Chickens!

We did it! I am finally, as Gam put it, 'living the dream'.

2 weeks ago we got ourselves 2 chickens, a pair of scruffy ISA Browns. We had figured we'd be waiting a few years before we got ourselves a couple of chooks- that we'd first make sure we had proper fences, at least- but a work colleague of Gam's was giving away a couple of tame-ish chickens, so he volunteered to take them, and spent a weekend knocking together a rather nice coop for them in our concreted, unused 'pig-on-a-spit area'.

Given that the two chickens (as yet unnamed and referred to as 'Bad Chicken' and 'The Other One') had supposedly once been pets prior to residing with Gam's colleague's mother, I was surprised they were in such poor condition. They were underweight and their feathers were dull and patchy. I was a little worried that they might be a bit old, but we'd been told they were regular layers, and they were. I think that rather than being fed layer pellets and grain they'd merely been left to forage for their own food in the nice old lady's backyard.

Unfortunately they don't seem to know how to perch and have been roosting in and on one of the nest boxes, meaning I have to clean their poo out of it every day! Thankfully they lay in the other nest box!

Anyway, after a couple of days of ready access to feed they were already noticeably heavier. Two weeks on, they've grown more feathers and are much glossier and healthier looking than in these photos, though they are still missing a few feathers in places.

They are reasonably tame, though not as tame as the chickens I had growing up. They have each laid an egg every second day (on the same day, in the same nest box) since we got them, but I figured that frequency of laying would increase once they put on some condition, and we were duly rewarded with one extra egg on their 'off day' on Friday, so that's a good sign.

It's so nice having home-grown eggs- they are noticeably fresher than bought eggs, and I love knowing they come from happy chickens. The girls are mostly confined in their yard, but I let them out for a scratch in the dirt most days, which they love. They dug up the herb garden (which survived), and my Mum and I went for a walk after forgetting we'd let them out and came back to find them scratching in our neighbour's yard! Oops! Thankfully we have great neighbours and no damage was done, but Gam was a bit cranky with me and started muttering something about 'stew' when he found out...

Gam is already talking about getting a couple more chickens- I'm keen on getting a couple of heritage-breed chicks (I have always wanted to own some cool-looking fancy breeds... I once had silkies and they were great) from one of the local places that sells them- but I want to wait a while, as baby chicks need a lot of care and attention if they are to become as tame as I'd like, and when Setri is a little bit older he will get a lot of enjoyment out of raising some, I reckon.

First eggs! Of course I had to photograph them!

Strange cat behaviour episode

It goes without saying that Feifei and Xiaoxiao, wary of even their 'grandparents' and our friends who have met them many times before, are utterly terrified of tradies. So much so that when Gam hired a ute a couple of weeks ago to pick up the lounge from our old place (the Salvos and Lifeline both agreed to pick it up and then didn't show!!), they fled in terror when he pulled into the driveway.

Xiaoxiao is not as much of a natural-born coward as Feifei, who has been spending every day for the past week cowering behind the piano in 'the baby's room' for as long as tradies are in and out renovating our bathroom. Xiaoxiao sometimes prefers to come out and spend her time with me in the study or, when permitted, watching the tradies while hiding under the coffee table.

I think I've mentioned before that Feifei and Xiaoxiao pretty much get on like a house on fire. Xiaoxiao absolutely adores Feifei, loves him to bits to the point where I think he finds her attentions and playfulness a bit irritating. Nevertheless, when he thinks no-one is looking he can often be spotted grooming her affectionately, and late at night they have an absolute ball chasing each other around the house and playing.

Yesterday, however, something very strange happened.

Feifei took advantage of the bathroom window being left open by our builder to escape outside. Gam and I had no idea. I was napping in the bedroom when Gam came in and noticed the bush turkeys and topknot pigeons near the bedroom window. We were talking about these when Gam spied Feifei outside. Immediately I lumbered out of bed (you wouldn't believe how hard and painful this is these days! Hip problems. Will whinge later...) and pulled on some clothes, figuring I'd better hurry as Feifei would take off in preference to being hauled inside. Gam was muttering darkly about leaving the little bastard to his fate, while I protested that I needed to rescue my baby as he had no idea what he was doing... we were then interrupted by a desperate wail from Feifei. He wanted to come in!

I hobbled to open the back door, and Feifei eagerly pushed his way inside. That's when I noticed he was panting rapidly. Bit strange. The last time we saw him panting was when he was a kitten- we'd play with him, getting him to chase things, and he never knew when to give up. This time was a bit different. His breathing was very shallow and his tongue was really hanging out. Despite this, he showed no signs of distress, seemed alert and greeted us as if nothing was wrong (and as if he had no idea how completely ridiculous he looked with his tongue hanging out!). I googled his symptoms, and the only thing that really came up was heat stroke. It was hot outside, but not that hot. Still, this seemed the most likely explanation.

I took Feifei to his bowl to see if he was thirsty, but instead he started eating biscuits. He couldn't have been too dehydrated if he was doing that, I figured. What came next was very weird indeed.

Feifei walked into the hallway and came nose to nose with Xiaoxiao. Xiaoxiao shrank back, flattened her ears, screwed up her face and hissed at Feifei. She then crouched down and started growling and snarling. Neither of them have ever behaved that way towards the other previously, and the only time Xiaoxiao has done anything like that was when our neighbour's cat came to the door one and tried to start a fight with them (Xiaoxiao was more terrified at the time than anything). Feifei appeared rather bemused and wounded by this. He was still panting, and lay down to relax.

Anyway, this strange behaviour from Xiaoxiao went on for a couple of hours. Any time Feifei would come near her, she would snarl and hiss and start growling. Gam took a great amount of perverted pleasure in picking up Feifei and dumping him in front of Xiaoxiao so she would hiss and spit at him. Even when Feifei passed Xiaoxiao in the hallway she would growl at him. By the late afternoon, Feifei was no longer panting and Xiaoxiao's behaviour had diminished to giving Feifei dirty looks and hurrying in the opposite direction whenever he came near her. By nightfall they were good mates again.


And I still have no idea what the hell was going on...

The character assassination of the brush turkey

Who, me?

Sheer fucking journalistic brilliance. In this article, Fairfax’s John Huxley equates bush turkeys (a.k.a. brush turkeys) with cane toads, and damage to a hypothetical pensioner’s chrysanthemums by a turkey with the broad-scale environmental devastation cause by cane toads.

Oh, and I've been informed by the intrepid Huxley- after living in Brisbane for nigh on 8 years, encountering a great number of bush turkeys myself and never once realising- that they’re ‘noisy’. Funny, because it was several years before I ever heard a turkey make a noise, and that was when one visiting our back balcony was surprised by our cat, Feifei, and made a soft booming noise in its throat when it realised the creature from which it had been fleeing was in fact significantly smaller than itself. Huxley also implies, through poor writing rather than malign intention, that bush turkeys are responsible for the displacement of small songbirds- a preposterous notion given that they fill entirely different ecological niches.

The article may be tongue-in-cheek in some sections, but it is an absolute travesty to compare a perfectly harmless native bird to the poisonous destroyer of native fauna that is the cane toad. The last thing we need is anyone cultivating such a perception among the general public and leading the usual nut jobs (possum killers, crow-poisoners et al.) to feel justified in killing bush turkeys.

Feifei and Xiaoxiao at home

Adopting a cat? Consider UQ.

From the most recent staff newsletter:

==================
Finding a loving home would be the cat's whiskers
UQ's School of Veterinary Science has a number of cats desperately looking for loving new homes. Rescued from the pound, they have been cared for by University researchers while they have taken part in a study and now it is time for them to be adopted. There are both male and female cats of all ages. They are all desexed, vaccinated, wormed and micro-chipped. Details: Renee or Nicole on 3365 3064.
==================

UQ's small animal clinic also has a profile and lists animals up for adoption on Pet Rescue, the website on which we found our lovely Xiaoxiao. There's a link in the sidebar on the right-hand side of the page :)

Cage eggs producer fined for cruelty.

From the Hobart Mercury:

A MARGATE egg producer has been fined $3000 for leaving decomposing chicken carcases in cages with live hens.

[...]

[Department of Primary Industries agricultural officer Colin Jessup] did an audit of Balke's Minchins Rd farm on March 4 last year and removed 18 dead birds from cages that housed live laying hens.

"The birds were easy to detect by the smell of decomposing tissues," Mr Jessup said.

It appeared many of the hens had been dead for up to two weeks and one was being cannibalised.

"The carcases had been trodden on and were pressed deeply into the mesh on the bottom of the cage," Mr Jessup said.

"Some had manure on top of them and I noted eggs laid by the other birds in the cage either on top of or against the decomposing birds."

Yummy!

Anyone who buys cage eggs has rocks in their head.

Also, a $3000 fine is not nearly enough. That guy ought to have been banned from owning chickens. It's well overdue that cage egg production was banned altogether and standards to define 'free range' egg production should be set in stone- without consultation with any of the big producers. Too bad if people want to eat cheap shit from abused animals and will whinge if the cost of eggs goes up by a couple of dollars a box. Deal with it- or get your own chooks.

Xiaoxiao and Feifei, May 2009

November 2008:




May 2009:

With 'Grandma', May 2009:

Xiaoxiao in a bucket

Xiaoxiao doesn't seem to be getting a whole lot bigger these days (at ~7-8 months of age), but for a short while she seemed to be getting rapidly larger in the horizontal sense. She has always made a point of stealing Feifei's food (Feifei, even when he was five times her size never seemed to think he could stand up to her!), but it really started to show for a while, with Feifei dropping a kilo or two and Xiaoxiao stacking the same amount on. She also seems to have a sixth sense when it comes to food, and magically appears whenever I try to sneak some to Feifei.

Despite the food-stealing, they're still getting on like a house on fire. Xiaoxiao hasn't yet realised that things she could do easily when she was a trim little kitten are no longer possible as a budding fatty.






She is, however, still a furry bundle of cuddles- none of that 'defiant teenager' stuff yet (though she has a definite naughty streak). Without being unkind, I have also concluded that she is nowhere near as bright as Feifei. Unfortunately, Feifei recently made a very silly mistake and ventured across the road. Luckily Gam was watching and called me. Feifei hid under some old guy's house and refused to come when I called him, before finally coming after I gave it one more try before we gave up and went inside. Needless to say, Feifei is never, ever being allowed out again after that- the front balcony is going to be his only experience of the outdoors without a leash from now on. We've never allowed Xiaoxiao out, partly because we think she'd actually be capable of killing wildlife, unlike Feifei, but mostly because she is bolder and we feared she'd be more likely to explore outside the grounds of the complex. It took Feifei more than 5 years to go there, but eventually he did... so now he's cooped up inside full-time, much to his chagrin. It's a shame, but it's much better than having him hit by a car.

Froggy, the lizard eater?

I'm starting to suspect that Froggy is making a meal of more than just the cockroaches, slugs etc in our garden... I'm starting to suspect, given his favourite haunts, that Froggy is eating geckos, though I have yet to catch him in the act. That would explain why he seems to be getting so fat so quickly! As long as he also dines out on big, nasty American cockroaches I don't mind what he does... besides, he has a cute smiley face. He could get away with anything, being so cute.

Bat slaughter inhumane: bring it on, says Borg.

So... NSW is currently the only state in Australia to allow the wholesale slaughter of fruit bats. A new study has shown that on these killing rampages, the bats die slow, extremely painful deaths. What's more, because a large number of them are lactating females, baby bats are left to starve to death.

Concurrently, Queensland's wannabe-Premier, Lawrence Springborg, announces that he's going to change the law to allow the shooting of fruit bats in Queensland.

Yee-hah! Bring on the killing! Way to go to ruin your carefully cultivated non-redneck image, 'Borg.

Resident pink-tongued lizard

Well, after seeing the tail of our newest resident disappearing into the bushes a couple of weeks ago, he/she deigned to make an appearance. In the evening, oddly. I was correct in my tentative identification of it as a pink-tongued lizard, however the snooty little blighter steadfastly refused to poke its tongue out for a photo. Maybe pink-tongues don't do that? That leaves the mystery of how a small, non-climbing lizard was able to make its way up the high back wall to our garden...

'Froggy'

This is the frog that has been visiting us on an almost nightly basis, pictured here on his equal-favourite perch, the compost bin (his other favourite is the wall). 'He' seems more used to us now and didn't seem to mind me taking the photo, however I only took the one as I didn't want to dazzle him with the flash and interrupt his hunting. In the last week or so he has developed a kind of golden/russet sheen on his skin, which is a bit strange... I'm hoping it's not some kind of froggy skin condition. It seems plausible that 'Froggy' could be this frog that I brought home once after finding him in the road, however seeing as we've spotted him in various areas of the complex gardens at night it seems he's perfectly capable of climbing our high back wall. I'm pretty sure he hasn't been living with us for the entire year or we would have seen more of him!

Xiaoxiao and Feifei, February 2009

Whenever I try and get a photo of these two together lately it always seems to turn out awful! It has to work on the first shot or I get nothing because Feifei hates having his photo taken, and Xiaoxiao always jumps up to try and inspect the camera... *sigh*. In this instance, Gam was sitting on the couch playing Halo 3, with Xiaoxiao and Feifei snuggled up against him... he complained because his arse was going to be in the photo so I've airbrushed it out, making a bad photo even worse... still, I go all fuzzy inside when I see Feifei and Xiaoxiao snuggled up together! I don't mind Gam's arse either, incidentally...

Xiaoxiao is getting to be a bit of a worry with her vacuum-cleaner-like habits when it comes to food. Feifei has always been a slow eater, and he has actually lost some weight lately because Xiaoxiao has been shoving him off his bowl and polishing his food off for him. Sure he needed to lose a bit of weight, but it's no good transferring the weight problem from one pet to another!

Xiaoxiao also gave me a scare the other day by attempting to guzzle a bowl of avocado mixed with a bit of shanklish that I had been eating with flat bread. I figured that the chilli in the shanklish, and the avocado would deter her from eating it when I got up for a minute to get a glass of water... I came back to find Xiaoxiao greedily eating the shanklish/avocado mixture... Avocado is poisonous (in large quantities) to cats! We've really had to unlearn a lot of habits with Xiaoxiao around... She's really quite dreadful in a lot of respects, with regard to her behaviour, especially when compared to Feifei, who is pretty much the perfect cat (apart from shedding enough of his woolly hair to knit jumpers with- no fault of his own!) but she is just so loveable... she actually enjoys being hugged- squeezed even- and is always demanding cuddles. Just adorable :)

Pet round-up

We bought Xiaoxiao her first collar last weekend, and she took to it really well. Didn't mind a bit. Unlike Feifei who, when he first got a collar, used to go outside for the day and come back sporting evidence of having tried to remove it. We got Feifei a matching one because his bell fell off a little while back, and his current, 5-year-old collar wasn't looking so hot.

Keith Richards is sporting a bald patch. I think it might be due to the recent rain making his side of the garden a big damper than usual, maybe irritating him or encouraging mites, so I gave him a bath, massaged a little macadamia oil into his bald spot and let him out into the non-Keith-Richards side of the garden, which gets a bit more sun. He's already decimated the rockmelon vines that were growing there, but I only let them grow so I could feed them to him, so it doesn't matter.

'Possposs' the brushtail possum has been visiting almost every night, probably eating Keith Richards' fruit scraps I guess. We used to have a ringtail possum visit us regularly to eat sweet potato leaves, but 'Possposs' seems to be here for the fruit. He announced his first visit to our balcony by climbing up the screen door at some ungodly hour, making Gam and I both jump up awake and wonder who the hell was trying to break into our bedroom!

We've had regular visits from a green tree frog! I'm reasonably sure that it's not this one, but given the rather scruffy condition that one was in I suppose I wouldn't recognise it if it had spruced itself up a bit. It has been sitting on either of the back walls, or on our compost bin to hunt, showing up every couple of days. It must climb up the back wall, as we've seen it hunting in the main gardens of the complex, too. I love frogs, so it really makes my day when I see 'our' frog stopping by our tiny balcony garden.

Finally, I stopped off to give Keith Richards some food a week or so ago and spotted the body and tail of what I thought must be the biggest gecko I'd ever seen, moving slowly out of KR's area and into the plants bordering it... It then occurred to me that geckos never move that slowly, so I took a better look at it. Its rear feet were dragging like those of a bluetongue lizard, and had pale tan markings that kind of resembled that of a bluetongue but, having been acquainted with the bluetongue's bad-tempered cousin, I thought it might even be a pink-tongued lizard. Either way it wasn't a gecko, meaning some baby lizard has somehow got itself up the wall and into our garden. That's a new one.

Xiaoxiao: Stale beer = piss

I'm fairly sure I've mentioned before that Xiaoxiao is rather fond of beer- as long as it has been made a little bit flat, because she doesn't like the bubbles- as a side note, she also appears keen on gin & tonic as long as the bubbles are taken out.

Anyway, we had a barbeque on the Australia Day long weekend. The day after the barbeque, Gam was about to take out the recycling when he noticed beer dripping from the box and onto the floor- obviously one of the bottles had some beer left in it. Because Xiaoxiao happened to be hanging around we figured we'd point it out to her, thinking maybe she would like stale beer.

Gam showed Xiaoxiao the spilled beer, which she dutifully sniffed. She sniffed it so carefully we actually thought she was about to give it a taste. Instead, she stopped sniffing the beer and began pawing the ground as if she'd just been to the toilet and was trying to cover up the stale beer!

So there you go- it's not just an expression... stale beer is piss.

Quaddro II

Quaddro II with fly.

The day before yesterday I saw a little huntsman spider sitting on one of the stairs in the front foyer. With only 4 legs, all on one side of its body, and a shrivelled little abdomen I figured it must be dead, but I poked it and it moved so I went into our place to get a glass and a piece of paper and capture it.

Quaddro I had two pairs of legs on opposite sides of his body; I thought for sure at the time that he'd been very lucky not to have lost 4 all on one side, thinking it must be impossible for a spider to survive. After all, Quaddro I was significantly movement-impaired, forced to engage in a slow and deliberate walk rather than a huntsman's speedy scuttle.

Quaddro II isn't nearly as movement-impaired as I had expected, luckily for him/her/it (hereafter I think Quaddro II shall be a 'he') that doesn't seem to be the case. He doesn't move around much voluntarily, but when I put a fly in he had no trouble pouncing on it. Believe it or not, the day I found him was so hot I could not find a single fly- normally the little bastards are crawling in through holes in the flyscreen or flying in as soon as the screen door is opened for a millisecond. We also don't have a grasshopper problem this year, so no baby grasshoppers either. It was almost 24 hours before I could find Quaddro II a single fly, but I had put a drop or two of water in the glass so he could have a drink if needed. He certainly looked happier once I gave him the fly, not letting it go until it was an unrecognisable scrunched up little black ball. Hopefully in a week or two he will have grown some new legs and life won't be so precarious.

Fat and happy after eating the fly!

Xiaoxiao, 2 months on.

Hiding in a doona that was headed for the wash, a couple of weeks ago.

Xiaoxiao, as expected, just keeps getting bigger and bigger. It's more noticeable with her than it was with Feifei, as Feifei was ~12 weeks old when we got him, as opposed to Xiaoxiao's 6. She also has one heck of an appetite. Feifei really lives up to his name ('Fatty') these days, but for years his dainty eating habits meant he stayed pretty slim. Xiaoxiao, on the other hand, inhales her food and seems to grow before our very eyes.

She's much sookier than Feifei- clingy, even. But that has diminished somewhat. She no longer cries if she is left alone in a room, for instance, but she will cry if she is left alone in the house (and vocally remonstrate with us upon our return if we leave her alone without Feifei for company). She still purrs when I pick her up for a cuddle... I can't remember if Feifei ever used to do that all the time, but I think he used to be fairly intolerant of cuddles when he was little... these days he likes them but he doesn't purr as readily for me as he does for Gam... he adores Gam. Xiaoxiao adores everyone, but adores Feifei most of all. He still grooms her every time he gets a chance, as if she's still some dirty little urchin. It's so cute to watch. One thing I love about her is that when she gets tired she gets really clingy and climbs onto my lap for cuddles... awww :)



I would say she's not so much of a handful as she was now that she has grown up a bit- my hands don't seem to constantly be covered in bites and scratches from small, sharp teeth and claws, for instance. Previously, interactions consisted of two extremes: battles and cuddles and nothing in between. In the last week or so it seems she really only has battles with Feifei, and god is it hilarious to watch them going after each other. Now that she is a bit bigger, they have 'boxing' matches... Feifei is still capable of just throwing her to the ground with one paw if he gets sick of the action, but Xiaoxiao fights dirty, leaping on Feifei from behind if he pauses for a drink or to wash himself. We've had hours of free entertainment just watching them go at each other.




One more interesting difference between Feifei and Xiaoxiao is that Feifei has never liked to be covered- not by bedsheets or boxes or anything. We wondered if maybe he'd had a negative experience with being covered before we adopted him... Xiaoxiao, conversely, finds endless entertainment by hopping into the blue woolies or coles chiller bags and hiding out, or hopping into boxes or under the sheets (when it's warm enough to use them). She really is much more 'cat-like' than Feifei. We haven't bought her any new toys because she is constantly amusing herself with other things- one toy belonging to Feifei has been plenty, along with shopping bags and screwed up balls of paper... thankfully she seems to have stopped raiding dirty tissues from the bin and carrying them around the house in her mouth, though.

Best of all, we've had no 'little accidents' (or deliberates) around the place- she seems to be very conscientious about using the litter tray these days... and thank heavens for that.

Upon my Mum's suggestion, we took her for a ride in the car the other day. Mum (clearly thinking of us going to visit with her 'grandcats' in tow) told us we should try and get her acclimatised to riding in the car... Mum used to have a cat who loved trips in the car, mostly because she received treats, but also because she started the rides at an early age. So Xiaoxiao came to the video store with us- and actually handled the trip very well. By the end of it she was sitting behind the front seat purring and not wanting to get out! Must try and get some photos next time...

Xiaoxiao: meet the (Grand) parents

Mum and Dad took the news of our 'illegal' cat as well as could be expected. Mum, of course, fell in love with Xiaoxiao at first sight. Dad engaged in some relatively mild finger-wagging, noting that the body corporate rules didn't allow it, blah blah blah... I countered by pointing out that technically we aren't allowed to hang our clothes out to dry on our balcony either, but we still do it (is that ever a stupid, backward, environmentally-unfriendly rule or what?! All for keeping up appearances, of course). Today he again criticised us (me) for getting her, saying she would 'restrict' us... That kind of fell flat, given that we already have Feifei and he doesn't exactly cramp our style by making it difficult for us to schedule our overseas holidays... given that we can't afford overseas holidays! But I suppose Dad, while not exactly liking the situation, can see the inevitability of it. After all, illegal or not, I'm not the sort of person to ever dump or get rid of a pet, regardless of my personal circumstances. That I allowed Mum and Dad to adopt out my two pet silky chickens a year or so after I left home still eats at me.

Feifei, ever the anti-social beastie that he is, even towards his doting grandmother, avoided spending time with my parents by staying outdoors for much of the day during the time they were here. My parents seemed convinced that he was spending less time with them than usual because he was jealous of Xiaoxiao- I showed them the picture above, taken yesterday, to prove otherwise. Feifei doesn't want to spend his every waking minute with Xiaoxiao, but from the amount of play they engage in and the way they sleep together, the way he conscientiously grooms her when she stops wriggling long enough to allow it, I am fairly sure Feifei has absolutely no 'issues' arising from Xiaoxiao's arrival in our family.

The only thing he really has a problem with is Xiaoxiao's steadfast refusal to learn toilet etiquette- she still insists on gawping at Feifei, if not jumping on him, while he is in the litter tray! When I see this happening, or about to happen, I grab Xiaoxiao and take her to another room long enough for Feifei to use his toilet... if I'm not around and Feifei needs to go but Xiaoxiao won't leave him alone, Feifei will come to me and have a whinge until I rectify the situation!

In short, we have one happy grandparent, one not-so-happy grandparent, two happy cats, one happy Sarah and one grudgingly-happy Gam.

Interestingly, none of the cats- including the RMs' cat Thomasina- were more than minimally interested in eating scraps of the Christmas turkey... it made me wonder what was wrong with it!

Small cat, underage drinker

Going crazy and kicking herself in the head, followed by attacking her own foot, is a common occurrence.

On Friday night we gave the Small Cat, a.k.a Xiaoxiao, yet another chance. That would be a chance to spend the night on our bed, or at least not locked in the bathroom, without peeing somewhere inappropriate. This time, she didn't blow it, and has not been locked in the bathroom since.

Xiaoxiao's freedom has come somewhat to Feifei's chagrin. While he is clearly fond of having a catty-friend to play with during the day, Feifei was overtly smug at the fact that he alone was invited to sleep on the bed at night, while the small cat was locked in the bathroom. How does a cat look smug? I'm not sure, but Feifei did. Plus he purred a lot more- maybe it was partly due to the fact that he was able to get pats and cuddles from me without having Xiaoxiao bite on his tail or jump on his head.

Just a brief respite from attacking me...

Xiaoxiao earned a stack of brownie points in her favour last night by eagerly sharing Gam's beer. That's right: beer. Cooper's mild ale, to be precise- only 3.5% alcohol. She jumped back whenever a bubble popped under her nose, but otherwise seemed to love the taste. She's the polar opposite of the teetotalling, meat-shunning, grass-eating Feifei, who she nonetheless adores.

She looks gentle enough...

... Most of the time...

... But she doesn't skimp on the teeth and claws during 'playtime'!

Xiaoxiao, 3 weeks on

We've had Xiaoxiao for 3 weeks now. That makes her either 11 weeks old or 9 weeks old, depending on whether we take the age that we were given by the pound or the age that we were given by the vet, respectively. She's growing really well, but unfortunately still untrustworthy when it comes to her toileting issues- or, rather, issue: thinking it's ok to pee on the bed.

She hasn't peed on our bed again (i.e. for exactly one week- seems like a lifetime!), largely because we've been training her not to come into our bedroom (and locking her in the bathroom at nights). She did, however, pee on my cousin's bed on Monday when she came to stay. Not, as you might expect, when we went out for the entire day and forgot to shut the door to the study, where Rach was sleeping, but after we got home and hopped in the pool and Gam was in the study, at the computer. So clearly we haven't yet managed to get things straight in that department. She learned very quickly (with the help of 'Mr Squirty' the spray-bottle) that she is not supposed to go in the bedroom; she occasionally forgets and chases a toy (or Feifei) in there, or follows me in when I go out to the back balcony, but a loud handclap and/or raised voice is all it now takes to get her out. I would just love not to have to lock her up at night, though.

We have had an unforseen issue arise as a result of adopting Xiaoxiao, and that's our resident managers... Hmm. Not them, as such (they have a cat of their own), but their concerns about the body corporate rules- a few years ago, either shortly before or after we got Feifei, they arbitrarily implemented a much less pet-friendly rule than had previously been in place. I thought it was that tenants were no longer allowed to own pets, while owner-residents could... and while I'm obviously not an owner, I'm not technically a tenant either, and my parents own the unit. Not that they know about Xiaoxiao yet *ahem* but I had certainly planned to deal with that matter because they are coming here for Christmas. Anyway, I gather that the RMs kind of hate having to turn away some prospective tenants who own a pet, and it makes it more difficult because we have Feifei, who is out and about during the day, and they have their old cat, Thomasina. I also know they've previously turned a blind eye to one young woman's cat- she was a good tenant, as are many pet owners. I suppose having a kitten makes it hard for them to explain away the no pets rule as being brought in after some pets were already given permission to be here?

Our RMs are good friends and neighbours, but the body corporate committee consists only of 3 bullies/arseholes since I and the only other sane member (an owner, not a resident) left, and maybe they're worried that they'll cop it if one of them finds out about Xiaoxiao. To be honest, I hadn't even considered asking the BCC to 'register' Xiaoxiao because they are the sort of people who seem to just love an excuse to make other peoples' lives miserable and would probably jump at the chance to tell me to get rid of her. I think the RMs would turn a blind eye if I asked them, but if they do and aren't happy about it then my parents are going to be much less happy about it...

Soooo... that's a lot more pressure than the 'how do I introduce Xiaoxiao to Mum and Dad?' scenario I figured would be my main concern... Still, I'm not getting rid of her- she's part of our family now. And a bloody good motivation to save to buy a house if there ever was one. So we have a cat- now two cats. Desexed, microchipped, well cared-for. I fail to see how that can be the body corporate commitee's business unless the cats start damaging common property or disturbing neighbours. There's a lot to be said for not having a body corporate committee looming over you- it's just a shame that housing prices are so high it's going to take us an inordinate amount of time to get the hell out of here. Meanwhile, Xiaoxiao is apparently an illegal alien.