Chat, interrompeur

~ iamthesunking

There seemed to be a lot of missing cat posters around TW8 and its surrounding areas during lockdown. I don’t know whether more cats than usual went missing, or whether my inordinate amount of lockdown walks simply made the posters more noticeable, but I stopped to read every single one.

A long time ago someone told me that it was important to describe a cat’s personality, in addition to appearance, on a missing poster, as appearance is easily seen in a photo and doesn’t need much reiteration by text. I wondered at the time how valid this could be; after all, a fleeting encounter with a cat in the street didn’t seem sufficient to indicate personality and to know whether or not it was the right cat.

That was until my sister successfully reunited Peanut with her owner a few years ago, after reading on the poster of her tendency to sit and stare like the cat from Shrek. Because of her weight loss whilst on the run, Peanut didn’t look an awful lot like the picture shown on the poster. But the description of this one character trait nailed it.

And Cat Daddy was convinced of this, too, when he and I had the following exchange after he sent me a photo of a cat he’d seen in the street.

Me: “That cat looks like Catus Interruptus.”

Him: “Who’s Catus Interruptus?”

Me: “He lives a few doors down from Cocoa the babysit cat.”

Him: “Why do you call him Catus Interruptus?”

Me: “Because he barges up to random strangers and makes them stop whatever they’re doing to give him attention.”

Him, very firmly: “Yes. That is EXACTLY what happened. It was definitely him.”

Obviously I hope none of us will ever have to think about this, but a description of character traits on a missing pet poster might just be worth a shot. I did briefly think about what I’d say about Catorze, but we would be able to hear his screaming from wherever he was in the country. So he wouldn’t be missing for long.

Here is Catus Interruptus, homing in on Cat Daddy like a heat-seeking missile:

Stop! Cuddle time.

24 thoughts on “Chat, interrompeur”

  5. Almost all cats in the village stay indoors. It is safer this way. When you have vineyards, you get sanglier and foxes. There is one cat who patrols outside his home. He is a gorgeous tuxedo named Felix and he is the unofficial village greeter. He will even let you rub his tummy but doesn’t want to be picked up. He never strays far from home. There have been a few feral cats in the past but not many and usually they are taken in.

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      1. A friend in a nearby village has lost a few cats in the last several years and was told that most likely it was due to the foxes. She currently has eight feline masters.

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        1. Gosh, really? It’s virtually unheard of here. In fact, here they say that foxes are nervous of cats as they know they’ll come off worse in a fight with them!

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          1. I do hope that is true. Could it be the sanglier? It is a small village (less than 100 residents). The sanglier love to feed on the vineyards and can do a lot of damage.

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            2. I’ve been very close but fortunately driving in my car… There were at least five, small and large, that darted out of my car one night.

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  7. My pack of rabble rousers: 1)Female,tortie,Mensa smart, hated cats,ruled the block. Shameless tart. 2)Male,black,very sweet. Intelligence: negligible. Food theft skills: Ninja level 3)Female,tabby,gorgeous,charmer. Frequently enjoyed #2’s purloined bounty vis a vis trickery.
    4)Female,black,deaf,tiny. Champion Screamer, Mystery Traveler;I never knew where she had been.

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    1. What a collection! I think numéro 4 sounds the most like Catorze. He’s not deaf, but he ignores so same thing really. 🙄

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  8. I think that Pavarotti would have loved you petit roi 😂Life was never dull with my little circus, same as you & Cat Daddy with Catorze 😂😹

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    1. Trust me, what he does cannot be called singing by any reasonable interpretation of the word. 😐

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