My Persian Prince

As well as having my Aunty and her daughter Zoe to stay with in Dubai, there was also Ras - who I gave the nickname of the Persian prince. He is a black persian cat. The name was perfect for him really. *Another perfect name is Ras the spaz. 

Being an animal lover, I was delighted to have an animal to annoy, even better he was extremely smoochy and enjoyed the attention. Having arrived at 1am, it was quickly off to bed after having a cuddle with Zoe and Ras for a well needed sleep. 

Ras showing Zozo how to use the buzzy bee

That is until, someone decided to sneak in to my room once I was asleep. I awoke to having this cat literally sitting on my head, his chin pressed down on my forehead purring away, his creepy little paw stroking my ear. This was the start of a love/hate relationship - to the point where my Aunty turned around and told me that hate was a strong word after I'd been telling Ras just how much I hated him one night. 

Ras being cute

There are cute things about Ras, like how his long black hair blows in the wind as he is chasing leaves around the courtyard to bring inside as presents for you. Or how he sits on the bath ledge when Zoe is in there, to keep an eye on things and occasionally falls in the bath himself. Or how he sits at the window watching the birds (or ants, or flies) with his bottom jaw trembling as he makes this weird noise. I also think Ras may suffer separation anxiety - as I type my blog he is either next to the computer, or asleep on my foot.

Ras my blog editor

Then there are the cute things that are also annoying. Probably the most annoying is that if I shut my door to try and get a cat free sleep, he will stand at the door and continuously meow until you let him in. Since I can't keep the room as a cat free zone, almost once a night I wake up hot and not being able to breathe, as in his attempt to cuddle as much as possible, he is asleep on my face.

Ras helping feed Zoe

Then there are just the straight out annoying traits. You can not leave any bags or boxes on the ground, as he will rummage through them all night. You can not leave a suitcase part open, or he will very loudly go in and out of it all night. You can not leave the wardrobe partly open or he will get inside it and knock everything out all night. You can not sleep in, he will come in to the room every half an hour after 8am and meow until you respond to him. Aunty Sue says this is him being calm. Before she had Zoe and he was alone all day, apparently if the cutlery drawer was open a little bit he would sit there and fling teaspoons out of it one by one. Likewise with socks in drawers. The Christmas tree decorations didn't stand a chance as you listened to them being bounced off the walls for hours at a time.

This brings me to the incident. I had been out drinking one night, and around midnight decided to go out on my balcony. As Ras was right by my side, I decided I'd let him out and turned around quickly to get my phone. In the time of me getting my phone he had run straight through the balcony (my room is on the second level) and on to the beams that went above the garages across all of the villa's. Great. How was I going to tell my Aunty that I had lost her cat. I crept in her room after failing to call him for 5 minutes, to tell her that he may or may not be here when she got up in the morning. She walked to my balcony, assessed the situation and said to leave my balcony door open and he'd be back at some stage. Hopefully. She went back to bed, but I just couldn't let myself leave him out there. How would I tell Zoe that I lost her first animal (something that I later got over)? After half an hour of calling him (probably much to the neighbours delight) I decided I'd just go out on the beams and get him. Having had to get him inside from the courtyard on previous occasions, I knew I couldn't go straight for him, I had to shepherd him in like a sheep. Thankfully this all went well, and both the cat and myself made it back inside safely.

The ledge that I had to walk along drunk at 1am

When Jess came and stayed (and got treated to the ear stroking etc) and saw Ras's behavior, she jokingly asked if he had Mummy issues. It all comes down to that I think. He was abandoned when he was 6 weeks old when my Aunty rescued him, so I think in the cat psychology world, he would have big issues and this would explain the separation anxiety and numerous other underlying problems there may be.

Playing dead again - different to previous blog photo.

Even though I tell Ras once a week that there is a "nice farm" that he can go and live on, or the other night when I tried to give him away to my friend, I think that the love/hate relationship tips more towards love and I will miss my little Persian prince as well when I leave.