Tag: kitties

joanna irl

Halloween Kitties and other shenanigans

Joanna V.

Wow, it’s been a long time since I last posted. No internet in our new residence has posed more of a restriction than I thought. So here’s the mini-update:

J and I rented a place in San Diego– YAY!
We went to Disneyland for 3 days for my birthday weekend (first time he’s spent my actual birthday with me in years)– YAY!
J checked into his new command and a week later deployed– BOO!
I managed to get all of the boxes opened and mostly unpacked and put away in a week– YAY!
And now I’m in North Carolina and reunited with my kittens– YAY
Today is Halloween– YAY!

The wind and rain from hurricane Sandy has blown down a lot of our fall leaves, and since it’s been cloudy this past week I haven’t gotten many good photos like I did last year. Maybe in the next week or so it’ll clear enough that I’ll get some. At any rate, I offer here some kitty photos, since it’s been three months since I’ve had any to share. ^_^

Continue reading “Halloween Kitties and other shenanigans” →

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Kitties filmed themselves

Joanna V.

The other day I got home from the zoo, went to take a shower, and came back to find one of the kitties playing with my phone. I tried to take a photo of her, but it didn’t work, so I left again… but I the camera feature stayed on it seems and the kitties managed to film themselves for two minutes. It’s random but I can’t stop laughing…

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Reasons I love my cats

Joanna V.

You’re getting this post in part because it’s not even 9pm and I’m seriously considering heading toward bed as soon as I’m done. Also because I haven’t written about my cats yet for this whole BEDA thing. And nothing much interesting happened today except the zoo’s volunteer appreciation dinner. I went, I ate, and felt very appreciated. I mean this in all seriousness– the zoo does not fail to make me feel like I’m really making a difference. Good job, zoo!

So. Reasons I love my cats.

  • They are good at snuggling.
  • They are almost always happy to see me.
  • They talk to me.
  • Leena sings to me.
  • Caspian likes to “groom” with me– hairbrush, ear cleaning, towel dry together. ^_^
  • They keep me warm when I am cold at night.
  • I am never home alone.
  • They catch the bugs.
  • They are nice to pet.
  • I do not have to take them on walks or to parks or for exercise. We can just play string and then take a nap. It is fabulous.
  • They do not tolerate people they don’t like. It’s entertaining to watch them snub other people.
  • They are both loud purrers.
  • They are well trained.
  • They love me, too. ^_^

 

joanna irl

The cats (or something else) have taken over the DVR!

Joanna V.

A weird thing has been going on with my DVR. The last couple of months it hasn’t been recording shows that it recorded perfectly well in the fall, and instead it has been giving me “surprises” to watch instead.

For instance, it hasn’t recorded a single episode of Psych since its winter break. I was left with a cliff-hanger and apparently have missed all the resolution. I think it’s mostly online or On Demand so I can see it, but I just found out about that today when I heard the season finale is tomorrow. So there’s that.

Instead I’ve been finding other shows… like Man vs. Wild and Betty White’s Off Their Rockers. Now, the Betty White show is mildly amusing (I watched it when it recorded out of curiosity) but I know I had no intention of recording it because I didn’t even know it existed. As for Man vs Wild, well.. J occasionally watches it but we never record it, mostly because he’s never home to watch it and I find it an incredibly irritating premise. I mean, he’s never in “real” danger because he’s got a camera crew and an emergency lift out of whatever situation he’s in (which is good– I don’t want to watch someone really get mauled or freeze to death), but he also puts himself in such extreme conditions that they in NO WAY are anything realistic for the average person. Something much more helpful than telling us how to survive in the arctic circle (which most people don’t even fly over in airplanes, so the idea of crashing and being stranded there is remote at best) would be telling us how to survive in the woods for a week or so if our car breaks down in a national park. How does that work? There are people on the news all the time who “went for help” or “survived on rations” or whatnot, but I want to know how because I’m infinitely more likely to be in a state or national park and have a car break down than I am to be air-dropped onto a glacier.

Okay, I’m getting off topic.

The point is who has been recording these shows??

I see three options.

  1. The cable company is now making suggestions for my viewing choices.  Clearly they don’t know me well.
  2. The DVR is possibly becoming sentient.
  3. The cats have figured out how to record things.

If the last one is the case, it might mean the cats are plotting an escape and are brushing up on their survival skills, but it does not explain their interest in Betty White.

Weird.

joanna irl

Field trip to the vet

Joanna V.

I guess you could say I’ve had a productive day. Of sorts.

I was up late last night for no particular reason (well, I was decorating Easter eggs pretty late, so there’s that) and noticed that Caspian’s ears felt very hot to the touch, so I called the vet. Our vet is open 24 hours a day, even on holidays, for emergencies. I described the fever, and a couple of other symptoms (observed discharge a couple of days ago, etc) and was advised to bring him in first thing in the morning if I didn’t want to take him right THEN. As I didn’t much want to drive to the vet at 1:30 in the morning, I elected to get up at 7 and take him in around 8.

When I got there, a friend from the zoo was working (she’s a front-office person for the vets’ office) and I sped right through the walk-in process.

And after an hour there…

I was told Caspian is probably constipated. Oh, and angry. Very angry.

So I came home with some kitty laxative that he’s reluctantly taking (I guess it must taste all right, but it’s a paste and therefore weird) and instructions to “keep an eye on him” as if I’d do anything else.

After that I vacuumed and steam-mopped the floors and then settled in to finish my Easter egg decorating, which I did. You can see the final product here. ^_^ I’m especially proud of the Harry Potter and Doctor Who eggs, though I’m really pleased with the Celtic designs I did and want to make more. Just not right now. I have more eggs than I can manage at the moment.

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My Little Helper

Joanna V.

Cats all have funny little habits. As someone who spends a lot of (let’s call it) quality time with her cats, I especially notice their odd habits. While I’m convinced that Caspian (a.k.a. The Gray Wonder) has OCD (which is a whole other blog entry in and of itself, probably), Leena (a.k.a. Calico Princess) does some pretty weird things, too.

The one I observed today is this little habit she’s got whenever I change the bed linens. Leena just loves the smooth, fresh sheets. That’s probably normal for a cat (I mean, what kitty DOESN’T like to sprawl on freshly clean laundry?), but it’s the way she does it that’s peculiar.

Leena likes to evenly distribute herself.

By this I mean that as I add each layer to the bed (fitted sheet, flat sheet, comforter), she has to jump onto it and systematically roll herself over every square inch of it before I’m allowed to continue. Want to see what I mean?

There you go. She will rub herself all over one spot, then move a few inches to the left or right, and do it all over again. And again. And again… until the entire surface is covered. And if I try to move her? She just shoves her way back onto the bed and starts again. It’s easier just to let her do it.

So it’s got me wondering… why on earth does she do this?

I don’t think it’s scent, because she only does it when I make the bed, and she’ll do it on the comforter even (when that hasn’t been as freshly washed) if it’s put over clean sheets.

Maybe it’s just the nice, smooth feeling? But then what’s with the careful, even distribution?

I don’t know.

My cats are weird.

joanna irl

Caspian’s glove phobia

Joanna V.

(This will be short because I’m exhausted but wanted to write something for today.)

Caspian has a phobia of (among other things) gardening gloves.

I store my gloves in a box under the desk (which makes sense because the desk is by the porch door and this way they’re handy for doing gardening but won’t be outside to get things living in them) and every so often I catch him peering into the box at them. He’ll poke them and then jump back with his tail a bottle brush when the gloves move because he’s poking them. Sometimes I will even find them on the other side of the house and I’m sure they have “chased” him there over the course of the day. It’s pretty funny, but I couldn’t figure out why garden gloves terrify him so.

And then I was telling the story of how I adopted him today…

When Caspian was tiny, he was dubbed “Tiger” and we were given him on a trial basis. The woman from whom we adopted our kitties knew I wanted a kitty friend for Leena but only had one kitten close to Leena’s age… and she wasn’t sure if he was even tamable, much less adoptable. We agreed to give him a week or two and let her know how he did while she looked for another kitty for us (in case he didn’t work). Well, within a couple of hours of coming home with us, Caspian entrenched himself under J’s dresser and wouldn’t come out. If you reached in to give him food, water, or touch him, he turned into a spitting, hissing, ball of claws and fury.

And that’s how things went for two weeks.

For two weeks, I had to poke little bowls of food and water under the dresser and for two weeks he shredded my hands… until I finally started wearing my gardening gloves…

Ah ha! I thought at this point in the story. From the time he was tiny, the GIANT GLOVE THINGS used to come in and move his food and water, and sometimes haul him out into the open so we could make sure he was still okay.

And now the garden gloves are SCARY. I’m glad it’s not ME that’s scary.

The end of the story is that after two weeks I was so fed up with him that I sat down to email the cat adoption lady and tell her we couldn’t take him… when I heard a mew behind me, turned around in my desk chair, and there he was. He jumped into my lap and purred and has been my little shadow ever since. Go figure.

society of dabblers

Doodle kitties

Joanna V.

Today has been a long day and I can’t think of anything interesting to write, except that of everything on my “to do” list, the only thing I accomplished from beginning to end was pulling some cash out of the ATM. Seriously, it was that bad. I’m going to have to try again to do most of these things on Monday and I’m not looking forward to it.

I didn’t want to disappoint, though, so you can have the doodle kitties I made for my sister a month or so ago. I kind of like them, especially the Leena one. So there you go.

doodle kitties

joanna irl

Cat Toy Fail

Joanna V.

You know how kids would rather play with the box containing the new (insert thing here, such as wagon or basketball) than the new thing itself? I’d say it’s almost more true for cats.

Expensive cat toys (except for climbing trees) are useless in our house. I’ve tried any number of toys, playforts, tunnels, and other such things with the cats. I’ve even gone for those special interactive puzzle toys. But everything I try gets ignored, except the “recycled” toys. These are things like paper bags, newspaper, and peacock feathers from the zoo (which are always a favorite). I keep occasionally trying the purchased cat toys, though, especially when they are A) different from anything else we have and B) cheap.

Tonight I found what I thought would be a big hit; it’s a tent-like toy that has holes just big enough for paws to reach in and grab toys hidden inside. One of Caspian’s favorite games is pulling tissue paper (or wrapping paper) out of a box to look for hidden toys. Leena likes to dive into paper bags looking for toys. So a looking-for-toys based toy? Perfect.

Yeah… Not so much.

Sitting on the cat toy

Yes, he is sitting on top of it. Squishing it.

On the plus side, this was more interaction than Caspian usually has with the toys I bring home.