The Enigma and the Dweeb

[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.