**A FLASHBACK TO 2014 WITH WING COMMANDER BASIL** The Smooch Report - Can I Taste Purrlease?

Welcome to

Monday greetings my epic furriends

This post originally aired way, way, way back on March the 3rd 2014. 

Like wow, that is so incredibly old! MOL 

Anyhoo, we were looking for another post the other day and stumbled across this one which tells the story of Smooch and his siblings arrival at the P.A.'s work and thought it might be nice to share again with readers who might not have seen it the first time around.

For all our new readers this is just for context; when the blog first started ten years ago, I Basil, was the only kitty who really used to be here. My fur-sibs popped along every now and again but mainly it was just me, myself and I. Not that I was being selfish or anything, it was just the way it was! MOL

So when reading today's flashback, mew will gather that we were in the throes of beginning to expand everyone's airtime, so it wasn't just Basil Time all the time.

Smooch's Origins

As mew will remember from last Friday's post, it was agreed that my fur-siblings get a little more blog time and Smooch in purrticualr was furry adamant that another Smooch Report was needed asap. So to appease my baby brofur before he goes all mental on me and licks me into oblivion, here is another installment of:

The Smooch Report

Many of mew already know Smoochie, but fur those that don't here's a little re-cap.

Smoochie was part of a feral furrmily living at my P.A.'s workplace. There was a mummy cat and her 6 kittens. They just appeared one day in May 2011, and the P.A. started to feed them all.  

When they were all old enough, each one in turn, was caught and taken to the vet to be neutered and the mummy cat too, (the P.A. believes in being responsible). Anyway, I digress, so the 6 kittens were called: Tiger Lily, Midnight, Ringo, Baby, Starlight and Smoochie. Mummy cat was called Pixie.

1. Starlight  2. Baby  3. Tiger Lily  4. Pixie  5. Ringo  6. Midnight  7. Smoochie

The P.A. spent many hours while she was at work taming this furry horde with the help of bucket loads of Dreamies and long feather wands. She managed to hand feed all of them, and they liked her so much that they even ate the wormer pills straight from her fingers like they were treats!  (This does not happen at our house, effur!! We get stuff squirted on our necks because we won't eat the pills no matter how they are disguised!!)

Poppy is another feral who's been on site for 15 years

Sadly,  Starlight and Ringo went wandering across the busy main road, and I hate to say this, but they went to the Rainbow Bridge - both in less than 2 weeks of each other. The P.A. was so furry furry upset. Then Smooch also tried to cross this road; he made it back, but he'd been hit by a vehicle, and his back right leg was badly broken. Anyhoo, the P.A. and Dad managed to catch him, get a pet carrier and rush him to the vet. His leg was broken so badly it had to be removed.  

After the operation, he was taken back to the workplace as there was an empty dog run/kennel and he needed to be kept contained while he healed. Smooch was kept in the run fur a few weeks, and the P.A. and Dad socialized him further; he wasn't alone as his other siblings were there all the time, only on the other side of the wire.   

After his leg was healed, the P.A. and Dad brought him home and integrated him into The b Team as they knew if he stayed at their workplace, he'd probably try and cross the road again and next time he wouldn't be so lucky.

So that's how Smooch came to live at BBHQ. The other furbabies are still at work and seem happy enough to roam around the gardens and the fields away from the road - thank goodness. The P.A. tells them all the time to: 'Stay off the road'

Anyways, Smoochis the most loving, furriendly, kind and sweet kitty mew could effur meet. He is also furry, furry affectionate, and this is where this week's title comes from because every time I come inside after being out to play, he has to taste me!

Can I Taste Purrlease? 

The other evening I had just come in from another field excursion and flopped on the kitchen table. Smooch who only goes out under strict supervision virtually pounces on me the moment I get in the door, so I thought being on the table would give me a bit of a reprieve. How wrong I was!

The tasting assault began with my back foot

Then it moved up to my neck

On to my head

At this point I got up - I think my face says it all!

I moved along the table, but Smooch is relentless in his quest fur outdoor flavours

I think this expression speaks volumes

Help!

It's not that I mind so much, but it's ALL THE TIME, and I am a ManCat, don't get me wrong, having someone to clean the parts your own tongue can't reach is a huge bonus, but being randomly taste tested after every outdoor excursion is something else. 

I love my baby brofur, but sometimes I wish he taste test one of the others instead, howeffur, as I'm the only one who likes to venture out every day, I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon!!! MOL

**2022 Update** 

If mew'd like a propurr update on the garage cats let us know in the comments and we'll do a new post as mew can imagine things have changed in eight years, but we will say this; Pixie, Smooch's mum is still there, she moved in the house with Nanny and Grampaw.

Epic purrs

Wing Commander Basil

Don't furget to subscribe and never miss another post! 

Graphics created with paid licence www.canva.com 

The Smooch Report ~ How to Help Solve Inappropriate Kitty Toileting and Spraying Issues - Part II

Many greetings supurr furriends

and welcome to 

Part II of The Smooch Report - The Widdle Diaries

To have a quick recap on Part I click here.  Sorry, we're a little late with this post, we were hoping to share it last week, but we just ran out of time.

Today we're going to talk about one of the main things which we implemented straight aftur the Kitty Shrinks visit to assist Smoochie's inappropriate widdling.

This was the frosting on the french doors and patio doors so that Smoochie's view was somewhat restricted at ground level, making it harder fur him to see and detect when Tiger was ambling around the garden, as he seems to be the main widdle-trigger.

The P.A. checked out loads of products but decided on this one:

CottonColors Premium No-Glue 3D Static Decorative ECO Privacy Window Film

from Amazon UK

 So aftur measuring the window and cutting the film, installation only took minutes.  Remember to measure twice, cut once! MOL

Before

During

The film is applied to a freshly cleaned window, then a soapy solution [washing up liquid & water] is wiped offur the glass and the window film adheres to it.  The bubbles were removed by using a cloth, but we wanted to show mew how it looks when mew're applying it.

Aftur

Patio doors

Before & Aftur

It took roughly an hour and a half to do all the windows from start to finish.

It may not seem like it obscures the view too much, but it really made a huge difference, which mew can see below.

So let's look at his progress:

January's Widdle Diary

Only 5 incidents in January and the drive was done this month, and he coped really with all the noise, so it's a huge improvement.

February's Widdle Diary 

5 incidents in February too, howeffur last month was a really stressful month at home because the builders started the new froggy home so there were lots of new noises: mini digger, wacker plate, Stihl saws, cement mixer and the general banging and clattering that builders do.

Noise seems to be one of his triggers, so while the patio has been installed the P.A. kept a close eye on him and as the weeks have progressed he seems less and less bothered by the external sounds, which is good because he has another test coming up when the lawn is re-turfed later in the month.

He had 8 incidents in December, aftur the glass frosting was applied on the 30th of November and prior to the glass frosting he was averaging a minimum of 4 incidents per week, one week it was an incident a day, and the P.A. was demented at that point.

So what can be deduced from applying the glass frosting is in the furst month:

 December 8 incidents

January 5 incidents

February 5 incidents

When November was his peak month at approximately 20 ish incidents if the P.A. counts up all the stuff she had to wash and place under the carport out of the way, like rugs, doormats, flowers, cushions, etc...

Mew can see the glass frosting has made a huge difference, December was less than half of November and a quarter in January & February.   And we can't help but wunder if there had been no disturbance in the garden with all the wurk being carried out if it would have been much less.  We believe it would.

In summary, Smoochie is progressing in the right direction and the incidents are becoming less and less compared with previous months, so it is improving steadily and with careful tweaks, we're confident that we can get him back to normal in a few more months, as the P.A. doesn't want to go down the route of medicating him - like Valium fur cats.


If mew have a kitty that is having Widdling Issues, our furst piece of advice would be to try and determine the main trigger, aftur mew have obviously been the vet and had all medical reasons ruled out, and if like Smoochie it is another cat outside that's causing the distress, try the window frosting option to reduce your kitty's stress levels.  It's amazing that something so simple can have such a healing effect on a stressed kitty.

If mew have any questions, ask away, if we can help we will.

Sadly it's time fur us to pop off, but we'll see mew tomorrow when Amber will be here with this weeks top book pick!

Until then

We wish mew a supurr happy Tuesday

Sweetest purrs

Basil & The B Team

Gifs and Glitter Graphics www.glittergraphics.com

Other graphics used under paid licence www.canva.com and www.pizap.com

The Smooch Report ~ The Widdle Diaries ~ How to Help Solve Inappropriate Kitty Toileting and Spraying Issues - Part I

Many greetings supurr furriends

and welcome to 

Part I of The Smooch Report - The Widdle Diaries

As many of mew will know that offur the last 18 months or so Smoochie has not been feeling himself and has been widdling in places he shouldn't.

Now the P.A. read book aftur book, searched the internet and tried effurything suggested to assist his Smoochiness offurcome his little purroblem and while some of it was a help, in all honesty most of the info was completely worthless and she wasted time and money on crap advice.

So aftur a trip to the vet and a few tests to make sure that there was no underlying medical issue causing his purroblem, the P.A. enlisted the help of a Kitty Psychiatrist/Behavioural Expert.  In other wurds she brought the really, really big guns in, and it's not cheap.

And today in Part One we're going to share with mew a little of what we've learnt from THE EXPERTS.   Now there will be a few of these posts as there's a lot to talk about and if mew have any questions, feel free to ask.

*     *     *

Furstly and most importantly if mew have a kitty that's widdling outside the tray mew must take kitty to the vet asap to rule out any UTI infection or kidney problems or medial issue etc... 

Secondly mew need to assess if your kitty has a toileting issue or a spraying issue* - as the two are entirely different. We'll talk more about that in a moment.

Also if mew have more than one kitty then mew need to be certain who's doing it and/or whether its a group endeavour.

Obviously stalking your cat 24 hours a day and watching his/her effury move to see what's happening isn't going to help the purroblem or probably yield any solid confirmation as most incidents happen when mew're not there, so what the P.A. did was buy 7 camera's 

[Image @AmazonUK]

Foscam C1 Lite 720P Wireless IP Camera

and located them around the house where Smooch had piddled.  These handy camera's are furry easy to set up and have the facility to record via a small monthly subscription so mew can go back offur footage and see exactly who's doing what where and when. [They are not infrared so mew will need to leave a light on at night if mew suspect kitty is widdling offur night].

Thirdly: Get a diary or calendar and keep a log of every time kitty widdles and where.

Fourthly: Draw a floor plan of your house and mark on it where your kitty is urinating.

Now this seems like a lot of stuff to do, but if mew want to help solve your kitty's issues mew are going to have to put the time in.

We also need to say this:

If mew do have a kitty that is urinating/spraying outside the litter box there is usually a furry valid reason and it's your duty as primary caregiver to not just decide to take your cat to a shelter and give-up because mew can't be bothered and it's an inconvenience in your life.  

This is completely irresponsible and we would suggest that before adopting or getting a cat that mew think long and hard about the next 20+ years - as that's how long a cat can live - and make a commitment that you're going to keep kitty furever, no matter what.  If mew're not 110% in it fur the life of your cat life then don't ever get one.

And if mew effur decide to get rid of your cat because your new partner doesn't like kitty - SHAME ON MEW - our advice is: Get rid of the new partner furst, as kitty will likely be there a lot longer!

*     *     *

 *How to determine whether your kitty has a toileting issue or a spraying issue.

If your kitty is spraying or marking up usually he or she will back up to an item, and while standing with tail erect will spray their chosen item.  The amount of urine won't be a lot.

If it is a toileting issue they will squat as they do in the tray, fur instance: if they do it on a hard surface mew will find a puddle.

Spraying is usually a territorial thing, whereas toileting is more of a behavioural thing.

*      *      *

Anyhoo, let's continue,

So below is the Smooch Widdle Diary started aftur the Expert's furst visit on the 22nd of November.

The P.A. has a calendar stuck on the fridge and we have been filling it in as and when an incident occurs, and mew can see how varied it is.  There were many other places around the house too but we weren't keeping a diary then, and the P.A. has just ended up getting rid of stuff that has been ruined and at the moment Smoochie's widdling has cost in excess of £4,500.00, yep it's up there but there was a Sony laptop and the leather sofa out of the office, they were the big-ticket items.

FYI: Insurance doesn't cover accidental cat pee incidents either.

Now at the preliminary meeting at BBHQ, the P.A. discussed several things that she thought were contributing to Smoochie's purroblem, but the biggest one was Tiger.

Tiger is a cat who lives somewhere in the village and has been going next door to the P.A.'s cousins for the last 18 months or so.  We have no idea where he lives, but he does come offur the fence, into the courtyard and sleep under the carport in the teddy bear's picnic area.  Smoochie really doesn't like this cat at all and this is one of his biggest triggers.

See what we mean!

The next trigger is, if anything new is brought into the house that 'smells' different.

Fur example, Smooch has widdled on a couple of the heavy jute rugs, which are really hard to clean properly, so the P.A. bought new rugs and within one day of the new rugs being down he'd widdled on them too.  So now the only rugs the P.A. uses are smaller washable cotton ones, which until the Saturday just gone, he'd shown no interest in at all.  But at least she can just throw those type in the washing machine and it's no big purroblem to deal with.

The third trigger is, loud external noises, ie; like last week when we had the drive done, the mini digger clanking about set him back a little.

And before we wrap this post up we feel it most importante that mew see what a little sweetie Smoochie is and even though he's only got 3 legs he loves to play....



So in this post, mew need to get prepared, get your diary and effurything else implemented and start monitoring kitty and try to find the triggers that may be causing the behaviour.

In Part Two we'll show mew what we implemented to assist Smoochie in his recovery, and more about his purrsonality.

How many litter trays you should have, and talk about the cleanup process and what is the best product to clean cat urine with, as well as his actual progress since new measures were introduced.

And like we said earlier if mew have any questions, we'll help if we can!

*      *      *

And before we go, here's the draw fur last weeks Give-Away on Mandalas on Monday to win this really cute colouring book:

The entries were:

The live draw:

And the winner is:

Momma Kat & Bear

WOO HOO, congratulations guys and if mew could email us your snail mail address to:

deardrbasil @ gmail . com

We'll ship the book to mew post haste, and congratulations again we really hope mew like it

Many thanks to effurypurrdy else for entering, and don't wurry if mew missed out this time, we've got another colouring book to give away next month.

Well, it's time for us to pop off, but we'll see mew tomorrow when Amber will be sharing another book just fur mew, and if mew want to see part 2 of The Widdle Diaries, click here.

Until then

We wish mew a supurr happy Tuesday

Sweetest purrs

Basil & The B Team

Gifs and Glitter Graphics www.glitter-graphics.com

Other graphics used under paid licence www.canva.com  and www.pizap.com

FLASHBACK FEVER! BionicBasil Revisited #11 ~ The Smooch Report - Tunnelling to Victory - Giro in Jeopardy!

Welcome to our eleventh Flashback post.

Today we are going all the way back to January 29th 2013 and revisiting The Smooch Report, he hadn't been with us furry long at this point and he was still getting used to being a tripawed kitty and living inside.

Let's jump in the time dilation vortex and go, way, way back....

Woo hoo, that was fun... not to swirly either! MOL

Welcome to the latest Installment of 

The Smooch Report!

As mew can see, Das Smooch is really getting himself settled in.  There I was the other day, playing with my Giraffe - Giro, so very kindly given to me by the pawesome peeps at

www.kittykit.co.uk

(Fur being a speshul runner-up in their fan'cat'stic photo competition last year)

Anyways I digress, so there I was having a supurr furry wunderpurr time, minding my own buziness playing with my giraffe when this happened...

 

  

And the little Smooch wanted my giraffe - I just couldn't believe it!

Can mew?

(Mock Shock is adorning my most furry handsome face right now!)

He was using all of his uber cute Smoochie Skillz to try and lure my giraffe away.  Well let me tell mew, the giraffe is mine and all the uber cute Smoochie skillz in the known Cosmos are not going to get in-between me and Giro the Giraffe.

Better luck next time Smooch!

Muwahahahhahahaahaaaaa!!!!

 See mew in the next post

 Yours on permanent toy patrol for the indefinite and unforeseeable future

Bestest purrs and meows

Basil

Gifs and Glitter Graphics

www.glittergraphics.com

Other graphics used under paid licence www.canva.com and www.pizap.com