Hello Friends,

Oliver here. Recently, we learned about Tuxedo Cats and, meowza is there a lot to know! I feel a special affinity to these stately felines as I too am a black and white, although officially not considered a Tuxedo Cat.

In the process of doing my blog post I met a very nice Tuxedo Cat named Whisky. The Tribe of Five was interested to hear Whisky opine about his human, his life in the UK and the life of a Tuxedo Cat in general, so I set up an interview with him.  I invite you to join our conversation and we always love to hear from fellow felines and if you’re at Tuxedo, definitely give us a “meow out”.

Purrs & Head Bonks,

Hello Whisky, welcome to Feline Opines! My first question for you is, how did  you get your name?

Why thank you Oliver. I got my name because my mum had never seen a cat with such long whiskers! Eventually my name (Whiskers) was shortened to Whisky and it stuck!

Your human created a fantastic graphic about adoption in my previous blog post. We love adoption stories (we shared ours with kitten photos) during Remember Me Thursday). Please tell us about  yours.

I don’t remember much of the first few months of my life but I do remember when I was a kitten of four months, finding myself in a cold suitcase outside a cat rescue home. Thankfully, they let me in! A month later my mum and dad came to see me in there. We got on great and through my fabulous powers of purrrsuasion, I convinced them to become my humans.

Are you kitten me? Left in a suitcase? ‘Makes me wonder about some humans out there. I must say though, the humans in the UK do seem enlightened about “moggies” and we often opine on cat-topics from across the Pond. Since your humans are such fans of tea, do they serve you catnip tea?

Catnip tea? What’s that? I’ve never heard of it, please tell me where I can send my humans to get some. I do have a small amount of catnip but my human mostly hides it away.

We learned about catnip tea from a very fancy cat called Navi. Jasmine interviewed her at her Tea Party. Navi said that catnip tea is good for humans too.  I had my purrrsonal assistant check for catnip tea in the UK and she found some online. We haven’t tried it so you may want your human to do a bit more checking in your neighborhood.  Our humans are a bit stingy with our catnip as well.

On another note Whisky, tell us what is your favorite thing about your human.

He gives me treats almost every time I meow at him, and strokes on demand too!

Meowza! Sounds like you have your human trained well! So tell us, are there any other felines (or other creatures, furry, feathered or otherwise) in your house?

Just me! They couldn’t handle more than one pet!

We felines spend a lot of time keeping watch over our neighborhoods by sitting in the window. What do you see when  you look our your windows and what’s your favorite thing to watch outside?

I love watching birds, they get me so excited! Sometimes a big black cat comes and meows at me through the window and we have a chat together too.

Yep, birds and squirrels are our fave as well. Other cats, not so much. Our big Alpha, Tucker does not like any cats on our front porch and, if they are brazen enough to come up to the door, Tucker might just leave a present for our humans when they get home (unwrapped, if you get my drift). That brings another question to mind, are you an indoor or an outdoor kitty?

I am an indoor cat. In summer, when my humans are gardening, they let me outside for a little while so long as they can see me.

That’s good that your humans watch over you when you’re outside with them. What do they do to keep you safe?

They never let me out without supervision. They say it’s dangerous because there is a busy road not far away. I wish they’d chill out a bit!

We feel the same here, the female human especially is nervous (granted, I did a header down the stairs when I was a kitten) and Tucker has fallen off the upstairs balcony twice. This has caused the female human to be over protective and now we’re not allowed outside anywhere unless we’re in our portable catio. Actually, it’s pretty cool but don’t tell our humans I said so.

We did notice that on your wonderful website about Tuxedos, there isn’t any information about you. Are  you considering lobbying your human for a little more exposure as you are clearly the spokespurrson for the Tuxedo Cat website.

Good idea! My human really underappreciates the work I’ve put into the website, it’s about time I got some more recognition. I’ll have words!

We noticed that your human is involved in awarding an Animal Welfare & Veterinary Scholarship. That’s pawsome! How did this come about?

Ah, that was one of his stupid ideas that never worked.  He’s probably forgotten about it. I think he hoped to use it to get in touch with a few veterinary students who may be interested in coming on as writers, but he had no applications. Oh well!

Hah, hah. Our human has also had some less than stellar ideas but what are you going to do. If we had opposable thumbs, we could just go to the site and erase all their “faux paws”.  That brings to mind another question, how did your human become so interested in Tuxedo Cats?

Through me, of course! I’m the first cat (of any kind) he’s ever had and, I guess I made a great impression!

Well, he certainly has become informed about Tuxedo cats and a great advocate for them. Your inspiration has resulted in amazing work.  Have  you ever watched Henri, le Chat Noir’s videos? He’s a famous Tuxedo cat.

I just watched one now, what a magnificent creature, very good looking, so wise and cultured…much like myself!

Well my friend, this interview has gone quite long and you’re looking a bit tired.  It’s been great fun. Thanks so much for purrticipating  and please thank your human for all his hard work on behalf of Tuxedo Cats! Oh wait, it appears that we’ve gone overtime and into Whisky’s nap time. We’ll just wish him and his humans well and quietly, oh so quietly end this interview.