Harri in the Drawer

Harri is a very weird cat. She always has been. She's very timid and runs around the house constantly looking over her shoulder. She hates to be picked up. She likes to be petted at times but will bite you while you are trying to pet her. From the time that she was a little kitten, she has had a fascination with open drawers. I'm folding laundry and putting things away and she sees the open drawer as an invitation to cozy up on top of the clean clothes.


There was the time when she was much smaller that we heard pitiful little meows coming from inside the dresser and realized that we had shut the drawer with her in it.

Getting a Lickin'

Bear taking care of her Mimi.

First One Down

Lucy had her first vet visit in a few years yesterday. She did not enjoy it.

Her appointment was for 3pm and at 2:45 we were calling her name and looking all over the back yard for her. No Lucy. I figured if we couldn't find her we'd just take one of the other cats, but after shaking her food dish she finally started meowing from on top of the shed. And then wouldn't come down. Keith managed to kind of climb up where he could reach her and dragged her down and stuffed her in the cat carrier. Eeek, what are you DOING TO ME?!?

Then, off to the vet's office, which is just a short drive up the road and is right next to McDonalds, very handy if you want a snack after visiting the vet. She got her temperature taken first and weighed and then we waited for about 30 minutes in the little room, Keith getting kind of cranky at having to wait and being kind of annoying. We had brought along a towel to wrap Lucy in since we weren't sure how she would react to strangers touching her, and Keith brought his leather gloves just in case she started biting or clawing. She was okay up until the vet started poking at her. Then the growling started. She got one shot and since she is an outdoor cat now was going to get a leukemia shot. The leukemia shot is kind of like an air gun and makes a loud noise, so what the vet does is position the cat right in front of their cat carrier so if they run for it, they run right into the carrier. Lucy didn't run into the carrier, we had to shove her in there while she was spitting and hissing.

The cost was fairly reasonable, $30.00 for the visit and then the usual $25.00 for each shot. The other cats won't need the leukemia shot so their visits should be a little cheaper. We're going to take one every 3 weeks until everybody is all up to date and then we'll start saving up for next years visits.

Patient

Harri is quite the patient little cat. She will wait at the door to the garage for you to open it up for her since she won't go through the kitty door for some reason, and then when she is finished doing whatever it is she is doing in the garage, will wait patiently on the other side of the door, staring out at you through the clear kitty door, sending out thought waves until you finally listen and come open the door back up for her.

She will also sit waiting by the bathroom sink for her drink of water. Why she won't go drink from the kitty fountain in the kitchen I don't know, I think it has something to do with her fear that all the other kitties are going to gang up on her or something. Anyway, she will sit and stare and then you finally hear her thinking about water or feel those kitty eyes staring at you and you go fill up her bathroom sink water dish.

Cats on Drugs

I gave everyone a toy dipped in that wonderful stuff, catnip! Every cat in the house knows when the catnip comes out and everyone needs their own toy, except Buddy always thinks that someone else's toy is better than his. Just like at dinner time, he eats his food and then scavenges more food from all the other bowls cause you know, someone else may have gotten better food. Or catnip.


See, here is Buddy looking around for better catnip.

Mimi Sleeping

She is such a sweet little kitty. Although why she chose the top of my dresser for her nap is beyond me. I guess the light was too bright for her little blue eyes, too.

Falling Down

With our new gate on the side of the house, Lucy can't get back over the fence if she comes out front unless the gate is open. She has figured out how to get up on the top of the gate from the back yard by climbing onto the trash can then onto the fence and then on up to the roof of the house. From the roof she leaps onto a tree branch then climbs down. She did this the other day while I was watching, but instead of climbing down from the tree, she went further and further up into the tree. Then I hear branches cracking and see leaves shaking and down she goes. She sat there for a minute, then kind of shook herself off, and seemed to be okay.

Keith built her a couple of platforms so she could have a more comfortable napping spot and yesterday I just happen to look up into the tree.



I'm surprised he didn't build her a full on tree house with doors and windows and a porch.

In Pursuit of the Wild Lucy

We search the wild forest in pursuit of the elusive, ferocious, and fearsome Lucy cat in her natural habitat, hoping to observe this creature as she goes about her day.

What's this? Hidden high in the branches of a tree, her fur blending in with the brown shades of the branch, the sharp clawed dangerous Lucy cat is lurking, hoping for unsuspecting prey to walk below.


She appears to be quite relaxed and sleepy, maybe she has already devoured her morning meal and has settled in for a nap while she digests.


Behold this dangerous cat!

Relaxed

Lucy seems to be adapting well to living the outdoor cat's life. She doesn't look too upset in these pictures.



She has gotten in the house a few times, Keith had the garage door open and forgot to shut the kitty door into the house, then shut the garage door, and here comes Lucy wandering in through the kitty door. I scooped her up pretty quick and put her back outside. I am so afraid she will go off on one of the other cats and I don't want them getting all freaked out again.

Pepper still kind of whines when she sees Lucy through the window or door but the rest of them are getting used to seeing her out there. We had the front door open and everyone was sniffing each other through the screen door. I kind of wonder what is going through their minds. How come we can see her and smell her but she's out there? What the heck is going on here anyway?

We've decided to let her stay as an outside cat as long as nothing else weird happens with her. Keith is going to build her a little house out there for her, who knows if she'll actually use it but at least there will be some shelter. We'll have to dose her with Advantage when flea season starts up and we know she'll end up with a parasite or two but we feel better allowing her to stay rather than taking her to the pound.

I'm SO SCARED!!

Poor old Buddy. He acts like such a big badass but every time the trash truck goes down the street he runs straight into the garage to hide from the noise. Why he thinks the garage is a safe place I don't know.

Today it was the street sweeper truck.

Keith was still in bed and Buddy runs into the bedroom and crawls under the covers with him, turns all around in panicked circles, and then finally cringes under the covers. He is still there after the street sweeper left a long time ago. It might come back!! OH NOES!

Lucy is adapting to living in the back yard after being banished from the house for her territorial attacking wild crazy behaviour. She has pretty much chased all of the other strays and outdoor cats that like to poop in our yard away. She also found a way to get up the tree out front and onto the roof of the house and was wandering around up there the other day.

Keith still wants to find her a home, but cats are a dime a dozen around here so the chances of that are slim and none. We are deciding whether to let her live out her life outdoors, but the indoor cats still get freaked out when she comes to the back sliding door and get all nervous that she might attack through the glass or something. We can't open the screen to let the breezes in because who wants cats screeching at each other through the screen?

Stinky Boy

The other day I'm trying to work on the computer and kept smelling stinky smells and where is that coming from and Pepper, did you forget to cover up your poop again? So, I go clean the cat box and blame it all on Pepper, and then later come to find out that she's been set up to take the fall.

By Buddy.

He comes in, uses the cat box to deposit some very stinky poo, AND THEN LOOKS AT IT AND LEAVES! Oh, I see what's going on now, you know that Pepper gets in trouble for doing this and you've never liked Pepper anyway, so what better way to get back at her than to leave a very smelly reminder of your extreme disdain for her AND GET HER IN TROUBLE AT THE SAME TIME!

Seriously, is it the salmon cat food that's making things stink so much?

Hmmm

Sometimes I wonder what the cats do all night since occasionally I find strange things in strange places when I wake up in the mornings.

The other day it was a six inch long piece of wood molding sitting by our bedroom door.

Today it was the instruction book for my portable DVD player that I thought was up in the cupboard in the bedroom with the portable DVD player.

And a camera strap that I've never seen before laying in the hallway by the living room. Or maybe it was the strap for the DVD player.

I dunno.

Buddy in the Box

I got a box ( A BOX!) in the mail yesterday with a book that I had ordered in it. It had lots of nice squashed up paper in it so I put it on the floor because I know how much my kitties like boxes (BOXES!).

Later here comes Buddy who curls up in the BOX!, sits there for a while, and then takes his afternoon nap in the BOX! Which is just barely big enough for him. He's back in there today.

Hairbrushes and Hairballs

We all know that Pepper is a weird cat and likes weird smells like the seasoning salt that is better than catnip as far as she is concerned. When Keith uses the salt at dinner I usually have to put a little bit of it on one of my cleaning rag washcloths and let her roll around in it in total bliss.

She also likes my hairbrush when I have just brushed my hair after my shower and it smells of lovely shampoo smells. Is it gross to throw the brush on the floor and let her sniff and rub against it? Probably, but I don't care and it makes her feel special. She waits patiently by the bathroom sink each night when I brush my hair and if I forget that she is waiting patiently there and put it back in the drawer before letting her sniff and rub, well...

First she looks around to make sure that nobody else will get her hairbrushy goodness.



Then, hairbrush heaven.


I was trying to get a picture of her snaggletooth. It makes her look like she has a constant sneer on her face. Which she usually does, snaggletooth or not.


I woke up this morning and found a coughed up hairball on the blanket. Fortunately it was on Keith's side of the bed and what he doesn't know won't hurt him. Although I really didn't feel like having to wash the blanket today.

A package of books from BNSF came by UPS for Keith yesterday so I stacked them in his mail pile on the counter and of course they looked really comfortable, so...

Snaggletooth

We noticed that Pepper's lip looked a little funny on Friday night so Keith looks at her teeth, Pepper squirming and growling, and one of her front bottom teeth is sticking out all funny like it's been knocked loose from where it belongs. We have no money to take her to the kitty dentist so I'm hoping that the tooth will just fall out on its own and she'll just be missing a tooth and fit right in here in hillbillyland. You walk around town here and most of the residents of this city have missing teeth, so why not the cats, too?

The last time Bear went to the vet we found out that she has a missing tooth so apparently since cats can't brush their teeth or floss, occasionally their teeth fall out. Hopefully we won't have to start buying them dentures.

Speaking of Bear, Lucy is still defending her living room territory against her (and only her) but she walked into the bedroom and looked around the other day, walking right past Bear who was sitting by the food bowl, and didn't growl or even pay any attention to her. I don't know, I just feel bad for poor Bear being afraid to leave the bedroom. She did sneak across the hall to the front bedroom this morning so she could sit and look out the window.

More Mean Kitty

Well, I was hoping that Lucy was finally calming down and had even bragged about the uneventful day she had when talking on the phone with Keith last night. She hadn't growled at anyone or gotten into any fights. Mimi and Harri have been coming out into the living room again with no problems. But poor old Bear. She hasn't been out of the bedroom in almost 2 weeks now, only a few times crossing the hall to go into the front bedroom, looking out of the window for a few minutes and then scurrying back across the hall into the safety zone.

Last night I was sitting on the couch and Bear came all the way down the hall where she could see into the living room and then sat there staring at me with that kind of creepy stare that she has. I knew she was longing to come sit on the couch and get her face rubbed and petted but was too afraid to come any further.

I hadn't seen Lucy for a few hours and was kind of hoping that maybe somehow she got outside and ran away and I wouldn't have to worry about her anymore, but no, she was up on top of the entertainment center sleeping. So after Bear stared at me for a while, she crept into the living room, into the kitchen, and was going to go out the kitty door to the garage when Lucy saw her from on top of the entertainment center and immediately jumped down and was ready to attack, growling and ready for action. I grabbed the squirt bottle of water and Bear went into panic mode and ran back into the bedroom, me squirting and yelling at Lucy.

So. I really think that Lucy got it into her head that the bad cat that sprayed on the screen door is somehow Bear and she doesn't recognize Bear anymore and thinks that Bear is a new cat that shouldn't be in the house. That's the only explanation that I can come up with for the sudden I Hate Bear thing that is going on.

Better watch out, Lucy, a trip to the pound is still an option here even though it would break our hearts to have to do that.

We Are Back!

I was thinking about deleting this blog since it's been over 2 years since my last post (wow, how time flies when you're having fun, right?) but after re-reading some of the posts and looking at the pictures, I'm going to start up the blog again.

So, what's new with the six fur kids? If you've read the other blog recently then you know that Lucy went on a mean streak after smelling some other cat's pee that they sprayed on the screen door and she attacked Bear and Buddy and the fur flew and Bear didn't come out from under the bed for four days. I've been spraying the house with pheromone spray and got Good Cat stuff that goes in their water dish and she seems to have calmed down a little bit but Bear is still afraid to come out of the bedroom even though she finally came out from under the bed.

Buddy is such a dummy that he's forgotten all about it. In fact, he and Lucy and Pepper were all sleeping on the couch yesterday albeit about a foot apart from each other. Far enough apart to where if I'd wanted to sit on MY couch I would have had to make somebody move.

Harri actually came out from the bedroom yesterday and spent quite a bit of time in the same room as Lucy without anyone getting into a fight. Lucy just kind of ignored her.

Mimi got snarled at this morning, though.

I've been keeping Mimi, Harri, and Bear in the room with me at night with a water dish and food dish and poop box, but they keep waking me up by either crunching on their food or walking on the bed, or like Mimi did at 4 am, playing inside the cardboard box and scratching on the bottom of it. I think I will remove the cardboard box tonight and also take some Benadryl to maybe knock me out enough to where I can't hear them crunching or feel them walking on the bed.