Tue 19 Aug 2008
Tuesday Toesday with Mr. Kelly
Tue 15 Jul 2008
What is a Good Cat?
This will also conveniently serve as our Doodle Outer Space for Doodle Week.
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There’s a 5 1/2-year age difference between Nicky and Kelly, and while the latter has tried to settle into a dignified feline middle age, he frequently clashes with the smaller, younger cat. Challenging the leader is part of life for animals, and Nicky is quick and fearless, but Kelly has the edge in strength and experience, and he’s not yet ready to hand over his crown to anybody. Mealtimes bring them together in the kitchen, and that’s when we could sell ringside tickets. As Pat opens the can, the cats crowd at her feet, and maybe Kelly says, “I bet it’s chicken and rice,” and perhaps Nicky retorts, “You’re crazy, it’s seafood supper,” and next thing you know they’re laying their ears back, narrowing their eyes, and throwing a few punches that mostly miss the mark. They keep their claws sheathed, so it looks worse than it really is, and we take it in stride. When Kelly and Nicky face off and exchange hisses, Pat shrugs and says, “Somebody’s deflating a cat again.” In addition to being a master of self-defense, Kelly always has been athletic. Even so, we were mightily impressed when he began jumping from the floor directly to the window sill overlooking the side yard, a vertical leap of nearly four feet. Soon afterward, though, we noticed an increasing number of scratches on the wall beneath the sill, and we realized Kelly wasn’t really capable of leaping tall buildings in a single bound. We repainted the wall and put a cat tree next to the window to help The Big Guy get a leg up (or two). |
Sat 12 Jul 2008
Good as I wanna be…
Pat walked out of the house Friday morning to get the newspaper and saw three rabbits watching her from the yard next door… her sister Joyce will be staying with us for a week; she’ll be in on Sunday. Originally, Joyce was going to cat-sit while Pat and I went out of town for a few days, but things being what they are lately, we’ve had a change of heart and will stay home. I’ll make some cinnamon buns tomorrow morning so when Joyce gets here, she’ll be met with a welcoming fragrance in our house.
Good Cat News: after doing some research early this week, I bought some Innova EVO dry food for our 4. Kelly has feline IBD and can’t keep down most dry food, but he seems to miss the stuff anyway. We have had to hold back the Big Guy when the other Good Cats get their crunchies, so hopefully all of them will like the Innova, and it’ll agree with Kelly too…
And Caitie has been a bad kitty with a severe case of wanderlust, sneaking off into neighbors’ yards. No, we don’t let her or any of our cats go outside unless there’s a human supervising, but only two people watching four cats creates some gaps that our Calico Diva has taken advantage of. While Amelia, Tink and Tig next door don’t always stay in their own yard, that’s no excuse for our calico diva to do the same… Caitie the huntress also flushed a rabbit out from underneath the butterfly bushes in the back yard. She stopped chasing it halfway across the neighboring yard, but the bunny kept hopping at top speed until it was out of sight…
Japanese beetles are back in this part of the state, but so are honeybees… more of the former than the latter, but more bees than last year, so that’s a good sign… they make touch-and-go landings on the coneflowers and the clover blossoms, and leave each stop with a little more pollen… and you don’t have to drive far, either, to see fields of tall green corn all over the valley; looks like an excellent year if the weather continues good…
Finally, three of my baseball teams are cratering, but the San Fernando Reds are in contention despite a 13-24 start, so it’s not entirely a lost summer… I’m planning to write a full post about this next soon, but for now I can tell you I had hard drive trouble recently, and Seagate did the right thing by me… and if you don’t see a post some days this week, it’s because I’m finally digging into a couple of video projects that I’ve been putting off. And next weekend, Pat and I will be celebrating our birthdays… mine’s the 19th, hers is the 20th… celebrating quietly, and this year, frugally. So I’ll talk to you later…
