounded and her tail being shorter than Simba's.

"She can be quite a conversational cat, especially when she's hungry. She manages quite a range of meows, especially ones designed to gain sympathy. While she's very lively and friendly around me though, she's very timid when I have visitors and will often hide under the sofa the entire time. It can take a while to coax her out after they've gone. She's very good at hanging off the side of the cat climbing platforms I have - if I tease her with string, she'll often climb up the side and stay hung on the side while batting the string with one of her forepaws.

"As I'm a light sleeper, not only are they barred from the bedroom at night, I also put up a barrier of a large sheet of cardboard in the hall to restrict them to the kitchen and lounge. If I don't do that, they run up and down the hall, and also up and down the rather creaky stairs. If I don't get up early enough in the morning Simba will still push at where the cardboard and wall meet and sometimes shove the 11 kilo weight on the other side out of the way, and they'll both then loiter outside my door, offering words of encouragement if I'm really late getting up."