Both Teresa (my Portuguese teacher) and I had been away on alternating holiday schedules over the summer, and today was my first lesson in what felt like ages. I was all set for getting back into the swing of things – I’d even done my homework! – but little did I know that my enthusiasm would be met with considerable feline opposition.
Teresa had only just got back yesterday from a two-week stint in Portugal, and despite having arranged for a relative to tend to her cat, Otto, the poor darling had clearly suffered severe psychological damage from the prolonged lack of attention. And he was determined to make up for it.
Otto is usually quite reticent and prefers to watch proceedings from his chair in the window, which made today’s antics all the more amusing.
I expect that, by next Monday, he’ll be back to his aloof old self. Shame 😉
Cats are evil.
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I’ve got a post coming up on that…
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Yay. More fodder to haunt me with.
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It’s not actually about cats 😉
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Will that thread make sense, eventually?!
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All shall be revealed tomorrow…
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eu quero falar: pessoas não têm gatos. Gatos têm pessoas! (my attempt at people don’t own cats. Cats own people!)
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It’s true… they choose 🙂
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Never trust a person who doesn’t like cats (they probably adore animals that bark at the sea)
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Guilty.
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They’re nice too though 🙂
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They are 🙂
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We’ve often wondered this: people who like cats normally like dogs too; people who hate cats like dogs only.
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I’d never thought about it in that way, but I think you may be onto something there. I suspect that people who like both are just animal lovers, while those who are strictly-dogs-only people have a type of narcissistic personality disorder – if it doesn’t wholeheartedly and unreservedly adore them, they don’t want to know 😉
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That’s it! Dog-only people are normally…you know,,a bit annoying – looking down on you a bit: ‘how can you like that fluffy ball of fur when MY pet talks to me and does everything say – like my wife/husband!’
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I love this pop psychology stuff… it’s begging to be fashioned into a blog post 😉
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I secretly agree…
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I concur – cats are evil. It’s in the eyes…
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Just keep your eyes on your cock…
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As much as I can!
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If anything’s going to murder you in your sleep….!
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ah, that’s the ultimate The Unadulterated Cat 🙂 Some good old ear scratching is in order to make the beast purr instead of roar I reckon. Or next time some one should bring a cat’s version of pie to smooth things out
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He was purring and purring and purring!
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What a tart! A lovely fluffy one.
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Totally shameless. He’ll be embarrassed about it next time 😉
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Cats ARE evil! They’re also very, very manipulative.
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That’s your projection… they don’t have the brain power 😉
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Cats KNOW that I’m allergic, and will always come to rub my legs and say hello even if they’re completely unfriendly otherwise.
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Well, if you won’t engage with them (coz of allergies, poor you!), why would they come back…?
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Because they are EVIL and know I’m allergic, and they take pleasure in torturing me!!!
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They just want a cuddle. Kids are evil.
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Screaming, bratty kids? Definitely. ::shudder::
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Cats are said to kill those in their sleep. Unfortunately, it’s an unfounded rumour…
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I’m no cat lover but that is very entertaining!
And yay you for doing your homework. What drive, what dedication… 🙂
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I’m flagging badly, I must admit. But the lessons renew my enthusiasm. I hate grammar exercises almost as much as dental surgery, but it’s got to be done in order to get to the satisfying part. If only it wasn’t such a long stretch…
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You’ll get there!
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Aw, sweet, he looks very much like my Sabi 🙂
ps what’s all this rubbish about cats being evil …? 😦
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Is Sabi the one who passed away recently?
I have no idea what these twisted people are on about…! 😉
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No, Sabi is still here! His sister, purdi died in June 😦
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Aw, sorry I got them mixed up 😦 So, Sabi made off with the lizard, though you are still clueless about how he accomplished this feat 😉
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The general feeling is that the gecko wasn’t actually dead, and is now living a happy life somewhere (maybe hidden in the bedroom…)
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They are great for catching insects around the house. I have friends (not in Spain), who keep them on the loose in the house for that very reason.
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Otto, what a perfect name for a cat! and what is it about cats and putting their tails in your face anyway? I love Otto from afar 🙂 he’s adorable.
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He is 🙂 Quite a character…
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Cats do not like to be ignored. She left him, therefore he is letting her know that he missed her. Shame on you for getting in the way. 👿
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Nah, he was milling around me just as much and he likes me, he just didn’t like the lesson 😉
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A bit of a CATastrophe then 😉
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I don’t know if cats are evil, but they are freakin’ weirdos, that’s for damn sure. Ours was all over BV’s study station on the kitchen table the last couple of weeks. We can read, or be on the computer, or anything else and she doesn’t give a damn, but as soon as he has to get serious about the studying, she’s laying all over his books.
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They want their lovin’ when they want it. And they don’t care about exams 😉
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Very true. And since she’s not usually one for getting cuddly, we try to find it cute rather than annoying. At 3am when she’s purring and kneading on my pillow, it becomes challenging.
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Yup, I remember that very well from when I had cats… plastic bag rustling and standing on my chest were really popular at 3am….
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Amen. We’ve also had some very active attic critters lately so there’s been a lot of hunting from below and meowing going on.
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Animals! Who’d put up with them??? 😉
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Haha. We couldn’t even go into the dog room at the Tierheim because I would’ve had a mental breakdown. I wanted to bring alllllll the kitties home as it was! 🙂
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Hey, wanna laugh before bedtime? Here it comes…
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Yep, haha. I think that’s the antidote to the ‘Christian the Lion’ video.
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Absolutely, ha ha ha!
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Cats are not evil.
Now that I’ve made that clear, I love, love, love the 2nd picture. I might have snorted when I saw it 😀
What a cutie! I get the same treatment from Theo when he thinks he’s been ‘neglected’.
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Aw, another ray of sanity 🙂
Are there photos of Theo on your blog?
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The one post that comes to mind is from last year …
https://mylifelivedfull.wordpress.com/2013/08/30/life-lessons-ive-learned-from-my-cat/
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He’s very cute 🙂
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Cracked up with that close-up shot! Clearly you were MEANT to be distracted from verbal constructions or what ever. 😉
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And he knows it all, so he can show off 😉
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Well, clearly Otto missed Teresa and wasn’t willing to share her with you after her return. Maybe next time she should take the cat with her on her travels — maybe Otto will even pick up some Portuguese… 🙂
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That’s what they speak at home, so he’s trilingual, if you count “catese” 😉
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That’s not…Catalan? XD
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LOL, very good!!!! Why didn’t I thinka dat???
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Maybe the cat got your tongue! 😛
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I can hear you say that with a Cockney accent… 😉
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Now if only I could say that in Catalan with a Cockney accent…a project that might require several years of research (and travel) to pull off!… 🙂
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Now that could be something for you once you get to grips with Thai 😉
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Maybe I’ll get back to you on this…in another lifetime or two.
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I’ve also realised that I’m going to need at least another lifetime to do what I had planned… unfortunately, that game involves wiping the memory banks, which is a bit of a bugger. I’m going to have to put in an application with The Big Man to give me a better start next time (i.e. at least a trilingual upbringing), I need to hit the ground running 😉
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I totally understand the obsession. But, may I ask, why would you want to zero out the memory banks?
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I meant that by being reborn, you inevitably hit the re-set button and start again from zero. Therefore, may not get any farther in several lifetimes, unless your birth conditions happen to be highly favourable to your “life project” from the very outset. So, if I were re-born to complete the project, I’d need to have a good fiddle with the game settings BEFORE it starts all over again 😉
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Well…not to be a killjoy, because I myself am totally obsessed by acquiring another language (and wouldn’t mind making it languages), but with languages it’s “game over” at death (if not before — neurological damage due to stroke, trauma, etc). If you want to assume the validity of past/future existences…you’d have to wonder about how many languages you’ve been fluent in in the past, and which you now know not even a single syllable of; plus all the languages that no longer even exist….
Still, it’s a lot of fun, and if I found myself in a situation conducive to picking up yet another language…I would totally go for it! Plus, a never-ending project has its advantages. 😉
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Well, I’d settle for something like being born into a bilingual household in a country like Belgium or Switzerland, and then take it from there. I was already in my twenties when I became bilingual, when, really, I should have mastered at least four languages in my first two decades of life. Wrong circumstances/family/environment.
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You could probably do even better than that…some really polyglot place like India or the Balkans, or a border region somewhere. Also, there’s the issue of local dialect. (Cf. the old quip that a language is a dialect with an army). I would count dialects as languages in their own right, especially to the extent that they’re not comprehensible to those who haven’t mastered them. We don’t have that situation in the US — I could go anywhere and pretty much understand anybody — but in Thailand people from one part of the country would have a very low comprehension of dialects from another areas. So I think there are a lot of situations where people end up speaking local dialect(s) plus standard/national language(s) — they’re more polyglot than they’re given credit for, because the local dialects are “low status” and don’t get no respect.
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A big fat NOOOOOOOO to being born as a woman in India. Goodness, nothing could ever compensate me for that kind of appalling luck. Balkans, ditto – forget it. Not if I have any say in this, anyway. The nice parts of Europe it is for me 🙂
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I know what you mean…there are some things more important than language!
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Jenna said: “Because they are EVIL and know I’m allergic, and they take pleasure in torturing me!!!”
I said: “Cats are evil creatures and will willfully and deliberately crap all over your apartment before disappearing – just to prove a point”
I certainly am not allowing any cat to wave it’s tail in my face!! shudder!
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Cats are evil when they come up for a cuddle, and they are evil when they leave poo deposits. There’s no pleasing the cat haters, coz ‘haters are gonna hate’. (Didn’t the great sage Miley Cyrus say that…?)
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Mileysirus – the philosopher?
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Right now I will take this obnoxious cat over the bloodthirsty beast I’ve been saddled with.
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Still no improvement on that front…? You need to up the warfarin.
Since that pic of you and the wee kitteh in Crimea, your cat hating position has lost all credibility 😉
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That kitten trumps all positions.
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Hahaha, the second picture may need to become my desktop background. I understand the poor cat, though. I’d be mad too if my human abandoned me for several weeks into the care of strange relatives!
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But it sure teaches them not to take their owners for granted 😉
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Maybe Otto needs a girlfriend. 😉
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Cats and dogs always spark lots of comments, don’t they? 🙂 The mention of language lessons always has me feeling guilty. One of these days I’m going to make myself up a timetable. 😦 And stick to it?
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Those cat posts are certainly the most divisive on my blog, go figure 😉
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Nobody’s going to argue with you about cake 🙂
Is it time for ‘tea’ yet?
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Just got back from that 😉
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Some of us like a mouthful of fur (well, someone had t say it)
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I don’t, particularly, but I’m willing to pay that price 🙂
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Awww, Otto is the sweetest little cuddle-buddy! I have a soft spot for tabbies–and black cats. LOL about the touching reunion with Charlie. Maybe if he came bearing cheesy comestible gifts, he’d get a warmer reception 🙂
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Tabbies are my faves, too 🙂
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Hooray for Portuguese lessons!
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Indeed 😉 My trying-to-manage-the-cat vocab is quite good…
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Atticus is like that when we get back from a trip. He can be exhausting and he bites me.
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Sounds just like Otto 😉
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She needs a martini glass and some buelbbs in the sink :)We have a huge collection of photos of our cats doing things which most people would probably consider extremely boring, but for some reason, every time they do it, we just have to take a picture because it’s so cute! 🙂 We’re like those obnoxious parents who always think their children are god’s gift to the world 😀
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Ahahaah what a funny pics! Lovely cat!
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He is 🙂 Thanks for helping to counterbalance the (seemingly overwhelming majority?!) of cat haters 😉
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Oh my, this is exactly what my kitties do to me! This gave me a chuckle! 🙂
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