Just Because

 

Because sometimes, you just need a picture of a cat sitting in a grocery bag.

Hope you have a very happy Wednesday!

Busy Morning

Years ago, I wrote this piece from the point of view of Tiger. Enjoy!

2002-2017


This has been a particularly busy day for me today.  The morning began when I gently sat upon the chest of my human.  When she refused to open her eyes, I gently batted her face with my paws.  She rolled over and knocked me to the floor.  Silly human!  As if throwing me to the floor could prevent me from stalking her! 
Since patting her on the face didn't seem to work out so well, I had to resort to other, less civilized (but much more effective) means of waking her up.  I bit her toes.

Once she was out of bed, I moved on to the next of my victims.  Humans number two and three were still snoozing gently in their beds.  I love these two boy humans.  They feed me, they scratch me, and every once in a while, they will get me my favorite treats.  I was so excited at the prospect of them playing with me before they caught the ride in the large yellow limousine at the corner, I jumped on top of each one of them until they began moving. 

After I woke everyone in the house up, I insisted that they let me outside.  I stood by the kitchen door, scratching and meowing until they opened the door.  Once the door was open, I stood and sniffed the breeze.  Since it was rather chilly out this morning, I quickly turned around and went back inside.  My young girl human had just moved out of her bed, so I quickly slid into the warm place under the covers that she had left just for me.  Ahhh... it was so nice and warm, I quickly fell back asleep.

When the two boys left for the big yellow limousine, I followed after them.  I went outside and walked with them just to the edge of the driveway.  They went to the left to walk to the corner of the street.  I turned to the right and quickly darted into the special slot in the street made just for us cats.  You know, there are several of them along the sidewalks.  They are about 3 feet wide, and several inches high.  There is a big slab of white rock over the top with a hole like a circle in the top, covered with another brown circle.

I stood on the ledge just inside of the fort and waited until the yellow limousine safely picked up my boys, and then I proceeded furthur underground into the maze that is the fort. 

My girl goes to the right at the end of the driveway to catch her yellow limousine.  You see, I go through the maze and wait for her near her waiting place.  While she is standing and waiting with her friends, I reach out with my lightning fast paw and grab shoelaces.  My goal for the morning is to untie all of the laces without being seen before the yellow thing comes.  It was a good morning for me.  I untied all 10 pairs of laces without being detected!  Boo-Yah!

The Fuzz Factor

I originally wrote this piece from Tiger's viewpoint after a memorable morning.  I was attempting to get the kids out of the house and off to school when this happened.  Even though it's been close to ten years since this happened, I can still remember the mouse scurrying along the kitchen baseboard, and Tiger watching us with great disappointment.  And I can still see Oldest Son sitting on the floor, having a very serious discussion with the cat about people food.   He never did teach us to hunt! 

I had a great day in the yard this morning. 

I love fall.  You see, the small grey mice are scurrying around, looking for new, warmer places to spend the winter.  I just love playing with the mice.  This morning, I had one for breakfast.  Mmmm....yummy mice.

I was out early this morning.  For some reason, my humans let me out early today.  After I had my breakfast, it hit me that my humans did not know how to hunt.

The oldest boy human should be able to hunt for himself now, and yet he spends his time looking for prey in the noisy white box in the kitchen.  What kind of parents are those two grown humans anyway?  They should be teaching their young humans to forage for themselves!!

Anyway, since I was up and about early this morning, I decided it was time to boy human #1 to hunt.  I thought I would do it just like my mother did for me.  I would cripple the mouse, and then bring it to him so that he could kill it off.  Fortunately, the mice are frantically scurrying around now, looking for food, so it was easy to find another mouse to offer to the oldest boy human.

I knew my humans were up, I could see them stalking the giant white box for food.  I caught my mouse and brought it over to the door.  Keeping the mouse safely tucked into my mouth, I began scratching at the kitchen door to be let in. 

Perfect!  Boy #1 opened the door for me!  I bounded in and dropped the mouse at his feet.

Ungrateful humans!  The mother jumped onto the kitchen chair.  Boy #2 began laughing so hard tears were coming out of his eyes.  Boy #1 looked like he didn't know what to do.  He picked up my mouse by the tail and tossed it back outside!  That was a great breakfast!  Freshly caught mouse, and he just tossed it aside like a used catnip mouse.  I scolded him with my whiskers back, and he sat down with me and tried to explain something about "mouse is not people food." 

I switched my tail at him and went back outside.  Fortunately, I was able to find my mouse quickly, and I sat down to enjoy my second breakfast.

How can I be expected to teach my humans how to hunt if they don't take me seriously?

A Word from the Cat

Hello... my name is Tiger, and I am one of two resident cats in this house.

The computer is on, and everyone is cleaning up my latest masterful creation in the basement, so I have taken matters into my own paws, if you will, to give my story.

I have lived with this family for nine years now.  I was a little kitten when I saw a little girl with a bright green pack walking down the street to the big yellow caterpillar.  I chased her backpack straps,  and I caught them!

She got into the big yellow caterpillar, and I followed her "Mom" back to her house.  They had a nice porch with a big chair and cushion on it, so I made myself at home.  My Mom had lived in the woods by the place where the big yellow caterpillar came.  I lived there with my brothers and sisters.  Mom had been hit by a car the night before, and we were all out looking for a safe place to live and get food and water.

Eventually, "Mom" brought out food and water for me.  She let me into the house.  She put pictures of me up all over the neighborhood.  I was taken to an office where I was wrapped up in a towel, and had a couple of sharp sticks poked at me. 

But, through it all, I loved that little girl with the bright green backpack with the long dangly straps.   I'll call her Missy.

Missy has grown up now.   She no longer carries a bright green backpack, and the straps no longer dangle on the ground when she walks.  I heard that she was in something called "Kindergarten" when I adopted her, and now she is going into something called "High School".

I've taught Missy well over the years.  I've taught her to pet me when I meow.  I used to sleep at the end of her bed, but now - her feet keep hitting me in the middle of the night.  I try to lick her toes to keep her from hitting me, but does she move her feet?  No!  She kicks me!  I've taught her not to leave the lid on her fish tank open, and last night, I reminded her why she should not leave a ball of yarn down on the floor.

Recently, my family brought home another cat.  Her name is Luna.  Luna thought that she could have possession of Missy's feet, too.  She was wrong.  Luna and I have been having battles over posession of Missy's feet at 2 in the morning.  I win the battles, and possession of Missy's feet.  Unfortunately, Missy wakes up when we fight, and throws us both out of her room and closes the door so we can't get back in.  It's not fair!  I win those fights fair and square, and what reward to I get?  I get tossed out into the cold, dark hallway in the middle of the night!

Picture, Copyright 2011 BLW

And so, last night, Luna and I declared a truce.  After we were tossed out of Missy's room, we went downstairs and found the yarn basket.  Need I say more? 

I must go now.  I hear Missy coming back upstairs.

Until next time,
Tiger


 This post originally appeared in my now defunct "Mom's View" blog.  I moved it to this blog at the request of my kids, who wanted to have all of the various posts that accompanied their high school years in one place.  I've matched the publication dates here to their original post date.  If you're reading these posts, I sincerely thank you for taking the time to go back through them all!