Sherry with Mr Oscar and Šárek © Ricky Yates
On Friday 21st March, Senior Cat Oscar celebrated his seventeenth birthday! Aided by his tin openers, aka Ricky and Sybille, he invited a small number of his human friends, to attend a birthday party held in his honour, the following afternoon.
It was unfortunate that the Hellam family, who have previously looked after Oscar on a number of occasions when Sybille & I have been away, were unable to attend because of illness. However, Oscar’s two adult American friends, Karen and Sherry, were able to be present. Karen always refers to Oscar as ‘her buddy’, whilst Sherry always addresses him as ‘Mr Oscar’. Oscar very much approves of both designations 🙂
As was to be expected, most entertainment was provided by Šárek, the ginger kitten we adopted last August, who is rapidly becoming a fully-fledged teenager, with all the associated behavioural problems. For Sherry, it was her first opportunity to make Šárek’s acquaintance.
According to a chart on the wall at our local Veterinary Surgery, in human terms, Oscar is now aged somewhere between eighty-five and ninety years of age. So how much longer he will be with us is an open question. But whilst he did sleep through most of yesterday afternoon’s celebrations, he did happily pose for these accompanying photographs.
From l to r; Karen, Oscar & Sherry © Ricky Yates
Karen with her Buddy © Ricky Yates
We had a great time at Mr. Oscar’s party! It was also great meeting Šárek–he’s very cute and VERY smart! I didn’t know we’d end up on your blog, though! :0) No problem at all–and it was great to visit with you Tin Openers, too!
Thanks again and say hi to my two nephew kitties!
Have a great day,
Sher :0)
Hi Sher – glad you enjoyed the party & glad you could come. And by being on my blog & by commenting here, you get a back link to your own blog 🙂 Oscar & Šárek say ‘Hi Auntie Sher!’
Hi Ricky,
Best wishes to Oscar on his 17th birthday! Quite an age for a cat as you point out. I’m a cat person myself and at present our house is home to 3 of them; ‘Prince’ our own large 5 year old tomcat is the sole survivor of a trio (two brothers and a sister) who were all ‘outdoor’ cats and have sadly from time to time received various more or less serious injuries and in the case of ‘Starsky’ and ‘Hutch’ failed to come home from their wanderings through our corner of rural Ireland. Over the years the vet bills have been severe sometimes. Our son Peter and daughter in law Karen are living with us at present as they are trying to build a house of their own nearby, so we have become foster parents to their cats ‘Zoe’ and ‘Jack’ (both more sedate ‘indoors’ types). I have many friends of the dog persuasion and we all get along happily but I will always believe that cats are much more intelligent than dogs and make much better (if more mercenary and independent) pets. Keep up the great work Ricky, beannacht Dé ort is do chuid obair.
Hi Sean,
Oscar says ‘Thank you’ for your birthday best wishes 🙂
Oscar was an outdoor cat until we move to Prague five & a half years ago. Back in 2010, I wrote about how his life has changed http://rickyyates.com/the-third-member-of-our-family/ since our move. I have always been a cat person whilst my wife is much more a dog person. However it is quite ironic that she is responsible far more than me, for both the cats we now have! It would take too long to explain why.
Oscar is a venerable cat!
Did, by any chance, Šárek’s name come to be because he was supposed to be a she? 😀 Either way, I love it, it’s cute.
Oscar is indeed a venerable cat, Hana.
Your suggestion as to the origin of Šárek’s name is completely correct. The evening we rescued him as a tiny kitten from the car park of the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Sybille was convinced he was female. So we named ‘her’ Šárka, after the Šárka Valley which lies behind where we live & because we both liked the Czech female name Šárka. It was only when the vet examined ‘her’ the following morning, that the correct gender was discovered & his name had to be corrected to the masculine form.
Belated birthday greetings to Oscar. This is the second very senior birthday party I’ve witnessed in the past week. 🙂
I’ve just passed on your belated birthday greetings to the senior cat, Perpetua. Putting Oscar’s age into human terms does make him a similar vintage to your mother-in-law 🙂
[…] from our friends Mike and Nikki Geelan, in April 2007. We are both so thankful that we did hold a little party just a couple of months ago, to mark his seventeenth birthday. The two photographs accompanying this […]