Men About the House (when workmen and cats coincide...)

[Lilith]

It happens to us all. Your boiler, bathroom, kitchen become just too elderly (or in my case decrepit) and you have to call in a professional. I'm pretty practical myself and can turn my hand to almost anything; fencing posts, decorating, chicken house, gates, rewiring a heater, you name it. I once knew a lovely guy, who I will call Godot, who was a superb workman, did everything, reasonable prices, but...he never, ever, turned up when he said he would. I had one of those 'Georgian' many-paned windows, and part of the frame, I think it's called a glazing bar, was rotted through. In morbid moments I kept going and picking at it with a screwdriver, while waiting for Godot, laugh as hollow as the glazing bar. Six weeks on, I mixed up a marge carton of Tetrion, took an old butter knife and went and damn well sculpted myself a new glazing bar...sanded and painted, it was indistinguishable from the rest of the frame, and is probably still there to this day. That must have been about forty years ago. And I'm still waiting for Godot.

But I can't do stuff like plumbing. This year has been shall we say eventful. Illness (mine) resulted in the cats being fostered. The ancient central heating boiler had died but the corpse lingered on, walled up behind the sagging gas fire like the mistletoe bride. The water heater wasn't so much on its last legs as legless. The 80s avocado bath was crumbling (although I did wonder if I should advertise it on ebay as a retro collector's item, very rare.) My youngest cat Molly often mistook it for a cat tray. (Or expressed her opinion of it, not quite sure which.) Anyway, something had to be done.

While still convalescent and before the cats came home, I found a friendly local firm and got the bathroom sorted. In place of the bath, a shower cabinet with grab rail. This was glamorous by my standards and I still can't get used to it. One of these days, changing water bowls, I'll walk in there and slosh the old water into the bath...or where the bath used to be...

The work went straightforwardly. They came, they did the job, I paid. Didn't matter if they left the wrong doors open and wet paint was no problem (I once painted some beautiful wood panelling cherry red - sorry but this was the 1970s - and my moulting Alsatian flattened herself apologetically against it just as I laid on the last stroke...Oh no? Oh yes.)

However. Where were we? Yes. The cats came home. And I had to get the damn central heating sorted before winter. Panic. I'd got the money saved; the problem was me; I'm extremely unsociable and it takes me a day to get over having to open the front door to an Amazon delivery (you might know I HATE shopping!) But it had to be. Men about the house.

Well, one man. I'll call him the Maestro, because he is. Not because he's arrogant, far from it; you couldn't meet a nicer guy. But when it comes to central heating he knows his onions, or should I say his valves and stopcocks or whatever...and his work is brilliant. However.

Noise is unavoidable. When the drilling and banging start, poor Emily creeps off with her ears flattened and an annoyed look on her face. Then returns to supervise him.

He has a cat. He loves his cat. But he lives in a far more rural area and this cat has a cat flap and does his own thing, drops in on neighbours for a meal, comes home when he feels like it...I explain to the Maestro that mine are housecats; the back yard is secure but please, please watch the front door, which opens from the living room straight on to the street. Emily at 15 is plonked in her favourite chair, scowling at him. Mouse, 14, is hiding under the bed - that cat is more reclusive than I am. But Molly, 5, is everywhere, like Macavity. Please don't let Molly out. The Maestro agrees, solemnly - and then, five minutes later, wanders out the front door for a forgotten spanner and leaves it wide open ...Like Emily I have to sit in the living room to keep an eye on him, which is really boring.

Some floorboards have to be up for the new radiators and piping. Molly is fascinated and I have awful worst-case scenario visions about losing her and hearing anguished mews coming from the underdrawing. I say to the Maestro, tactfully, that I've closed the back bedroom door to prevent this. He agrees and takes up half the landing without warning me. This is unwise. Years ago, in another house, workmen had to take up a trapdoor to the foundations and warned me to remember it was open. I forgot. Perhaps I'm more likely to end up beneath the floorboards than Molly...

I was really angry though when I went out of the front door for a minute and heard loud yells coming from underneath his van. At least Molly had had the sense to park herself there and wait for help. Coax her out and get her back in. She keeps going to the front door. (I went Out, Lil, didn't I? Yes, but you're not going Out again, Lil, not if I can help it.) Vigil in living room redoubled.

The bricks. I have lots of beach pebbles and old weathered bricks in my garden, useful for building miniature walls round boring planters and so on. This is anathema to most workmen; I once had to restrain a neighbour/builder from coming in and nicking the lot to infill a ledge for his barbecue project. Bricks are fair game. You see a loose brick, you take it. Done it myself.

The Maestro (after removing water heater and vent and revealing big hole in kitchen wall) - 'did you say you had some bricks? ' What he means is, a brick is a brick and if he uses my nice weathered bricks it saves him a trip to the builder's yard. However, the crafty beggar reasons that my bricks will blend in better with the Victorian brickwork of my house. He has a point. I sacrifice a few bricks in the cause of aesthetics.

Today (last day! Hurray!) is when the old boiler and the gas fire come out. Blocking up the chimney is the next step, but not by the Maestro. The gas genius doesn't do menial. Oh no. Drifts of brick dust, puddles, running taps, stray Fanta cans, heaps of rubble on the astroturf, these are taken care of by the brick dust/puddle/Fanta can/rubble fairy. This is me. That guy really needs a nanny. And soon, until we have more Men about the house, we shall have an open chimney. Hope Moll hasn't been reading 'The Water Babies'...

Watch this space. Or rather, Molly, please please DON'T NOTICE that empty space, please...

[bobbys girl]

Hi Lilith, I did answer this post earlier on but my darling OH decided to turn the power off just before I posted it!

Like you, there is little that we can't do (well, couldn't do, before we started falling apart) between us. But on the occasions when we do have a 'man with a van' about the place, I always have to ask them to check that they have no stowaways before they leave. I've tried telling the cats what curiosity does, but they don't listen.

One time, I saw Purdy get into a van and went to get her out. I was on my knees in the van, poking around in some boxes when the guy came back. I told him I was looking for my cat and, looking up, he said ' what, THIS cat?' Purdy must have gone in the side door and straight out the back one and was on the van roof looking down on the two of us!

I love your stories Lilith, and rightnow I needall thelaughs I canget - I think I need a new keyboard too - my space bar is knackered and unless I give it a good smack allthewords runtogether. Sheesh, I can now add bruised thumb to theincreasingly long list of ailments.

[Ruth B]

The things we put up with for our kitties.

Several years ago my boiler was on its last legs, parts were hard to get and it was an awkward thing to fix. I was offered a good deal on a new boiler. My parents offered to help out and pay for the boiler, and as the kitchen had seen better days they said they would pay to have the whole thing redone.

Unfortunately my Ragdoll didn't like upheaval and wasn't well at the time, we thought his days were numbered. i opted to have the boiler replaced as that was the smaller job and leave the kitchen until later.

Needless to say, he plodded on for another 5 years with my kitchen being held together with more and more duck tape and hope.

Age finally caught up with him about 18 months ago. Due to my remaining cat hunting and calling for him I soon got another couple of youngsters. One of which was very badly treated when young and I would guess totally unsociallised. After 18 months she will just about accept us stroking her, and will sit on our stairs watching warily when some of our regular friends come around. I really can't put her through the stress of having strange workmen wandering in and out and banging around. So we keep applying the duck tape, glue and nails and hope the kitchen doesn't fall about my ears.

[Lilith]

Lol bobbys girl, turning the power off? That's shocking! (Sorry I seem to be in a bad joke phase atm...I'll grow out of it! )

Don't cats land you in some embarrassing situations eh? Little horror! I had to go into back garden to talk to another workman re rampant ivy at back of house today - and returned to find front door open and our dear Maestro with his head in his van - and no Molly! ...aaagh, have you seen Molly???? The little devil (Molly I mean) was found fast asleep on the sideboard. Next to the front door. I've covered the chimney gap as she was INSTANTLY into that!

Keyboars?, my d (bash it har or else it oesn't work) key is riving me ma! amn and rat the bastar!

Hey, how are things at the moment, tell us about it, don't like to think of you having a bad time hugs x

Hi again Ruth, ohh yes, I know how you feel - the cats come first. Luckily this lot have taken it in their stride, they can surprise you, only difficulty I've had has been dosing poor Mousey with her daily arthritis joint supplement...she comes to have a chat and a love in the early hours when I'm awake but things went pearshaped today. 4.30 Mouse comes purring and gets given an Easeflex tuna flavoured glucosamine/chondroitin treat but doesn't eat it. So I put it back on top of Easeflex drum on bedside cabinet and forget it. Middle of morning I remember the thing - and it's gone. Not Mouse I'm sure. She's just not cheeky enough. But the agile Molly is doing callisthenics! Hmmm....

Oh dear, the duck tape kitchen...mine's not much better atm...anyone houseproud would scream and run miles. But if I can afford it I will get it done. The Maestro (he is part of original friendly firm) does kitchens. Oh bless him. I'm shutting Molly upstairs for the duration if so! Could you shut your cats away from the scene of action if you decided to bite the bullet and let the Men loose on the kitchen?

An afterthought - just in case anyone in nee is reaing aarrgghh READING this, when I embarke on the boiler I was tol that, since I'm retire and claiming pension creit I mean creDit, I was entitle to a grant for a new boiler, an it is so, but I wante a combi boiler which was more complicate. So I in't apply in the en. There is a site calle Turn2us where you can ring up an they'll irect you to relevant organisations, hope mentioning this oesn't get me in ba with the mos, goo luck

ps Coul I get a grant for a new D key?

[bobbys girl]

I know what you mean Ruth our old kitchen had been added to over the years and in our early days here we got new doors to spruce it up, but the new doors were metric and the old cupboards, imperial. So for a number of years the doors hung lower than the frames. It had an old range that was only ever fired up in the winter - it kept the whole house warm but it was like stoking the Queen Mary, it took so much fuel and was so sooty - yuk.

When we came to renew it, our neighbour (and kitchen fitter) fit the actual cupboards and we did all the rest. We were worried about the disruption to the kitties, especially Willow who hates anything different and shows her disapproval by projectile vomiting! But most of the work was done in July so the weather was good and they all beat a hasty retreat outside. We did almost lose Purdy behind the kick boards (nosey as ever) but otherwise everything went well. Now 2 years on I don't know how we ever managed before and the cats have their own cupboard where they line up for tea.

Don't leave it too long - a couple of weeks disruption will be well rewarded and your kitties will soon forgive you.

[bobbys girl]

Lilith - we made enquiries about that too. Turns out, yes you can get a grant towards the cost, but you have to have the company they choose to supply and fit the thing. We worked it out and there were far cheaper ways of doing it.

OH had to turn off the power to fix the imersion heater switch as it had decided to stick in the 'on' position - there are only so many baths you can take in a day! He had to fit a new one. In another life (before he met me) he had training in plumbing and electrics - it's come in very handy over the years.

Basically my problem is I am falling to bits. Every injury, bump or bash I have ever had has come back to haunt me. I have been a gardener for over 30 years (it's not all dead-heading and potting-on. Think unarmed combat, building dry-stone walls and felling trees) and I used to go horse riding. So really there is hardly a joint that is not affected. Though why they should all be ganging up on me now, I don't know. My blood tests all came back 'normal' (ie no sign of autoimmune diseases) Doc gives me the impression as they can FIND no problems, thereARE no problems.

When I see 13 year old Willow leap from the counter-top on to the top of the kichen door, then on to the top of the kitchen cupboards with such ease, or 'disabled' Bobby RUN up a tree or take a flying leap off the sofa and catch a fly inmid air, I could sob! It takes me an age to get out of a chair these days.

[alanc]

Well, all your tales certainly cheered me up after a trying day! reminded me of a long ago incident when I had a man in to fix a leak in the water pipes in the attic. I warned him to watch out for my small black cat Sally and make sure she didn't follow him up the ladder (shows how long ago this was, as Sally has been dead for 18 years). Sure enough when he went, no sign of Sally. I opened the attic hatch and there she was peering down!

[Ruth B]

I'm going to find out how well Freyja takes upheaval either later this year or early next. We have been vaguely involved in a court case over contaminated land for over 10 years, we haven't had to do much bar wait, the council has been fighting our end. Things finally seem to be getting sorted and we have been notified that the front and back garden are going to have to be dug out and replaced hopefully later this year. The cats will have to stay in while the workmen are here (there are quite a few houses on the estate that need doing), but at least I will get to see just how bad Freyja is with it. Knowing how contrary cats are she will probably spend most of the time sat on a windowsill watching. Our other youngster, Saturn, I think will be more of a problem. At the moment it seem like we are just bed and board for him, and he is spending every moment awake outside, keeping him in is going to be interesting.

[Lilith]

Aww bobby's girl, I know just what you're talking about! I was like you - I could walk ten miles and then dig the allotment till nightfall, the human dynamo. I had muscles on my muscles! I had a better physique at 50 than some 20 year olds. It's so humiliating to have to admit to weakness and as for doctors... My GP is excellent but yes, if they can't find, instantly, what the problem is, they make you feel as if it's all your fault. I know just what you mean, struggling to get out of a chair, it's quite horrible, it's a living nightmare. Has ME been considered? Because it sounds just like what happened to me, and it's only recently that it's been admitted that it could have been ME. At one point I felt as if I was going to be ill for ever, and I thought, is this IT? Life the universe and everything? What a bloody con! I DO hope things improve for you, all paws crossed here and more hugs x

Ruth that sounds horrendous. What poisoned the land? About 10 years ago the local council decided the network of inner-city streets where I live was to be a 'regeneration area' and installed new paving everywhere; it was like living in a building site and a relief when it was over. Amazingly the cats coped - they roamed in those days and I think they just stayed in for the duration; they were very patient, considering. Even the liveliest seemed to understand...the amazing adaptability of cats I guess. Hope Freyja and Saturn are the same, again paws crossed.

Alan C I have long been convinced that a cat can be in at least 2 places at once... if not five or more

[Ruth B]

The estate the house is on was originally an industrial site. In the 70s the factory was knocked down and houses built. About 10 years ago it was found that the factory used a specific chemical (Carbon disulphide I think) and there was a chance of contamination. By that time another company had bought out the assets and liabilities of the original one, and had agreed to do the checks and rectify the land. Unfortunately while we were clear for that chemical while they were doing the testing they decided to check for other things and found that quite a few houses on the site had asbestos contamination. It isn't dangerous at the moment but it needs dealing with. The problem has been liability and who pays for the clean up, at approximately £40000 per house the cost will run into millions, which is why it has been through the courts. Its been a long wait, but it seems like the end is in sight.

[Lilith]

Wow, let's hope so! That's plain horrendous and glad your council has been sympathetic to the cause, what a horrible situation to be in. Do hope they now resolve this asap; you must feel as if life's suspended until it's all done; you'll have no pleasure in your house/garden meanwhile; a nasty, stressful way to live ...ten years! And I feel anxious about a few grubby floors and some dust! (Smacks own wrist!)

You'll be relieved when that's sorted - all very best wishes and good luck

[Lilith]

Well, thank goodness that's over...still clearing up and putting everything to rights and one of the radiators isn't housetrained yet and is making puddles in the living room, but what's one leak in a whole new system? The Maestro is coming to sort that tomorrow.

The cats seem to have coped amazingly well, even Mouse, who would emerge from under the bed as soon as all was quiet and yell for her tea. They surprise you sometimes.

[Crewella]

It comes to something when you have to provide a tray for a new radiator? Perhaps it doesn't like the litter .........

Glad you've got the worst of it done, we still have a long way to go here, but funds are forcing us to do most things ourselves.

[Lilith]

Lol Crewella, never thought of that, or perhaps it was new and nervous of Molly the ginger Ninja!

The Maestro has cured it now.

Know what you mean about DIY - if I could do it myself I'd never get workmen in, partly because I'm a cranky git who hates to share my space with anyone even for a few hours (though I couldn't have met a nicer bunch of guys than this firm; I've been lucky to find them) partly because I LIKE to do my own thing, and yes, very much to do with money.

My ex, bless him, likes everything New. He eyes my errrm, weathered walls (he has never come to terms with my strange colour schemes) and the accumulation of secondhand bric a brac, fiurniture, soft furnishings etc (I started collecting in 1976) and wants to know why I'm not stripping the place and starting from scratch but although I did get the bathroom painted because I couldn't reach some of it, I'm not interfering with the rest. These are not rooms, they're installations! My collection of cobwebs? Hands off! I'm donating those to the V&A!

I think it's fun to do things yourself, even if it takes longer, and let your surroundings evolve rather than mimic a store catalogue, instant bling and always copy what your friends like...

Mind you, I wish, in my youth, instead of being nagged to go on to A levels etc, I'd been apprenticed to a plumber or electrician. I'd have been far happier and definitely, but definitely richer!

[bobbys girl]

Never the most academic of students, I did have an excellent education at an all girls Grammar. But they were less than pleased when I chose to do 'Art' (probably less so when I ended up working in a FACTORY!) But the skills I have picked up along the way would boggle their little brains today.

I studied industrial ceramics and can design, model, mould, cast, fire, decorate, fire - again and market almost anything from clay. I have always been a gardener and, as 'sniffy' as David Cameron is about gardening as a career, I can pretty much do anything in the horticultural world (working with the clay again - you might know I'm an 'Earth' sign ) Out of necessity (poverty) I can repair furniture, fabrics, ceramics and once an enormous gilded, plaster mirror frame (mould making came in handy there).

OH worked as a factory floor manager for 25+ years. He managed (and worked with) plumbers, electricians and engineers and has a degree in polymer chemistry. He also repairs classic cars.

Since we got together, there is very little we can't tackle. BUT with increasing age and crankiness, it has now reached the point where we are having to 'get a man in' to do jobs - it is SO annoying!

Where do the cats come in, in all of this? ALL of them (except Thomas) have arrived here thanks to the work we have done for other people. I was driving TO a job when I found Willow. OH was coming FROM a job when he found Bob. Purdy and Grace came to us via people we had worked for who knew we liked cats.

[Lilith]

Oh you were both so lucky, I never got any training in practical stuff, though I taught myself gardening, it must be galling to have to get someone else in to do a job you could have done

It's amazing how cats manipulate fate, or does fate manipulate cats? At any rate, we get them, don't we?

[catslave16]

Lilith you're a woman after my own heart in many ways, and Bobby's girl, I empathise. I've suffered from chronic severe back pain since I was pregnant with my son, and he's now 30. I've had operations, tried every complementary/alternative therapy going, concluded they work exclusively on the placebo effect and therefore do not work on a sceptic like me. I now take huge doses of morphine, a problem I'm in the process of addressing. I've been divorced for 16 years now, and looking back on my life, I've spent most of my adult life by myself, but always with a cat since I was 21. In my mid-twenties I hit an extremely low point, and it was my little tortie who kept me alive, for who was going to feed her if I killed myself?
In the past six months I've completely redesigned my bathroom and redecorated my living room. Cost me enormous agony but I don't have the money to get someone else to do it - except plumbing and electricity, which I don't touch. Yes, then I do Get A Man In, and like you Lilith, I hate having my privacy intruded on. When I still had a window cleaner I used to hide in the windowless bathroom while he was at work! So recently I've done tiling in the bathroom and wallpapering in the living room, as well as the usual painting. Like some of you, I can turn my hand to most things (made a new canopy for my swing seat recently!) having a background in arts and crafts. Amazing what you learn to do because of poverty. (I now live on disability benefits. The decorating was financed by equity release.)
Anyway, I digress. I did have a man in to fit a new shower, an another man to fit a new cooker hood. And I had my garden landscaped not long after Rufus came to live with me last autumn. This included two men using pneumatic drills for two days to remove the concrete path. And through all this, Rufus has been perfectly calm, sitting on the window sill, coming to have a look, and sleeping (if there was an Olympics for sleeping Rufus would win gold. He'll sleep for EIGHT solid hours. Never had a cat like it). He really is the most amazingly laid-back cat. I read on this forum about the various problems and dramas people have with their kitties, but Rufus just moved in (the old lady he'd been living with had died) and for the first couple of weeks he followed me around, never straying more than a yard away from me. He ate what I gave him, once I had him microchipped I got an electronic cat flap, and although he was a little nervous initially he soon started using it. He'd been used to an indoor litter box so I provided one, but after a while he stopped using it (which I was pleased about, for let's face it, dealing with litter boxes is not much fun). I'm probably tempting fate by writing this but we haven't had any problems. The only thing is that in spite of me grooming him every day he does throw up the odd hair ball and the fluid that comes with that smells pretty bad. Fortunately my new carpet is easy to clean.

[catslave16]

The above reply was supposed to go on the 'Man about the House' thread - don't know how it ended up here!

[Jane]

Hi catsalve16,

I’ve moved the post for you

[Crewella]

Rufus sounds an absolute gem, and the poster boy for adopting a mature cat!

I'm not trained in anything but can turn my hand to most things, as is OH, and I'm eternally grateful for the fact that OH spent a few months as a plumber's mate in his youth - what he learned in those few months has often come in very, very handy round here!

[Lilith]

Well. When I tried to start on this reply, my text kept disappearing, and then suddenly Catchat was wiped off and I was given a new tab featuring 'Gentle Annie' on Youtube. A pretty folksong (Gentle Annie is an aspect of Black Annis, a cat goddess) but not what I wanted. I used to have a cat called 'Gentle Annie', only she wasn't lol. She used to help my then husband with his OU maths homework; I have a photograph of her sitting in his lap, dabbing away at the calculator. Perhaps she's looking over my shoulder and pressing a few keys here...

Right, where was I? Catslave, glad it's not just me! The cats seem to cope better than we do, oh yes, and they do keep us going in grim moments.

Sorry to hear about your back - that sounds dreadful - yes, and meds bring their own problems. Thirty years

Oh here we go again - another chunk of text wiped out. Gentle Annie, please keep your paws to yourself!

Right, what I was going to say - great to make your own stuff and customise your surroundings, I have a homemade patchwork quilt and decades of bric a brac from market stalls and charity shops, and secondhand retro junk...I have a lot of fun Lilith-ising my surroundings (fiendish cackle!)

Bobbys girl you did well, falling in love with the right man. I always wanted to train as a vet, but my maths and sciences were horrendous, even Gentle Annie couldn't have helped me there, next best thing would have been to marry a vet. Or a plumber.

Right, next step the kitchen. I have a sign up saying -

PLEASE EXCUSE THE MESS
CREATIVE PEOPLE ARE RARELY TIDY
INTELLIGENT PEOPLE UNDERSTAND THIS

And at the moment I think that says it all

[bobbys girl]

Sounds like you got gremlins Lilith!

Actually met OH at the Job Club - we were both on the scrap heap. It was a waste of space helping us find a job, but as a match making service it worked very well.

I was rubbish at maths too (still am!) I still remember my poor maths teacher wailing 'I don't understand why you don't understand!'

All this talk of crafts and snakes and stuff has reminded me of a project I did once. It was pre-digital so I will have to scan the pictures in - if I can find them.

[Lilith]

Aww - that's lovely

Reminds me of my ex. When we parted I loved being on my own but he was lonely, and he joined various dating sites/singles clubs. We were always good mates and I hoped he' find someone else but there were hiccups. There was the time he went on a singles holiday, two guys to ten women and he and one lass hit it off straight away and were the envy of the tour - but like many holiday romances it fizzled out straight afterwards. Then there was a local woman who he thought might just be the one, BUT. She lived (and slept) with 3 very territorial Airedales. 'Snog her and we'll kill you!' The affair never got as far as the bedroom...

Then he got made redundant (more gloom) and found a new job. And there SHE was. In the same office. They've been together ever since and she's perfect for him

Lol - maths! Any sensible teacher would have abandoned me as soon as I learned my times-tables. Instead they put me in for 'O' level...what? Fill this in? MOI???

I'll look forward to seeing the snakeys

[catslave16]

Thank you for moving my post, Jane.
Love the sign in your kitchen, Lilith, and will remember it.
I've sometimes wished I'd married a physiotherapist or a masseur or something, but to be honest, I'd rather put up with the pain. Apart from my son of course, the only males welcome in my house would have to have four legs and whiskers. And a very fluffy tail!
(and I've already got one of those)

[Lilith]

Lol the sign's in the living room - but really need one, permanently, in every room in the house

Yeah, Catslave, very true, I confess I'm quite content alone; I never realised how much I needed to be. I'm not knocking positive relationships or family ties, mind, they must be great, but it's equally great to be able to please yourself. My permanent 'man about the house' is Shahi the royal python.

Snakes don't need their socks washing!

[bobbys girl]

It's not the sock washing I mind, it's the fact that he thinks they make their own way to the laundry basket!

[Ruth B]

I realise sometimes just how lucky I am.

I do the cooking, my OH does the washing up and washes the clothes, we both think we have the better half of the deal.

I clean the litter trays, he cleans up when any of the cats throw up, this stops either of us being in danger of throwing up ourselves when doing it. Its odd how things like that effect people differently. We will both deal with the other if we have to, but it normally done holding back the gag reflex.

[catslave16]

Snakes don't leave the toilet seat up and don't leave shaving evidence in the washbasin eithe r!

[Lilith]

Errrm, as a self confessed slob I shouldn't say anything, but, Ruth, you've got a gem I've always been fussy about keeping the bog lid down though, because of generations of kittens dashing in and out of the bathroom, chasing, levitating, doing all the things kittens do, and my fear of one of them landing splosh in the loo, or being pushed.

Shahi does one typically male thing though. He f*rts. With gusto.

Honestly, he wakes me up. It's like the 1812 overture, complete with cannons!

[Ruth B]

I know I'm lucky, which is why I make sure I hang on to him.

As far as toilet seats go, I also have that one sussed, though not intentionally. When we moved in to the house we were fairly skint so were willing to make do with things. The toilet had one of those heavy wooden seats and we decided it would do. Unfortunately for any male resident or visitor the seat would not stay up on its own. We thought the hinge had gone, until we did replace it with a similar type and that suffered exactly the same. After a few close calls, and crashes that made us think the whole toilet would be in pieces, most of our regular visitors know and the toilet seat is never left to stay up by itself.

As for the lid, while we had Blue, the Ragdoll we had to keep the bathroom door shut, he had a problem once when we were doing DIY and got it into his head that the bathroom smelt right, and the bathmats felt different and it was therefore somewhere he could go. Once he got it in his head he occasionally would try it again, keep him out the bathroom and he used the garden or litter tray every time. Since he had to be pts, we have left the bathroom door open, it means we don't have to have the landing light on at mid day. However now the toilet lid stays firmly down. My mother actually had it happen with one of her kittens falling in, I was determined not to have a repeat performance from one of my youngsters. As it tends to be referred to in our family, no cat is taking up bog snorkeling again. (My brother in law is Irish and bog snorkeling is actually a sport in Ireland, hence the term)