Sadie’s stories. – Sadie's cat blog.

Cats in boxes.

Cats in boxes

Why do cats like to hide in boxes?

Sadie loves a box, in fact she is a cat who will sit in any small space given half a chance,

the microwave,

the washing machine,

shopping bags

anywhere small dark and confined.

Why do cats like to hide in boxes?

Apparently this goes back to their feral past, because cats feel safe in small spaces, they can sleep peacefully there and are less likely to be attacked when in a small space than when out in the open. Being a predator they can also watch out for their prey from their hiding place with less chance of being seen.

Cat quote of the day.

“I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.” – Jean Cocteau

Black and white cats.

Black and white cats or tuxedo cats? it’s all a matter of location, come and meet Sadie a British black and white cat and hear some of her stories.

(Tuxedo cats)

I have only recently discovered that Sadie is indeed a tuxedo cat

(being British I have always called black and white cats, black and white cats) clearly we as a nation are not as inventive as our American friends, who it would appear call their black and white cats tuxedo cats because that is how they look.

(such a lovely visualization to imagine those little furry people wearing tux’s)

Did you know? I didn’t.

I wondered where this term had originated, so I did a little research and found that it is in fact credited to The Cat Fanciers Association (of America) who are a non profit organisation that started in 1906 concerned with the welfare of all cats and also about protecting the registry of cat breeds, helping in making the world of breeding and showing pure bred cats a better place (for the cats)

The CFA is also now the worlds largest registry of pedigreed cats.

Cat quote of the day.

“A happy arrangement: many people prefer cats to other people, and many cats prefer people to other cats.” – Mason Cooley

Why I started writing Sadie’s cat blog…

The birth of Sadie’s cat blog was a quiet affair witnessed only by thirty or so eight year olds.

I have for many years been teaching computing lessons to primary aged children, one of the themes that we cover is online presence. Where they learn not only about e safety (obviously important) but also among other things about what a blog is and how to write one.

To help the children with ideas I made an example blog to show them, this was the start of Sadie’s cat blog. (as the children in this lesson were only eight years old we were not actually putting our blogs online, just on a word document and sharing only with the rest of the class)

At the time I hadn’t considered putting her properly online, I just mocked up her blog as a teaching prompt.

It was only many years later after coming across some of the cute and funny photos that I had taken of her and thinking what an amusing little cat she really was, that I finally decided to actually have a go at a real online cat blog to share her story with others.

Here is an image and a little excerpt from her original blog

My cat Sadie

She likes to follow me everywhere when I am at home,

her hobbies are eating, sleeping and sitting in strange places.

Why not subscribe to Sadie’s cat blog then you will never miss any of her stories or cute cat pictures of her and her friends.

Cat quote of the day.

“Time spent with cats is never wasted.” —Sigmund Freud

Cats are not meant to fly-The story of Sadie and the lavender.

Summer, a time long ago of sun and scents. Windows and doors open to embrace the floral air. Not a care in the world, whiling away the summer days, children and cats older now, more sensible, one would hope.

No, cat not more sensible, still learning, still curious, still irresponsible, still fostering a dangerous, reckless attitude left over from her kitten hood.

I was out. Went to see a friend. Left the children (teenage) and cat (also teenage) to look after each other, you would think that would be fine. It wasn’t. Sadie decided to explore (normal cat behaviour I hear you say) this was not normal for anyone. This was extreme sports even by cat standards.

Out of the bedroom fanlight window she hops (unnoticed by anyone, because after all who watches small upstairs windows on the off chance that their cat might pop out?) somehow she neatly jumps down and teeters along a narrow window sill outside the bedroom.

Not ground level, next floor up. (Still no one aware, daughter is in the room below doing her own teenage thing) When suddenly as she is looking out of the window, her cat flies past. Fast downwards. Accelerating swiftly towards the hard stone patio below.

Cats are not meant to fly, especially downwards.

Daughter rings me as she rushes to check on her flying feline. I tell her to check her cat out and ring me back, preparing myself to turn the car round and return home to deal with a potentially injured cat and a very distressed daughter.

Five agonisingly slow minutes later daughter rings me back, I am prepared for the worst when she tells me.

She’s fine mum, no blood, nothing seems damaged, but she smells lovely, she landed in the lavender bush.

What a relief. Thank goodness for fragrant plants and multiple cat lives.

At the time we had large flowering lavender plants all along the house wall, somehow with the luck of a nine lived cat Sadie had managed to drop neatly into the lavender bush cushioning her fall, and causing no injuries.

Never before had I been so relieved that I was a keen gardener, filling my garden with smelly shrubs.

Here she is by another window in a different house.

Cats in bags-Why bags are best.

Sadie, a mischievous cat, delighted in sneaking into bags until a mishap ensued with a crinkly bag. Her attempt to flee led to a comedy of errors with her head and leg trapped in the bag’s handles. Despite the chaos, the narrator struggled to contain her laughter while ultimately freeing the frantic feline.

Sadie loves being anywhere that she shouldn’t be.

Cats love bags. Bags are one of Sadie’s favourite places to sit, most bags are relatively safe and harmless, you can jump in and sit there quite safely watching the household carry on with it’s day with absolutely no danger to yourself, hardly a fur out of place. You can even take a catnap in a bag.

But some bags just don’t play fair, this particular bag was one of those lightweight crackly, crunchy ones. Brilliant to rush into like an Formula 1 driver, slam the brakes on and skid across the floor pouncing with both front feet as you slide to an ungraceful stop rustling and swishing into the wall.

The game was perfect until Sadie tried to leave. Fast. Through the wrong hole!

Then it all went horribly wrong. Her head was out of one of the handle holes. One front leg was out of the same hole. But the rest of her body was out of another hole. In effect she was wearing the bag around her neck and under one armpit.

There was no escape. The bag followed her closely, cracking, rustling, chasing her! It flapped, it fluttered with her every movement, speeding her on ever faster than before. Bouncing off the dining room walls with the bag now flapping loudly as she ran even faster. Sadie had a hunted look in her eyes and was making a lot of noise every time she moved, taking her racing bag loudly, inevitably with her round and round the room.

Enter daughter (Sadie’s official owner, proud first kitten handler)

Mummy, mummy, mummy! Do something! Stop her!

She shouted.

Unfortunately by this time I have to admit (bad child mother, bad cat mother that I was) I was laughing hysterically. Doubled up. I couldn’t stop. The noise from the bag. The speed of the cat. Just the whole ridiculous situation (maybe you had to be there to fully understand, but it still amuses me to this day)

Anyway I managed to pull myself together and stop laughing long enough to finally catch the whizzing, flapping, terrified, bag chased cat, and separate her from her bag. Needless to say daughter and cat were not happy with me, somehow it had all turned out to be my fault.

Disclaimer; lesson learned, we made sure that we always picked up and put away our crackly bags as soon as we had taken the shopping out after that day.

I don’t have a photo of that dramatic episode because I was too busy laughing and then trying to catch her, but here are some safe bag pics of her in one of her favourite places.