Wednesday 4 December 2013

nose to nose

Nose to nose, then paws to paws.  Teeth to teeth and jaws to jaws.  Oh no!  What are my marmalade brothers doin' this time?

I'll tell you what they're doin'.  They're havin' a discussion but with those two, discussions get a little heated.  Truth be told however, they very rarely ever get past the nose to nose phase although you can hear 'em a mile away...  LITERALLY.

The ten of us get along really very well.  Oh sure, there are minor disagreements now and then.  Just the other day, my Auntie Primrose shoved me off the pink chair in the family room.  She has decided that that is her spot these days and didn't want me sleepin' in it.  MOUSES!

And then there's Tess.  Tess, Tess, Tess...  What can I tell you about my sister Tess?  She's a growler, for sure.  She growls at air!  It's true.  She does it all the time.  Peep #1 says she's as foul as a chicken when she gets in one of her moods, which happens at least once every couple days if not more.

And my sister Mason is always tryin' to hone in on everyone else's dinner but that very rarely turns nasty.  Most of us just share with her.  We know that the peep will give us more and we all kind of feel sorry for Mason on account of the fact that she was starvin' to death when she first came to live with us.  It's true.  Poor Mason was nothin' but skin and bones.  She has plumped up, considerably, since then.

But back to those marmalades.  I don't know what it is with them but they just can't seem to get along.  It's weird 'cause they're both gingers and gingers are supposed to be good-natured and all and really, they are with the rest of us but with each other, it's a totally different story.

Seville has short hair and Rushton has long fluffy fur but other than that, they have a lot in common.  For starters, they're both marmalades.

Secondly, they're both huge.  And when I say huge, I actually mean HUGE!  I often joke that those two are twenty pounders which is a bit of an exaggeration but only a bit.  Those two brothers of mine are big boys for sure.  Rushton can stand up on his hind legs and place his front paws on my peep #1's waist.  It's true.  He's that big.  And my peep isn't that short.  Not really.  Oh sure...  she's too short to reach stuff up on the very top shelf at the grocery store and sometimes has to go climbin' to get that stuff down but no one of any normal height can reach the stuff up on those top shelves.  At least that's what I've been told.  And did you know that the peeps who run the grocery store frown upon customer peeps climbing their shelves?  Yup, that's what I hear.  Has nothin' to do with my blog post, really, but I thought you might find that little tidbit of information interesting.

Anywho...  back to my marmalade brothers.  Seville and Rushton have other stuff in common, too.  Stuff like how they both came to live with us.

The marmies - that's what I sometimes call 'em - both came to live with us in the month of December, almost exactly one year apart.  Seville appeared at our back door one cold December day, just a few days before Christmas and the very next year, Rushton appeared in the backyard one cold December night about a week before Christmas, tryin' to eat the bread Peep #2 had put out for the birds.

Seville once tried to convince me that he was a Christmas present left by Santa Claus but I know better.  I monitor all reindeer activity during the month of December - every year - and I know for a fact that there wasn't a flyin' deer within fifty miles of our house on the two days those two arrived.  I checked it twice and everything.

Here's another interestin' similarity between the marmies...  they both arrived, neutered.  MOUSES!

Plus, they both had ear stuff goin' on.  No...  they didn't have mites.

Seville has a tattoo in his ear but the peeps couldn't trace it.  Apparently, there's no national database for those ear tats so unless you can find the exact doctor who did it, it's pretty much useless.  The peeps think he might have ended up in a movin' van or somethin' from out west and managed to escape once here in Nova Scotia 'cause after all the phonin' she did about that tat, she was convinced he came from out of province.

Seville thinks his tattoo is cool.  Thinks he's a dude or somethin'.  And he very well might be a dude.  Peep #1 calls him Dude a lot and once, at the doctor's office, the nurse called him a dude and she had no idea that Ol' Peepers had already been callin' him that.  The only thing holding Seville back from bein' a real dude is his lack of a ranch.  Oh...  and a horse.  And a hat.

Rushton doesn't have an ear tattoo.  Instead, his ear was docked.  Yup, he's missin' part of one of his ears but it wasn't from fightin' or anything.  Rushy must have gone through a TNR program at some point but let me make this absolutely clear...   he was NOT a feral kitty.  Way too peep-friendly to have ever been feral.  The peeps think he might have been a barn cat or somethin' and the colony was gettin' out of control so they were all TNR'd.  He had obviously had a lot of peep contact before comin' to live with us so someone had been pretty nice to him.

The marmies also share a common enemy...  NOSEY NEIGHBOUR CAT.  When that nosey neighbour cat comes over, Rushton and Seville both howl and howl and growl until a peep comes along to separate 'em.  The growls can be heard from here to China, I am told.  Okay...  that's a bit of an exaggeration as China is pretty far away.  But I'm sure they can hear 'em all the way to England.  That's a more reasonable distance, I should think. 

The only times Rushton and Seville ever make more noise than they make when growlin' at nosey neighbour cat are the times when they're growlin' at each other.  They get right into each other's faces and start a-howling.  They're nose to nose, they are.  Nose to nose!

Then Ol' Peepers comes along and says, "Love one another.  Remember you're brothers," before she goes in and separates them.  That works for a bit.  Works 'til they find each other again.

But like I said, the marmalade discussions very rarely go any further than the growls and the howls.  There's just somethin' about those two.  Somethin' about them not wantin' to get along.  Of course these things take time and Rushton and Seville have only been living together for four years.  Yup, four years this month.  Four years isn't long at all.

40 comments:

  1. Those marmalades sure are handsome. Love the story about them. Take care.

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  2. LOL great post! Hilarious. I loved reading it!
    (http://ownedbyahusky.blogspot.ca)

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  3. Marmelades! That sounds delicious. You know what goes well with Marmelade? Crepes. :)

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  4. Marmalades aren't sweet??? Who knew???
    You have a lovely very entertaining family, Nissy!

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  5. Four years isn't nearly long enough. Lily and Misty May have been living together for nine tears, and Misty May still gives Lily a constant hard time. Our marmalade, MacKenzie, was a pretty friendly guy, except when it came to Lily and yard interlopers. We had an itty-bitty kitten show up at our front door one Christmas Eve. We named her Noel. Mom had a friend visiting who adopted her. As usual, we already had a full house. Is Tess a calico? Nissy, we really enjoyed hearing about some of the other kitties you live with, besides Seville. Thanks for sharing this with us. Purrs and hugs, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Lisbeth and Calista Jo

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    1. Tess IS a calico. How did you know? She's muted though. Fawn instead of orange and grey instead of black. And LONG haired, too.

      I've just gotta finish my page for my family. So far, I think I just have Sivvers there. Gotta get the rest of the family posted. NEXT on my list of stuff to do.

      Purrs,
      Nissy

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  6. Hey Nerissa, what is the Tattoo in Seville's Ear, I might be able to help you out with that?

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    1. Peep just checked and 'thinks' she got it right. Seville was a little uncooperative. Anywho... it's four numbers followed by ABT. The peeps at the VWAS contacted peeps in Alberta, thinkin' he might have come from there but they couldn't trace the tat. But Sivvers is part of our family now and I don't think the peeps would give him up for anything in the world. And if they did, with whom would I further develop our egg beater-whisk time travelling-teleportation technology? Seville is my right-paw cat! purrs

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    2. Oh gosh I never intended that , of course Seville is part of the family. Nice to know some history though. My Mom's cats Lady (calico) and Tramp (orange tabby) have tattoos, one is B51 the other is B52. Mom got them fixed through spca voucher and they were done in Berwick , of course they were the 51st and 52nd cat done LOL. Egg beater-whisk travel is very important to a cat, I understand that. Do be careful on your journeys though.

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    3. Or... maybe they were playin' BINGO! purrs

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  7. Marmalades... Mum told us it's sweet and delicious ! Purrs

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  8. Seems like somebody's always getting smacked around here! Your bros would fit right in.

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  9. happee earl lee gotcha dayz rushton N seville !!! give it another 400 yeerz N ewe both will bee gettin a long fine... everee day..... 24/8/375...:)
    then ewe will wanna haza go two with nissy !!! happee whitefish wednesday everee one !

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  10. We can hear the growling in Ontario..that's what sets Oscar off howling and yowling.
    The REAL Maple Syrup Mob xxxxx

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  11. I love marmalade cats. Beautiful kitties.
    Sue B

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  12. Since I'm an only kitty, I've often wondered how kitties got along that live in a big family. Thanks for the insight. That's funny with the Marmalades. Who knows!!

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  13. Kitty tattoo? I've never heard of that. My mom's cat growls a lot.
    My blogpaws ww entry is #110. Come by and vote for us 1 last time?

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  14. hmmm...this was a verrrrrrrry interesting post Nissy...verrrrrrrry interesting. You must have been readin' my mind. Lots of yowling and growling around here if there is anything like a nose to nose...just sayin'

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  15. Marmalades...that sounds like a band..COOL! Pawkiss...... to Pawkiss :)

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  16. Ahh so it was those two going nose to nose that woke me last night! BOL

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  17. Marmalades are peeps fav and one that lived behind us years ago was very special.
    Have a tremendous Thursday.
    Best wishes Molly

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  18. Well Nissy, with ten cats there's bound to be a disagreement or two from time to time.....your "marmie brothers" probably just like to jerk each other around a bit - you know - teasing and torturing......it's part of finding your place in the food chain sort of. As long as there are no really bloody smacky-paws fights going on, then it's just part of life in a BIG household full of cats I suppose. What the heck do I know??? I'm an only-cat whose place on the totem pole at my house is secure!!!

    Kitty Hugs, Sammy

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  19. What beautiful kitties! :)

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  20. Eeek, we are happy they don't get into it much more than their growls but that's no fun is it Nissy?

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  21. We've heard about Marmies being nice, friendly kitties and all but we had a boarding kitty client who was as marmalade as marmalade can be and boy, was he unpleasant. He was rude to us, and rude to Mommy. He was even rude to HIS Mommy!
    After reading about Seville and Rushton, we are kinda glad the only marmalade in this house are in jars, waiting to be spread on bread.

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  22. Well Nissy my pal I may have a bit to say as I am a Marmalade me-self.
    I would like to meet your fellows and see if we got along or would get right to the Nose-O a Nose-O ruckus. Dad was actually quite amazed to find I am pushing 14 pounds as I look quite thin. Hah. Cat Muscles! And I regularly thrash the furmaly around here. Except, Mouses, Rumpy. He is... well... He may not really be a cat! That is another story fur another day.
    Purrs
    Timmy the Marmalade Tomcat

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  23. Those moving vehicles and vans are a menace all right! There was a poor kitty recently who fell asleep in the wheel arch of its peeps's car. They drove several miles across town with it and when they arrived it scared the life out of them when they parked the car and the poor puss exploded from the wheel arch hissing, screeching and spitting at them (wouldn't you do so too if you've been abducted like this)! Anyway, the cat was on the run on the North Side of Cork for a good few weeks. There were a few sporadic sightings here and there but so far it's still at large...

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    1. MOUSES! I sure do hope they find that kitty... and SOON. purrs

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  24. Must be interesting around your house. We have those nose to nose facedowns among ourselves too.

    Wonder why the tattoos if they can't be identified?

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  25. Yipes! Don’t think I’d want to referee those spats but I could sell tickets to the main event with nosy neighbor cat.

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  26. I don't wanna take sides here or nuffing, but I gotta say: That Rushton does look like a troublemaker, don't you think?

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    1. Yeah but he passes himself off as all sweetie pie nothin' can melt in his mouth to the peeps. That Rushy gets away with EVERYTHIN'. MOUSES!

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  27. And we thought things were exciting with Tillie and Julie
    hissing and staring each other down ;)
    Purrs Georgia and Julie,
    Treasure,Tiger and JJ

    Thank you for your kind thoughts and purrs when our Tillie crossed the Bridge.It happened so fast.
    We miss her SO much.

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  28. I'm sorry you got singled out for the hugs-and-kissies routine. Thank COD she respected you enough not to belleh-snorgle, but it's bad enough just knowing how bad they WANT to, isn't it?

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  29. We have a ginger contingency in our home too. June Buggie and Bubba have been together their entire lives, were rescued together when they were about 6 weeks old, and have tied up at least once a day every day since coming to stay with Jen. *rolls eyes*

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  30. This marmalade thing is getting out of hand! Don't I have to hide ....errr .... avoid Big Ginge on a daily basis? It's a nightmare!! I think you have it easy Nissy. Growls and howls are put uppable with at a pinch, but the snarls, hisses and whaps are a bit disconcerting!! ;) xoxoxox

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I love hearin' from my pals. I really, REALLY do. PURRS.