Day 195/365: A Caturday survey, via silveradept

[nanila]

Telstar at sunset, sitting on the lock’s edge on high alert.

1. How many/what kind of pets do you have? One middle-aged, very handsome, very friendly male tuxedo cat.
   
   
2. Names? Telstar/Telly/Cattus/Teldos (from when Humuhumu couldn’t say his name properly)
   
   
3. How old are they? He turns nine next month.
   
   
4. How did you get your pets? A friend of ours, on hearing that we were planning to adopt a cat, turned up with Telstar and his brother Sputnik in a cardboard carrier when they were about 9 weeks old. Neighbours of his had found a pregnant cat and their three teenage daughters spent their summer holidays doing nothing but cuddling the kittens. As a result, both Telstar and Sputnik are (were) by far the nicest and gentlest cats I have ever met.
   
   
5. Was it love at first sight? Yup.
   
   
6. What makes your pet one of a kind? He’s completely soft and sweet with humans, but absolutely lethal to his prey. In his younger days, he would bring us a daily offering, usually a small mammal. We still get offerings but they’re much less frequent.
   
   
7. What is your absolute favorite thing about your pets? He trusts and loves us, and that is reciprocal.
   
   
8. What's the funniest thing your pets have ever done? As a kitten, he attempted to pounce on the moon, which was reflected in the frozen surface of the pond in our back garden. That ended, predictably, with a mournful and bedraggled Telstar wrapped in a towel. There was also the time he chased a full-grown pheasant into the bloke’s parents’ house one afternoon over Christmas, presumably as a suggestion for what we ought to have for supper.
   
   
9. What's the naughtiest thing your pet has ever done? It was both artistic and gruesome, but once when we went away for a weekend, he eviscerated and partially consumed a grey squirrel at the top of the landing. The nose, a couple of paws and innards were scattered around the hindquarters and tail, which had been arranged (deliberately??) to look as though the squirrel had attempted to teleport through the landing. There are photos behind the cut, but I warn you, they are quite unpleasant.
   
   
   
   
   
   
10. Please tell your pet I love them, because it's true. With pleasure.

Comments

[azurelunatic]

Oh, dear. A pheasant! In the house!!

[hilarita]

That's very artistic. And horrible.
The most grisly event was the half rabbit left outside the back door. The naughtiest was chasing a live shrew into the house. It hid behind the freezer, and my dad had to fish it out, and it crapped on his hand. I think this made it my dad's most *memorable* birthday...

[pbristow]

Yeah, that Stargate closed at *just* the wrong moment, didn't it squirrel? =:o]

[kotturinn]

That is quite a special arrangement of remains! I am quite happy to say my mogs come nowhere close to that.
That was brilliant kitten socialisation on the part of your ex-neighbours.

[samskeyti]

1) He is the Clooney of cats!

2-8) ADORABLE!!

9) The Silence of the Squirrels D:

[silveradept]

Hello Telstar. Your hunting skills have been noted, and we do not need further demonstrations of your abilities in that regard. Perhaps go back to hunting Luna?

[surpassingly]

Aaaaaaahhhhh ♥ ♥ ♥ Lovely Telstar!

[vi]

Telstar look so regal in that shot! The story about him pouncing onto the pond made me laugh.

[askygoneonfire]

That squirrel is AMAZING. I find it impossible to believe he didn't, sniggering, arrange it on purpose.

[ayebydan]

I love cats for stories like this. Our old cat brought us a robin once. It was still alive. Chaos ensued.

[redsixwing]

A very handsome Telstar. <3

I think the 'best' my old cat Stormy ever brought me was an entire, strangled yellow-bellied weasel. She'd killed it and then discovered the infamous musk and decided she wasn't interested in eating it, so she laid it artistically out on the driveway and howled until Two Legs* came and took it away.

*yours truly, in this case.