On Saturday we started our training for the 26 mile walk that we will be completing in September for The Alzheimer’s Society. Thomas’ parents had come up for the weekend and so we set off nice and early to walk part of the Ridgeway from Tring to Wendover with their dog Barney. Just before we left I noticed Barney’s food in a plastic tub within his food bowl so I pushed it to the back of the worktop to prevent the cats from knocking it off.

Many hours later we returned only to find the bowl smashed to smithereens on the floor with very little of Barney’s food left… All the cats were asleep so it couldn’t possibly been any of them… We worked out that they had eaten about one and a half doggy meals in a very short space of time.

Barney had always told us that cats weren’t to be trusted and any time he spends in our house is spent on high alert with cats wary of dog but still happy to taunt him and dog petrified of cats but still willing to cooperate in mutual staring and growling.

All cats were lounging about in a full tummy type fashion and I was furious and told them there would be no dinner that evening. I did feel a tad guilty incase it wasn’t all of them involved but strangely no-one ever asked for dinner. There was no yelling, ganging up, tripping up, standing on tables, pointing at bowls or pawing at the food cupboard door.

At about 9pm Scooter puked a giant dog food sausage so he was certainly involved in the conspiracy and then…

When I got up in the morning; Alsan peed on the floor infront of the litter tray in the bathroom so I put tissue on it only for Scooter to pee on top of the tissue! There were diarrhoeay smears all over the window sills. Alot of poo everywhere and Scooter was found to be eating dog food flavoured cat vom at the back of the garden. My cats are revolting!!!

On Tuesday we had a very anaemic cat in who needed a blood transfusion so I volunteered two of mine. A donor cat needs to be in good health, over 4KG and not too old. Icatcare blood transfusion advice. I drove all the way home from Abingdon to Bicester to pick up my two biggest, healthiest boys. I can safely say that one of them would make an excellent blood donor and the other one most certainly would not.

Arthur is a very good boy, most amenable, letting us clip his neck for a jugular blood sample, prep it with spirit and then take 5mls of blood to type, match and check for diseases. No problem. OK, he howled all the way in the car and looked a bit worried but generally he was ok. He had the odd Dreamie or two to say thank you.

Aslan, on the other hand, puked on the way, not cat food but dog food. A different dog food to the other day with colourful bits in it. I do not own a dog. We have few dogs living near us. He ate a hell of a lot. When we tried to take blood he turned into a whirling dervish with claws, teeth and fluff all over the place. He growled and went all stiff and bitey but was quite happy to help himself to as many Dreamies as possible. Not a good candidate. Lucy, our lovely vet pointed out that he could be a donor but she was not, under any circumstances going to be his vet!

Unfortunately, the puss cat who was poorly was put to sleep as the owners felt she was too far gone to help but all was not in vain as my boss decided to pay for Arthur to be blood typed so that he can be a donor in the future. We need to make him a little donor card and his blood type will be on his records from now on.

When we got home both cats were treated to a rare sachet of wet food very much to everyone else’s disgust. Aslan has some whopping bruises on his neck but Arthur is fine.

Aslan having a treat

Aslan ignoring us

Arthur enjoying his dinner