The Enigma and the Dweeb

[Veronica]

Who knows why the Cassie Cat meows? What is she looking at on the ceiling?

Tucker weighs 13 pounds and desperately wants to fit into a shoe box.

Just another day with my kittens. :D

V.

[jobob]

I envy your summers. :cool:

[Veronica]

Remind me of these blissful days when I'm grousing about some new catastrophe in my classroom. Help me to find my happy place come winter. :p

V.

[jobob]

Hee hee. I'll never say I envy the rest of your year. :D

[Becky]

Who knows why the Cassie Cat meows? What is she looking at on the ceiling?

Tucker weighs 13 pounds and desperately wants to fit into a shoe box.

Just another day with my kittens. :D

V.

Useless without pics :D

[Veronica]

Visualization baby!

13 pound tuxedo cat - a BIG boy - tries to fit in shoe box lying on its side. He can get his head and shoulders in. I think the shoe box is half the length of the cat.

V.

[Becky]

Visualization baby!

13 pound tuxedo cat - a BIG boy - tries to fit in shoe box lying on its side. He can get his head and shoulders in. I think the shoe box is half the length of the cat.

V.

ROFL! I love it! It must be a cat thing to think that you're tinier than you are. Mine are both in the 15 lb. range and think they're 6 week old kitten-sized.

[Veronica]

He's only ten months, so still a kitten for sure, but full of personality. When he loses his puffball under furniture or behind a closet door, he actually herds me to the rescue. He uses the swish and meow technique. And if I go in the wrong direction, he runs in front of me and plops down.

Cassie, is truly an enigma though. When she meows and swishes me, I have no idea what she wants.

V.

[wolfak]

Who knows why the Cassie Cat meows? What is she looking at on the ceiling?
Why can't you see what's on the ceiling? Maybe you should try some kitty crack. :D

[SouthernBelle]

Ceiling Cat.

Each of mine has just sat and faced a wall.

Why?

[Eden]

Little tiny spiders.... or little tiny winged insects.... My cats chase things that I cannot see or stand there staring and making the I see a birdie noises. Their eyes are a lot better than mine - anything that moves (spider webs, dust motes, gnats....) is fair game to them.

[GLC1968]

Cats are so entertaining!

Ours can't see well up close. He's forever getting hit in the face with the dripping water faucet...or flies... He's got great distance vision though. Combine the two and it makes for a lousy hunter. We actually watched him get rolled by a bird once because he saw it from afar but miss-judged the distance once he got up close and the bird had a chance to attack back. Very amusing! :D

[Veronica]

What's up with that I see a bird noise? Do they think birds are deaf?


V.

[katluvr]

Visualization baby!

13 pound tuxedo cat - a BIG boy - tries to fit in shoe box lying on its side. He can get his head and shoulders in. I think the shoe box is half the length of the cat.

V.

I have a 17 pound black and white (not sure he qualifies as a tuxedo). He is also polydactyl (big ole thumbs). He lays around all spralwed out. I am sure he would not fit in any shoe box but a BOOT BOX.
We have a smaller version of "kitty condos" for the kittens...he manages to lay on top of it. Obviously there is some stuff (fur/fat) hanging over the sides! Love those BIG boys!

[rocknrollgirl]

Buggies....my boy sits and meows at bugs that I cannot see...drives me crazy, and once said buggie is removed, he remembers where it was and just sits under that spot and howls....very strange.

[Veronica]

I love everybody's silly kitty stories.

V.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I saw my cat staring intently at the blank wall 8 feet away once. I got closer and closer to try to see what she was looking at.....and finally I saw a teeeny teeny speck of a bug there, about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. Wow!- from 8 feet away! :eek:

We love our 3 kitties. They are so amusing, wise, and beautiful.

[Boise Birder]

Visualization baby!

13 pound tuxedo cat - a BIG boy - tries to fit in shoe box lying on its side. He can get his head and shoulders in. I think the shoe box is half the length of the cat.

V.

You need to find someone who has bigger feet to donate a shoe box!:)

[bmccasland]

My 17 lb tuxedo, Herald, is absolutely neurotic about cleanliness and unfortunatley he's allergic to flea siliva. So right now he going absolutely batty trying to get to the itchy parts on his back. He's been treated for the fleas, but that doesn't change the damage that was already done before I realized he needed treatment. Poor thing spins in vicious circles trying to get to his back, that he might reach if he were slimer.

[beccaB]

I saw an albino cat yesterday while I was riding, pink eyes, white , with a stub tail. It was sitting in between corn rows waiting to pounce on me. I have never seen an albino cat in all of my days, and I have been a lifelong fan of cats. I would have grabbed it and taken it home if it hadn't run away.

[indysteel]

Sophie, my oldest cat, had a nightly ritual that she's been doing since she was young (she's now 12). Around 9 each night, she brings me one of her stuffed mice toys and lays it at my feet. The way she does it cracks me up. She usually retrieves whatever mouse is in my bedroom at the time. From there, she starts making these strange little cries as she walks from my bedroom to the family room. It's the only time that she makes that particular sound. Once she drops the toy at my feet, she will sit there until I pet her on the head and say "thank you Soph." With her work as a mouser done, she goes back to her perch on the back of my armchair. Oh, I'm sorry. Her armchair. No one else sits there but her.

Oh, but she's also been a bad kitty of late. She started chewing on her front paw on Friday (she's had issues over the years with overgrooming). I put an e-collar on her, which usually does the trick. The paw was healing nicely, until yesterday. By the time I got home from work/riding, her paw was a bloody mess. I figured at the time that she was rubbing it against the collar. So off to the emergency vet we went. They gave her a cortizone shot and bandaged her paw. When I got up this morning, she was sitting in her armchair, no bandage in sight. Argh! It turns out that the e-collar wasn't restricting her movement enough. She was able to pull off the bandage (and a fair amount of her hair) and lick her paw again. I adjusted the e-collar to further limit her range of motion, but not before completely pulling my own hair out. She's gonna be the death of me. We go back to the vet tomorrow.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Indy, have you tried leaving the tv or radio on softly for her when you are out? It might help distract her from her grooming/bordom/habit thingy. They do this with pet parrots who chew on their feet and feathers- music, tv, a mirror, another pet bird nearby....all distractions.

[Kano]

K.C. is a dinky 9.5 lb, 14 year old tuxedo cat -- but he makes up for it in attitude (woe to the 14 & 15 lb resident visitor cats we had in the house for a few months a couple of years ago. Those beatings had to be a blow to their egos!) He's a bit on the shy side, in that visitors NEVER see him, though he's strangely attracted to our daughter's fiance -- which must be a good sign, don't you think? In the last two years, he's gotten downright friendly, verging on cuddly! He also seems to think night time is the time to "holler the house," looking for someone to play with, or some kind of attention. He grew up with an older companion, who's been gone a few years, so I wonder if loneliness is the culprit here, but am hesitant to add another one to the household at this stage in our lives.

K.C. follows me around -- from in front of me, so that he must stop where I'll trip over him on a frequent basis, because, of course, he has no idea where I'm going!

The dog, of course, is wiser about following -- he stays alongside or just behind me, so he can tell what's coming next!

"I see a birdie" noises -- of COURSE the birds can't hear them: K.C. is in the house, the birds are outside, on the other side of that pane of glass!

Veronica, I think you need to keep a picture of that cat in the box on your desk at school!

Karen in Boise

[katluvr]

Indy, I have 2 boys --litter mates(one being the big boy mentioned previously). In the eveings, night and some mornings you will hear them meowing....well mroe like yowling (haunting and distrubing at times). They are carring a large blue rubber band or one of the assorted colored wrist bands (like the yellowlive strong band) around in there mouth. Some mornings we wake and find MANY in bed with us or strategically laid out down the hall. (one time perfectly evenly spaced!) We put them back in teh "toy box", but they always find their way out the next day!

I also have to share about new 2 new kittens (found after a bike ride!). They actually watch TV. It started w/ the Tour....they watched the bike racing. Now they often stop, sit down in front of the TV and watch it. None of my other cats (and I have 4 others) have ever done this!

My cat's just amuse me...I could talk about them all day.:)

[SouthernBelle]

The mouse at the feet reminded me of a story.

Years ago I lived in a duplex with the late, great Spike Kitty. One morning it was pouring rain and I was dressing for the office. Spike was looking out the bedroom window and making noises. I checked and there was a kitty outside on the sill.

Later, as I pulled out of the drive, I looked over to see if the cat was still there. He wasn't, but he had gifted Spike with a great, big, dead rat. Laying there on the sill. Apparently he thought Spike was deprived in that giant box with a window.

Fortunately, my landlord lived next door, so I called him and asked him if he would mind getting the big rat down after it quit raining.

[short cut sally]

My big 15# boy is an indoor kitty. Prior to our adoption he was an indoor/outdoor pet. He has a habit of wanting to go for rides in the cat carrier. All I have to do is rattle the carrier and say "come on" and he goes where ever I go as long as I'm not going to be in one place too long. There are times he paws and meows at the cat carrier, we take him around the block to passify him. He sprawls out in the carrier and his eyes are closed so I think it relaxes him. And I agree about the furniture thing mentioned by indy, the objects that we seem to occupy are his first. He's getting to be as much of a bed hog as I am. DH sometimes has to sleep in the recliner because the cat seems to occupy the bed, and we can't disturb him.

[katluvr]

OMG Shelly....you have a cat that actually likes the cat carrier and to ride places in it in the car??!!
I swear w/ the kittens I want to take them in the car carrier to places other than the vet so when they get older they don't yee-owl the entire way!

Try tackilng the 17# boy and "stuffing" him into the carrier!

[snapdragen]

Fat Cats (http://www.nypost.com/seven/07302008/news/regionalnews/fat_cat_122221.htm)

[bmccasland]

Try tackilng the 17# boy and "stuffing" him into the carrier!

That's what dog carriers are for. :rolleyes: I have loads of experience stuffing Herald into the carrier. The real problem child was little Erin Kitty (may she rest in peace), all 7 pounds of her - that cat would do the spread-eagle thing across the opening of the same carrier, back when she was heathlier and we'd just do routine vet visits, or storm evacuations. Once she got sick, she was easier to crate - either that or she knew that she'd feel better once Drs. Erica or Michelle got to her.

[firenze11]

My parents rescued a tiny tortoise shell kitten a few years ago. She was found by a neighbor outside her house in the middle of the nasty Ontario winter and then taken to the vet. Only a few days of board were paid for so when the time came to put her down, my Mom got a call. Down she went to get this teeny little thing with a purr so loud it could be heard throughout the vet's office.

Now she's a happy, fat, lazy cat. I figure after what she went through trying to survive as a kitten that she probably deserves it.

My parents told me that one night they were in their bedroom with the cat and our Old English Mastiff when they heard a mouse squeaking. The cat was just kind of staring at it, semi-interested and my parent's couldn't get to it to rescue it. Well, then mouse started running around and ran right into the cat's nose. The cat chirped and sprang into action (at least as much as this cat springs) and chased the mouse for awhile. Finally, she picked up the poor, exasperated little mouse, brought it over to the dog. . .and put it on the dog as if to say "I've had my fun, now what? You take care of it"! The dog was like ":eek: what is this?!? I don't want anything to do with it!" Thankfully my Dad was able to get the mouse off the dog and put him/her outside.

As you can see, she's not much of a mouser. Actually, I don't think she's ever killed anything. She's much more interested in sleeping, eating, and cuddling.

[wackyjacky1]

As I sit here reading these posts (and LOL-ing :) ) my little Erin-Aquanetta (yes, she's hyphenated :D ) is playing with a small stuffed hamster-looking thing and making those creepy "I've caught a mouse" noises. Better that she does it now, though, and not in the middle of the night when those strange meows give me the heebie-jeebies, forcing me to turn the light on and confirm it's just a stuffed mouse she's playing with. :cool:

Just for chuckles, here is a short video of Erin last year with a ping-pong ball and a box (I only videoed a few seconds, but this went on for 20 minutes non-stop until she finally conked out):
http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc71/wackyjacky1/th_MVI_0002-1.jpg (http://s212.photobucket.com/albums/cc71/wackyjacky1/?action=view&current=MVI_0002-1.flv)

BTW ping-pong balls make great cat toys.

[short cut sally]

I never thought of ping pong balls!. my cat has a collection of unbreakable xmas ornaments that he plays with. which of course, i found after taking care of all the xmas goodies and they were under all the large furniture. it was too much of a bother to take care of the ornaments so he has extra toys. and yes, last night, at about 9pm, little boy gets in the carrier and comes back out, meows, gets back in the carrier. broke my heart, i didn't take him out for his ride. should've thought about it before it was my bed time. my kitty came with a taj-mahal of cat carriers. i think maybe its more for a dog than cat. my mom's cat carriers are much smaller than mine. she did get a larger carrier finally for her 25# boy, more like mine. all you saw of her boy in the cat carrier was all the fur sticking out of the air holes and his head by the door, he could hardly move in that thing.

[mimitabby]

I have two former feral cats and they are very food motivated. I can get them to do ANYTHING I want. Enza used to jump up on the bed to wake me up.
I taught her to jump on the dresser. so now she sits there waiting for a kibble as time for me to get up approaches.
Then i go into the bathroom, and she will shut the door for me. Too bad if i'm in the way the door will hit me in the back. If that isn't good enough, she'll open the door and go out and come in again.
Then we get to the kitchen and Aggie jumps on top of the garbage can. what she wants is for me to throw kibbles, so i do; and now all 3 cats are scrambling for the few kibbles i throw.
next i hide kibbles all over the place, windowsill, chair, cat scratching post.
If Enza is on her game, she manages to follow me and find most of them.
She will give me a kiss, spin, sit, lay down all on command for a kibble.

they keep me entertained too.

[roadie gal]

A friend of mine had a theory about why cats stare at invisible things or talk to the air... They're visitors from another planet. They're FELIONS, sent here to spy on humanity and report back to the mother ship.

Houston, our male cat, is a spring with fur. That boy has a 4 foot vertical leap... up or down. In our house we have a cat condo that stand about 4 feet tall. It sits downstairs in the living room, with the loft above and slightly past it. The floor of the loft stands about 6 feet above the condo. One of Houston's favorite things is to leap off of the loft onto the condo. You'll be standing there and suddenly you'll hear a "THUMP" and Houston will magically appear, from nowhere, on top of the condo.

One day we had a dogsitter coming to walk the dogs while we were at work. Apparently Houston did his flying cat trick for the dogsitter. It about scared her pants off. She had no idea what the loud noise was and suddenly there was this cat staring at her at eye level.

Riley, the girl cat, knows that my time at the computer is her time to be petted. In the morning when I'm at the computer she sits on the desk and meows and pats me on the shoulder until I pet her. If I quit before she's ready she screeches and pats me again.

[lph]

aaawwww, cats are just the most elegant and fascinating creatures on earth.

Our dearly beloved wild huntress Raptus would chase any other animal, cat or dog or bird, out of her garden, the neighbour's gardens and finally she took over the entire block. Poor shy next-door neighbour cat never knew what hit him :D

I'll never forget the time I glanced out the back and saw her launch herself in a massive running leap at a large magpie flying straight towards the kitchen window. The magpie flew up, cat hit the kitchen window with mad eyes and a THUNK and disappeared outta sight...

She'd also lie down right smack in the middle of the football field right below our house, calmly ignoring 15 kids trying to play football and begging her to get out of the way. And she'd hog the bathroom sink as a bed whenever she could sneak in. And she'd spend ages "hairdressing" my son's longish hair. And she could easily jump several feet straight up as a kitten, hunting a suction dart stuck to a window. Gotta find some photos :)

My favourite childhood cat Vanja would climb into the upper kitchen cupboard whenever he could and lie down on the warm shelf over the light bulb. Rather disconcerting to open the cupboard and see a large mass of black and white fur at eye level staring at you with a big fat smile instead of plates.

If we didn't let him in fast enough in winter (ie immediately on command) he'd climb up the slats across the window and hang there from his front paws, belly against the glass, miaowing piteously at us.

Another cat we had when I was a child used to hang from the top of an oldfashioned hot-water radiator from her front paws, so that her belly would get warm... :p

We had kittens once who would climb anything - straight up a brick wall, to the top of any bookcase, or up my jeans-clad legs. Once they ran way into the gap between the wall and our then water bed, got freaked out, couldn't turn around, didn't think of backing up, and stayed there meeping until we emptied the entire water bed and dragged it away from the wall.

I could talk about cats all day :o

[mimitabby]

then i had a cat who i trained to catch bugs off the wall. I'd lift the cat and point him and he'd do the work. like a mini-cat-vac. He was fast and never missed. Of course he caught bugs without my help too, but sometimes I'd see one and he'd be asleep or something.

[GLC1968]

These stories are great!

Our cat is a bug-hunter, too. In fact, both our cat and one of our dogs are very much into chasing and catching bugs. It's hilarious to watch them both tearing around the house and leaping against walls after the same bug! We place wagers on which one will catch it first and it's never a sure bet! :)

(they both also go crazy for the laser pointer)

[LoriO]

My 15 year old cat loves to torment the dogs, especially my corgi since he knows what a wimp he is. Over the winter Smokey had decided that HE wanted to be the one to sleep on my lap and come hell or high water he was going to do that...even if the corgi was in the way.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v468/bunniboop/DSC007772.jpg

Please note the very contented look on the cats face and the Someone save me look on the corgi

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v468/bunniboop/DSC00786.jpg

[katluvr]

First I have to admit I am a TE forum addict. However, I did nto visit yesterday at all (toooo busy at work) and today this is my first visit.

Loved the cat pictures. I am a single parent for the week, so I am dealing w/ the 2 older cats, the 2 "boys" and the 2 kittens (aka "the girls"). Yes if you can do hight math that is 6!

Whew, there is just not enough of me to share w/ them all! (Oh yeah adn the 2 birds that hate me except when I feed them peanuts!).

This experience is one reason to never leave S.O. and to be very forgiving of the not-so-nice moods S.O. has been in lately. Single parenting AND taking care of house AND working is HARD!

Miss my kittens!