A Trip to the Vet

 Waiting for the vet to arrive.

Princess Hermes hates riding in the car. I suspect that this is because at the age of 2, she was taken from the home where she had lived all but the first 6 weeks of her life and dumped at the animal shelter. When I picked her up, the poor thing was so scared she threw up, pooped, and peed in the carrier on the way home. 

I’ve taken her to the vet 3 times since then. We were fostering to adopt with her, and once we made the decision to adopt, I filled out the paperwork and took her to the vet. We didn’t even make it out of the carport before she pooped, peed, and threw up all over the carrier. Keep in mind, we live 2 miles away from our Vet’s office.  

Last year, we made a full mile before she totally lost it.  The poor thing threw up again on the way home. My vet joked that it was nice of her to present a full stool sample when she walked in!

Last week, I was prepared for anything. I put her in her carrier – and I had a towel at the bottom. This time, I thought ahead and took an extra towel wrapped up in a plastic bag. We made it with no issues. And then, I picked up her carrier to take her into the vet. That's when she finally lost control. Fortunately, she only threw up.  

I whipped out the soiled towel once we were in the office and put the new one inside her carrier. The soiled towel went into the plastic bag to be washed when we got home.

She approves of the towel on the scale.

And Hermie? She had a great time. She explored everything and talked with the vet when she came in with a wide range of purrs and small “mrows” and only one hiss. She had no issues going home.

Considering that we’re moving in less than a month, I’m really hoping that we will do okay with the 30 minute drive to the apartment. There’s nothing worse than an upset cat trapped in a car.

Chief Security Officer's Report

 It's been an interesting time here in the Mid-Atlantic sector.  I am new to the post and have many things to relate in this, my first security report back to the Federation.

I have been playing with something called "yarn".  It's green and blue, and Mom is making it into a shrug.  Or so she says.  I think it is alive.  When she works on it, the yarn moves!  I do my best to kill it so it won't hurt her, but all I hear is "No Hobbes, don't do that!" and then she puts all of the yarn away, just killing my fun.

We had strangers come into the Station two weeks ago.  They removed a freezer from the basement.  Dad (the hairy human) said that they were from the electric company, and were going to remove an old appliance for us.  In exchange, they would give us money to get an old appliance off the grid.  (What is this "grid"?)  I subjected them to a thorough Screening before allowing them into the Station.  While I smelled many new and intriguing smells, none seemed threatening.  The strangers smiled at me and attempted to scratch my ears!  Can you believe the unmitigated gall of them!  I kept a close eye on them, watching their every move from the top of the stairs as well as from the top of the kitchen refrigerator.  As they were leaving the house, I gave them a final hiss to let them know that they were no longer welcome in the Station.  

 These "flowers" came into the house last week.  They smell very nice, but they don't taste all that great.  I ate one, but then the girl started yelling at me "No, Hobbes!  Don't eat that!  My BF gave them to me!  Stop it!"  She then pulled the "flowers" away from me.  After further investigation, I discovered that these flowers are called "Roses" and that the girl's special friend gave them to her. 

I keep hearing this word "NO".  I still don't know what it means, but I hear it a LOT.  I have been investigating it, and I have discovered that I hear it more when I do things that are really fun - like taking salmon off of a plate when somebody gets up from the table, pulling a wallet out of a purse, sitting on the kitchen counter and eating chicken off the cutting board, or untying shoelaces.  I really don't like this word.

Commander Luna is slowly getting adjusted to her new Command Position.  She doesn't respond to being called "Hey You", or even "Miss", but she does love to be called Commander.  I am having a hard time calling her Commander, but I am getting used to it.  She didn't care for me much at first, but she has accepted me.  We now touch noses, nuzzle against each other, play chase around the house, and every once in a while, we even play footsie.  I think I'm going to like this assignment. 

The humans in the house found a new and interesting way to torment the felines in the house.  This torture device houses food and treats.  Mom calls it a "stimulation" toy.  It's supposed to enrich our lives and keep us challenged and interested.  We were considering calling this cruel and unusual, but they are putting the really good chicken treats in here, so we are holding off on invoking the Geneva Catventions.

 

Lieutenant Hobbes
Chief Security Officer
Station #1
Mid-Atlantic Sector

Hobbes

I haven't written much about him lately, but he is thriving!  He's 10 months old now, and he's almost grown to his full size.  When we brought him home, his feet were so much bigger than the rest of him - and his legs were long and gangly.  Now, his body matches his legs and his feet!  He's a big, long, sleek and gorgeous cat.

But he's still very much a kitten.

He has a handful of catnip mice that are HIS.  Watch out Luna, he will fight you for those mice.  He plays with them, bats them around the house, and will play fetch with you for the mice.  It's great having a young cat!

The biggest problem we have with him is his appetite.  He eats EVERYTHING.  I can't put my cereal down on the table and go back to get something else.  If I do, I'll find him face down in my cereal, going at it like it's cat chow!

He also likes to drink water from our glasses.  I recently started using the narrow mouth mason jars as my drinking glasses to keep him from coming over, dunking his head in my glass and drinking my water.  I know, I know, it's cruel to only keep 4 bowls of water in the house for the cats.  1 in each bathroom, 1 in the bay window, and 1 in the kitchen.  He really should have one on the table.

Yesterday, I was eating my breakfast at the table, and I had my glass of water next to me.  Hobbes hopped up on the chair next to me, put his front paws on the table and leaned over towards my glass.  I began to reprimand him about his behavior, and started to reach over to push him off the table when he reached out with his lightning fast paw and *wham* down went my glass, and he hopped off the table to lick the water off of the floor.

Cats. 

Cat Tower

The kitten is driving us nuts.  He's got energy to spare!  The last time we had a kitten in the house, the kids were in early elementary school, and they had the energy to match his.  Sixteen years later, we just don't have the same energy.  Heck we only have one of the three kids living at home now, and she's in class or studying most of the time.





We had looked at cat towers at Pet Smart and Wal Mart, but we just couldn't find it in our hearts to shell out almost $200 for a structure for a cat to climb and romp upon.

Husband, being the wonder that he is, went out and spent $40 on some indoor/outdoor carpet, sisal rope, and some boards. He combined that with what we have at home to make a cat structure that is well over 8 feet tall.

The long boards will be covered with sisal rope. 

The platforms are covered with carpet.  The top two platforms have sides to keep the cat from falling off.  It's structured so that the new structure ties in with the cat runway we built onto the windowsill.  We've got a few more levels to add to this structure - out to the right side - to give them a little more climbing room.  We're also going to add an enclosed box to at least one of those levels.

Hobbes enjoys rolling around on the level platforms and chasing his tail.

The only problem is that he is measuring - you can see him bobbing up and down to measure the distance - to see if he can jump from the top platform onto the chandelier.

All in all, it's a really cool cat tower.  It really is a shame that we don't love our cats at all.  Poor creatures just struggle to survive. 

The Kitten and The Quilt

Hobbes, relaxing on the couch.

I've been hand quilting daughter's quilt for a while now.  Hand quilting is time consuming, and I love having that warm fabric and cotton sandwich on my lap during the winter.  It serves the dual purpose of finishing a quilt and keeping me warm on chilly winter nights.  I have to admit, I was looking forward to working on that quilt all through the Olympics.

Last weekend, as I was quilting, I felt an unusual pulling at the bottom of the quilt. I looked down on the floor, and saw Hobbes peeking out from under the quilt.  I smiled at him, and then quickly began to panic as I realized that he had pulled off a significant chunk of cotton batting and was eating it.

The flight that ensued as I attempted to chase him down, prize open his mouth, and yank out the cotton can only be described as "Mad Panic".   It's not an experience I want to relive any time soon.

And so, the quilts - unfinished - have been put into a safe location for now.  I plan on taking the girl's quilt outside to quilt once the weather warms up enough for me to spend some time outside.  I can work on the quilt in peace while Hobbes is inside the house.

I'm not certain when, where, or how I'm going to finish off the edges of these quilts.  Quite honestly, I might be sewing outside on the carport this summer!

In the meantime, I will be kept on my toes, attempting to keep all of the choking hazards away from the very spoiled little kitten!

Callie the Cat

My Dad has been on my mind a lot lately.  He's been gone for over 10 years, but the kids are going through transitions that he would have loved to see.  Who wouldn't want to see their grandson working on a PhD?  It'll be the first PhD in the family.    Anyway, I was scrolling through old posts that mention my Dad when I saw this post and had to laugh!  The events mentioned took place back in 1986 or 1987.  I originally posted this story on this blog on 10/15/2014.  Enjoy!

Have you seen the GEICO commercial with the Tazmanian Devil, the energy drink, and the collectors plates?

The commercial reminds me of my Step Mother's cat, Callie.

In 1982, after my parents were divorced, Dad set up living in a Condo in Alexandria.  He had a two bedroom condo.  His bedroom had a huge walk-in closet.  The kitchen was just off of the living room.  There were two doors in the kitchen- one just off the living room, and you walked across the kitchen and came out in the dining room.

Just off of the living room was a tiny little room.. a cozy little study, where he kept his computer, and his television, and the comfy sofa.

 Dad had always hated cats with a passion.  We had a dog growing up, but he hated cats.  Wouldn't you know, his girlfriend (my future step-mother) had a cat.  Her cat was a calico cat, named Callie.
Callie had been my stepmother's one and only pet for years.  That cat hated the intrusion that my father brought into her life.  He was constantly around, and the cat hated him for it.  She would lie in wait for my Dad, and attack him, jumping on whatever body part she could leap onto, and sink in with all of her claws and not let go until my step mother pulled her off.

Still, Dad remained a good sport about the entire thing.

And then, my step mother went on a business trip and asked my Dad to take care of her cat.

Dad agreed, thinking that he would go over to her apartment a couple of times a day and feed the cat and change the litter box.

The night before she left, my step mother brought the cat, the litter box, and the food over to Dad's house, saying that the two of them would be able to use this as a "bonding experience" while she was gone.

The war began half an hour after she left the condo.

Remember how I said that the kitchen had a walk from the living room to the dining room?  It really wasn't a very big kitchen.  It was an L shape galley kitchen- refrigerator as you walked in the door from the dining room, and a small run of counter space to the stove, then the counter turned an L for the sink and dishwasher.  The refrigerator was maybe all of 10 steps from the door to the living room.

The cat decided to take up residence on top of the refrigerator.

When Dad walked in to get a cup of coffee, the cat was laying in wait for him on top of the fridge, and jumped on top of his head when he walked in the door.  Without my step mother there, he could not get the cat off of his head until he went into the bathroom, turned on the shower, and stuck his head under the water.

A very pissed off cat jumped off of his head, and went skulking back up to the top of the fridge.

At this point, Dad decided that he could live for 7 days without going into his kitchen.  He could go get take out, and use disposable dishes.

The second day, Dad came home from work, and the cat was still in residence on top of the fridge.

Day 3, the cat had taken up residence on top of the computer in the office nook. Dad was thrilled to have access to his coffee maker, but was now afraid to go into the office area.  There was no way he was going to go onto the computer.  When he walked into the room to go sit down and watch television he realized that not only had the cat taken over control of the computer, the remote control for the television was next to the keyboard, within easy reach of a growling, hissing, spitting, very pissed off cat.

Day 4, the cat had taken over the bathroom.  Sitting on the back of the toilet by the door, the cat had chosen the ideal location to dominate and control the situation.  Nobody was getting into that bathroom without getting past that cat.  Dad admitted to me years later that he went down the street to use the bathroom, and left for work 2 hours early that morning so that he could use the shower in the gym at the office before he went into his actual office for the day.  He also admitted that he should have just locked the cat into the bathroom that day and left her there until her Mom came back home.

By day 5, Dad had gotten used to the intrusion and was counting down the days until he was done cat sitting.  He walked into the house and couldn't find the cat.  No cat in the kitchen.  No cat in the bathroom.  No cat waiting for him on the back of the toilet.  Where was the cat?  Not in the bedroom.  He slowly relaxed, and opened the door to the closet- and realized that the cat was in the closet - on the top shelf....

Now, on that top shelf, Dad kept his collectible plate collection.  I don't remember how many plates Dad had collected, but he had them all in boxes, and they were all stored on the top shelf of that closet.  Many of those plates were from the Bradford Exchange and the Franklin Mint - big names in plate collecting back in the 80's.  And on top of the boxes, there sat the cat.  A pissed off, cross eyed, angry cat, who was missing her person and angry at Dad.

As Dad opened the closet door, the cat leapt up, and took a huge swing with her paw and sent a box crashing down to the ground.  *Shatter* went the plate as the box flew across the closet and hit the other wall.  *shatter*, *shatter* went two more boxes in quick succession before Dad could even really figure out what was going on.

Aghast, he watched as the cat's paw hovered behind the next box and her tail twitched in anger and the whiskers quivered.  While Dad debated whether or not he could actually pull the cat off of the shelf without getting injured, the cat deliberately flung another box across the closet.

Swearing words not fit to be repeated, Dad slammed the closet door shut and went into the living room.  As he was calling the vet for advice, he could hear plates being shoved and flung off of the shelves at fairly regular intervals.  Many broke, some shattered, and a few survived.

The vet sent an assistant over to Dad's house with a cat trap.

As soon as the assistant walked into Dad's closet, she gasped in dismay at the mess in the closet.  Not only had the cat shattered multiple plates, she had also used every available cloth surface as a litter box.

With a triumphant meow, the cat quickly walked over to the Assistant and began rubbing up against her legs.  Murmuring "sweet kitty, how could the bad man lock you in the closet?"

She gave Dad an evil look and murmured something to him about "It's really not a good idea to leave a cat in the closet."

At Dad's request, she put the very compliant cat into her carrier and took her back to the office for a 48 hour stay in the kennels.

Dad spent weeks trying to undo the damage in the closet.  The plates were fairly easy to pack up, as most of them had been in boxes when the cat flung them.  That was just a matter of checking the boxes for damage, and throwing out the broken ones.  The more difficult part of the process was cleaning up the pee and poop.  He ended up having to throw out many items.  Even so, several months later, he would be rudely surprised when he would go to put on a pair of shoes, or pull some item from the back of the closet and find a special surprise from the cat inside.  Dad swore that the cat was using his closet as her own personal litter box while he was at work.

Surprisingly enough, that entire escapade seemed to be the end of the hostilities between Dad and Callie.  While Callie never really did like Dad after that, she never really went out of her way to attack him again.

However, she would go settle down on the remote for the television on a frequent basis.  And she retained control of the remote for the rest of the evening when she did.  

Tiger's Memorial Garden

We needed a way to honor the most awesome cat in the world - Tiger.

After putting our heads together, we decided to plant a bird garden in the back yard, close to where he really enjoyed hanging out and watching the birds.

We've slowly been working on adding elements to his garden.

The first thing we did was make a memorial stone for him.  I had some concrete in the house for making stepping stones from when the kids were little.  (Yes, I do have entirely too much junk in the house.)  I made the stone in a disposable pie pan.

We decided that this garden would go in a corner of the yard that's close to the Elm tree.  The grass kind of curves around the tree, and it seems like a natural place for a garden.  We already have a bird house back there, so that was our starting place.

We then planted a couple of bushes - one holly bush, and one rhododendron.  Both bushes are evergreens.  The holly bush will bring in a lot of birds, and he enjoyed hanging out under the rhododendrons close to the house.

The Rhody is finally looking good.  It had a hard time adapting to the new habitat, and spent a lot of time "weeping".  The ends of the branches are no longer weeping to the ground.  Hopefully, this means it's taken root!

I'm a fan of Hostas.  They are big and leafy, and they are perennials.  I picked up three of the biggest Hostas I could find at the farm stand, and then added in some big bold New Guinea Impatiens in front. Hey, I even did something I haven't done in this house in the 10 years we've been here.  I put down landscape cloth and mulch.  Whoa - this space is looking really nice!

Daughter works at a major big box retailer.  Over the past few weeks, she's been picking up solar garden elements to put in that corner.  We have an LED tree, and LED bird, and an LED color changing ball. 

It's hard to see the twig tree in this picture, it blends in so well.

For now, it's finished.  I have plans to add a bird bath and possibly a place for butterflies to puddle.
It's become a nice, reflective place.  We have plans to add a couple more things back there, but we won't add any more plants until the fall when the weather gets cooler and wetter.

Wow, you can really tell where the landscape cloth went down!  I really need to put more down.

Luna, Luna, Luna

Luna in her cat cave.  "Don't stick another thermometer up there, or else..."

It has been a wild and woolly couple of weeks.  I haven't had the time to update anything on here, as I've been dealing with some very real life issues at home.

Did you know that there are kitty neurologists?

I know this now!

So, a couple of weeks ago, I was getting ready for work when I heard a sound from Luna that I have never heard before.  I searched her out, and found her.  She couldn't walk.  She would try to stand, flop over on her side, and make that noise again.

I immediately picked her up and took her to the vet.  We were waiting outside of the office when the staff showed up for the day.  The vet took her inside, and took a good look at her and then kept her for the day for observation.  We thought we were at the end.  I was afraid we were going to have to put the cat down.

Fortunately, Luna is still alive and kicking.

She had a seizure.  Our vet ended up keeping Luna for the day, and then we took her to the neurologist the next day.

We don't know what caused the seizure.  We think she may have hurt herself during the initial seizure when she fell.  We have a fluorescent light at the bottom of the stairs that is flashing on and off like a strobe light.  We've been speculating that the light triggered the seizure and she fell down the stairs and hurt herself.  For now, we're keeping the basement door closed.  Husband is out of town on business, and he will replace that light when he gets home.

Luna is slowly getting better.  She is walking better now.  She's still not hopping down from things, but she has started hopping UP on things.  We still can't get her interested in playing with her toys, but she is looking at them again.

Our sweet little kitty.  We love her so much, and she did just lose her companion, Tiger. I wish we could make her understand everything is going to be fine. 

Luna

Since Tiger's passing, Luna has been very sad and quiet.  She has been hanging out in all of Tiger's favorite hidey-holes.  She's not been as talkative as usual. She's been disappearing for long periods of time, and when I find her, she's in one of Tiger's favorite quiet spots.  Because of this, we decided to take her to the vet.  We wanted to make certain that she is healthy, and find out what we can do to help make her adjustment to a life without Tiger a little bit easier.

Our amazing vet spent a half an hour with Luna, talking with her, cooing at her, giving her some awesome scritches and asking us questions.  Once Luna gets through her kitty mourning, she will be fine.  We don't know how long her mourning will last, but we need to keep her as happy and content as possible.  And we need to keep her challenged.

Our vet then shared with us information about Enrichment toys for cats.  These aren't the same as chew toys for dogs - or even catnip toys (of which she has many).  No, these are food puzzles.  It seems that cats in the wild only catch 15% of the food that they hunt.  Thus, they are able to keep themselves slim and trim.  In our house, the cats only have to walk over to the food dish and eat their fill.  It's seemed to be a good method, but Luna needs more stimulation right now, and she needs to lose a few of those little pounds that she has recently gained.

And so, we've spent the past couple of days making food puzzles for her.  Right now, she has an open egg carton filled with food.  She has to put her paw into the egg holes and get her food out.  We have each little cup filled a little over halfway with food.  She puts one paw down in the lid of the egg carton to hold everything still while she fishes for her food. 

We've been working on making the next one right now.  We've taken a small water bottle and cut a couple of holes in the sides.  The idea is that we'll put her food in the (empty) water bottle and leave it in the spot where the egg carton is now.  She'll have to bat it around in order to get the food out.  Our goal is to eventually have enough different kinds of enrichment feeders that we'll be able to put a new one out every day for two weeks without repeating anything.

If you'd like to find out more, you can follow this link that our vet gave us:
http://foodpuzzlesforcats.com/

Tiger

Sweet little kitty with the heart of a warrior.

 

Tiger passed away last week at the grand age of 15.

He followed my daughter down to the bus stop when she was in Kindergarten.  He was trying to catch the straps on her back pack.  He watched her climb onto the bus, and then he followed me home.  I opened the door, and he darted inside and climbed into the dryer, on top of the nice warm laundry, and refused to move out.

We posted signs all over the neighborhood, but nobody ever claimed him.  He stayed in our house and became a part of our family.  For 15 years, he's been there with us, a part of our family, always in the middle of everything.  He allowed the kids to dress him in doll clothes and push him around in the stroller.  I can't even begin to tell you how much I miss this little guy.  He's been with me through so much - a mainstay when my Dad passed, and the furry little pillow who would get up when I had trouble sleeping and insert his purring little self up under my hand.  He always knew when I had a bad day, and he would just sit with me, purring and licking my hands and face until I felt better.

I am really going to miss that little kitty.



Old Posts about Tiger

A Word From the Cat
August 19, 2011
November 3, 2011
July 5, 2013
July 25, 2013
September 28, 2013
January 15, 2013
January 28, 2014



Taking the Cats to the Vet

From the Cats
July 20, 2012

Luna Missed her Girl

Luna and the girl are very tight.  I am convinced that Luna considers the girl to be her kitten.  I've seen her come through and lick the water off of her hair after she takes a shower.  That cat loves her girl just as much as her girl loves her cat.  When we came home after moving her into school, Luna complained non-stop.  Every time we walked into the house and the girl wasn't with us, she began MROWing loudly.  Very loudly.  It was a horrible, stentorian shout that lasted for half an hour every single time we walked back into the house after we had been gone for any length of time.  For 3 months, she has complained - LOUDLY - every time we have walked in the door without her girl.  The cat has been impossible to live with.  She has really missed her kitten.  She would wake me up at 4:30 every morning to swat me awake, stare at me, and then once I was fully awake, stalk off.


Daughter got home last night. We were thinking Luna might try to ignore daughter in order to punish her for leaving her.  We expected that she would have nothing to do with daughter until the middle of the night.  We were wrong.  Within 10 minutes of her walking in the door, the cat had taken possession of her girl.  She was all over her - nuzzling her, licking her, and grooming the foreign smells out of her fur.  Once daughter laid down, Luna piled on top of her and refused to move.  For the first time in months, I did NOT have a cat come in and swat me awake at 4:30 in the morning.


When we checked in on her last night, we saw Luna curled up next to daughter, with her paws wrapped protectively around daughter's head.  I'm not certain daughter is ever going to be able to leave the house for any length of time ever again!

It is so good to have my chickies home!

Missing the Boys

Both of the boys went back to school on Sunday. 

I miss them terribly, but I know that they are off on an adventure, continuing with their education, and working hard.  I miss their smiles and their humor, but I'm also glad that they are back at school, living their own lives.

But then, there are the cats.  They don't understand what is going on.  While the boys are home, each of them usually spends a significant amount of time playing with the cats, teasing the cats, cuddling with the cats, and sneaking them treats.

We have a yardstick with a piece of leather tied to the end of it.  We've tied beads into the leather strip, and the boys will run it back and forth across the floor, and the cats will chase after it.

Yesterday was the first day since before Christmas that the boys have not been home.  I wasn't working yesterday, so I got to see firsthand how much the cats missed them.

When I went to wake up daughter, Luna sat outside of the boys bedroom door and howled.  Tiger climbed up into their beds, and dug through the blankets.  He finally came down out of their beds and curled up into a pile of dirty laundry that they had left on their floor.

Middle child has a favorite spot in the living room where he likes to curl up and read.  Luna sniffed and sniffed in that spot, and meowed a lot.  She curled up in the spot, and every once in a while, she would look over at me, look around the room, cry, and then curl back up again.

Tiger walked through the room and found their yardstick.  He played with the beads for a few minutes and then looked expectantly around.  I tried to play with him, but after two swats, he went back to the laundry pile.  (He and the boys would play with the yard stick for an hour or more.)

When daughter got home from school yesterday afternoon, both cats piled into her lap and refused to let her go.  Luna cried pitifully for 20 minutes once she sat down in daughter's lap.

The boys called around 8 last night with their list of "I forgot..."  They were on speaker phone, calling from oldest child's room.  I put them on speaker phone so that we could all hear them.  Luna came over, looked at the phone with that cross-eyed look on her face, and began digging furiously at the screen, as if attempting to get the boys out of that tiny little box.

Both of the cats ended up curled up with us last night.  First time we've ever had both cats in the same place at the same time without a fight of some kind.

Today, the cats are a little better.  Tiger and Luna are both back to their usual spots in the front window.  Only thing is - they are both up there, together.  That's never happened before.

Do cats get depressed?  I am wondering because I would swear that both of those cats are depressed.  I just wish that they understood what I am saying to them.  They even turned their noses up at their favorite treats last night.

A Word From the Cat

This is Luna.  I am the beautiful, young princess cat of this house.  I rule with a furry paw.

Things in this house have been dull recently.

My humans had moved a delightful new toy into the living room.  It was lovely... It had a bowl of water at the bottom, I could reach up and dig my beautiful nails in, and sometimes, I could climb up into it, and sit in it, surrounded by a forest of green needles, and watch my subjects move around about me.  They even covered this amazing toy with lots of little toys for me!  I could sit on the floor and swat at them, or climb up and hit the bonus ones - you know, the ones that go "CRASH" when they hit the floor.  The humans never put those fun toys at the bottom.  They always put them near the top.  Silly humans... don't they know by now that by moving them up higher, hitting them became more of a challenge?

My beautiful new toy disappeared over the last week.  I don't know why they took it away?  I wasn't done with it!

I hate to tell you this, but my humans... sometimes, they let the food in my dish get so low that I can actually SEE THE BOTTOM OF THE DISH!!  Can you believe this?  I let them know when I can see the bottom of my dish by picking up paws full of food and throwing them across the room.

My boyfriend, Tiger, has gotten an attitude lately.  I don't know what is up with him.  I know he likes to pretend that he is all tough and distant, but this is getting ridiculous.  He was sleeping on the bed with "Mom" and "Dad" the other day.  They all looked so cozy, I decided to hop up and snuggle up with him.  As soon as I hopped up on the bed, can you believe it?  He HISSED AT ME!  That's right!  He dared to HISS at the Princess.  Well, I showed him!  I made my very best bushy tail at him, and I HOWLED at him to let him know that I did not appreciate him telling me what I could and could not do.  Can you believe that he dared to swat me?  Me?  The Princess?  He swatted me across the face with his paw!!  Well, I just can't stand that kind of challenge to my authority, so I charged him and swatted him back - with my CLAWS OUT, and I showed my teeth and howled some  more.
And then, oh, the indignity of it all... just as it was getting fun, and we were having some awesome roll around and hit and bite each other time, "Dad" picked us both up and tossed us both outside.  He was muttering some nonsense about it being "3 in the morning". 

Picky.

No more human oppression of cats!  No more!  I will not stand for this!

I have let the humans know of my displeasure by typing this on the laptop.  I will continue to let them know of my displeasure by staging a hostile takeover of this computer!  I shall sleep on the keyboard for the rest of the day!  It's mine, mine I tell you!

That is all for now!

Princess Luna

Taking the Cats to the Vet

I took the cats to the vet today.  It was a traumatic experience for everyone involved.

The cats like to go outside early in the morning, so I took the precaution of locking each of them into a separate room overnight with a bowl of food, a bowl, of water, and a litterbox.  I was hoping to get a stool sample from each of them overnight.  I should have known better...

A half hour before it was time to go to the vet, I tracked down the animal carriers and went after Luna (the more agreeable one) and put her in her box.  No fights with that little girl, she's always ready for an adventure.  I scoped out her litterbox, but she had made absolutely no deposits over night.

I went after Tiger next.  One huge catfight later, I had two bloody gashes on my hand and a cat that had buried himself under the middle of the bed.  I finally dislodged him from the bed, only to turn around and find that Luna had let herself out of her carrier and was firmly lodged in Tiger's carrier.

Actually, this turned out to be a very good thing!  Once Tiger saw Luna in his carrier, he immediately lunged from my arms, and started squabbling with Luna, until she left the carrier and he could get in.

I locked his carrier and attempted to get Luna into hers.  No sooner did I shut her door than she began prizing open the weak edge at the top.  Desperate, I found a length of blue ribbon and tied her cage together so she couldn't open it again.

5 short minutes later, we were in the waiting room at the vet's office.

When we were called back, the tech decided to go with Luna first.  (Remember, she's the agreeable one.)  She purred through her initial exam, preened herself, and generally had a great time.  When the tech told Luna "OK, I'm done with you, I need to see Tiger next", Luna hopped right off of the table, walked over to one of the chairs, and assumed her sphinx pose while watching Tiger.

It took both of us to dislodge Tiger from the carrier.  We had to turn it upside down to get him out.  He hissed, he fussed, and he made snarly noises the entire time the tech looked at him.

Then came the fun part:  The vet came in!

Remember, Luna is still sitting on the chair, purring away and swishing her tail.  She was enjoying the spectacle!

The vet felt Tiger's abdomen.  Tiger growled.  She checked his teeth.  He hissed.  She gave him his shots.  Tiger made snarly noises at her.  The minute she finshed and said "OK Tiger, I'm done with you, you can go now" he jumped down off of the table and ran into his carrier.

The vet looked at Luna and said "OK Luna - you're next!"  (I swear I am not making this up!)  Luna hopped off of the chair and sauntered over to the table.  The vet picked her up and put her on the table, attempting to feel Luna's abdomen.  Luna immediately rolled over onto her back, squiremed around, and got her head under the vet's hand.  The vet tried to check Luna's teeth.  Luna immediately rolled over onto her back, squirmed around, and put her back under the vet's hand.  While the vet was trying to keep Luna still long enough to give her the shots, she asked me "Did you manage to get a stool sample from her?"

"No", I answered.  "She hasn't done anything at all in the last 12 hours.  I had her locked in a room overnight with the litter box, and she didn't even pee."

It's like that was the cue that cat had been waiting for.  With an insane gleam in her green eyes, she let loose at both ends, giving the vet both kinds of samples.  Luna hopped down off the table and hopped back into her box. 

We all stood there, too stunned to speak for a few minutes.

"Well", said the tech, "At least we have our samples!"

Those cats!  I guess we know who's really in charge!

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! 

a word from the cat

Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!  I have sneaked onto the keyboard this morning! 

Life has been good.  The wood stove has been fired up since the snowstorm last weekend, and we have been basking in it's warmth in the chairs closest to the stove. 

I've made friends with the new, invader cat to the household.  We now share the bed of youngest human.  We have been curling up at the end of her bed, but now we think that we can work together to push her out of the bed and take it over for ourselves!  Ha-ha-ha-ha!  (That's Luna, cackling in the background)

We have an interloper who has been trying to take over our back yard.  He's a ginger cat.  We tried to jump him yesterday when he came sneaking into our yard, looking at our birds as his afternoon snack.  We're not sure how it happened, but somehow, we both ended up cornered up in the apple tree.  Youngest human had to bring a ladder to come and get us down.

Mom has been painting a lot.  She applied for 10 jobs in the last month, but has heard nothing  - no, not even a "we hired someone else, now go away" from anyone.  So now, she's painting.  We think it is a way to manage stress, but we are staying out of her way!  Personally, we think she'd be better off chasing some mice down in the back yard, or maybe rolling around on the floor with a catnip mouse, but what do we know?  We're just cats......

I'm going now.  I need to go keep an eye on Luna.  You never know what she might decide to do on her own if I'm not there to tell her what to do. 

-tiger.

*This was originally posted on my now defunct "Mom's View" Blog.