bluegargantua

Hey,

So when my cats look at me judgmentally, I'm pretty sure they're disapproving looks are in regard to how incredibly noisy I am.

"Look, Mr. Man, there's a time and a place to make noise. When you put us in the box for trips in the car to the vet. When we need you to feed us. These are appropriate times and places to make noise. Getting scritches? Well, purring is a noise, but we keep it on the down low, y'know? But you, Mr. Man, you make all kinds of noise. How the hell do you manage to catch prey with all that warbling you do?"

later
Tom

Hey,

So the cats were more than ready to come in last night. This morning I got a good look at my neighbor's backyard. There's a huge pit behind his house. I think he's digging up plumbing/sewer lines. I'm sure the pit and huge pile of dirt were a big hit with the cats.

Guess he's done mowing for the year...lucky duck
Tom

Hey,

So I come home tonight to find that there's some earth-moving equipment in my neighbor's backyard. There's a front-loader and at least one other sizable piece of equipment back there.

The cats, of course, are very excited.

I hope they'll come back in tonight when I call them
Tom

Hey,

Since I had to clean up some cat-yark this morning, here's a little video: (CAUTION! NAUGHTY WORDS!)

lovable little fuzzballs...
Tom

Hey,

So sometimes I lie down on the floor to let the cats have eye-level interaction with their personal slave.

It is at these times that Ash will lie down next to my side, shove her face into my armpit and start snorting like there were lines of kitty cocaine in there. Thorn, by contrast, couldn't care less and mostly just looks for skritches.

Having a cat snorffling up your pits is an odd sensation. It's when she decides I smell good enough to nibble on that we have to draw the line.

later
Tom

Hi,

So last week, I let the cats out for a bit. I usually call them in before bedtime and they usually show up. But when I went to get them, only Ash came in. Fine, Thorn is a little more adventurous and she'll often spend the night out so...whatever.

That was Tuesday. By Friday I was getting worried. By Monday I was pretty sure the worst had happened and by yesterday I was pretty much resigned to being down to one cat.

Today as I'm out the door for an interview, I open the door and Ash (who I'd let out earlier) zips in. I close the door, turn around and racing for the door is Thorn.

She seems to be perfectly fine and none the worse for wear, though it's been pretty cold and rainy some nights lately. I can only guess that she found a place to hide out or is running the "neighborhood cat" con with some other unsuspecting households.

later
Tom

The cat puke you don't step on the first time will still be there the second time if you don't clean it up.

*grumble*
Tom

Hey,

So last night, I got home late from a wonderful party. I open the door and the cats rush out into the night. I've been letting them out for a few hours each evening the past few days and they've been good about coming back a few hours later. Since it's late and I want to go to bed and I don't want to play "chase" all over the neighbors' yards, I figure I'll just let them inside in the morning.

So this morning I get up and let the cats in. Well, I let the cat in. It rained a little bit last night and Ash is completely ready to come in for breakfast. Thorn, on the other hand, is nowhere to be seen. Over the course of the day I keep checking to see if Thorn is ready to come in, but never see her. I'm pretty sure she'll wander back, but she is the less...intellectual of the cats.

Around 3:30 the sky opens up. Thunder, lightning, the whole nine yards. It rains heavily for about an hour and then quits about the time I'm about to go out. But just as I reach the back door I hear a scratching.

Sure enough a waterlogged Thorn is giving me the most pitiful look I've ever seen before. She zips inside and I grab a towel to dry her off. They took another unauthorized excursion out tonight when I returned home, but when I went to the door at 10pm, they were both back inside in short order.

So there's hope for them yet.
Tom

...with their food bowls.

Actually, it's usually just one food bowl and I suspect that it's just Thorn who gets carried away playing with her kibble and flipping the dish.

So my thought is to find a sold, heavy food dish (ceramic or metal) with a rubber foot to prevent skidding. Then I'll remove the mat the dishes have been sitting on (because the cats tend to ruck it up and pee on it). This won't stop kibble from slopping out onto the floor, but it should reduce the vacuuming kibble time significantly.

The local PetCo had lots of light/flippable cat bowls. There were ceramic bowls for dogs, but I worried the cats would use them as hockey-pucks even if they couldn't flip it. All the metalic bowls (dog or cat) seemed way too light.

I'm going to give the local PetSmart a try next time I buy groceries, but does anyone have other suggestions?

I also need to pick up a toilet paper storage container to...store my toilet paper (or, as the cats like to call it: Mr. Man's FunTime Confetti).

later
Tom

Hi,

So this morning, when I came downstairs, I noticed that only Ash was following me around. Her sister, Thorn, was nowhere to be seen. This is a bit unusual. Both cats are normally eager to hang out with me when I get up, but sometimes one or the other will be napping and they won't show up for a bit.

However, I didn't see Thorn hanging out in her usual spots. The back door was closed/locked so I figured she was just hiding behind the couch and didn't think too much of it.

I step outside, put my things in the car, get in and am about to leave when I spot Thorn hunting around underneath the back porch. There follows a bit of comedy as I get out, Thorn comes running up, realizes that I'm going to take her back inside and the chase is on. I eventually catch her and bring her inside but I'm puzzled as to how she got out...

...until, as I'm carrying her back inside, I look up at one of the kitchen windows and realize she's pushed out one of the window screens and that's how she slipped outside. So once back in, I take the box fan out of the window and close it, thus foiling her plans of escape.

But that's only a temporary solution. It's not impossible that Thorn will try this again with other windows she can get at.

For the record, I'd like to be able to let the cats out more often. It's good for them, they like it and they've got a healthy respect for large, moving objects. I don't think they're going to get run over any time soon. And frankly, Ash doesn't really like to go very far from the back door so I'm less concerned about letting her out.

The real problem is convincing them (Thorn especially) that it's time to come in. If I had some confidence that Thorn would actually come back inside when it was time, I'd be happy to just let them go out and play on their own for a couple of hours before calling them back in. But as it stands, she's never ready to come back inside. I'm not quite sure how to train her for that.

later
Tom