My parents arrived safely yesterday evening with Benjie in tow. When Benjie walked through the door, you could almost hear all the cats in the house fluff up. Miz Poo, in particular, did not appreciate this new development.
We spent the evening in the living room talking, and the cats had different takes on the Benjie Situation. Tommy sat on the floor a few feet away, staring at Benjie, ultimately decided Benjie was no threat, and rolled around to show his lack of concern. Elwood inched closer and closer and then would run off for a few minutes to regroup before coming back to inch closer again. Jake was NOT interested in THAT DOG, and spent the evening atop the big cat tree. Fred brought him down and into the living room, and Jake immediately puffed up and moved verrrry verrry slowly until he could get back to safety. Spanky was completely unconcerned and uninterested. Sugarbutt came in a few times to eyeball Benjie. The first (and so far, only) cat to make contact with Benjie was, surprisingly, Steely Dan. Benjie was sitting, facing my father, and Steely Dan reached out and grabbed Benjie’s tail.
Poor Benjie, who probably remembered the last time he visited (about 2 1/2 years ago, I think) and was roundly boxed about the ears by Maxi AND Newt, quietly sat by my father and wished those damn cats would go away.
I didn’t get any pictures of the interactions, but you know I’ll share ’em when I get ’em!
Have you kept records of your fosters and how long it took to get them adopted? It seems like your area does a terrific job of getting kitties adopted. Do they have any secrets that help them get furever homes for the kitties. I am really impressed with how quickly your fosters get homes.
Not only have I not kept records of how long it took the fosters to get adopted, I don’t even have an exact number on how many cats and kittens I’ve fostered! (I’ll remedy that at some point – it’s my goal to get all the entries about my fosters copied over to Love & Hisses, so I have a complete record.) I don’t know that Challenger’s House has any secrets – the fact that they’re a Petsmart Love-A-Pet partner helps a lot, I’m sure!
Re: pond in back forty – are you concerned it may become a mosquito breeding haven? Just a thought.
Not really – it’ll be back at the back of the back forty (heh). When we had the pond before, located right behind the back yard, it had water in it for at least part of the summer after we moved in, and I never noticed a mosquito issue.
Love the cat bed that Sugarbutt is in. *Wink*.
I know! Me too! I bought it especially because it matches him so well!
Just kidding, of course – awesome reader Betty sent us that cool bed back in December. First, Violet and Veruca claimed it for themselves, and then it happened to fit perfectly in the cave part of the Room with a View, and apparently Sugarbutt agrees, because he’s claimed it for himself. Maybe he thinks it’s his mother ’cause it looks so much like him. 🙂
Hey, Wild Berry Jolly Ranchers here.
Although it’s a 12-pack of the little bags. You may be way over them by the time you finish 12 bags.
It would probably take me a year to finish off 12 bags of Jolly Ranchers, but I don’t know that I could ever get tired of them, especially the Wild Strawberry flavor!
I should totally buy, like, 100 bags of those, separate out the flavors, keep the Wild Strawberry, and sell the other flavors on eBay!
What is UP with cats freaking about the slightest little change to their sleeping area?
Cats are like Fred – they don’t like changes, and they get bitchy when changes happen without their consent. 🙂
Petal sleeps on the back of the couch – which is fine, but she is shedding like MAD, and I am sick of cleaning fur out the cracks between the cushions. I put a lovely, soft throw that I purposely bought for this over the sofa back for her, and Ms. Thing had a total fit. She sat on the love seat facing the sofa, apparently perplexed by the appearance of this weird THING that had taken over her sleeping spot. I tried putting her on the throw, and she reacted like I’d dipped her in a tub full of water, almost climbing up my arm. Three days later, and she still wouldn’t go near. Removed the throw, and everything was back to normal.
Anyone have any suggestions?
The only recommendation I can think of is, instead of putting the throw over the back of the couch all at once, fold the throw up and put it maybe to the side of where Her Majesty sleeps. Once she’s grown accustomed to it being there, move it a tiny bit closer to where she sleeps, wait a week, repeat. Maybe it’s the sudden change she objects to?
If anyone has a better suggestion, feel free to leave it in the comments!
Whoa. That cheesecake photo of SDan looks exactly like a fluffy Meester Boogers. I see that a lot! How similar are their personalities?
I am sad to report that there seem to be no Mister Boogers in Steely Dan’s personality. He’s a very sweet and friendly boy, but he has none of the Boogie sass.
When I was cleaning up after I made my lunch this morning, I accidentally ran my fingers across an open can of cat food. (My elderly cat eats canned food because he has elderly teeth.) I said to myself, “Goddamn it. I bet shit like this never goddamn happens to Miz Robyn and she’s goddamn surrounded by goddamn cats.” And do you think I could get the goddamn cat food out from under my goddamn nails? And then the goddamn stink was in my nose and I swear I can still smell it. Goddamn disgusting canned cat food.
I get canned cat food on my hands ALL the freakin’ time, and the worst part is when I get it on my hand and then don’t realize it, then I’m sitting there thinking “God, what is that horrific SMELL?!” I loathe the smell of canned cat food. GAH.
I see you wash your cat beds often (or at least I see them stacked up after you’ve washed them). Anyway, how do your cats react to a clean bed?
Every single time I wash our cat’s beds (all 409 of them) she stomps around sniffing all of them, then yells at us, rinse/repeat. I do not use stinky Downey and our detergent is unscented, so it’s not that. I guess she just prefers stinky, hair beds?
Our cats are pretty good at adjusting to clean beds. They’re pretty flexible, I guess, since I rarely put the same cat bed back in the same place, and yet they don’t seem to have an issue with whatever bed I put in their sleeping spots.
I bet your cat’s issue is less that she prefers the stinky, hair beds than that the clean cat beds smell unfamiliar to her. That said, I have no advice on how to convince her that they’re HER beds, even if they don’t smell “right”. Anyone? Suggestions?
Last night, we let Steely Dan and Fagen stay out in general population all night. They did really well, and in fact Fagen came downstairs to eyeball my parents (and Benjie) from the hallway several times. They didn’t sleep with me last night, but I could hear them running around my room from time to time. At 2:30 I don’t know what on earth they were doing, exactly – it sounded like they were climbing to the top of the chair beside my bed and throwing themselves to the floor, over and over again. I said “Oh, come on, it’s TWO THIRTY!” and eventually they stopped.
They sure are sweet boys, these two.
Kara, keeping an eye on YOU.
Previously
2009: “Thank GOD you’re going for a cut and color. I didn’t want to say anything, but you have got some SERIOUS gray going on. It’s rather disturbing.”
2008: This is my entry in honor of [Spot].
2007: Obviously he just doesn’t love Joe Bob enough.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: Okay, I promise that’s the last weepy I-miss-my-kitty entry.
2003: Bleach is the shit.
2002: Just for the record, Mike Tyson is the biggest fucking idiot in the entire world.
2001: How the hell am I going to get my ass on Survivor 3 if they’re looking for model types??
2000: I was quite excited, as I recall.