Flora, aka Floof, is turning out to be quite a character! Because Jack and Jill, and then Tom and Ruby, were the same age, they were kept in the house together until they were about six months old and then allowed to go outdoors at the same time, (after their ops to ensure they wouldn't create kittens!) So although they were interested in what was going on outside the windows, they had no idea that it was possible to go there. However Floof is in the position that while she is still not allowed out, Tom is able to come and go as he pleases through the cat flap. He has a magnet attached to his collar, which means that Floof can't follow him.
Floof SO wants to go outside! She watches Tom intently as he appears and disappears through the cat flap, and understands that it is a portal to the outside world. So she often goes and sits in front of it, no doubt hoping that it will magically open for her too. Sometimes she pushes against it to no avail, and meows in disappointment.
When I say "meow" I really mean her strange loud bleat. She is the loudest cat that we have ever had. Tom is almost completely silent (unless he has to make a journey in the car in which case he cries pitifully!) but Floof is very vocal. And if she bleats outside the door in order to ask to get into a room, she continues bleating once she is inside, as if to say "About time!"
She is very affectionate but usually her play turns quickly to an attack with teeth and claws, both to the humans of the house and the long-suffering Tom. He really is very good-natured and patient with her, considering that she is always jumping on him. She adores her big furry brother and is fascinated by him - as soon as she hears him approach she ignores anyone else and rushes to greet him. Tom seems to have got used to this, and does play with her, although he will give her a cuff with his big paw when he's had enough, and Floof is learning to respect this and gives him some space. Often I find them curled up together on the bed.
Flora also loves her less furry brother Alasdair and enjoys it when he uses the laser pen to make a red dot that she chases around the room. Tom joins in too. She can get very lively at night time and has been in trouble several times for jumping about on the bed when we are trying to sleep! The very first time that we gave her the run of the house during the night she ran up and down the stairs so excited and meowing loudly!
The strangest thing about Flora is her obsession with water. All of our cats have demonstrated an interest in running taps or the bath, but none of them on the same scale as Floof. Maybe she was a ship's cat in one of her other nine lives! She comes running into the bathroom when I am getting ready for bed so that she can play in the bath - I turn on the cold water tap for a short while and she frolics about, playing with the water with her nose and paws, and also staring up into the tap when it is switched off. She loves to watch the toilet flush and sticks her whole head down into the bowl, and then bleats to ask for it to be flushed again. And she follows me into the shower room and stares in through the glass of the shower, bleating loudly until I open the shower door a wee bit so that she can stick her head in to investigate. What a great wee cat she is; I have become very fond of her.
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