How is your cat affecting your life?

Herself had been going on about putting the Christmas tree up for days, so I finally put it on Wednesday evening to keep her happy. One of the cats has ran and launched herself at twice already, thankfully its still standing. I know some morning I'll get up and it will be down on the ground

2 vaccinations 5 weeks apart, €70 each and €110 for castration around the 6 month mark, €250 all in. Along with litter boxes, litter, toys and food, bites scratches destroyed furniture and the house bowing down before him, be sure this is the reality of them.

Worth it though, love the little tyrant 😍

One of the cats spends the night sleeping on a chair.

The other, a complete scaredy cat who would give the impression that everyone (including me) is going to beat her, is there waiting for me to go to bed, winding round my feet and telling me to get a move on. She will come up to me and butt me towards the bed then kneading with her paws once I am in bed, purring and demanding to be petted. Eventually I tell her that's enough and she wanders down to the end of the bed and sleeps there. Now you can interpret this any way you want, but she is not looking for food, maybe she is looking for a warm spot to sleep, but the purring and demanding to be petted and efforts to communicate are not necessary to that, she could just jump up and sleep there.

I have no doubt at all that a good deal of behaviour is self-interest, but don't we all? There is more to it that you are suggesting, and if there isn't, so what? They are entertaining and company.

I love our cats. But they reinforce my belief that there is no God or if one does exist they had no part in the creation of the cat. With full bellies I have witnessed both of them inflict way over the top pointless suffering on those creatures unfortunate enough to become their victims. Birds (large and small, mice, rats, shrews, squirrels, pine marten and me, they've attacked us all. They really seem to enjoy being čůňţz.

Not to derail but, Graces 7 I’m delighted to read about your kitty companions again. With all the changes on Boards, a lot of the threads I used to follow are harder to find & with notifications scarce, I’d missed your updates.

We have a cat which must be around 25 years old. Still on the go. Plus we have her children and their grandchildren. The eldest turned up out of the blue with her children over 2 decades ago and we couldn't turn them away. In total their are five cats still alive (we once had nearly 10!!). They spend most of their time outside and sleep in a purpose built shed with beds and central heating. The grandmother sleeps indoors with the cocker spaniel.

Any new cats which arrive (which is very rare these days) we have always found homes for.

Lately one of the cats or the cocker spaniel is turning up with bats at night, sometimes not dead. We also have the usual assortment of visiting foxes, hedgehogs and stoats.

Biggest issue now is finding the cat food they like. Since Brexit and the trucking crisis, pickings are slim in most supermarkets. At least for the food my lot like.

The old saying goes, "dogs have masters, cats have staff"

To be fair I'd love if my cats were the same size as my dogs

My neighbor's cat has some of my plants destroyed because he comes in jumping around my flower patch and pooping there also. I had to buy cat repellent pellets which I now have scattered all around my flower patch to stop him from coming back.