A Blog from Misty the cat

Hi there. My name is Misty and I live in New Zealand with my two humans.

My story is short as I am only three years old.

Here is is pic of me as a kitten in 2015:

I am what is known as a tortoiseshell.  This means my fur pattern looks a bit like the shell of a tortoise.  Tortoiseshells are almost always female.  They are also known for their naughty nature, hence the name "naughty tortie".  I am not a cuddly cat, and if you get too familiar, you will get a warning nip or a bat across the face.  Having said that, I do enjoy sitting all over my two humans.

My story starts in Tauranga, where I was born.  At some time in January 2015, I was a kitten, a bit lost and trying to cross the road, and was hiding in the gutter considering my next options when one of the metal turtles stopped and a human with long hair got out, approached and picked me up.

She took me to the only house nearby where someone leaned out the window and probably said that I was a stray.

Huh?! So I get a terrifying trip to Auckland in the metal turtle. Well, I had to go toilet somewhere didn't I?

I immediately settled in my new home in Auckland and set about the wearisome task of educating my two humans.  I had a great kitten hood, getting under the house, avoiding other cats, and catching crickets, and running along 1800mm high fences.

About May 2015 my humans shifted house to Pukekohe, a little town about 40 minutes south of Auckland.  I enjoyed this move as there is a pond just over the back fence, with ducks, frogs and so on.

Here is me all grown up:

In the new house the humans have not installed a cat door, so I have to tell them I want to come in by launching myself at the bedroom ranch slider.

At one stage they used to leave the bathroom window open so I could come and go as I pleased.
And I did, sometimes at 3am with a mouse or bird or cricket in my mouth, whereupon the human with no hair would swear at me and remove the livestock and if alive put it back outside.

Sometimes they got very grumpy, like the time I brought a frog in to show them how smart I am.
These things scream like a baby!  The final straw was the night I brought in a rat.  This involved much excitement from the human with no hair, and confining of me and the rat in the spare bedroom where he indicated I should grab the rat and take it back outside.  I was not too keen on that idea, as now I could see it clearly, it looked a bit too big, so I decided I would just keep up a watching brief.
I will not go into the disposal details here, but I believe it involved an axe.

So after that the bathroom window was shut at night and I have to knock on the ranch slider to be let in.  A body search for livestock is then performed.

For a while, I used to catch little birds called swallows and leave the skull and a few feathers at the front door.  The human with no hair really loves these birds and he asked me not to be killing them, so I have laid off doing that lately. Or is it that I have become a bit heavier and unable to leap the required 1500mm off the ground?

Rarotonga

 This is a guide, what you might like to know if you were thinking of visiting the Cook Islands.

 We stayed on the main island for 7 nights.  It seems quite big, but you can drive around it in about 50 minutes.  

The interior is uninhabited mountains, which are very scenic. All the population lives in a thin strip around the edge with a paved but bumpy road which can be be busy with locals on small motorcycles. The lived in part seems roughly half locals and half hotels with quite a few churches.

Gauging how nice a hotel is difficult from the road as the nicest part is usually by the sea.  The one we stayed in, Manuia Beach Resort, was a boutique hotel, meaning no children allowed and slightly dearer  than ones down the road. Strange how some humans think?

Or is it the cheap one is three stories high, so you need to get in a lift to go to the beach? You were able to snorkel off the beach but you had to wait a bit for the tide.

We liked it as it had sandy paths and chickens strolling around. Right now we have a mother and it's chick cheeping for food at the door. 

To rent a car or not? It took four days for us to cave in to that idea. Our experience was that it was a good idea as it was not that expensive about $160 for two days plus petrol. Petrol was about the same price as NZ, so not too bad.

It gave us the flexibility to try a restaurant down the road, The Tumunu, where I had a scallops and calamari and chips which I thought good value.  Prices for meals here are a bit high, but take in the idea that everything is imported, it starts to explain why.

For instance, a 500g pack of butter was over $10.

There are things to do, like go into see the main town, Avarua, or go on a lagoon cruise, which for pickup, drop off, lunch, entertainment and snorkelling was around $160, so not too bad.

A typical day might be a trip 4 k down the road to the marine reserve, which while not over run with fish certainly had some to see, with fantastic visibility.

On Saturday they have the local markets. Another thing is dogs.  Apparently homeless dogs wander around, and sometimes in the small hours you hear a lot of barking in the distance. Then a rooster starts crowing. Plenty of crops growing, some of which we can only guess at.

The weather for our stay was a bit unlucky, overcast and windy mostly. A perfect day, now we are leaving.

The currency here is NZ $, but there seems to be the odd coin that says Cook Islands, which would not work in NZ.

On the second day, Morty the cat appeared and made himself quite at home thank you. Not to be seen again much as he must have found even more cat friendly suckers nearby.