Apart from the fact of being siblings, they do actually look pretty alike, a tabby and a Torby (tabby tortoiseshell cross) and people often get them confused - although you really only have to look at the way they traverse a mantelpiece full of ornaments to tell them apart. The little boy is just hopeless when it comes to balancing, falls off shelves that are 9” wide and then never falls on his feet – he is now perfecting the art of falling on his bum and then sticking one foot in the air before washing it, staring at you as if to say “See, I meant to do that really…”! His sister is the opposite, can balance on a washing line (I assume this as I have never actually seen her do it) and jumps up onto high cupboards with the lightest of feet. I often wonder if we should have called them Clumsy and Grace, but we didn’t, so I am going to do so in my blog.
Anyway, Grace has each year since we had her, decided that the Christmas tree is nothing more than a new and exciting climbing frame – she can get in right close to the trunk and get all the way up the inside, only disturbing those baubles that look the shiniest and seem the most enticing to flick out the tree with a well placed paw, ready to pounce on later (if it is not beneath her to do such a thing as actually play on the floor!). Clumsy on the other hand, just cannot really get into the tree at all, he stretches up as far as he can grabs hold of a branch or two, struggles and knocks 6 baubles, 2 angels and a bell onto the floor and then looks accusingly at his sister when you tell him off! It’s much the same when they come to greet you – Grace stands on her hind legs asking for a tickle behind the ears, Clumsy rears up, starts to totter and then grabs hold of your leg with his claws. Now, I don’t mind this a bit, as remember that I have that block of wood thigh – other people don’t tho’…
Anyway, they have had a good Christmas, a couple of new mice to play with (not real ones) and a surfeit of catnip drops.
In fact all has gone really well for them until New Year’s Day when hubby and I were doing a spot of putting stuff away in the bedroom. Clumsy (nosy little b*gger that he is) decided to stick his head in a plastic bag – through the handle. It was a very stiff, crinkly and noisy plastic bag and the handle got firmly stuck behind his ears in much the same way that small children’s heads go through park railings…. He panicked big time, ran under the bed and out the other side, then under the bed and out the other side again. He dashed out the door before we could grab him, but just as fast was back in again and then it was back to under the bed and out the other side. He made another dash for the door, slipped past hubby and was halfway down the stairs before the monster that the carrier bag had turned into, exploded into several bits. It was then that he vanished and then his sister vanished – terrified by all the commotion. Some time later we found her under the futon with a real bog brush*2 tail and tracked him down to under the recliner in the lounge. How he got under there I have no idea as the gap can’t be 4” and he most definitely is not, but there he was and didn’t come out for hours and even when he did, it was very suspiciously – just in case the monster was still out there….I think I shall have to be very careful with bags for a while less I traumatise him further....
*1 Name changed to protect the innocent.
*2 Toilet brush
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