Fetching furry frolics and a flurry of feisty felonies: A Truffle (Ganache Salome) Bonkers Winter Special

Tara, the radiator bed is still a hit!

Since my last post about cracks and leaks, the former are still appearing, albeit at a slower rate, and I think the leaks are broadly sorted, though I still can't bring myself to stage the acid test of a 'messy shower'. And certainly not the 'acid acid test', which would be asking for trouble. But I seem to have lurched from one tumultuous phase to another: this one is due to an avalanche of work, about which I am not complaining. Oh, via an unfortunate incident whereby a legacy email account I no longer use started sending rude spam to everyone in my address book the other night, including work contacts! I am hoping all the recipients will think the phrase 'goon new' is not really me. So  yes, I will be head down till mid-Feb on the work front, and perfume reviews that require more prep may have to be deferred till then. But meanwhile, I did promise you a Truffle special...after all, there hasn't been a post entirely devoted to her since this one last Christmas.

I did actually do a tiny bit of prep for this feature - I looked up the judging criteria for Crufts (I know that is for dogs, but bear with me) to see how Truffle measures up some of them. There was a clatter of obvious things like 'size', 'weight' and 'colour', but then it got into the realms of specific body parts, some with sub-criteria that intrigued me - for example, there's much more to legs than meets the eye:

'Legs: Muscles, stance, proportionality.'

Oh dear, I think I would fail on all of those myself, though Truffle has a nice set I'd say.

'Teeth: kind of bite (level or scissors bite)'

I am sure I would get eliminated for grinding, and Truffle for biting her owner when she doesn't get her own way.

Did I say the radiator bed was a hit?

Oh, I quite like 'gait' too. Truffle has a rolling gait that is very endearing -  it is almost a swagger, but in a sweet way.

And then there's 'attitude'. Who knew that a beagle should look 'cheerful', while a poodle must be 'proud'?

So all those criteria got me thinking about how to present the highlights of Truffle's second winter. I shall go with one or two physical characteristics, but it is mostly going to be about attitude in its various guises, plus the whole gamut of naughty to delightful behaviours.

Size

Since I got Truffle at eight weeks in November 2015, she has grown rather, as you can see.

Still using the same bowls, mind.

Stance

Truffle gives good stance, I'd say. Here she is doing her best impression of a lion statue posing with the obligatory ball.

Actual lion:

You really can't spot the difference, now can you?

Agility

Facebook friends may recall Truffle's early repurposing of the ironing board as a home gym.

She is still working on her agility, and has recently taken up cycling, though has not quite got the hang of it yet.

Note how she manages to make it look cool, even while technically riding the radiator.

Also under agility we could perhaps file 'turning the St Germain light on single-pawed' - or having a jolly good go at least. 

She also managed to knock a drawstring pouch containing two vials of a new House of Cherry Bomb perfume onto the floor, open the strings with her teeth, and extract the contents. 

NB This could also be filed under '(Dis)-obedience' and 'Fetishes'.

Staying with the theme of agility, Truffle doesn't excel in every area. As you can see, her (kibble-containing) Tupperware opening skills are still on the floor.

(Dis)-obedience

Oh dear, this could potentially be a big category. Firstly there is Truffle's complete refusal to observe the 'no jumping up on the worktop' rule.

She also enjoys flaunting the corollary of that - the 'no jumping up on any surface really, but especially where food might be involved, like a dining room table, for example' rule.

Fetishes

Soap suds

In this category, we firstly have soap suds - Truffle goes mad for them, whether in the bath or the kitchen sink. She lies in wait when I do the washing up and makes a dive for the suds as soon as I go to tip the dirty water out, hoiking them out with her paw and proceeding to lick them off. I can't help feeling this isn't good for her, but Fairy Liquid seems to be the detergent equivalent of catnip as far as she is concerned.

Pictured here momentarily distracted by another of her favourite quarries - birds.

Wool

Right, so this definitely also counts as '(Dis)-obedience'. Like all cats, Truffle is mad for wool and must not be left unsupervised in its presence. Or this happens. Sadly, there has been no perceptible improvement in her propensity for wool savagery since she was a kitten.

Perfume

I did say above that her recently acquired interest in perfume may also constitute a fetish. Having opened the perfume pouch pictured above, she proceeded to roll the vials around and roll on top of them - presumably attracted by the smell rather than some kind of variation on the Indian bed of nails idea. 

And only the other week, there was a similar 'coming over all unnecessary' with a perfume package from Undina, whose contents had impregnated the cardboard box with a delicious woody oriental potpourri.

And now we move on to her more positive traits, starting with a category that I could best describe as 'keeping my owner in line'. Think of Edina's daughter Saffron in AbFab and you won't be far off. That's funny, I used to have a cat called Saffron!

Saffron: 1986-1993

Keeping my owner in line

'You are not seriously going to go out in that?'

The offending garment in question was only a hat - one of my own, to boot!

'Isn't it time you stopped messing about on Facebook and went to bed?'

And...

'It's time for You and Yours in five minutes.'

Not forgetting...

'If I keep staring she'll put the suitcase away.'

Keeping an eye on her owner also manifests itself as displays of affection when I am feeling ill or stressed - as touched on in my last post. Truffle has taken to lying on me when I have a headache and am spark out on the bed, say. Here she is, just checking for a pulse. (And yes, I am wearing all my clothes in bed. It was a particularly bad day.)

And this is one of our regular Sunday morning lie ins. I am in pyjamas here at least.

Bliss!

So that was rather a lot of pictures, I know. There are loads more where they came from, so in my own terms as her doting owner I have actually been quite restrained. ;)

On which note it seems appropriate to close with this extract from the very amusing Ladybird book on Cats (a new spoof edition). In case you can't read it at this resolution, I have quoted the text below.

'It is important to constantly take photographs of your cat or people might not know you have a cat. If your camera breaks, a simple cat photographing device can be improvised from things you find in a bin, so you need not miss a moment of proving that you have a cat.'

So yes, I promise you this is still a perfume blog! Normal service will resume soon.