Cleaning Cats

This post isn’t about how completely adorable cats are when they clean themselves although that probably should be a topic for another post very soon. Instead, it is about how cats can contribute to cleaning the house.

This morning while I was trying to get myself organized to start work, Sally came around looking for some attention.  Which of course meant that I had to stop whatever I was trying to start doing and give him some.  I scratched his chin a bit and when he was walking away, I grabbed the end of his tail and shook it.

There was something about the way the morning light was coming in from the windows that lit up all the dust that came flying out of his fluffy tail.  It was like shaking out a feather duster!  Of course, my first thought was bath time!  But I also realized that I hadn’t really thought about how much dust these kitties must pick up as they go through their days waving their fluffy tails around the house.

Mr. Man and I tend to only think about the messes that the cats make – cat hair on everything, cat food all over the floor by their bowls, the little bits of cardboard that they rip out of their cardboard cat scratchers…we never think about what they do to help clean up around here. I decided that today I would give the kitties credit for all the ways they help keep things clean.

Aside from their fluffy, feather duster-like tails, they also have very fluffy tummies that make excellent dry mops as they slide and roll around on the wood floors. You would think that they wouldn’t like chasing their toys around on the wood floors, where it is harder to get a grip. But the slipping and sliding is part of the fun.  Anabel has some moves when she is chasing after her ballerina mouse where she starts to slide, then sprawls out and spins around.  She winds up facing the opposite direction.  Sally prefers the belly-flop slide when he is playing catch with Mr. Man.  He chases after the toy mouse, sliding in to capture it.  Then he picks up his prize and returns it to his playmate.  Mr. Man can get the whole floor dusted just by varying where he throws the mouse!

Anabel and Sally also have that well-documented cat quality of not tolerating cluttered surfaces.  When we leave something laying around where it shouldn’t be, we aren’t surprised when we find it on the floor.  Many times, we find it because we step on it (ouch!). One of these days the cats will finally train us to put things back where they belong in the first place.

And perhaps one of the most under-appreciated ways that they help out with keeping things cleaned up around here is their paper-shredding talents.  Anabel is particularly concerned with potential identity theft and will regularly shred any papers she finds sitting out.  She was quite fanatical about it when she was a kitten; I have the scraps of book covers to prove it.  As she’s matured, she has become more selective about what she feels needs to be shredded, although she continues to have a big hang up about post-it notes.

Cat Book Report

Today will be a cat book report on an important work of feline literature: Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag. This is a book that is always highly recommended by any bookstore cat.

There once was a book about a very old man and a very old woman.  It was the oldest, continually published, illustrated book.  Because cats.

“If only we had a cat, then we would be happy,” she said.

But not hundreds of cats,

Or thousands of cats,

Or millions, and billions, and trillions of cats.

That is too many cats.

One cat is quite nice.  Personally though, two cats is purrfect.

Cat Loaf

Sally cat loaf

This morning when I sat down at my desk, the kittens were very eager to get to “work.” But they didn’t go to their usual first-thing-in-the-morning spots, they went to their early evening spots and both assumed the cat loaf position.  I suppose that it’s good to change things up every so often, get a fresh perspective and all.

I was surprised when I looked over at Anabel and found her in an adorable cat loaf position.  I peeked around the corner and so was Sally!  These kitties tend to favor the sprawled-out-on-one-side position so two, very proper cat loaves caught my attention.

Fortunately, I took photos right away because these loaves degenerated into sphinx, then quickly to sprawl positions.

It turns out that the cat loaf position is just another relaxed cat posture, much like the sprawl.  It tends to be favored when it is cooler as it is an excellent position with which to conserve body heat.  I guess it was a cooler morning, like maybe 70 degrees.  Personally, I like it when the house drops below 78 overnight, but it has been pretty hot for so long that I suppose a kitten could feel chilled.  

Another indicator of a cat loaf being relaxed is having their paws tucked under.  My favorite variation of this is when their paws are curled inward, just in front of their chest. Of course, you can always find something on the internet to worry about and one of the articles that I read about cat loaf warned that it may also be an indication of a cat who has an injured paw.  So, if your cat suddenly and consistently assumes the cat loaf position, if may be time for a paw check.

cat loaf variation
technically sphinx pose

As I write this, Anabel has taken up in the same spot.  She and Sally are both in their more common sprawled-out-heap-of-cat posture.

sleeping cat
Anabel’s regular sleeping position

The In-Between Things Blog-versary, Day 2

Today is Day 2 of The In-Between Things blog-versary!   It’s been a year!  I feel like I’m still trying to figure out what I’m doing, but I also feel like it has been a very edifying experience and am looking forward to discovering what year two has in store.

A few numbers to make things seem important:

  • 1 person
  • 4 categories
  • 52 weeks
  • 145 posts

In celebration, I decided that this week we would take a look back at the past year by highlighting five favorite posts for each category.

I was sure that it would be simple to skim through and pick my faves.  Not so fast my friend!  Wow, there is a lot there.  I also noticed formatting issues and little typos on pretty much every post (thank you for tolerating my imperfections).  Other than the corrections, there weren’t really any posts that stood out to me.  On the plus side, I guess that means that the writing is at least of a consistent quality (for better or worse). On the minus side, it made it challenging to pick out a few posts in each category to highlight, so I’ve tried to go with just a range of topics.  I’ve re-opened the comments on these posts, please let me know what you think of them.  And if your favorite posts weren’t highlighted, please leave a comment here about which one(s) you feel were overlooked.

Kitten Tuesday (38)

I have been regaling you with minutia about my cats since they were little, baby kittens.  Sometimes these posts are the toughest to write because even though I would like to spend all day, every day staring at these guys, sleeping cats doesn’t always translate into something that someone would want to read.  I anticipate Kitten Tuesdays will be spending more time exploring provocative topics such as careers for cats in the coming year.  And when all else fails, I will just bombard you with cute kitten pictures.

A little walk down memory lane…
I re-read this post and stand by my advice.  Invest the time/effort up front to socialize your new pet properly, it makes everything so much easier in the long-run.
It makes me so happy to have kitten assistants.
This probably is one of my favorite posts.  I giggled the entire time I was writing it and it still just really makes me smile.
I still don’t know what to think about this. Was it something that was in my subconscious all along?

I was listening to a podcast on my walk the other day and it opened with this quote:

“Loneliness does not come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself…”

– Carl Jung

It struck me that this is what I was feeling when I decided to start this blog.  I was looking for an outlet to communicate. And even though writing is a solitary endeavor, I do feel more connected by having this outlet to explore different things and share my thoughts. 

Thank you for reading.

Grooming My Fluffy Kitties

An Ode to Hairballs

Oh, fluffy kitties you are so nice
Your fur coat would keep you warm in ice
But since we live in more temperate climes
You’re always shedding all the time

What do you think?  Am I the next William Carlos Williams?  No?  I didn’t think so either.

But I am a good cat mommy who brushes her little treasures *almost* every day.  At least every other day.  That has got to be acceptable.  It is enough to keep them from developing matts on their fluffy behinds (a lesson I learned the hard way) so I feel like I am doing a good enough job.

In addition to their regular brushings with the slicker brush, they get attacked with the FURminator once a week (as per the official FURminator instructions).  Now you would think that since they are getting brushed out pretty often, their weekly FURminator sessions would not be a big deal.  I would think so.

And then here is what I wound up with after this weekend’s groom-a-thon:

Yikes, right?

I probably could have gotten more but official FURminator instructions are very explicit about not over grooming with the tool because it could cause skin irritation.

Now, in spite of all of this brushing, someone (Sally, I’m looking at you) still gets hairballs!  Don’t think that I didn’t want to take a picture of the latest one to share with you, but Mr. Man assures me that hairballs are gross and no one wants to see that.

Their favorite grooming implement are the gloves with the silicon nubbles on them.  Anabel will actually come up to me when I bust these guys out.  They are nice to work with because you can grab the cat with one hand and groom with the other.  You can also get all sorts of places that are tricky with a brush.  She really just wants her chin scratched, but she doesn’t mind when I get after her tummy and her arm pits as much as she does with the brush.

I suppose all this grooming is the price that one must pay to have happy, fluffy kitties around.  It is a small price to pay.  I can’t say that I do a very good job, judging by the state of my furniture but at least this is one of those things that just doing it is almost good enough. Boy, I’ll tell you what though, they sure do feel and look nice once we’re done.

The kitties always groom themselves
They do not think they need my help
But when a hairball I find
We all know it’s brushing time

Cat Nervous Breakdown

Sally the cat

Well guys, I broke Sally.  Not physically!  The dude is completely fine.  He’s eating and pooping and sleeping…all the usual things. No, I seem to have broken him psychologically.  What did I do?  Excuse me!  I did nothing.  It is all very peculiar.

Especially because I can tell you almost the precise moment when my dear Sally puss had his cat nervous breakdown.

It was a couple of Thursdays ago between 2-3pm.  Yes, I’m not kidding.  Well what was going on around here that would have given him a breakdown?  A whole lot of all the same things that go on around here if not daily, then at least regularly.

It was really hot that day, but it had been hot all week; we were all acclimatizing.  It was like any other afternoon, I was at my desk, he was on the cardboard cat scratcher in the next room, Anabel was under the futon (that is her preferred mid-day napping spot these days). We had just had company over the night before and Sally had made a point of laying in the middle of the dining table until it was time for dinner, then he spent the rest of the evening on his chair at the table, being a very gracious and charming host.

Back to Thursday: The gardeners showed up, just like they do every other week.  I went around and closed up the doors and windows to try to keep the noise and dust down a little bit. And Sally didn’t move; he was not bothered.

And then suddenly, he was VERY bothered.  I have never seen him that bothered.  Even at the vet’s office!  Certainly not when there was a skunk under the house (wait…a what where?  Oh yes, I’ll have to tell you that story another day).

I didn’t want to even tell you guys

For a whole week, he was skittish and wouldn’t come out of the front room. If I managed to get him next to me and made a sudden movement, he would bolt.  He jumped every time Mr. Man makes a loud noise.  It was a little ridiculous.

Do you want to know who was even more upset than Sally?  Mr. Man. I just could not convince him that the cat was fine. 

Sally was still eating (as long as I brought his food into the front room) and he wasn’t hurting anywhere. Our unlimited vet visit kitten plan had just expired, and I was not about to spend $50 to take him to the vet to be told there is nothing wrong with him just to try to make Mr. Man feel better.  My solution was to ignore his strange behavior as much as possible and see if he would get over it.  Worst case scenario, we had broken our friendly, easy-going cat and were going to be stuck with a nervous, high-strung one for the next 15-20 years.  Oh well, been there, done that.

Slowly, over the course of the next week, Sally’s behavior went back to normal (and so did Mr. Man’s). He seems now to have completely recovered from his cat nervous breakdown.

I love it when ignoring your problems actually does make them go away!

Anabel is a Work of Art Too!

paintings of Anabel and of Sally Gellis

Last week I received another delightful surprise in the mail from Chewy.com.  This time it was a portrait of Anabel!  Now she is a work of art too.  They really understand sibling rivalry at Chewy.com don’t they?

I had forwarded them the link to the post about Sally’s painting.  The nice gal who responded read all the way to the end and forwarded the photo of Anabel at the bottom of the post to what I can only assume is their pet painter stable.

A different artist from the one who did Sally’s portrait painted Anabel. I love the different interpretation, don’t you?

paintings of Anabel and of Sally Gellis

I don’t have paintings of Emma or Clementine, just some nice photographs in silver frames.  Once I did find a greeting card with the image of a gorgeous cat who looked just like Clementine, so I framed it and put it out as art.

Since I have that bad habit of thinking that since one of something is good, more would be better, I started thinking that I should create a whole cat-art gallery wall.  I could come up with different ways to have portraits of Anabel and Sally made every year…it could be a whole thing.  Fortunately, I don’t have much wall space, so such an ambitious undertaking is not particularly feasible.

I think that I will stick to appreciating what I have and continuing to use this blog to revel in the adorableness of my sweet kittens.  It’s more fun to share after all.

Cat Bag

There are few things that Anabel and Sally like as much as a bag.  They actually prefer a shopping or gift bag to a box any day.  And no, the bag does not have to be empty to qualify as an excellent cat bag.

The most appealing cat bags come with a bit of tissue paper to shred, but the bag itself is always the true prize.

A friend recently brought me something in a brown, craft-paper bag with bunches of tissue fluffed on top.  Sally was so excited by his new bag that he couldn’t be bothered for me to remove the gift before he started in on his cat bag.  You see, it isn’t just about getting inside the bag, but pouncing on top of the bag and attacking the edges are also great ways to utilize a new cat bag according to Sally.

We were getting ready to head out, but Sally was enjoying himself so much that I couldn’t bear to take his new bag away.  I also didn’t dare leave him along with it; I could just imagine him getting one of the handles caught around his neck.  Not because I thought that he would hurt himself (it’s a paper bag, it’s going to tear), but because that is the sort of thing that Mr. Man would bust my chops for until his dying breath.  So, I tore the handles off and left Sally to enjoy his kitty-proofed cat bag.

Another time, another dear friend presented me with another craft-paper bag full of kitsch signature.  Again, I had to battle Sally to remove the items from the bag before he inserted himself into it.  A bit later, I came across this scene:

Why is Anabel staring at the bag?  What is that sticking out?  Oh, a Sally tail!  Aren’t they cute?

About ten minutes later, there is a commotion.  When I go to investigate, I find this:

Sally is pouncing ON the bag in which a different cat tail is sticking out the end of.

I see.

Sally is going to need a lesson on sharing his cat bag.  

Neighborhood Watch Cats

Now, we’ve all heard of guard dogs, they are usually a Doberman, or a German Shepard, or some other large-ish dog with a ferocious bark and a suspicion of strangers.  Around these parts we have another kind of security animal, neighborhood watch cats.  These are cats with the time and inclination to spend hours and hours every day looking at the window and the initiative to alert someone to unusual occurrences.

Anabel and Sally at their post

Anabel and Sally are proud (albeit unofficial) members of our (unofficial) neighborhood watch.  Although they don’t let their responsibilities as neighborhood watch cats interfere with their napping schedule, they do spend a substantial amount of their daily awake time monitoring the neighborhood from various locations throughout the house.

They have been active unofficial neighborhood watch cats since they were little kittens

When school was in session, mornings and afternoons were key watch times.  Anabel and Sally liked to do their part to make sure that all of the little children get dropped-off and picked-up from school safely.

Recently, I have caught Anabel yelling at the local blue jays to get off our lawn.  She also likes to watch out to make sure that our neighbor gets home safely from walking her dog in the evenings.  Sally’s post tends to be the front or back door.  He is very concerned about my sun exposure and does his best to make sure that I don’t spend too much time outside if he can help it.

Sally is a Work of Art

Guys, I got the nicest surprise in the mail the other day. I mean, I always thought that Sally was a work of art, but now he really is!  Long story:

Going to the store to buy cat food was a pain in the butt.  That one pet food store doesn’t carry the right brand, the other one might only have a few cans and I’d have to go back every week or so.  Whatever.  I was annoyed. 

So, I started ordering from Chewy.com.  It’s great.  I set up an auto ship, but it sends me a notification every month so that I can change anything about my delivery.  Anything.  Like the type, or the quantity of cat food.  Or I can add a 40-pound bag of cat litter.  Or I can change the date.

Last month, I got my auto ship notification.  But I needed cat food like the next day, not the next week.  So, I changed the date to “ship now” and it did. It shipped THAT DAY.  And it was delivered before dinner time the next day.  How great is that?

Mr. Man had piled up the four cases of cat food on the dining table.  Sally knows what his dinner looks like and he wanted to let us know that he was ready for some as soon as we wanted to give it to him.

Long story short: I sent Chewy.com this photo of Sally with his thanks for the prompt delivery.  They wrote back a hilarious message full of pet puns (I thought I was bad).

Then last Friday, I found a fancy, metallic blue, padded envelope in my mail from Chewy.com.  I know that I hadn’t ordered anything recently and had no idea what it could be.

Inside was a very sweet, hand-written note and this beautiful painting of my handsome Sally based on the photo that I had sent them!  Isn’t that just the most thoughtful gesture?  As if getting multiple cases of canned cat food and 40-pound bags of cat litter delivered to my door without having to pay for shipping isn’t fantastic enough.

Sally’s favorite part of our surprise delivery was the tissue paper which he thoroughly shredded before retiring for his afternoon nap.

Now I just have to figure out how to get a painting of Anabel before she gets too jealous.

Anabel is not amused