Raffles

I'm very pleased to be able to share Kass' progress reports on our pal Ronny:

Ronny aka "Raffles"  

April 24, 2012

Hello to both of you,

Elegant, Urbane Raffles

Just a progress report on the handsome cat.  He has absolutely blossomed in the last few days.  He is no longer bolting away when I come into the room, he actually leaves about half of his food for later consumption and is totally enamored of Mimi.  She is treating him like a pesty little brother, they do cuddle and the cat races commence around 5:30 am until 7:00 am and again at around 8:00 pm until bedtime.  He is just the most affectionate little guy and I am enjoying him very much.  He has amassed a healthy collection of tinfoil balls although I am not sure where he is stashing them, he has also realized that “they come from the kitchen” and if you sit and meow a new tinfoil ball is forthcoming from the magic drawer.  I have installed some sturdy netting around the patio so that he can’t wobble off the edge although he is not terribly interested in going outside, he has a quick look and comes right back in the house, perhaps over time he will relax a little and realize that no one will hurt him out there.  So, I hope that the girls are not missing him too much, I truly wish I could have taken all three of them together but Mimi just wouldn’t have made that big an adjustment, I am actually surprised at how far she has come in such a short time as she found the wobble a bit disconcerting at first but as she is also a very affectionate little being I am glad they are adjusting so well.

By the way, how is Leonard?  I also particularly enjoyed reading about “Lemon”!

Regards,

Kass

 

Raffles, the Gentleman Cat

Raffles the Gentleman Cat

April 27, 2012 

Hi,

I would post to your blog but I don't remember the login I set up.  A couple of pictures of the most handsome fellow and one of Mimi.   He has really settled in and he and Mimi are roaring around like maniacs!  The latest and best game is to hide under the couch and ambush whomever strolls by, Raffles (formerly Ronnie) has taken to peering under there every time he walks into the room, he is one smart boy but Mimi still gets him, she waits until he has looked, scoots under the other side and grabs him after he has confirmed a “no Mimi” sighting.  I thought they were going to bring the place down last night – downstairs neighbor is being very tolerant of thundering herds of cats hitting walls and knocking things over all at 130 MPH.  Raffles loves the footstool, he is particularly taken with the crystals as they make quite a good noise when you pull on them either one at a time or as a group (which you can do from the top or even better lying underneath, the fringe has the added benefit of being on all four sides so you can entertain yourself endlessly.  I can’t imagine life without him.

ps.  regards to Leonard

Kass 

Beautiful Big Sister, Mimi

 

 

 

 In the 1890's, author E.W. Hornung created the character of Arthur J. Raffles, as a response to the stories written by his brother-in-law, Arthur Conan Doyle about a consulting detective named Sherlock Holmes.

Raffles is a noted cricketer who has become popular in the higher circles of English society for his athletic prowess. This gains him many invitations to the homes and celebrations of the wealthy and important, who are unaware of Raffles' true sphere of interest - A.J. Raffles is also a cat burglar.

Clever, charming, quick of hand and sure of step, Raffles is an elegant rogue with his own peculiar code of ethics. He is an accomplished thief of hearts, loyalties and of other items of varying value. His stories were published in the collections, The Amateur Cracksman, The Black Mask, A Thief in the Night, and in the novel, Mr.Justice Raffles.

My buddy, Ronny the Rocket, has chosen "Raffles" as his new name. I think it suits him to a tee.

The New Ronny

Ronny has become a new cat in the last two months. He has been working out.

He and his sister Rena have discovered a new, favourite toy. It is a ball made of the foil lining from a package of cigarettes, and Ronny, in particular, will chase it until he is breathless and exhausted. I don't know when he started smoking.

When our friend Maria Soroski went out to Abbotsford to move him and his sisters, she complained about how much trouble it was catching the two fat ones. They had been habituating the parking lot of the McDonald's there, begging french fries from tender-hearted, soft-headed patrons of that franchise, and perhaps they were something other than svelte.

The best result of this new exercise programme is that they are no longer the fat ones. The meat on Rena's still slightly big bones has turned into hard, solid muscle, and Handsome Ronny has become a lean, mean, felleen machine. He is so pleased with himself that he has almost entirely forsaken wobbling in favour of a proud, leonine strut.

He will spend hours at a time, bounding down our long, carpeted hallway in pursuit of his magical, silver sphere. After each run, he will either return the ball to the person who threw it for him, or will carry it to Rena, so the two of them can enjoy a rousing game of Wobbly Cat Soccer together. When the game is finished, our good little lad always remembers to put their toy away in its traditional storage place...under the kitchen stove.

Their sister, Reba the Diva, was adopted last month by a very nice lady who has just emailed to inform us that her beautiful new cat has a bit of a hearing loss. In truth, we never noticed, but I'm pretty sure that Ronny's hearing is fine. It is certainly acute enough to summon him back from the parallel universe to which bored cats go whenever I creak and groan down onto the floor to peer under the stove with my flashlight.

My own hearing is acute enough to perceive his evil, little chuckle.

Ronny had his own date earlier this week. A lady named Kass came over to meet him to see if he would make a good companion for her eight year-old Mimi. I am protective of our foster cats, so I was determined to dislike her on first meeting. She stayed and she visited for about forty-five minutes. As much as I tried, and as critical as I wanted to be, I'm ashamed to say that I couldn't find anything wrong with her.

Kass has now paid the fee, signed the papers, and she will be coming to collect her big handsome kitten on Friday morning.

Ronny has been a joy to foster, and we will miss him. I think that Kass, and maybe even Mimi, will come to love the great, clumsy, good-hearted lug, and they will spoil him as rotten as he deserves. Kass is already telling her friends and neighbours about our beautiful Rena and la Bella Bianca, so they may follow him out our door soon.

Thank God we still have Leonard!

The Full Ronny