Etched Behind Eyelids | December 2021
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31.12.2021
A foggy walk up at Sutton Park on Sunday 19th.
On Monday 20th Gustave came home, a day shy of thirteen weeks. He’s a chocolate point Siamese cat, and what’s known as ‘old style’ or ‘traditional’ rather than the modern Siamese which is a more slender cat. All Siamese cats are beautiful, but the breed diverged in the 1960s and by the 1980s there were two types of cat known as Siamese. There’s the original, muscular and quite stocky cat, which first arrived in Europe in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, and there’s the show type Siamese which emerged through show breeding. They look quite different to one another although their point colours are the same. The modern Siamese is thinner and has bigger ears and a longer snout than the old style, which has a body shape much closer to a regular domestic cat. In terms of behaviour and personality, there’s no difference between the two. Siamese cats are loud, opinionated, affectionate, intelligent, and extremely active cats who love human company. They’re puppy cats and incredibly demanding. I love them. Then again, I love all cats.
My parents came for lunch on the 25th. They were Gustave’s first visitors, and he was such a sweetheart to them both.
Pains au chocolat are a December 25th tradition in my family. Mum used to make them with the jus-roll pastry kit, which to my surprise is accidentally vegan – it doesn’t contain any animal products but isn’t marketed as vegan. I made these from scratch though.
We really are smitten.
Meeting Ed’s mum for the first time. Ed’s mum is a dog person, but it turns out she has a soft spot for puppy cats!
Meeting our friend Orlando for the first time. We looked after Orlando’s cat Lola back in October.
A visit to Birmingham Botanical Gardens.
Tea and cake at Boston Tea Party. We left Gustave on his own for ninety minutes to go for a walk, and came home to find him still fast asleep. This has given me a lot of confidence that he should be perfectly happy to be left for short periods of time without causing complete mayhem.
Watching Flock Finger Lakes episodes together!
As part of Gustave’s kitten pack I was given a discount code to try this food brand for free for 14 days. One of the co-founders for the company got her cats from the same breeder as Gustave – in fact I think one of her cats is Gustave’s maternal grandmother! If it’s good enough for granny… He does seem to really enjoy it, too.
Here’s to hoping his delicate guts sort themselves out soon, his kitten farts could strip wallpaper they’re so potent!
