New Location

Well here we are at our new location and hopefully you have all been able to find us somehow or other.

Many thanks for the new suggestions for names. I was really tempted by those with Feline in the title , and almost went with Feline Minder Finder which was one of Silliyak's suggestions, mainly as I had been so keen on the Feline word.

Earlier we had gone so far as to buy the host domain for the name CopyCatCare as I loved that .

This one was D's idea.
I've been suffering insomnia, partly just the time of year , change in the weather , but also partly the shock of being accused of stealing someone else's business idea and name and the upset of having to change everything when I've been using the name cat calls for years albeit in a very small way in this area. Coupled with wondering how it could possibly hurt someone who has a much bigger ( and probably far more professional ) business in London .
So when I woke at four am and saw D's list of new names including CopyCatCare-replicating the care you provide your cats at home whilst you are away- it made me laugh and think , well , a certain irony there!

However in the end my sister suggested CatMinders and I kept being drawn to that by its simplicity and by the fact that I could hear myself saying it on the phone whereas the other two were a little more cumbersome .


So CatMinders we are and I shall spend the weekend re designing business cards and trying to get the website up and running though I am not sure whether anyone ever really used it. I think I operate mainly by word of mouth and have about three or four customers all told ! Suits me very well .

New Blog Name

After much deliberation and suggestions from friends and cat lovers from far and wide , many of which had to be turned down because they are already in use , we will probably use CatMinders as our new name or some version of this .

I will explain the reasons for this on the new blog once we get set up and many thanks to all for your very helpful suggestions.

So , when you can no longer find us at http://www.catcalls13.blogspot.com/ you need to be looking at http://www.catminders.blogspot.com/ though we havent yet registered this new name yet . If in the meantime someone else registers this name we will simply chose another version of catminders with a number. As we did with catcalls adding the 13. I trust though that you will find us!

If you can't locate us, don't give up , we will be there, use my email address SMScott13@aol.com and contact me that way !

We should be moving by the weekend .
Just giving people who read at the weekends a chance to catch up.

CatCalls-The Blog

CatCalls-The Blog

It is with regret that I have to inform you that the CatCalls blog as it stands will have to change.

This has come about as a result of contact from a Ms Jane Matthews (aka Lucinda Lace) who unknown to me has also been running a cat minding service by the name of Cat Calls ( same name though a gap between the two names) in London.
Ms Matthews sadly does not feel that our two services can co exist and as she bought the trademark Cat Calls in 2009 I am in the position of having to rename my services. Ms Matthews operates at www.catcalls.com : readers of the blog in the London area requiring a cat sitting service may wish to avail themselves of her services.

As yet I am undecided as to the name of the new local service here in the North East : Any ideas gratefully received!!

As regular readers know , I operate a very small scale cat sitting service , providing cat sitting for a very small number of regular customers, and the whole operation is more of a hobby than a business enterprise.

The blog which started when I was ill with pneumonia and unable to do anything very much apart from write and read other blogs and the daily newspaper( where I first discovered blogs and the art of blogging) will continue therefore with a different name and once that is decided I will explain how to navigate to the new blog!
I know that the blog now attracts a very small number of regular followers ,some as far afield as San Jose and Chicago, most of whom probably have very little connection to my cat minding activities and hope that you will find the new blog interesting and that a new lease of life will prove a bonus for all.

Fraud

And then , I am in Boots , spending £4 no less. I am tired , yawning in the queue having had four and a half hour's sleep , been swimming , had lunch in the garden with friends , and now Nat and I are building up to a moment in Comet when we must steel ourselves to the task of chosing new cordless landlines to replace our horrors that reduce all callers' voices ( and ours ) to a whisper . I hate phones much prefer texting but needs must . We are planning a Starbucks coffee and cake first and then we shall glance at the phones and decide which are the least horrid and at the same time the cheapest . Perhaps not the cheapest . The least plasticy looking , the heaviest feeling and most substantial will suit me but to my mind they are all ghastly . What I want , but am not permitted, is an old fashioned Ring Ring job , none of this three for the price of one cordless thing complete with answer phone . I hanker after the sort we used to have , back in the day when Dr Finlay's Casebook was on the telly and Janet McPherson answered the phone. Black and dusty with a coiled string attached. I live in the past . I do have a memory, but it has given up on yesterday and last week .

So I am at the checkout in Boots and I feed my Boots Advantage Card into the cardreader on autopilot and then my credit card as I have no cash . I had not planned on spending only four quid but my other proposed purchases were not in stock .
The middle aged woman serving me smiles as I yawn and then looks embarrased and slightly upset as she reads the message that shows on the slip that appears from the cardreader. She shows it to her younger colleague on the next checkout . They both glance at me giving me the once over and then smile reassuringly at me , noting my tired expression and the teen daughter. We are considering aloud what we will have in Starbucks . I am stifling another yawn .
" Sorry about this , but there is a security check request" says the elder assistant . I'll have to get a phone from the back . I'm so sorry. " Off she trundles and returns , applying her spectacles and appearing unfamiliar with the workings of the telephone . She has to punch in the long number from the credit card and stumbles twice with this . Nat would have snatched it from her had she been me. " Here mother , give it here ! " Eventually she gets through to a Voice and has to walk away from us as the noise on the shop floor is too great . Or maybe she has been trained to leave our presence so that she can describe us . " Smart teen and mother a bit the worse for wear . Smart enough clothes but looks like she could do with a good night's sleep . A bit red eyed. Oh definitely a shady character . Yes , four quid. I know ... Crooks . "
Finally , and full of apologies she returns and hands the phone over to me where I am asked a couple of security questions and then the purchase goes through , but I am requested to call a number before making any further purchases on my card .
Hey up I think . Clearly the assistant is mortified and can't decide whether I have overspent on my limit or it's nothing or what ? I feel sorry for her as she aoplogises over and again .

I return to the car and make the call .
It transpires that my credit card details have been stolen and she asks me about various transactions I havent made but that have gone through on my card. ARGH !!

I am so impressed though that Visa have picked this up so fast . I don.t know how this is done . I say how clever I think they are and ask how they do it . It seems that this is because the thief bought a £15 o2 top up which I have not previously done which has alerted Visa. Clever stuff. Something to be said for Big Brother?

Insomnia..

There's something wonderfully inspiring about Insomnia.
Or, let me rephrase that , there can be something quite wonderful about it . I'm sure that after a couple of nights or so it begins to pall .
Saturday night I fell asleep a little earlier than usual and then woke after a wierd dream/nightmare featuring both of my long dead Grandmothers. It wasn't so much the content of the dream that was disturbing . Indeed one of the Grandmas slipped me a packet of Orkney fudge all sellophane wrapped and it was chocolate raisin flavoured too ( can I say more?) . The other Grandma was seated at a Garden Table with me and some other people , outside. Although diminuitive in stature in real life and by the end rather shaky on her pins , in the dream she stood up to a height of around six feet and stalked off into a house and we all watched her go , watching the back of her dress for signs of wear and tear . I remember thinking, she is almost a hundred years old and her dress is impeccable, a zig zag pattern reminding me of my migraines . Black and green.
No , what was disturbing was the anxiety overcoming me after I woke. I put the light on and the dog gave me a hard stare and sighed heavily . Half past three. I picked up and finished my book Sarah Dunant .. something about Snow storms in a Hot Climate . Then took myself off downstairs to make a milky coffee and find a piece of Christmas shortbread . The guinea pigs squeaked in a minor way cognisant of the fact that four am is not six am and nowhere near ready for Breakfast ( mystery) . The cats dozed on .
Back in the bedroom my blackberry located friends online still awake. Bliss!!! Soothing conversations via text. Anything is possible now . Technology amazes and delights.
I pick up a book of short stories. Constitiutional by Helen Simpson. I read on until eight am and then sleep for twenty minutes and then fall asleep for twenty minutes. My Uncle Ronnie , also dead these past few years appears and takes both my hands in his and tells me something about a cousin of my Dad's , Elsie which makes no sense.
I have met three dead relatives this night during this time of my life when crisis is happening .
A blog post will clarify this as soon aspossible.

Thank you for continuing to follow me.

Iggy-the Legend-RIP

Iggy the legendary station cat, well known to all those who frequent Tynemouth station either as travellers or as visitors or traders at the weekend markets and fairs (books, farmers' markets and latterly European Markets) has sadly died. Many will recognise Iggy who was always pottering round the stalls on market days , often resting quietly on one of the pet stalls , usually in the middle of the finest bed or softest cushion he could locate, or sauntering around tail aloft in search of one of his many friends , some of whom were rumoured to travel from as far afield as Durham even on days they were not trading simply for the pleasure of making sure Iggy had his salmon , prawns or tuna. I'm not sure how many of these rumours are true but my brother in law himself has a market stall and he will vouch for the numbers of different people , usually females, providing Iggy with "something special" which Iggy lapped up with pleasure.

Many in the locality believed that Iggy somehow "belonged" to the Station but in fact he had a very good home with Clare and Seamus in the house next door to mine ; it seemed though that as he got older he enjoyed spending more and more time on the station and even in Winter was still out on the benches keeping waiting passengers company as they waited for their trains.

I myself wrote a blog post to that effect back in December 08 and will attach a link . CatCalls: Iggy the legendary station cat

Over the last year Iggy became increasingly thin and his coat less pristine . He was found to be suffering from mouth cancer and though he continued to patrol the station , he was also going home for his medication and his home comforts no doubt.

A move is afoot to place a longstanding memorial for him in our station . I hope that this will be possible .

Walking through the station isnt the same, Iggy . Watching you cross the tracks with bated breath( ours.. you never hurried!) -nightmare!. Sharing stories about how you once caught a train and travelled along to North Shields . Just sitting stroking you on the bench in your heyday and stopping to say hello has been part of our day to day life for as long as we remember here.

Gone but not forgotten . Iggys Page also shows photos of Iggy .

Goodbye Iggy.

Da'rryl Durr , Malcolm McLaren

Da'rryl Durr on the death penalty World news The Guardian

No CatCalls today .
I am up early with a list of Things to Do . Having a Blackberry device is great except that whilst I am walking Alice on a new walk we have discovered along the side of a ploughed field enjoying the sunshine and the Spring flowers , I am being contacted by all manner of people asking me all kinds of things . Thus , a Weimeraner springs up on Alice unexpectedly and spoils things for her . At home , Alice is nervous and territorial , only in immediate proximity to our house and gate . A few metres away and she is pleasant and genial , or heads down and slightly aquiver if the dog approaching is a tiny scary beast of the Jack Russel variety or small fluffy scary teddy type which frighten her too. Her immediate preference is a medium size hairy dog variety such as a soft natured bichon frise and the like.
Weimeraners are the very pits for Alice. At home a couple walk their beautiful specimen , a male with their baby buggy each morning and evening and they pass by just as Alice is going out . The dog is not on a leash and it bounds along happily at high speed investigating everything. Alice cant abide it . Everything about it seems to rub her up . Its sleek skin , pale colour , the friendly owners who hope that one day our dogs will be friends- Friends- ? Alice looks aghast... theyre jesting for sure? She is not going to be friends with that liverish coloured creature which would almost certainly want to show off and even try to outrun her! The cheek of it .
So , as this bigger brasher version of the Weimeraner appears from behind Alice is close to fainting. Far from home and a fair few yards away from me, she momentarily freezes , like the proverbial cartoon dog , until she regains her self respect and grasps that this is not the dog she dislikes so much , and makes a half hearted attempt to pretend to want to play. Brave Girl.

Later in the day India Knight tweets that she came upon the funeral cortege for Malcolm McLaren , one assumes on its way to Highgate cemetary. I attach a link to the post on her blog written soon after.
No such fuss for that of Mr Durr, though there is an article attached by myself published yesterday in the Guardian.Malcolm McLaren's cortege - india knight's posterous