Goodnight Charlie

Last week we went through the awful experience of losing one of our beloved pets.

Charlie Whiskers was the kitten of our cat Coco. Coco has had a few litters in the past and most of the kittens have gone to our family members or friends, but we never kept any ourselves...except Charlie! I don't think we ever had any intention of keeping him we just never re-homed him, we got used to having him around and he became part of the family.

Charlie Whiskers had two names because we couldn't decide on just the one, he was just under a year old and was such a sweet natured kitten. He was so chilled out and would happily climb all over you to get attention and a snuggle. His sister Kitty lives next door with the neighbours and she always climbs the fence to come and visit. Coco would hiss at the two of them if they disturbed her but they would happily chase each other and roll around on the grass.

It was 8 o'clock in the morning when a lady that lives a few doors down came and knocked. She said she knew we had cats and that there was a black and white cat down the lane next to our house that was dead. There are a lot of black and white cats in our area, most of them are boys that sit on our back wall calling Coco, I know it sounds bad but I hoped it was one of them and not Charlie. We called Charlie and whistled but he didn't come running like he usually would when he knows he is being fed, that's when I knew it was him.

Funnily enough I never usually lock the cat-flap but Coco had just had her neutering operation and we were told not to let her outside for 10 days. I locked the cat-flap that night and pushed the bin up against it because I knew they can pull it out of the wall if they wanted to. Neither of them usually go out at night anyway as they are always waking us up climbing over us and deciding whose bed is the most comfy to sleep on.

I noticed the bin had been pushed aside and the flap must have been pulled up where Charlie had sneaked out.
The scene was horrendous, there wasn't blood and guts everywhere but poor Charlies head was gone, where it had gone I have no idea! I identified him from his tail which was black with a white tip. I couldn't touch him and although the kids knew he was there they hadn't come outside to see him so I decided to cover him up so they didn't have to witness the horrible scene.

A few years ago our cat Toffee (Coco's sister) had died and we buried her in the garden but the foxes continually dug where she was buried. We decided that as Charlie was out on the street we would call the council and get them to collect his body.

We don't know exactly what happened to Charlie, we hope it was a terrible accident or even that another animal such as a fox had attacked him because we know that in nature that sadly these things happen, but hopefully it wasn't something more sinister and Charlie was not taken purposely by another person.

We do know that we loved having him for the short time he was with us and that we will miss having him in our home!

RIP Charlie Whiskers

Meet Sid and Beast

My 9 year old asked me if he could bring the class pets home for the summer holidays, the class pets are two giant African snails!

The process is that each child who would like to look after the pets is given a letter for parents to sign and then all the names are put into a hat and one is drawn out. Kieron failed to mention that it was only him and one other child that actually volunteered and that the other girl had already looked after them in the half term.
It doesn't help that I work in the classroom next to his and the teacher can come and sweet talk me into looking after them for him as he is away over the holiday period either.

Sid and Beast have a lovely little glass tank that is heated. It contains a water bowl, food bowl and soil. They eat all kinds of fruit, vegetables and salad. We have had them a week now and unfortunately Kieron is already bored of looking after them even though it is quite a simple job, so I find myself cleaning out their bowls and feeding them every morning.

Sid is the smaller of the two and likes to get around the tank, he is often upside down on the lid, probably trying to escape!

Beast was obviously given his name because of the size of him and he does freak me out a bit! He seems quite lazy and is often found in the water tray or food bowl.

Here are the two of them munching on a juicy tomato, which they seemed to enjoy, but afterwards there was some very slimy tomato coloured snail poo left to clean up.

The tank has to be cleaned out weekly and I am not looking forward to that job. Apparently while they were cleaning out the tank in class the snails are left to saunter around the classroom tables, well I'm telling you now, there is no way these things are going near my kitchen table!

Have you had any weird or wonderful pets that you've had to babysit?

RIP Barbie

Before you despair the real Barbie hasn't gone anywhere, she is still in Malibu soaking up the sun with Ken and is as skinny as ever...bitch!

Our pet albino toad on the other hand...

It all started when he (or she, I cant tell the difference) was enjoying life in the fish tank, coming up for air every so often and eating all the fish's dinner of blood worms and dry flaky things, you know the kind that fish eat. Until someone spotted Barbie (don't ask why she's named that) enjoying herself a bit too much in the tank!

Here is a picture of my sweet little cat named Coco, she has been fish spotting for years, sometimes looking in from the side of the tank and sometimes having a nap on top of it.

I noticed a few weeks ago that Barbie wasn't swimming to the top of the tank when the food was put in but thought maybe she was under one of the many things around the bottom of the tank, like a log or plant.

The man of the house was looking for something the other day and asked mr15 to look in the drawer in the study. In reply he got a screeching cry for mr15 had found more than what he was looking for and there in the back of the drawer was the body of Barbie.

Barbie didn't seem depressed so I don't think she purposefully committed toad suicide and there were no witnesses as to what happened but knowing what a predator my sweet little cat is I know who my money is on!