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Wednesday 2 April 2008

We have a problem

Bringing up kids was never easy, but if you had problems with them in school or otherwise and other kids were involved you spoke to their parents or the teachers and the problems were nearly always solved. Now what do you do when the problems arise with the cats. I will begin at the beginning.

I have made a few blogs about our new cat in the area, who I call Garfield. Well today I found out that his real name is Roschti which is the Swiss German equivalent of Rusty - a good name for a mixed ginger cat you might be thinking. So how did I discover his name - I had a conversation with his human. The next question being how did I get into a conversation with his human. Perhaps the following photo will explain it - it was taken at six o'clock this morning in our living room.


Roschti the new cat in town

That is not one of our cats sleeping on the special cat play centre, that is Roschti, the new cat in the neighbourhood, also known as Garfield by me. This morning I was awakened by my alarm clock at six as usual. My first movement (after the visit that we all make first thing in the morning) is to see if my cats are at home and where they are. When I arrived in the living room I saw that Fluffy was walking around on his way to the kitchen and then I saw Roschti sleeping peacefully on my cat's play centre. He didn't even move his ears, he opened his eyes, saw me and closed them again. I had to alarm Mr. Swiss, whose first reaction was - take a photo. We Swiss have to keep every thing on record, so I took two, just to be sure.


Roschti the new cat in town



Tabby and Nera the other two cats had retreated to the spare room/office and were sitting there waiting to see what Mrs. Human was going to do with this intruder. First of all Mr. Swiss and I tried to get friendly with the newcomer, but he seemed to be on guard and answered with a pawing movement as if to say if you come nearer I will scratch. My next reaction was to clap very loudly. This seemed to do the trick as Roschti was back to ground level in no time and marched direction window which we opened and let him out.

I then went to work as everything seemed to be more or less back to normal. How did he get in? We have a cat flap which is closed for the cats indoors, meaning they can only go out if we open the door. This meant that when Roschti was in he was in and no chance he could get out on his own. The cat flap is steered by a magnet system. There is a magnet on the flap and our cats each have a collar with a magnet. When they come in the flap automatically opens, basically only for cats with the magnet. Roschti does not have a magnet. However, Roschti is stronger and a bit bigger than our cats and our stupid cats run away from Roschti and Roschti chases them. If he uses his full strength he can probably push his way through the cat flap when our cats are trying to escape. It was really a wonder that we didn't have a full cat fight at home through the night, but everything seemed to be quiet.

Next part in the plan of action was to visit Roschti's human. Mr. Swiss found this was something women can do better than men (I always knew if women ruled the world, it would be a much better place). Anyhow when I got home from work I went on the search for Mrs. Roschti. Suddenly the source of all feline evil crossed my path, so I following the ginger cat to his home and rung the bell. Roschti's human opened the door - a very nice woman (a bit younger than me, which is not so difficult) and we had a nice discussion about cats. I found her opening sentence was really sweet. She said that Roschti was a real renegade and yesterday night he didn't even come home. I explained that he stayed the night at our place and we both had to laugh. She told me his name is Roschti, because of his rust coloured coat, and also mentioned that his days here are numbered in this area (I had to suppress my smile of delight). Roschti actually belongs to her daughter who will soon be moving to where she can have a cat. The idea is that Roschti stays at home through the night, but mostly he is out for a moonlight stroll and does not come home.

Roschti has been operated and is a tom cat. His human did mention that they used to live next door to a dog owning family, but even their dog was frightened of Roschti (which didn't surprise me). At least we now know who this strange red haired cat belongs to, although I am not planning to stay up all night to see what happens. Mrs. Roschti did say that he does not like being drenched with cold water (already been done) and loud noises like clapping with your hands - also tried out. I really felt back to the days when my kids were at school, talking to their parents.

Perhaps my cats might get used to Roschti and sort of adopt him as big brother, but I don't think so. Funnily enough the only cat that is not frightened of him is our Fluffy. Perhaps it is because he is blind and just doesn't see him. Mr. Swiss told me that Fluffy was having a good sniff at the cat centre today where Roschti spent the night. We hope that Roschti finds his way home this evening and does not decide to make a sleepover at our place.


Any suggestions for an improvement of the situation are gladly accepted.


roschti

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