Woolworth

What's all this hulabaloo about Woolworth? I don't even know who they are but their plastic bags smell interesting. TaTa said she'd rather have an Em & Es. I am more concerned about the fur growing back on my tummy ... gets a bit cold sometimes. Muddle is in a bad mood and is now on herbs for his enormous pancake poo. He is driving me around the bend because he always wants to go outside and I tell him 'there are frogs out there'. TaTa says he visits all the old ladies in the area and gets spoiled and that's why he has a bad stomach. I am not talking to Treacle the dog at the moment because I saw him eat one of Muddle's poops and I almost fainted. Us Siamese would never even consider the thought but dogs are a lowly breed so I am not so surprised. I cannot wait until February to get someone of my breeding into the household so I can have a decent conversation.

Peace on earth, goodwill to all beings

Tabby Cat War Baby

If you lie upside-down and look at it,

The sky is a lake where someone has thrown oil barrels.

Smoke leaks upwards in black trails.

Somewhere distant and comic, machine guns are nails dragged down washboards.

Next to an abandoned washing machine

And riddled signpost, a cat cries for food.

No-one knows if the cat is Serb or Croat. Maybe he’s Muslim.

He rubs his head in each soldier’s hand equally,

Military or paramilitary.

He is a Jazz musician in a wrecked café.

He is the old Yugoslavia, hanging on

With his one eye and his handful of tunes:

I love you and I’m hungry

Playing in an empty town to passing audiences.

Michael Brett

Michael Brett lives in London and is a past winner of the Iolaire Poetry
Prize. During the Civil War in the former Yugloslavia, he worked in the
press section of the Bosnian Information Centre, London.

A bath ... I think not!

I am so excited! This is my birth mum Poppy and she has given birth to five kittens and one of them is going to be my new sister in February. You may think - they look nothing like Siamese and here is the reason why they are white: The pointed pattern is a form of partial albinism, resulting from a mutation in tyrosinase an enzyme involved in melanin production. The mutated enzyme is heat-sensitive; it fails to work at normal body temperature but becomes active in cooler areas of the skin. This results in dark colouration in the coolest parts of the cat's body, including the extremities and the face, which is cooled by the passage of air through the sinuses. All Siamese kittens although pure cream or white at birth, develop visible points in the first few months of life in colder parts of their body. By the time a kitten is four weeks old the points should be clearly distinguishable enough to recognise which colour they are. Siamese cats tend to darken with age, and generally adult Siamese living in warm climates have lighter coats than those in cool climates. So because we were nice and warm in our mother's
womb we stay white and then start to have this wonderful reaction to temperature.

In the next photo I am standing on the bath ... I fell in once and didn't like the experience. Playing with bubbles is good but don't eat them they taste horrible. Also humans have to put all kinds of smells on themselves so every day I have to remember what TaTa and KeKe smell like. One day it is Shalimar, then it is Angel, then it is Boss, then it is Chanel. Max Factor made a perfume called Sophisti-Cat. It is no longer available... and is considered a vintage collectible. It was produced in the 1950s - whenever that was.

Sleep

After all that rushing around and exercising I am exhausted. Did you know us Siamese sleep around 12 hours a day but do you know which animal sleeps the most ... well I do ... it is a Brown Bat which sleeps around 19 hours a day - how wonderful is that - almost as much as TaTa sleeps.
Welcome to William Laurent - William means Helmet (Teutonic) and Laurent means From the Place of Laurel Trees (French). TaTa used to live on St Laurent Boulevard in Ottawa.
TaTa says my birth mum has just given birth to five kittens - marvellous!

Pilcates

Ten days after my operation I decided I needed to exercise rather than sitting around waiting for something to happen. So it's Pilcates time! I have heard a rumour that my birthmum Poppy is expecting another nest. Also Fiona has just gone into labour. You humans make such a fuss - we just pop them out - you have got to have hospitals, midwives, gas and air, birthing pools, birthing stools, lots of shouting and all kinds of things. We Siamese just give a gentle little push and voila! You humans have a lot to learn. To err is human, to feline divine.

Thijs is t'huis!

to Cam
Surprise! Thijs has had a nice trip around England from Hemel Hempstead to Cambridge, from Cambridge to Harwich, from Harwich to Boston and then Boston to here and then here to Stansted, from Stansted to Amsterdam then home! Here he is eating a Jammy Dodger. I don't like them because the jam sticks to my whiskers. KeKe and Thijs have gone to get fish and chips - Thijs thinks I am a sweet cat but just wait!!!

Just the two of us

Douis has departed and don't want to meow about it. There is just Muddle and I and we both feel a bit lonely. However Thijs (son of Wim is in the photo with his granddaughter Sophie) is coming tomorrow from Boston so I will have someone to purr with.

I am having a rest

o
At last I come to the end of the Dutchland family. This is Adrianna, her daughter Monia and her granddaughter Haraden. I am having a rest because I discovered a new game today called 'pushing things off the highest place possible just to see if they a) bounce b) make a sound c) break d) make TaTa rush into the room. I have also discovered that I have very strong jaws and can carry things around the house and drive KeKe to distraction when he cannot find his keys. On Saturday I have my stitches out and I do feel much much better. Muddle had to go to the vet and he did an enormous stinky poo in the waiting room and they had to evacuate it because everyone felt sick. Rock on Muddle!

Where is that biscuit?

I am sure I left a secret pile of my favourite treats under the carpet. I am so angry I will eat this stick instead.
Here's a photo of KeKe on the ferry - he is not being seasick for once.

Halloween

This is my scary Halloween face.

A little bit of catstory: Pope Gregory IV standardized the date of All Saints Day, or All Hallows Day on November 1 in the name of the entire Western Church in 837. As the Church day began at sunset the holiday coincided exactly with Samhain. It was common practice to leave Pagan festivals and buildings intact (e.g. the Pantheon) while overlaying a Christian meaning. Hmmmm.