Meet Jack!

 He is super affectionate and has not so much as taken out his claws despite me continuously brushing him and removing almost half of his coat (the pre-summer malt!) and being terrified in his new environment.

He has been with me for a week now, and I have followed all of the guidelines for bringing a new cat home:

(1) I bought a cat carrier for transporting him home and put a soft blanket in it. They recommend that you take a blanket from their old home which will help them to feel more comfortable to put inside, but Jack's previous owners didn't have one. Jack was pretty scared on the ride home, he even peed in his carrier :(

(2) When we arrived home, I closed Jack in the laundry with his cat carrier, food, water and litter tray. I put out the same food and kitty litter that he is used to which is recommended to minimise the already huge number of changes.

(3) I left him alone for an hour or so and then visited Jack regularily in his laundry cave, and gave him plenty of attention. He ate a little bit of his food and used the litter tray on that first night, which made me feel better.

(4) On the evening of day 2, I gave Jack a really good brush and he loved that. I continued showering plenty of attention on him but always in his laundry area.

(5) By day 4, I decided to see if Jack wanted to come out so I left the laundry door open when I got home in the evening. He wouldn't come out despite being coaxed, but stood at the door looking out.

(6) On the evening of day 5, Jack was still too timid to leave the laundry. I picked him up and sat on the sofa with him, where he promptly fell asleep on my lap and enjoyed lots of stroking. After that he ran straight back into the laundry, but it was the start of him becoming more confident.

(7) Days 6 and 7 were the weekend, so I was home most of the day and left the laundry door open. By the evening of day 7, Jack was exploring the house and had come and laid on my bed etc. He was confident around me but remained terrified of my housemate.

(8) On days 8 and 9, Jack would come out of the laundry and explore the house every morning before I left for work and every evening until it was bedtime. I tried leaving him out at night (he still had access to his laundry if he wanted) but he came in to my bedroom and meowed for attention at 1am, at which point he was promptly relegated back to the laundry (LOL)...

(9) On the evening of day 9, I put a collar on Jack. He is not used to wearing one and he was VERY UPSET with me!! I took the bell off so that the sound wouldn't scare him, but the next morning the collar had been torn and chewed, so he had obviously been working on it throughout the night. Lucky I have started getting him used to a collar well before it's time to let him venture outside!

(10) It has now been almost three weeks since Jack arrived, and I think it's time to start letting him outside. He is very confident now and seems to want to explore. We have had some minor issues - him breaking some ornaments and my antique lamp, oh and there is the meowing at night... but overall things are going well and he's super cuddly :-)

In Search of a Kitty Cat

I have decided to get a cat. This is partly brought on by loneliness (I broke up with my boyfriend about a month ago). I have wanted a dog for a long time as I am definitely more of a dog person than a cat person. Then my Aunty, Uncle and cousins went away for a weekend and left their dog with me to look after. It completely put me off the idea of getting a dog. Their little mutt kept me awake all night with its barking, whining and when I eventually let it inside, jumping all over me on my bed and running around the house like a crazy monster. It put into perspective how high maintenance dogs are, and I only have a smallish courtyard which just wouldn't be fair. I also work long hours, and while I would walk the dog every day, it would spend a lot of time alone.

My first stop was Gumtree, the online classifieds site. It is mind blowing how many cats there are up for adoption, and the amount of irresponsible pet owners. A common statement is "We're moving so we need to find a new home for our cat". Another is "We aren't allowed pets at our new rental". Surely you shouldn't get a cat if you are likely to need to get rid of it in the near future!? People treat them like toys that can be disposed of.

There are also a number of cats that haven't been desexed or vaccinated and people giving away kittens because their cat just had a litter. No wonder so many cats are put down every year by cat havens!

I first settled on a moggy called Felix (pictured above). According to the owner, he is one year old and timid yet affectionate. He has been an inside cat but is vaccinated and desexed (which ticks boxes for me!). He came with a cat scratcher, food, litter, litter box, bed, carry case etc meaning I wouldn't have to buy accessories to begin with (another tick!).

Unfortunately, over a 3 week period Felix's owner cancelled my visit 3 times at the last minute. She lives an hour away, so each time I had put aside an afternoon for travel time etc, worked myself up into excitement and was then sorely dissapointed when she cancelled (on all 3 occasions, she cancelled literally as I was leaving the house or work). The first time her son had gastro apparently, the next time she had to work late and the third time her son had been hospitalised due to an asthma attack. She assured me that her partner would be home all week and I could come any time I wanted (4th time lucky) but then suddenly became prescriptive and said I could only come on a Thursday night. At that point I snapped inside, and gave up on this annoying woman and her poor kitty. Seriously, thanks for messing me around! Something tells me that she's a nutter and not genuine.

Luckily, there are plenty of other cats wanting a loving home. At the moment I am choosing between Chandler and Jack, both 2 years old. I am leaning towards Chandler, although of course I'll want to meet him first :-)

Random Phone Snaps

Here are some snaps I have taken recently, mostly on my mobile phone (using a camera app that is largely equivalent to Instagram, on an Android phone...). They're of things that have made me smile.

The biggest watermelon I have ever seen, and some delish mangos, all grown by some family friends who live near Perth.

 The coolest modern retro-styled kettle. I must have one!

 

Ferrero rochers, one of my favourite choccies

 

Handbag + flight ticket, taken while bored on the plane

 An example of good marketing - "Strawberry, Hibiscus & Quandong ice cream". It looks and sounds gourmet, but really just tastes like any berry ice cream.

 Gasp- a frozen meal which was largely edible and which I mostly enjoyed! Beef rissole Healthy Choice meal.

Psycho cat attacking the top of her scratching pole

The cat stand-off. This went for at least 10 minutes. Lots of hissing and angry meowing.

Balloons in the sky above our house

Things I'm Loving

I feel like I have been overly negative on this blog lately, and although that is reflective of my current state of mind (and this blog reflects that), I do feel guilty for dragging my readers into it. So, on a more positive note...

#1 Have you heard of 'The Real Hot Chocolate'? This stuff is amazing. It's a block of chocolate stuck to a wooden spoon, that you melt into hot milk for some delicious rich chocolatey goodness. In between mixing, you can lick melted chocolate off the spoon.

They sell at my local IGA for $4.50 each, which is a bit pricey for one drink. They are cheaper if you buy them online (in bulk), eg a pack of 20 posted to Canberra ends up being $3.20 per stick. Still exxy :/ Someone buy me 100?

Melted dark chocolate goodness - lickety lick!

#2 The smell of freshly baked goods on a cold morning, and biting into a still warm chocolate chip cookie when the choc bits are still gooey... Baked using cute and colourful baking tools - this little guy has suction feet so it stays upright (I want one!):

#3 Playing with sparklers and evoking memories of a carefree childhood:

#4 Elaborate cakes that are pieces of art (this one spotted at Bread Top in South Yarra):

#5 Books that uplift and inspire - This is my favourite creative book of the moment. A more in depth review to follow :)

#6 Animals.... 'nuff said

Naughty Cat Antics

Overnight, we lock our bengal into the laundry where she has her cat bed, cat tunnel, scratching post, litter box and some toys. A bored cat is a destructive cat:

But the following incident happened during the evening before bedtime, when kitty had free run of the house and had just had a play outside:

 We don't starve her, I promise! She simply came up against a closed packet of cat food, and won (eventually).

 "It has been transferred from the floor into a container; I must investigate!"

Bub has just come out of the shower, and helps with hinders the cleanup efforts :)

Purchases of late - oh how happy shopping makes me

First of all, I can report on my first ever Bluefly.com purchase. As per this post, I ended up paying around $220 AUD including postage for 2 leather bags and postage. This super duper bargain was possible only because my grandparents were at a wedding in NY- I could get the bags express posted to them and they brought them back to Australia for me. That way, postage only cost $25 USD for next day service. How much did Bluefly want for postage to Australia? A ridiculous $155 USD. That's right, one hundred and fifty five USD, almost the cost of the bags themselves. Unless I have family visiting the US in the future (which is unlikely), I will not be browsing Bluefly anymore. That shipping fee is too ridiculous for words, and I can't be bothered using a parcel forwarding service.

Hype William shoulder bag - $106 USD. This puppy is made of very good quality leather, and check out the super convenient compartmentalization:

 STEVEN by Steve Madden walnut lambskin BPariss shoulder bag - $84 USD. This lambskin leather is really soft. At first I was a little dissapointed, as I don't think it's going to be very durable, but it has grown on me (and is currently my everyday bag). It's nice to be able to stroke your bag to calm yourself with super softness (just joking... sort of)

But wait, there's more (as usual). Katies had a special promotion where you got $20 off any purchase over $20. With free shipping on their website, I just had to buy something. These (non-leather) flats cost just $5 delivered:

And next, kitty related items. Some safety collars with bells - we have had some incidents where our kitten has pounced on Bub and scratched her. This bothers us more than it bothers Bub. I think a warning bell might assist:

My Sydney shopping adventures during a recent weekend away were limited to the purchase of this hilarious 'Bathing Beauty' money box, which is going to be positioned as a piece of artwork instead of a functional toy:

 Who will know that it only cost $6 at Victoria Basement's pop up clearance store? Only you, my dear readers!

At the Kirrbilli markets, I found this lovely embroidered bird skirt for $10. It is brand new with tags, and the stall seller said she purchased it online at Modcloth:

Loving the detail!

And in Melbourne, I discovered a boutique called 'Duchess' which has the most darling Asian fashion. I couldn't resist buying 2 cardigans, at $45 each. They remind me a little of Alannah Hill, without the exorbitant price tag:

Little lady eat your heart out!

This is a timely find as I am quite unimpressed with Alannah Hill, my ex-favourite maker of cute cardis. Just look at the official Alannah Hill store on Ebay's feedback. Shocking! Now we all know that eBay is an unethical, money grabbing company... but I didn't expect deplorable customer service from Alannah Hill as well. Uncool behaviour by both eBay (in keeping the store running, when any other eBayer with such terrible feedback would get the boot) and of course Alannah Hill. Tsk tsk!

Bub starts school soon. Well not really, it's preschool at an early learning center three days per week - but it's the same campus she'll go to once she's older. And she already gets to wear a uniform (no more early morning fashion disagreements, hooray). I'm looking forward to taking a first day of school in cute little uniform photo. For the occassion, I bought this cute backpack by Skip Hop Zoo:

 

 "Whimsical details and durable materials make this the perfect on-the-go pack for kids on-the-go!"

After I bought it, I found out that all the cool kids apparently have said bag, or a variation of it:

Honor Warren with her Owl lunch bag

I could totally be a celebrity child stylist. Maybe this is an untapped niche market, and I should move to LA.

Fly Catching Cat

Forget fly spray or bug zappers, you just need to get a fly catching cat. Our Bengal has taken a huge liking to fly catching (and eating). She has the remarkable ability to catch flies with her paw, bat them around a little as they fly in a stunned daze, and then eat them.

 At first this was extremely distressing for Bub, who could cry “No Thomasina! Don’t eat flies, they’ll make you sick!” (very cute). Now we’re all used to it, and have officially banned fly spray in the household (so that the cat doesn’t eat a poisoned fly, and because she is an even better pest control device).

As usual with this new cat business, I did a quick google and it appears that fly eating by cats is common, and won’t hurt them. I think I’ll call it her little “protein snack” ;-) Here she is saying 'hi' over my laptop, and curiously swatting at the camera:

Bub and Cat Toilet Training - Like Mr Jingles from Meet the Fockers

The Litter Kwitter is a kit used to teach cats to use the human throne. We have just ordered and received said contraption, because I am sick of smelly kitty litter. I am even more sick of our kitten using the bathroom sink as her toilet (okay, so this happened once... but it was so gross!)

You start by using the red toilet casing, which you fill with kitty litter. Then you progress to the orange casing, which has space for kitty litter just around the edges. Then onto the green, and finally just the toilet seat.

I do find the following gross and weird, but it gets to a point where daily litter box cleaning gets old. It might become a regular sight in our house, if we succeed with training:

I will not be using the same toilet as the cat. I draw the line there. There will be the designated "cat toilet" in our house, and if she starts using other toilets, we will deal with that if and when it happens... I don't want to jump the gun, this whole training thing sounds a little too good to be true and still freaks me out! I'm sure she'll make a huge mess of the bathroom too once we start trying it - even though I shelled out $60 for the product, I'm now having my doubts about whether I'll have the confidence to try it...

Does your cat use the throne, or do you have one of these?

 

Kittyagogo designer litter box

In related news, we are currently doing night time toilet training with Bub.  She was definitely ready - having dry pullups in the morning and all those signs. We are mostly dry - the first few weeks we went from having 2-3 wet nights per week, to 1-2 wet nights and now it's even less. The frustrating thing is that when she wets the bed, she will do it 1-2 hours before wake up time. Although she can hang on until the morning pretty well, she hasn't yet woken up and gone to the toilet by herself (or called out for us) in the middle of the night or early morning. So it seems to be all or nothing at the moment... but we're getting there!

Meet Thomasina

Today was a frustrating one at work. My boss somehow merged an old version of a document over my work. This resulted in the loss of a full day (and night, because I stayed late) of solid work. It also left my team scrambling to meet a deadline. Apparently this was my fault, because I should have known to save the document in more than one location. Lesson learnt, but come on – learn how to use a computer so that you don’t delete someone’s hard work!

In happier news, meet Thomasina:

 I didn’t like the name at first, but then I found out that Thomasina is a whimsical Disney character from a bygone era (the 60's to be precise).  It’s a fitting name, since every cat is ‘Tom’ to Bub and this one is a female. It makes people laugh the first time they hear it (because it is kind of weird for this day and age), and laughter is good.

Isn’t she stunning? She’s 8 months old and a full on pedigree, with parents from America. She is very energetic, playful and mischievous. She has already made a hole in a pair of my work trousers, it’s just a matter of time before she destroys something.

Bengal temperament: “Bengals are highly intelligent. They like to have close contact with people and are very entertaining, because they love to play and will find something to occupy themselves. They bond strongly to their owners, either individuals or whole families, in an almost dog-like fashion. Many learn to walk on a leash, to fetch, and to ride in cars. Bengals love water. They like to play in it or with it and many join their owners in the shower or bath tub. They are not lap cats. Though a favorite person is allowed to hold his or her Bengal for a while, the Bengal prefers to sit on or near "his" person at his own discretion.” Source: http://www.breeds.traditionalcats.com

I am not much of a cat person usually, so the Bengal seems like the perfect breed of cat for me. Part dog is better than all cat!

Ginger Pudding with Caramelized Pumpkin & Macadamia Gelato...

Tom the cat returned... we let Bub play with him some more, then took him to the vet to be microchip scanned. The vet recognised the cat as one of his patients. Apparently the family who own him are away on holiday, and have already been away for 2 months... Poor kitty is staying with a family just down the road from us, and despite being an indoor cat, those people hadn't even noticed that he had been missing for two days. Poor Tom (who is actually named Trevor) probably wasn't lost at all, but was so bored that he wanted to come and be with us. He loved playing with Bub, and Bub was not happy about saying goodbye. I'm sort of hoping he will escape again and return (of course we'd return him again after a play), and we're even contemplating getting a cat now.

Work has been extra hectic, I didn't even have time to go and get my daily coffee today. Probably a good thing because I have been making a habit of buying giant muffins with my coffee, which is not helping the waistline. I have definitely put on weight since I started my office job. In my defence, having broken my ankle (and still being in pain with it) means I can't do sport. If I could go jogging I probably would (I know about a week ago I said I doubted I'd have time, but these last few days I've realised how much weight I have put on and I would make time).

Anyway, I just got home from dinner at Choices Vietnamese in Manuka. It was tasty, not spectacular. We went to Griffith Vietnamese first but they were booked out. Dessert was however a highlight. First we went to an Indian restaurant and asked if we could just get dessert, the waiter said NO as there is a minimum charge. Their loss - the restaurant was practically empty so I don't understand that sort of business. Instead we went to Le Rendezvous and had this very creative and tasty combination:

It was supposed to be ginger pudding with caramelized pumpkin and macadamia gelato. It was very very good, but it could have been spectacular if it was what was on the menu. It was actually just normal pumpkin (albeit sweet, it would have been better if caramelized) with vanilla bean ice cream (macadamia would have been tastier). So while it could have been taste bud popping, Masterchef standard delicious, it was still pretty damn good. It's a great combination and would be so easy to make, I might do this as a dinner party dessert (sure to impress!).

In other news, I think Bub is a budding artiste. Don't you think this is good for a 3 year old? It's all her work, a painting of outer space:

She has such fabulous concentration and can work at a painting for an hour!