Rubber Noses and Rubber Toeses

Guardian of the Sandals

2009-07-02T10:40:00.001+01:00

I'm Gorgeous

2009-06-30T14:10:00.002+01:00

My brothers and sisters are a gorgeous as I am. Why don't you let one of them adopt you? Look at them HERE and then tell me you don't want one!

A New Week, A New Friend

2009-06-29T10:33:00.002+01:00

The First Step Is Always The Steepest

2009-06-28T03:55:00.000+01:00

Gimme Shelter

2009-06-27T16:25:00.000+01:00

TGIF

2009-06-26T13:40:00.000+01:00

^..^ Fridays may be special to you, but to me every day is Friday. Later I'll wander through the house and frighten my two older brothers!

Kitten Eaten By Giant Frog

2009-06-24T17:31:00.001+01:00

^..^ Having eaten the kitten in a single gulp, the Felinious Ingesticus frog subsequently failed to digest it's meal, gave up and died. The kitten can be seen here as it claws it's way out of the gaping jaws of doom.

1 down, 8 to go.

Catastrophe - copied from Algarvean Daze

2009-06-23T14:29:00.000+01:00

When I wrote some time ago about our Portuguese neighbour's cat being likely to present us with a litter of fur-squirm, this was done based upon the fact that as it was the neighbour's cat, should she drop multiple bundles of joy somewhere in my shed, I could ultimately devolve responsibility for the furry felines, and pass the parcel back to the neighbour. As it happened, the anticipated event never took place, albeit not for the lack of trying on behalf of the aforementioned kitty. Twice she has now aborted part-term, so maybe it will turn out that she never does become a problem of the type I wrote about.

Not all cats fare equally. Recently, a friend took pity on five kittens, unceremoniously dumped on the day of their birth, and has lovingly and successfully hand-reared the entire litter from wet, blind, scrambling fur into a sibling menagerie of home-seeking purr-fur.

They are now at the age where they are ready to adopt new humans. Reluctant as my friend may be, she needs now to allow them to grace the homes and lives of others. At the time of writing this, it appears that two of the five are already spoken for. The remaining three are here now for you. It's a sad fact of Algarvean life that animals are so frequently abandoned at birth. The sanctuaries, normally so willing to assist in situation such as this, are currently unable to provide temporary shelter, and my friend finds herself in a position where she really must find proper homes for the kitties, and soon.

You can help. Maybe you want to share your love with a new pet. Maybe you know someone else who would happily take on a new lodger. However it pans out, please help us help the little guys. Drop an email to kittens@algarveandaze.com and help us re-home the remaining furballs.

C'mon, look at the picture. How can you say no?

Red

2009-04-08T11:58:00.000+01:00

I never have been able to give a cat a single name. An official name yes, but then I always end up bestowing a nickname upon the critter. (If the truth be known, all animals could probably be given the same name - 'Food'. It's amazing how they all respond to this name being called!) In our case, we named him 'Red' because of his colouring, but he soon became my 'Ruddy Buddy'.

About the time our neighbour's cat came into season, Red appeared. Visits were sporadic at first, but as the days passed he became a more frequent visitor. For more than a month now every morning Red has been ready to start the day content with a breakfast made up of our other two's leftovers. And leftovers were always the intent - nothing more. Hah!

As the days progressed Red not only decided to spend more time with us, he also decided that provided we kept feeding him more and better titbits he would grace us with his presence more frequently. This familiarity growing, to the extent that home to Red has become a chair in our outdoor living room, a nest so comfortable that sleep in there could only be interrupted by the sounds of stirrings around the kitchen, ultimately resulting in another day's pequeno almoco.

With his non-existent knowledge of English, it fell upon us to translate his increasingly frequent conversations. 'Miau' became feed me, 'miau miau' became FEED ME, 'miau miau miau' became FEED ME NOW!

Never scared by our approach or by visiting friends, Red showed all the docile signs of having at one time being someone else's pet. Well, not any more. He adopted us. He even purred for me a few days ago. Mind you, I was in the process of feeding him!

After much discussion about whether we should allow Red into the inner circle, last night we took the decision that Red should join our others in full house privileges. So today, the plans are for trip to the vets for worming, jabs, and a general once-over, as we were concerned that even with his constant eating he was gaining no weight.

But this morning Red did not appear on the patio at breakfast time. We found him eternally sleeping on the chair he came to know as home. My Ruddy Buddy was gone.

Although we never heard his last words. I would like to think that they just may have been 'meow'.

Algarve Pet Sitters

2009-03-02T11:05:00.000Z

With so many cats, dogs and other assorted furry and feathered friends living among us it is good to know that more and more people are taking to using pet sitting services when they go on their holidays.

The only problem with using such service providers is finding such service providers. And having found them, finding ones that are available on the dates required.

Fortunately there is now a service that scans for available pet sitters on your behalf. Algarve Pet Sitters restricts its activities to southern Portugal, but if you live in the Algarve it could be just the service you need. More details at ALGARVE PET SITTERS

Introducing Petal

2009-02-15T15:41:00.000Z

Although we've already featured Petalinha, let us take the opportunity to formally introduce her.

Petalinha, or Petal, is not our cat. She owns our neighbours, goes by the name of Kika there, but has decided that bigamy is more fun.

Being so, she has taken to our Calvos, spends most of her time here, and has found at least 17 ways to sneak into the house to eat Calvos's and Magic Sam's food.

I'm in love with her and want to katnap her.

Calvos and His Valentine Petalinha

2009-02-14T15:57:00.000Z

RNRT Starts Again

2009-02-05T12:03:00.000Z

Following on from what seemed like a good idea at the time, we are back. Hopefully this time there will not be a gap of years between postings.

Since the original post both Puschka and her brother Skwij have gone, but their adopted brother of many years, Magic Sam, is still quite happily with us.

Additionally, we now have Calvos, a rubbish-bin rescue cat who is frankly a few bricks short of a load. Reminiscences about his arrival may well punctuate future posts.

Follow the lives of our little-bitty-buddies here at Rubber Noses and Rubber Toeses.