13 est le nombre magique

~ iamthesunking
Thank you, Mum, for this card.

Thank you for all your birthday wishes for Louis Catorze. We could not have asked for more to celebrate the auspicious occasion of his thirteen years. Cards, gifts, visitors, jambon de Bayonne, Crémant and cherry gin cocktails (now named Screaming Roi, thanks to the landslide result of a vote among my cat freak friends), the traditional French feast of, erm, lasagne, an altercation with a parakeet, Kurt Zouma limping off the pitch with an injury (yes, we are STILL going on about that) … Catorze’s birthday weekend had it all.

Surveying his kingdom from his favourite spot.

At the start of the day we were worried about him because he appeared to have lost his voice, with only a weak, breathy squeak struggling from his mouth. Although we knew there was nothing wrong with him, and that he’d probably just overdone the screaming the day before, an almost-silent Roi is an eerie thing indeed. But, by this time his weekend visitor arrived, he had very much found his scream again and “normal” Catorzian service had resumed. And it hasn’t stopped since.

As Catorze is now at the upper end of the “Senior” age spectrum, I do worry a little more about what we may face as he grows older; I don’t have much experience with older cats and feel out of my depth. But he’s pretty good at letting us know what he wants, even if we are too dense to figure it out immediately.

Thank you for all the joy you bring, little sod. May thirteen be a very lucky number for you, although it doesn’t look as if this online source agrees:

“The number 13 has always been an ‘unlucky’ number. The number 13 is the number that represents Satan, evil, wickedness, devils, and everything vile that is connected to them.”

Antigone Books
“Hark! I smell beaucoup de mischief to be had!“

26 thoughts on “13 est le nombre magique”

  5. Happy Belated Birthday, Roi…Long may you in mischief reign! Black cats are bionic 😺 My moms’ lived to 19, a petite, sweet hellraiser.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  7. Ooooh Joyeux Anniversaire tu es magnifique petit chat noir hurlant!

    13 was traditionally considered a lucky number in France and was used in numerical form as a good luck symbol on postcards and charms and of course everyone who reaches a great age has had a 13th birthday so it must be very lucky 😻 (I am confused though because I thought we had a conversation recently that this was dear Lous’ 14th birthday?? Or please excuse me if my very tired brain is making this up?!)

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Sorry, your brain is making that up: it’s his 13th! Maybe you thought it was his 14th because he’s Catorze?

      Like

      Reply

  9. Gorgeous Louis, gorgeous card, and gorgeous garden 🙂 13 is my lucky number. Calinette lived until she was 16 and only got blind around 14 (high blood pressure), but she got used to it quickly, and Miss Penny lived until 19, and she had arthritis so she wouldn’t let me pick her up and she slept a lot, but she was still the cutest and dearest kitty in the universe. Old cats are quieter (which you might appreciate) but also, I found, more precious.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  12. Joyeux anniversaire en retard ! 13th is a good age. Wishing beaucoup de santé to Louis Catorze ! An aging cat is a blessing in many ways. Although, apparently, kidneys tend to be the weak spot of cats. Watch for change of behaviour in drinking water, eating and peeing. More importantly, enjoy each moment in his company (even if he does like the taste of certain books… 😸).

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Merci! He had a cracking birthday and is looking forward to another bank holiday weekend of strutting around and loving himself.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s