Joshie and family

Sorry for no updates

2010-04-07T12:16:00.002+01:00

Sorry for not updating in a year. Josh continues to do well and thrive and he'll be four in a few months time. He's still his funny self and has recently taken to watching wildlife programmes, in particular one about mongooses which he really loves and I've had to record it off the tv for him to watch when he feels like it.

I'm still fostering kittens too and have started a blog on my latest litter, it's at http://kittenfosterer.blogspot.com/

Every morning

2009-03-25T17:22:00.004Z

when I wake up Josh is on the bed, all snuggled up to me and purry and happy because it's the morning and he's happy. Sometimes when I don't wake up he climbs onto my pillow and kinda half sits on my head to get my attention.

The other day he jumped from the floor onto the worktop (bench) for the first time in his life. Admittedly i did help him for the last bit but i was more impressed that he even tried. Josh has never been able to jump higher than just onto a chair. So at two years old to see this brave attempt really impressed me. He was really pleased with himself too.

Apart from that Joshie is mainly sleeping, fighting Perkins and wandering around in the garden now the whether is getting warmer. I am getting some tortoises soon so I'm wondering what he's going to make of them. He likes my guinea pigs and like to sit with them and watch them and jump in their runs and eat the hay.

Also I joined Twitter not long ago, I don't know if any of you use it but if want to follow me (i'll follow back) this is the link to my twitterings

Orange update

2009-03-10T13:25:00.004Z

Hello josh fans!

The little man is doing well, perhaps still a little snuffle and a dirty nose (never sure if it's dry catfood or snot). He was being so cute last night. I was sitting on the sofa under a blanket, and he snuffled his way under the blanket too and ended up half in my lap and half on my feet and he looks so cute and he just fell asleep like that.

We've been playing a lot recently and his favourite thing to do is 'hide' behind a cushion on the sofa and then i tickle him with the feathers on a stick toy and he goes crazy rolling round trying to grab it, and it's just legs and furry tummy everywhere! He's been playing with perkins loads recently too, they have such huge battles and josh at times literally dives on top of perkins. There's always bits of ginger fur everywhere afterwards!

It's been windy here which he really hates, it makes the cat flap bang and when he tries to go out he lets the wind blow him back into the house. I can't wait for the weather to warm up a little so he can go outside more because i know he enjoys pottering round out there.

No pictures this time because i'm at work but I'll take some and post some soon

a long time away

2009-02-15T22:16:00.003Z

i seem to find so many things to do online i keep forgetting to come back here.

Josh is doing really well and yesterday i got round to uploading all his kitten pictures onto flickr hopefully that link works. there's nearly 100 pictures on there of him from kittenhood to the present day

this is one of my favourite pictures of him as a baby, he loved that toy bird

this one i just took the other day - still such a handsome chap

we recently had a ton of snow which is really rare round here. Josh's partner in crime Perkins loved it - i couldn't get him to stay indoors

josh meanwhile didn't know what to make of the snow, so made it just outside the back door but for a cat who a bit of a scardy cat i think he did quite well!

hopefully i will now update more often and have the time to look round your blogs too!

A little cold

2008-12-16T18:58:00.004Z

When Josh was a kitten he had a cold all the time. The vet originally thought it might be fluid from his brain kinda seeping through (thought of it makes me feel a little ill) but they ran some tests and he has calichi virus which is a strain of cat flu. When he was a baby he had it really bad and used to sleep like this

or this

because his nose would get so blocked up. The older he's got the less bad his cold has got. But recently he got a really bad cold just like when he was a kitten, sneezing all the time again and having a running nose and mucky eyes. Poor fella! he is doing a bit better now, he's been on his medication and his cold cleared up but now it's coming back a bit again so i'll sort out his meds again

Purry Josh

2008-11-12T18:45:00.004Z

Oh it's been so long since I wrote in here. I've just got back from a trip from Toronto and Josh and the other cats are pleased to see me.

Josh has been really cute since i got home and has been following me round purring. I fell asleep for a bit during today and he slept on the pillow and kept waking me up by purring. I bought the cats back some Meow mix treats from Toronto, which we dont get in the UK, and Josh was super pleased to see them! He loves little treats.

Just a snap of Josh and Perkins, they still love each other!

Little update

2008-09-24T21:33:00.003+01:00

We're all still missing George and the house still seems really weird without him. The cat dynamics have changed and Tink is now really ruling the house with Connie second in command, Connie doesn't dare cross Tink. Josh is doing well and seems a lot happier and settled. He's been following me round loads.

I had some reiki last week and the lady asked me at the end if i had a ginger and white cat because she could feel one sitting on the chair in the room. I wonder if Josh really followed me there too

Josh's dad

2008-09-02T21:07:00.003+01:00

Josh's surrogate dad George died yesterday. George was 17 and we adopted him when he was 13. George had been ill a lot in the past year and we almost lost him last Christmas and earlier this year. He'd be having difficulties with his bladder and had a mass in it. On Sunday night he had a seizure and during the day he'd stopped eating and just kept trying to go to the litter tray. The vet said he really needed to improve within 24 hours but he didn't. Yesterday he had another seizure and we took him to the vets and he was put to sleep in my arms.

Josh adored George, he forever followed him about and loved to rub round him. Today is Josh's birthday, he's two today and nothing we can do will cheer him up. He's jsut been lost all day, wandering around and not settling down to sleep. I feel so sad for losing George, well devastated and I feel so sorry for Josh too.

Josh and strangers

2008-08-17T16:37:00.002+01:00

Josh doesn't really do strangers, sometimes he even runs away from my boyfriend who we live with and who has lived with me since Josh arrived.

Friday brought three strangers to the house and to us losing Josh. After searching round the house and garden for him, I found him in the bottom of my wardrobe hiding under a pile of clothes. He gets so worried about everything. My mum later came round when we weren't there to feed the cats for us and Josh ran away from her too, despite her regularly coming over and even feeding the cats when we're on holiday! Today he decided to forget who my boyfriend was and hide under the table for ages.

There's lots of things Josh doesn't like and today here's some pictures of something he truely doesn't understand - the comb! He always tries to bite and attack it.

One thing he always understands and loves is his best friend Perkins

Josh's feline family

2008-08-08T23:02:00.000+01:00

Josh has been really funny the last couple of days, i dont know if it's the weather or there's a full moon coming.

Yesterday morning I was getting changed for work and he was sitting on the windowsill (I have to jump him up there because he can't jump that high) and he started to open the curtains! I tried to get him to stop but he was just happy hitting the curtains and trying to open them, I'm sure he knew what he was doing!

Last night he was running round all crazy with his fur all sticking up on end, I don't know what made him do it. He's snoring next to me on the sofa right now.

Thought I better mention his other feline family members.
Leading the pack is George, adopted when he was 13, he's now 17. He's getting really old, everything falling apart. Josh adores him though and follows him round.

josh and george

Tink is next, four years old and from the first litter of kittens I fostered.

Josh and Tink

Jap is three and another former foster kitten, she's my boyfriend's cat.

Josh and Jap

Connie is five and we got from a breeder who didn't want her anymore.

Perkins, Connie and Josh

Riley and Morgan are two I got from a horrid housing estate, despite living in a house they were virtually feral when I got them, both very nervous so we kept them.
./l
josh and riley

Josh and Morgan

Perkins was found eating a chicken bone in a road and someone took him home and we got him through a friend of a friend. He's two and Josh's partner in crime.

Josh and Perkins

Hoover hiding

2008-08-06T20:04:00.000+01:00

Josh has had a quiet week so far, the biscuit challenge is still going well, the only downside is he's now always hanging round in the hallway hoping you might have some biscuits!

He had a massive battle on the bedroom floor with Perkins this morning, they've been doing this a lot lately. Josh is quite a heavy cat and always seems to pin Perkins to the floor, forcing him to be washed by Josh, which understandably he gets a bit fed up with.

Josh has spent some time pottering round the garden and lost the tag off his collar, he's also been sitting with me whilst I make catnip mice for the charity we got him from. Although I will never agree with the vets decision to have him put to sleep, if it were not for a lady there putting her foot down then he wouldn't have been saved. I was talking to the lady recently and she's got 70 kittens at the moment looking for new homes. So I've bulk bought about 50 cat toys off ebay and now just handmaking some mice too, done about 15-20 so far.

Josh is currently hiding as my boyfriend is hoovering the house and there is nothing Josh hates more than the hoover!

Biscuit challenges

2008-08-02T23:31:00.000+01:00

In the past few months Josh has become obsessed with my cat George's biscuits, it's part of the obsessive part of his behaviour. George is getting really old and Josh get so excited when I go to feed George that he pushes up against George and knocks him off his feet. George is on a prescription diet for a sensitive tummy and Josh loves those biscuits.

Josh gets very excited by the biscuits so I've been teaching him to have his biscuits in a different room. He learns really really quickly, and is already coming into the hall to have his biscuits and I'm trying to get him to move to the utility room. I've previously taught Josh to sit on command, it's just because he responds well in general to what we say!

Right now he is lying on the sofa next to me snoozing and cuddling his soft toy puffin.

Busy life

2008-08-02T17:12:00.000+01:00

josh at six weeks old

Josh gets up to so much on a daily basis that I thought I'd start him his own blog.

There isn't much room to write about Josh's history so i thought I'd just jot it down.

Josh came to live with us in October 2006. We'd got a call from an animal charity who had him and their vet had recommended he was put to sleep due to his oversized head and lack of coordination. They asked me if I would take him and foster him (another charity was willing to pay any bills). So we took a two hour drive to Kent to pick him up. The first time I held him, he wriggled like crazy but on the drive home he just slept on my lap!

Josh spent a lot of his first months back and forth at the vets, he'd got a cold and the vets also weren't sure if he would survive the water on his brain. He became a bit of a celebrity at the vets.

Thankfully Josh pulled through and by then we'd already decided to keep him and shortly after adopted his best friend in the world Perkins.

Josh is now two years old. He's much more coordinated and has grown into quite a big cat. The biggest issues for him now are more mental orientated. He can get confused easily and suffers from extreme emotions, he can be manically happy or desperately upset which can be really sad at times. He's never grown very tall and can only jump onto chairs but nothing higher. Sometimes it makes me sad when I see Perkins jump on our garden fence and then jump off and go and play in the fields. Josh never leaves the garden because he cant jump high enough and his emotions means he gets extremely frightened or new things.

But Josh is happy, he's well loved and this blog will be about him and his funny little stories.

Josh and Perkins today