Are you crackers about animals?
I had a request to start a post here as a place for talking about the animals in our lives, something a bit more general than my gatitos post. And so here it is! 🙂
G’wan, tell us all about them – you know you want to . . .
casa azahar 
Okay, I’ll start…
I own two cats. Rocket and Missy. They are (respectively) a 6 year old male long haired black cat, and a 4 1/2 year old femaile tabby cat.
They’re weird. Not related in any way, Rocket treats Missy like she’s his kitten. When a 5 wk old kitten, he took to nursing her. Like I said, weird. For instance…
The bratz did a weird thing this evening. I got back from my errands, and dumped my fanny pack on the bed.
Next thing I know, the girl-brat is pawing through the contents, until she knocks it off the bed. I yelled, fetched fanny-pack, zipped it up, put it back on bed.
10 minutes later, she’s at it again. I even sniffed the thing — there’s nothing there that *I*, with my puny human senses, can find.
So what’s the opinion?
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Maybe there was something alive in it??? 😯
And for those of you who would like a closer look at Missy & Rocket . . .
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I have one six-year old male cat, Herman, who I “adopted” a year and a half ago when he and his daddy, K, moved in with me.
Herman has a congenital birth defect known as Feline Cerebellar Hypoplasia. His vet calls it “The Wobblies”. FCH occurs in kittens whose mothers had distemper during or just prior to gestation. It’s similar to cerebral palsy in humans and causes permanent, negigible effects to the cat’s balance and coordination. More info here: http://www.vetinfo4dogs.com/dcerbellhyp.html
Herman’s a sweet, gray and white cat, with a good disposition and what seems like a sense of humor.
Herman is also frequently found sniffing and pawing at bags and handbags. Either az is right and there was something alive in there, or perhaps she was checking, as Herman does, to see if there is Something For The Kitty in there?
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I had pets as a kid but haven’t had the opportunity for 12 years (school). Anyway, I live vicariously through newf.net a bulletin board about newfoundland dogs. We hope to get one someday – we’ll probably go for a rescue though. And/or a border collie.
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“Maybe there was something alive in it???” 😯
I went through it last night and again this morning. Rocket hasn’t left the damn thing alone all day…
It’s not very big, and it’s a fanny pack, which is strapped around my waist (I started using it, because a purse was throwing my balance off when I walked).
I’m a bug’o’phobe! If there was anything in the pack, I’d have had hysterics!! There are *no* bugs in my house, slob or no slob. And it’s too small for a mouse…
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I was thinking that perhaps the “something alive” was alive only in the imagination of the cat. That’s certainly the most common “something alive” that Herman finds around here. You should see him try to attack the moving shadow of the ceiling fan blades!
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Y’know, it’s a proven fact that cats can see aliens, ghosts and mysterious invisible insects…clearly, Herman has excellent “vision”! LOL
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Azar always looks like he’s being chased by dragons … tail all puffed out and tearing around the place like a total lunatic.
Found this somewhere the other day … kinda cute and of course one of those indisputable truths. 🙂
Centre of the Universe
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I love that! How true.
Herman was attacking a ghost/alien/mysterious invisible thing in a clear plastic bag this morning. He likes to lick and eat any kind of plastic bag… anyone have any insight as to why that is? We’ve theorized that there’s some sort of oil-based stuff in there that tastes similar to stuff cats might normally eat, but that’s mere speculation.
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Mine just like licking the handles of plastic bags … I always thought it was the salt from sweaty palms that attracted them.
A word of warning though …
Many years ago in Salamanca Lua used to have a regular visitor – little kitten from the apartment next door. We shared a patio so this little one often ended up at our place.
Anyhow, one day he was playing with a plastic bag on the floor, got his head caught in one of the handles and totally freaked out. Within seconds he was spinning in circles, tightening the handle around his neck with each turn. He would have died for sure if I hadn’t been there – as it was I had to cut the handle open with scissors since it was wound so tight around his little neck that I couldn’t get it loose with my fingers.
So, ever since then I never leave plastic bags, or even paper shopping bags with twine handles, out where the cats might get at them … just in case.
Though big paper shopping bags with the handles cut off are a real cat treat here at casa az, as you can see here
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I was mentioning over here about how the cats used to always wreak havoc in the spare room – every time we forgot to close the door those two little troublemakers would be in there like a shot. Granted, there were plenty of stuff to play with and pee on in there when we had the biz going in full swing.
But curiously, ever since we tidied it up last weekend and now leave the door open all the time, neither cats show any interest at all in spending time in there. Typical.
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Isn’t that always the way!
Luckily, we don’t normally leave things around in plastic bags. But when we’re taking out the trash/recycling bags, Herman will lay down and lick the outsides of the old bags, or the new, empty bags. He licks the grocery bags while I am unloading them. I’ll take care to make sure he never gets stuck in the handles!
Paper bags are great fun, too, although he’s much too clumsy to get himself inside, so he usually just flattens them out and then lies down on top of them. Weirdo.
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Found the boys fast asleep a few minutes ago – it’s curious how Sunny always loves to be ‘hidden’. Except he always leaves at least a couple of white toes sticking out.
Where’s Sunny?
(and no comments about unmade rumpled bed please…)
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Well, it was ear cleaning day at casa az yesterday. Only six months late … we’re supposed to clean out the beasty ears once a month but, to be honest, trying to trap the Tasmanian Devil (aka Azar) is so traumatic that we tend to let it go.
Though I may have found a solution! Yesterday hadn’t been a ‘planned event’ so although Azar screamed his head off and squirmed and fought back like crazy … I learned something. Previously I’d always let him go as soon as the procedure was over and he always raced off as fast as his three legs would carry him.
But yesterday, after I’d swabbed out his ears and wiped all the excess ear-cleaning liquid off his head (all that head-shaking!) I held onto him … I stood up holding him firmly in my arms and kissing him on the head and talking to him in a soothing voice.
And I felt his whole body relax into the ‘full body hug’ I was giving him … and he even let me carry him into the bedroom and put him onto the bed.
That felt so nice … it also means he’s going to get his ears cleaned more often!
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Regular programming has resumed … 😉
I’ve moved all the comments about “the incident” over here.
Carry on as you were. 🙂
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…about the cuddling post-ear cleaning — I’ve heard that if you don’t have a lap-sitting cuddly cat, the way to get them to behave that way is to regularly scoop them up in a blanket and cuddle them…the enclosed space, your warmth & smell. Don’t know, haven’t tried it.
I’m going to update my own cat problem over at my blog today.
Cats! [add whatever tone/emoticon you’d like to that, depending how your day is going!]
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Azar is the biggest scaredy cat ever – he’s a rescue cat. Took him in after someone had tried to kill him and so basically he has trust issues … even eleven years later!
He’s never been a ‘lap cat’ but he does adore being cuddled and especially being an ‘undercover cat’ curling up with me under the duvet in bed and purrrrrring like mad.
Anyhow, I make sure to constantly touch Azar, cuddle him, as well as pick him up and snuggle him close to me … just for a minute or so, just so he gets used to it.
Then ten seconds later they forget all you’ve ever done for them and revert to psycho cats from hell!!! 😉
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Tell me about it! Herman’s not big on being picked up and cuddled- but when HE wants a cuddle, he’ll get right up in your face or whatever it is you’re doing and demand attention. Or yowl indignantly from the other room that everyone has the NERVE to abandon him.
I’ve managed to get some video footage of him- not good footage, because I’ve never got the real camera handy and shot these with my mobile. The quality’s not great, nor is the lighting… but I think anyone who’d like to watch will get the gist of how agile and graceful he is- NOT!
http://video.fotki.com/psychocandy/
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