What the cats are doing

October 14, 2002

Like a scene from Alfred Hitchcocks "The Birds".....In the late afternoon our yard gets about 60 birds flocking to have at the bugs that make our lawn a hangout. (Lots of yummy crickets) While this is a nice site for myself and April, to Velcro, it's a challenge. The tail goes back and forth forcefully, the pounce stance is practiced over and over...but that pesky sliding glass door is in the way. If you've read this column regularly you know that Velcro is as blind to glass as most birds. He's hit the glass a couple of times while trying to pounce on a nearby bird. Fortunately for me, I've got Windex.....

September 9, 2002

Yep, been over 2 years since we updated this part. Heres what I can tell ya... The cats love the new house, but don't like that they're put into the basement when we're not home. This is an effort to keep damage down with all the stuff we keep out now. Keeping them out of trouble.

Speaking of which....

Do you have a cat that like a couch and you don't like them on it. You can try sprays and all that, but I've found the product. It's called PetSafe and with a collar and a transmitter you can keep your cats out of areas where they don't belong. The unit beeps as a warning, but if they decide to try anyway they get a SMALL static shock. I tried it myself, just like the doorknob in the winter. So now they're rarely in trouble.

I'll have a nice pic of Hey after I get the scanner on the new PC. Think 2 years is too long?

August 8, 2000

Well, we almost had a new cat. A friend of ours had a litter of cats in June. We picked up the kitty yesterday and kept her in the bathroom, away from our other cats until we could get her to the vet today. It's a good thing our standing rule is no cat interaction until an OK by a vet. Turns out, the poor thing had feline leukemia, so we couldn't keep her. The friend we got the cat from asked us to take her to a shelter. We thought maybe they'd still adopt it out, like to a home where other cats are already feline leukemia positive. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way. They told us the only thing they could do is put her down. We only had the poor little thing one day and yet it was the hardest thing we've ever had to do-both of us had already become attached even in that short amount of time. We stayed with the kitty in its last minutes, feeling that she should at least have someone she liked with her. We'll always remember little Hey-she was so cute and playful it really hurt us to see her pass on.
The other cats are doing fine-Peeper and Velcro seem to have a love-hate relationship. Velcro loves Peeper, but Peeper hates Velcro (however, when she doesn't think we're watching, she acts quite differently). Peeper wasn't taking very well to what little she knew about the new cat, Velcro didn't seem to mind, but that's a moot point now. Maybe in a few months we'll be ready to try for another kitten.
Velcro has taken to thinking he's a bedroom pillow. One day we looked all over the house to give him his hairball medicine, looking under each piece of furniture twice. It wasn't until later that we realized there were too many pillows under the bedspread. He crawls under the bedspread, so it looks like it's still fixed, and curls up next to the pillows.

January 31, 1999

The littlest things fascinate Velcro. We bought the Dreidel game in the store after the holidays. When he hears us spinning the dreidel, he comes running. He gets totally engrossed in watching the thing spin on the table, and tries to catch it and take it off the table. We buy him toys he doesn't play with. He only wants to play with either OUR stuff, or trash. Sheesh.

February 24, 1998

It appears that our parakeet, Retard, and our furry friend, Velcro, really like each other. Although we won't be letting the bird out of the cage any time soon to find out just how far this goes, it looks like they enjoy playing with each other. Velcro tends to lay on the cage and the bird will start teasing him by chirping alot and sticking his tail out of the cage. When Velcro tries to get it, the bird turns around and nibbles at his paw. Eventually, the cat gets bored and leaves the room, which then starts the bird chirping to beat the band, like he still wants to play. Go figure.

December 20, 1997

We've been wrapping Christmas presents, so naturally we have to hide them from the cats so they aren't opened prematurely. Unfortunately, the door to the bedroom we've been keeping them in was left open. It's not the presents Velcro was after, it was the bag of bows. He now has his bow fix. Who knows how many he stole out of the bag-they're probably stashed in his favorite hiding place now. Still, it's fun to watch him play with them like hockey pucks.

November 16, 1997

We went away to New York City for 2 nights. Normally, the cats are O.K. by themselves for a weekend. We clean the litterbox and fill big bowls with food and water just before we leave. When we got back we heard this LOUD meowing as we got in the door. Velcro had apparently been playing in one of the bedrooms and somehow closed the door on himself while inside. There's no telling how long he was in there, but he's such a good cat that he didn't use the floor for a litterbox. Poor thing probably would have been crossing his legs if that was possible. On the flip side, we felt like leaving him in there after we saw that he'd chewed one of our Broadway posters up while waiting for us to come home.
Update Dec. 7, 1997: Locking himself in rooms has become a chronic problem for Velcro. He's been living here all this time and just now this is starting?

September 24, 1997

Well, our little friends have had an interesting experience for the past 2 weeks. We were away on vacation and April's grandmother was cat sitting for us. She keeps saying how much she hates cats, but that's hard to believe when you watch her play with them and spoil them with treats. We know the cats will miss her, especially Velcro. Remember the April 13th entry? Well, this is the first time we've ever seen Velcro cry at a door for anyone but us. April was standing right next to him and when her grandmother went out on the deck, he started climbing up the screen and crying for her! Go figure.

July 23, 1997

LADEEEEEEEZZZZZZ AND GENTLEMENNNNNN.....It's the return of the Water Bottle Battle!!!! In the blue corner... VELLLLCRRROOOO!! The cat who doesn't want his water in the bowl. He'd rather lick it off the floor. In the red corner, his owner DAAAVIIID! Perpetually thinking up new ways to keep the water bottle upright.
For the past few weeks, things have been quiet, because the latest step in the battle has been to take an old milk jug and cut it up, placing it around the constant waterer to make it more difficult to knock over. Velcro finally started eyeing it up the other day and the water ended up filling the rubbermaid tub we keep all their edibles in. We've now graduated to using a wire tie, tied through a hole in the plastic tub, to keep the entire mechanism in place. If this doesn't work, we may just skip the waterer altogether and open all the toilet seats up. A few weeks of toilet water and he'll be beggin' for the ol' bowl!

July 16, 1997

Velcro went back to the vet for his EKG. He seems to be O.K. The vet says he's still showing a little bit of an erratic heartbeat, but we think it's just because he hates the vet. He absolutely goes ballistic any time we take him. And it turns out he may not be Siamese. A cat afficionado at the vet's office saw him and noticed he has some very faint striping on his legs, which is a characteristic of a Himalayan. Go figure. The goofy cat can't even get being Siamese right.

June 26, 1997

Velcro saw the vet today. He was a good cat. He didn't put up much of a fuss. The vet found that he may have an erratic heartbeat and wants to see him in 3 weeks for a follow up. I hope he was just nervous, since he normally fusses when he is unfamiliar with something.. Aside from that, he got his distemper and rabies 3 year shot. More news about his heart when we know more.

June 19, 1997

Velcro has a new friend to play with. It's a red bow from a birthday gift. He carries it in his mouth wherever he goes, uses it for a hockey puck on the kitchen floor, pretends he's gutting it with his back paws like a mouse or something, and sleeps with it. Why do we bother buying him toys when we could just as easily open the kitchen trash can and he'd be just as happy? Sheesh.

May 31, 1997

Have you noticed that everything here seems to be about our little siamese, Velcro? This time's no different, folks! Honest, it's not that we don't pay any attention to Peeper. She rarely does anything worth mentioning because she's content watching how retarded her friend acts.

The dresser drawers in our bedroom have become another one of the many places Velcro enjoys laying around. Putting clothes away has become quite difficult since he feels his presence is needed whenever a drawer is opened. (Picture coming soon.)

May 26, 1997

Sheesh, try to do something nice....We bought both of our little ingrates those harnesses you see in the store specifically made for cats, so you can walk them on a leash and they won't choke themselves to death. We don't let our cats roam the neighborhood because it's dangerous and we don't want fleas in the house. (Incidentally, they are NOT declawed even though they're strictly housecats, and we've never had a lick of trouble!) Anyway, we take them out on our deck with the leashes on so they can go outside for a bit, with virtually no flea or danger worries, and they seemed to like it, especially when they could catch bugs or watch birds.

We keep the harnesses in a kitchen cabinet along with their canned food, easily accessible to them if they ever feel like picking today's can out. (Which they often do.) Well, the harnesses have mysteriously dissappeared. They give such innocent looks when they act like they want to go outside and we can't find the harnesses!

May 16, 1997

Does your cat have a bedroom all to himself? Velcro has decided that since people sleep in a bed in their own bedroom, well, heck, if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for him, too! He goes into our guest bedroom and proceeds to roll down the bedspread so he may sleep on the blanket properly. If he really wants to be like people, why doesn't he fix the bed when he's done sleeping in it??

May 11, 1997

Well Velcro is at it again, and this time he's attacking my machine. He knocked the Star Trek phone over and put pencils all over the place. He just got interested in the computer this weekend and he already knows how to crash the system.

May 1, 1997

Yep, the cat's corner of our kitchen is still a scene from "The Poseidon Adventure". The constant waterer is still gone, only now our perpetual 2 year old (Velcro) has decided to move both the regular water bowl, can food and dry food bowls out of the open rubbermaid container we keep them in to hold down the mess. We're wondering when he'll start housecleaning his own litterbox. Hmmm. Of course, Peeper just likes to watch him do it. We're convinced she's been telling Velcro to do these things "because Mommy and Daddy will like it." Unfortunately, we can't interpret meow maaa mrr ooaahhr, so we'll never know.

April 16,1997

If you've ever seen "Lady and the Tramp" then you know more about siamese cats than you think. Our resident nutcase (Velcro) has decided that his time is better spent trying to dump the constant water dish over, flooding the kitchen. I mean intentionally, using his paw to pull it over. Well, it's hard to discipline a cat, but we're trying. We give him a bath each time he does it. Velcro doesn't like baths. Maybe he'll figure out what he needs to stop doing.

April 13, 1997

Velcro has developed the habit of scratching at the storm door when either of us are outside. It's almost like he's trying to move the glass. He only does it at the storm door, not the sliding door, so I'm wondering, is my cat myopic?

UPDATE AS OF MAY 31, 1997: The glass in the door has been replaced with a screen for the summer. So far, he understands the difference and hasn't turned the screen into spaghetti. Maybe because he figures he's almost outside this way, which is what he wanted in the first place. .

March 11, 1997

Peeper saw the vet for her checkup today. Everything is normal. She got her annual distemper shot and a fecal floatation. I don't know about you, but waiting for your cat to poop and then shooing them away when they try to bury it seems a little disgusting.

February 7,1997

Well we got the rug in the basement recently, and you'd think we'd punished them or something....they got real weird. I think we may have invaded their territory...only time will tell.

Back into the Litterbox

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