Friday 15 July 2011

Introducing... Titan the Ticklepuss!



This is short video featuring my excellent little friend, Titan (aka ‘The Ticklepuss’), who really is the happiest and friendliest cat I’ve ever had the pleasure to encounter, in my life.

There’s a true-life incident, featuring him, elsewhere on my blog, in the ‘The Curious Incident of the Cat in the Daytime’ post, which recounts the time he very nearly had me sectioned under the Mental Health Act. Go have a look, if you haven’t already…

I can’t recall a single time that Titan wasn’t purring: he purrs when you look at him or call his name, as soon as he wakes up, when din-dins is being served, when din-dins is being eaten… in fact, even whenever the phrase din-dins is used; when he’s sitting hopefully at the back door, meowing loudly to go outside, and particularly when the door is open and he can run about the garden, chasing things that only exist in his crazy brain.

He also has the nickname of ‘Pavarotti’, because he enjoys singing so much – and he’s actually very good at it, but his catty renditions of Nessun Dorma aren’t greatly appreciated at 3am, when he’s standing hopefully at the back door, purring, foolishly thinking he’ll actually be let out at that time.

Unfortunately, as lovable as he is, it seems his nemesis is his own brother, Orion – a very lovable, but occasionally very grumpy big ball of black fluff. Although they never hurt each other, they do quite a lot of slow-motion fighting, like some cat version of The Matrix.

Their mother, Scratchy, also doesn’t seem too fond of Titan, as he sniffs her bum a lot… she quickly sees him off with some fast-motion ninja strikes to the face, though.

Despite all this discord, and the fact that they pretend not to get along under the watchful eyes of humans, they are quite often  found all snuggled together in a big lump of fluff, fast asleep.

When Scratchy had her second litter of kittens, I once walked in and found Titan – who was about a year old at the time - lying on the bed with her. He had nudged the mewing kittens out of the way and was securely fastened to one of Scratchy’s titties, purring very loudly indeed. I can clearly recall that the look on Scratchy’s face suggested she was thinking, “Wtf?” and Titan had an expression of rumblement as he looked up at me.

Another thing about Titan is that, when the other two cats call me off the computer and I get on my bed to stroke them, you can guarantee that Titan will be there within 30 seconds, sitting at the foot of the bed. He has incredible intuition when it comes to cats that aren’t him being stroked. I can literally start counting down when I get on the bed, and there will be a dull thump from elsewhere in the house, then his little black ears will appear nearby.

I was there at the moment he was born, and we were friends before then, too, when he was just a bump in Scratchy’s belly.

27 comments:

  1. MM... Are you sure you are not a cat disguised as a human?

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  2. Awww....sweeeeet...and so is Titan.

    eden

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  3. Awwww! One of our kitties is named "Tiger" and we sometimes shorten it to Tig, and sometimes we call her "Tiglepuss"!

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  4. Hehe... he's an excellent little guy, Laura. :-)

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  5. I think I may be part cat, Gladys! :-)

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  6. He is, Debra - and not in bad shape for 13! Still acts like a kitten when provoked. :-)

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  7. I'll pass that on to him, Cherie! :-D

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  8. Haha - thank you, Eden! :-D x

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  9. 13? He doesn't look it :-)

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  10. He doesn't act like it, either, Richard - he's the Peter Pan of the Pusscat world, I reckon. :-)

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  11. NancyArmstrongT16 July 2011 at 22:01

    We have 6 cats, Les. (there is probably a law against it, so shh) All of them are rescues & don't go outside as we live on a busy intersection. 2 years ago, when we got the 4th, Wren, she delivered 5 kittens, 1 stillborn, 2 grey-furred kittens who died and 2 very hungry bullies (black & white) who survived. We thought about finding a home for them (all are declawed & fixed now) but fell in love of course. So now "Bear" aka "Bubba" and "Cricket" are just part of the crowd, but very similar circumstances as yours. Wren does not want anything to do with them & they play fight a lot. Just an FYI. :) Love your writing!!!

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  12. Aw, that sounds like quite a pride - though obviously always sad to read about kittens that didn't make it. :-(

    There's a lot of love there, even if they don't all get along. :-)

    And thank you for reading! :-)

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  13. He's the spitting image of my old cat Rocky. Now I miss Rocky.

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  14. Beautiful cat. (And lovely accent!)

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  15. Ticklepuss has a "nickname" of Pavarotti? There's something back-@$$ward about that, which is a GOOD thing.
    That alone makes this post memorable.

    Must tweet to my cat-loving friends. Me? I have two labs who can HEAR butter being unwrapped from the far side of the house.

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  16. Hey Les, my first visit, I shall return.

    Can't get the video to load, heavy sigh. But, Titan sounds like a character. I'm a dog person whose dog has passed, have one cat, Lily, who is all personality and a huge snugglebug. We are adopting another cat into our home, I pick him up on Friday--another character, I suspect. Can't wait. Love when the granddogder comes over, a goofy 3-year-old shepherd mix named Harely, who thinks sticking Lily's head in her mouth is a good way to make friends. Lily disagrees. Hilarious when she's had enough and starts swatting Harley.Sometimes her claws get stuck in Harley's snout. But they love each other, I am sure.

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  17. Forgot to tell you, Les, that Gloria Richard sent me.

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  18. Great post about a great cat. Now, I want to hear him purr! :-)

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  19. Ah so cute. Cats can be so different I've had 4 and they all had there funny little waysp

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  20. Awe he is so cute.

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  21. You've got a great cat there. Not all of them are that loving.

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  22. An adorable video to crown a wonderful posting about your precious companion. He's a lovely fellow, and thank you so much for sharing him with us. As I'm the kind of person who goes to parties and looks hopefully around for the household cat instead of humans with whom to communicate, I would make a beeline for him and he'd not have to worry about cats who aren't him getting all of the attention! xD

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  23. Sometimes I think all us cat lovers were at one time cats ourselves!

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  24. My website for my company "Echoes of Creation Press and Records" is rife with cat fodder. I have so many pictures of my cat, that I want to turn them into t-shirts and coffee mugs. It's on FB in case there are any literary cat lovers!

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  25. Pepper, my most excellent cat, is staring at me and wondering why I'm looking at Titan on Youtube when I can be looking at her instead. Unfortunately, I don't really have an answer. Titan is adorable so that's probably at least part of it.

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