By Ruth aka Kattaddorra
Reading another PoC article about cats and goldfish prompted me to look out some old photos of our cats Walter and Jozef with the 3 goldfish we had until a few years ago. Walter was a very hyperactive kitten and needed a lot of amusing. Jozef did his best to keep up with his fun and games but he needed a rest sometimes….
…So we bought 3 tiny goldfish and a tank and set it up thinking it would keep Walter occupied watching them and so it did! He called them Caeser, Hercules and Achilles, well we actually named them and he purred his approval.
He often sat with them and all the fish used to come to the side of the tank to say hello, not at all frightened as they knew they were safe the other side of the glass and with a lid on the tank and all.
It’s said that goldfish have very short memories but they did seem to recognise Walter yet didn’t bother greeting Jozef, although he wasn’t that interested in them, just in sitting on the tank. He’s never been keen on fishy food at all.
The goldfish grew and grew and soon we had to buy a bigger tank, then they grew some more. Caeser was almost as big as a kipper! We worried what to do if they grew even more, we supposed a covered pond in the garden would be the next step.
But sadly, Achilles and Hercules died within days of each other at around 8 years old, they hadn’t been ill, starved or overfed, or put into icy cold water when the tank was cleaned, we had no idea why they died.
We debated whether Caeser would be lonely but he solved the problem himself as one morning we found him upside down on the top of the water, he had died too. What went wrong we don’t know but we decided it wasn’t fair to have any more goldfish, they had no luck living with us.
The goldfish ‘Fred’ we had when we were kids, was stolen and eaten by the ginger cat down our street. I think we are better sticking with having cats only! So since then the only fish Walter has seen are the ones in butter sauce he has for a treat occasionally, Jozef isn’t keen on that either, he licks a bit of the sauce just to show willing lol
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Thanks for the kick back to this article. I hadn’t seen it before. The cool sisters are even cooler in my eyes. Getting fish for the cats! I’m glad I didn’t miss this little adventure in the lives of Walter and Jozef.
I don’t know about bad luck I think the opposite your fish were very lucky!! 8 years is amazing!! And they grew and grew as well reminds me of a story when I was a kid about a fish that kept growing and they had to keep changing its tank!
I think any animal that you decide to keep would just thrive because of your caring and nurturing nature :0
I agree. Pretty good work, I’d say.
HA HA HA 🙂 THATS rilly funy
I do so love your articles and pictures Ruth ahh poor gold fish no they don’t seem to live long but anyway Walter’s fish had a good home and a happy life for their 8 years.
Thanks Rose yes I suppose they had a happy life enjoying what fish do, swimming and eating.
I love this story. I leave my computer on with a video of an aquarium and the cats love to sit and watch it in bed with me. I made a video of them watching a bird video. Gigi tries to go around behind the screen to get them.
They also love the games designed for cats on my big touch screen phone so I have decided to go and buy a full sized pad of some kind. It’s going to be the most expensive cat toy yet but i know Gigi is going to be digging under that thing and thwapping at it trying to catch the mice and things in the various games. They seem to love it. We spend a good 45mins every evening in bed playing with the screen games together.
I get back home to my cats tomorrow and I am so excited. Early flight back. Can’t wait!
Molly doesn’t go for the screen so much. I guess in the same way the Jozef is less of a fishy kind of guy 🙂 – cat’s are all different aren’t they and I love that about them actually. You never know who is going to like what actually.
I might even get the Samsung pad (I don’t like apple except for laptops) this weekend even as a coming home treat. Its going to be fun 🙂
Yes I bet you can hardly wait to get home Marc, I hate being zaway from our boyz even for a short while, I miss them so much.
We have a ‘Kitty video’ our cats used to watch when the weather was too bad for them to go out, it’s lovely with birds and fish and mice and all the things cats love, but they soon realised they couldn’t get at them lol and prefer real life adventures.
I have a photo somewhere of them sitting on a chair each watching it.
I’m home now. Some things one looks forward to can be a bit of a let down but if there’s one thing that is always better than ever it has to be getting home to my cats. I always look forward to it and am always super excited to see them. I have had a wonderful return home and am lucky it’s the weekend so I can enjoy them now for a couple days. They seem happy to see me as always. It’s so much fun to be with them 🙂
You are one hell of a cat-man! I think I’ll have to define what a cat-man is by reference to what you do.
Yes Marc is a cat-man and so are you Michael, now it will be discriminating to say ‘crazy cat lady’ unless they say ‘crazy cat man’ too lol
Maybe we should be called ‘the PoC crazy cat family’
🙂
Absolutely. I am a cat-man. I agree that it is discriminatory to use the phrase “cat lady”. There are many cat-men. Why not? It is OK to admit it and enjoy it. All genuine cat-men are good 😉 LOL I would say that. What I mean is at least their heart is in the right place. They may have faults, perhaps bad faults, but we can overlook them.
We are the PoC crazy cat family. What is good is that we are good for cats. I am not boasting or full of pride. We just do the right thing for cats because we understand them.
It’s true it’s always ‘lady’ and never man. I usually call myself a crazy cat guy when talking to others. My cats enjoy the screen things because they can’t go out. I’ve tried similar things before and Red wouldn’t even look – no interest at all because he was always outside. But for indoor cats it seems quite good actually. I am going to go buy an ipad/pad or whatever next week for them. A 400 dollar cat toy will be the record. Even the cat trees didn’t cost that much each.
Nice idea and very generous. You’ll have to video what happens. You know you will. Then email me the video. Please hold your smart phone horizontally when videoing 😉
Ours didn’t seem to mind the cats looking at them and sitting on their tank at all, they seemed very happy fish. It was sad when they died, we dug graves in the garden. Some people just put them down the toilet, that’s awful!
It’s a lot of work keeping the tank nice and clean, even with a filter in, but fish are lovely and relaxing to watch, it’s like watching a water ballet.
The tanks are warm too 😉 I have seen lots of cats on top of fish tanks. Perfect environment; warm with a spot of entertainment to hand when you want it.
Thanks for sharing 🙂 – and I see you got started with the logo Michael. I got you a small painting with lions as I said and a whole bunch of great photos of a 23 going on 24 year old restaurant cat. I’ll send you when I get home. Very sweet tabby.
You noticed the logo. I think it is pretty good. I am trying different things. Professional logo designers charge about £1,000 which I think is too much. Thanks for the painting and cat photos. Sounds good.
(I mean’t thanks for sharing Ruth by the way 🙂
Kattadora Ruth, doesn’t it feel good to let them rest in peace under the soil in the garden? I do the same thing, burying ours in a spot whereupon I plant a new perennial to commemorate the fish’s personality or name. Beautiful flowers every season from that little pet. Thank you for sharing your tale! 🙂
Yes every living creature has the right to have a little funeral and a few tears shed for them. It was a sad lonely funeral for poor Caeser with only me at it, we had deep snow and Babz was poorly in bed with a bad dose of flu, even Walter and Jozef didn’t turn up for it.
It was very committed of you to buy goldfish for Walter and Jozef. Goldfish in their tank, are a bit like a TV for cats. Apparently the oldest goldfish lived 43 years! However, I think you did well. 8 years is probably longer than most.
Do you think goldfish mind being looked at by a cat? I doubt it. I must admit I rather like the idea of an aquarium because they are good for people – relaxing – and good for cats – stimulating. Interesting that.
The trouble is I am not sure my fish would last 8 months never mind 8 years.