Black Cat Stan

Sophie and Marcel saved me when I was dying – as you can see from my first entry in this blog at the beginning of this new life. This is Sophie’s photo of me as I was sitting at her feet in August (2023). I still recognise her and her son when I see them even though it is nearly six years since they rescued me. They sent me to HAWS, the local cat charity which got the vets to operate on me and saved my life. I do look handsome which is, of course, how I want to look! I’ve turned out well, haven’t I?

I had a visitor in August on my human’s birthday (my birthday is in May!). The visitor gave me a treat and took my photograph in my garden on my chair. My pose wasn’t quite ready but you get the idea.

I like sitting in the sun on my cushion in the garden. The only trouble is that it has been a wet summer and my cushion gets wet and I don’t always notice and now I have a cough. I heard something about ‘vets’ and I am not pleased.

Occasionally I pay a visit to Mrs Tiddles at number 2. I know she’s there but she doesn’t come down to see me. i can hear her at the window. She looks down at me. I am not sure if she is purring or growling.

Mrs Tiddles’ human said this photograph of us looks like Romeo and Juliet. I don’t think she likes me. What a waste of a handsome cat like me!

My human has been learning to walk again so I haven’t been doing much apart from sleeping. I have tried to get her to play with me. She does sometimes but the the effort is too much and I have to have a snooze!

Before Christmas my human disappeared for three days. When she came back she was carried to the sofa on the lower ground floor and a lot of people came in with her and didn’t leave her alone until the evening. Then I could go and speak to her. She couldn’t move and I had to go right up to her to get her to speak to me and stroke me. I slept on the chair by her bed. She left the fire on all night so it was nice and warm. She couldn’t walk so I went and lay on her legs to make them better.

This went on for a long time. She couldn’t play with me or brush me or let me out. She walked about on sticks. She never left the house. People came to feed her and me and the birds in the garden. I was on duty all the time. I kept her company and slept on her bed and woke her up in the morning and checked she was ok during the night. All that was fine but when she did start to get better she got this man to come and see me and give me ‘vaccinations’. I was fed up – after all I had done for her! I am sulking.

I am in bad mood. My human is very busy and I have had to bully her into paying attention to me. We have had people staying in my bed – so I have to sleep on her bed. We have had people going in and out with ladders and telephones and big boots – all over the house. No privacy! I have found a new hiding place where no-one can see me! But… things aren’t too bad now. No foxes! The birds have come back! No tiger cat from next door but one – he’s learnt his lesson! I can lie on the roof in the sun again. Maybe my mood isn’t so bad! 👿

I am Stan’s human. He has been very lazy recently and not kept up his blog. He had a bad summer when it was very hot – 40 degrees – and I wet his coat to try and cool him down. Then he went and lay on a hot stone step so I think I chilled him too much. We were besieged with foxes which he didn’t like. Anyway he got giardia and was very unwell. I took him to the vet who turned out to be a cat whisperer. Stan hates all humans, apart from Agi the cleaner, but he really loved this lady. Alison. She told me that since she was three or four she knew she had this affinity with cats. Stan was calm – and so was I! However he was really clever at spitting out the blue pills she gave us and I found them under the furniture but his symptoms stopped and he has been fine ever since.

I have been in the wars.  Cat fights aren’t what they used to be.  I don’t give much of a warning before I start a fight but I like to make a lot of noise when I am seeing off the neighbourhood cats.  This time I think a human heard me and interfered and showered me with water.  Anyway, I’ve got a bad ear now so have had to retreat for a while until it gets better.  I lie on the roof and dream.

The foxes are still here!  I smell them every day. A man has been round and thrown something nasty smelling around the garden but it doesn’t work.  They were watching my cat fight – taking bets I’m sure as to which one of us would win. My human doesn’t feed them, but they still get on the roof and look through the windows.  They want to move in.  They think life is pretty cushy in my home.

I wish I could unzip my fur coat and lie around without it.  It is so hot.  Trouble is – everyone thinks I look handsome with my black shiny coat and gold eyes – naked I would not be a pretty sight!

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ewE-5y9jFG0

That fox was here again. And the guide dog! No peace round here. I have to go upstairs onto my human’s very comfy bed to get away from all this riff raff. I have grown a white whisker among my black ones and I have white streaks running though my immaculate black fur. I have to keep my human busy brushing me to keep me looking handsome.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/M7VWXJnzLxc

I am sulking! I had to have a face off with the tabby cat who now seems to live on my territory. My human was calling and calling me but I couldn’t leave: I had to spend a couple of hours eyeballing him to let him know this is where I live. Today I had to spend a long time on the garden wall outside what I think is his home to establish that I am boss. Later I saw him exactly where I had been sitting, but that’s OK, I made my point.