Robert Hampton

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Cats

2nd January 2009

2008? More like Two WOW-sand and Eight!

July started with my lovely pet cat doing his bit for vermin control. Liverpool One claimed its latest fashion victim, as yours truly bought a glorified school satchel manbag. Metro horrified public transport users across the country with a picture of a henna tattoo gone wrong. London Transport’s Oyster smartcard suffered a serious glitch, proving that the only proper travelcard system is one where you scratch the date off with a coin before sealing it with a bit of sticky-back plastic.

In the middle of the month I suddenly remembered that I have a Friends Reunited profile, then remembered why I never use Friends Reunited.

Another triumph for Liverpool’s culture year came with the amazing Tall Ships festival. It was well worth braving the long queues to enjoy the variety of sailing ships assembled from all over the world.

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4th July 2008

Cat Scan
Posted by at 11.53pm | Cats | 2 responses

In honour of American Independence Day, and in lieu of anything else to post, here is my cat, Max, and his latest victim:-

Max catches a mouse

Before you complain, remember The Lion King — it’s all part of the circle of life. Elton John said so!

17th November 2007

A wake-up call
Posted by at 5.15pm | Cats, In the News | No responses

The United Nations have warned that climate change is causing irreperable damage and we must act now to… no, wait, I’m sorry; I’m getting news that a cat is doing something interesting:-

A cat is baffling his owner by wandering off at night before expecting to be collected by car every morning at exactly the same time and place.

Sgt Podge, a Norwegian Forest Cat, disappears from his owner’s home in Talbot Woods, Bournemouth, every night.

It’s perfectly understandable: if I’d been given the name Sgt Podge, I’d want to get away from the person who applied it to me too.

9th April 2007

Cat and mouse
Posted by at 12.49am | Cats | No responses

Max the CatI’ve spent the last half hour at the window, watching Max (our cat) expertly catch, play with and — eventually — kill an unfortunate mouse.

From a strictly moral standpoint I suppose I should have intervened to stop this gory spectacle, but from an entertainment viewpoint it was an excellent night’s viewing. Isn’t Mother Nature wonderful? It’s like God’s version of Zone Reality.

The only problem is, now Max is sitting at the door wanting to come in… AND HE STILL HAS IT IN HIS MOUTH!

26th July 2006

Sore pussy
Posted by at 1.15pm | Cats | No responses

Poor little Max has been suffering, bless him. Everything was fine until Monday night, but he was limping quite badly when I got home from work and couldn’t put any weight on one of his paws at all.

His leg was obviously painful, but he seemed otherwise fine, and I wasn’t too worried until I phoned up the vet first thing yesterday morning, where the receptionist, upon hearing my description of the problem, said, “you should bring him in as soon as possible — he might have been hit by a car.”

She then berated me for not coming in with him straight away and generally made me feel like the worst cat owner in the world.

Anyway, it turned out that he had an abscess in his leg. He’s now had it removed, or lanced, or whatever you do to abscesses, and the vet has prescribed tablets to prevent against infection. “It’s easy to give tablets to a cat,” he assured us, “you just open the mouth and put the pill in.”

He doesn’t know Max like I do. But I’m happy to do it, because I love that cat. After all, abscess makes the heart grow fonder. (Ho ho!)

10th June 2006

Grin and Bear It
Posted by at 9.41pm | Cats, In the News | No responses

Cat chases bear away

If this cat is anything like my cat, I’m not in the least bit surprised. In fact, I’m amazed that things like this don’t happen more often.