Category: Pets

What is a Tonkinese?

this picture shows Ziggy, the white tonkinese cat, walking along the top of the fence
©Karen Mumme 2016, non-commercial use permitted with attribution

My Tonkinese cat (for three weeks) was completely white, slender with a very long tail and blue eyes.  He was timid and while we shared the same living area I was not allowed to touch him.  He did not mind walking over me, if I was sitting, and welcomed a Whiskers Temptation treat if offered, but I was not allowed to touch him.

It took a week before he sat on my lap and I was allowed to stroke him, preferably with his brush which he adored.

Fetch and retrieve was a favourite game of Ziggy’s.  What was very charming were the regular camelia flowers which he fetched daily and brought inside.  I took it personally and assumed these were pink tokens of love.  As I did not have a pink camelia tree in my garden I was curious as to where Ziggy obtained these treasures.  I found pink camelia trees on the other side of a 6 foot wooden fence which Ziggy had no trouble scaling with a pink camelia in his mouth.

this picture shows Ziggy, the white tonkinese cat, hiding under the mat
©Karen Mumme 2016, non-commercial use permitted with attribution

Tonkinese are a recent cross breed of Siamese and Burmese.  They tend to be playful and active cats, very social.  Ziggy lived with two other small white dogs, he was part of the pack, playing and sleeping with the other dogs.  He even came outside for the dogs final pre bedtime wee.

this picture shows Ziggy, a white tonkinese cat, with one of his dog mates, Bonnie, a white Chinese Crested Powderpuff
©Karen Mumme 2016, non-commercial use permitted with

Dogs love sticks

this picture shows Rafi, the soft wheaten terrier, sitting and waiting
©Karen Mumme 2016, non-commercial use permitted with attribution

Rafi loved to chew sticks and he preferred to chew his sticks inside the house.  With doors closed his only option of bringing his stick into the house was through the dog door but he could not get through with the stick held in the typical way.  He worked it out, the stick had to come in long ways.  Unfortunately for Rafi, stick chewing was an outdoor activity and he and his stick went back outside.

this picture shows Molly, the black labrador, carrying a small tree branch
©Karen Mumme 2016, non-commercial use permitted with attribution

Molly had the biggest stick. She found it down by the river and wanted to bring it home.  I told her she could bring it if she carried it.  She carried it all the way home, carefully negotiating the bollards at start of river track and not stopping once to rest.  When we got back to the house (about 800m) she dropped the stick at the bottom of the driveway and had no further interest .

Romantic celebrations during House sits

It was a small feast, a romantic feast – bread, cheese, cold meats, dips, olives and sun-dried tomatoes.  It was laid out on the large, low coffee table in the living area with cushions for seating.  The wine was chilled, the lights were low, the scene was set for a romantic anniversary celebration.

A glass of wine and a dip in the spa was the appropriate thing to do before embarking on the evening spread except they forgot about their housesit charges – two dogs and two cats waiting quietly in the wings for their entrance cue – even the olives were sampled.

Story told to me by a home owner, about a previous housesitting couple