"Pet Tails": my cats all have their places

I have had my pets, in particular my cats, for several years now. With the cats, I have had 2 since fall '01, 1 since spring '02, 1 since summer '04, and 1 since spring of '05. What I have caught on to from them, slowly by slowly, is that they have all taken up various tasks around the house. Whereever I have lived, from the little 'cabin' in PI, to the current place downtown in the same area, they have interacted with each other to such a point that they have formed their own unique....heirarchy within themselves. They each know what the other cats are like and they base their actions and habits upon that information.

Tabby, for one, is usually ending up being the leader of sorts. At night I can always expect her to be on my pillow at night. If she is elsewhere on the bed, or elsewhere in the apartment, as soon as sh eknows that I am laying down in bed really to go to sleep I can expect her to come onto the bed and take a place right directly on my pillow. That is unless she is not already there, taking the room that should have my head on it....by the time I go to bed.

Porkey is one to always want to be around where I am, though not involved directly. For instance, as I type this blog I am sitting on the couch in my living room. Him? On a cat furniture piece just behind the couch. Enough so that he's high up enough to be able to see around the apartment, but also to keep tabs on what I am doing. If I were to go into the bedroom, for example, I am sure he'd follow. If I went into the bathroom to use the facility, I am sure he's be quick to follow. When I go to bed at night, just like Tabby, he will come say goodnight. Except his idea of such is to lay right down next to me which ever way I am facing. Lay right in line with my neck....relax down...stare intently at me....and reach out his paws and try to lightly tap me. Unfortunte part of that is that he'll stick out his claws and it ends up hurting. So most of the time I am forced to either move away or push him away.

Sylvester, is more one to be seeing what I am doing and get involved. If I am going to cook lunch and need to open a package of sliced meat (like ham), he will know what is going on and will be RIGHT THERE expecting a handout. ... Sad thing is that he knows I will end up giving him a piece of whatever it is.

Whiskers....where do I begin with that guy? He is always following me around all over the place. I go into the living room, he's THERE. I go into the bedroom, he's RIGHT THERE. I go into the bathroom to use the toilet ... he's right there to sit and watch ME. I get into the shower to take a shower or a bath....and he's right behind to follow and watch. When I get out of the shower I can most of the time safely bet that he'll still be in the bathroom sitting on the floor or toilet steat. Even if he's asleep in one of the rooms...such as asleep on the couch in the living room...if I go into the bathroom to go pee or something..... wham, bam, there's Whiskers keepign watch beside the toilet. Why does he do this? The only thing I can think of is that he watches me in hopes that he won't loose sight of me. That if he can always know where I am that I won't be leaving him. That's beacuse when I first moved to my current residence he was very afriad at first, probably wondering if I was leaving him here and going elsewere. It took several weeks for him to get adjusted there and to know that he's still my cat and he's still living with me. So know he wants to always know what I am doing. Which is cute. Just.....I dont really need an audience if I am sitting on the toilet, ya know.

...

Athena is obviously the fifth of my five cats. However, she usually just kinda of spur of the moment decides where she is going to be. She's the more independent of the cats, and thus is more often off to herself. Most of the day she may be laying up on top of the bed by my pillows or even under the bed trying to hide. When I go to bed at night she'll almost always jump up and snuggle up somewhere closer to my head on the pillows. Othertimes when I am in the living room sitting on the couch she will get up and lay down with me. Right now she's up in the 'cat perch' in the bedroom.

"Pet Tails": no forklift? no problem!

"You're gonna make us move, Jay? Ha! You just gotta ask yourself...... do you feel lucky? Well...do ya?"

"Pet Tails": la la la...just vaccuming the cat...wait...what?!

Everyone knows that cats hate vacuums, right? Too noisey, and I don't think cats understand what the vacuum is doing or why its not gonna hurt them. But you turn on the vacuum and cats go a scurrying. For the most part, mine are the same way.

But they seem to feel a bit more safe and secure when they are not on the ground floor...but instead up on something higher up. Like a perch or something.

So now I can go vacuuming around the couch in the living room, and my cat Porkey will be up on top of the cat jungle gym laying around watching me, and I can take the hose attachment off...hook up the brush end that is good at getting hairs.....hmmm.... and even kinda brush him with it and vacuum him up at the same time. And he doesn't run! He just lays there like he's enjoying it!

Hey, all the power to him if he doesn't mind it. Saves the cat hair from getting up in the air and ending up all over the place in the apartment, and instead is getting vacuumed up right away.

Ha! I can vacuum my cat!

"Pet Tails": two of my boys

This couch ain't big enough for the both of us, Porkey!

Whatcha talkin' about Whiskers, sure there's enough room!

"Pet Tails": me and my dancin' cat

When I was regularly volunteering at the local animal shelter, one of the things I'd do to be happy and have fun with the cats as I'd clean their cages was to be silly and foolish with them. Clearly, as with all cats, some cats like to be held, while others.....eh, not as much. Some cats - anywhere - like to be held so much that they'll roll around in your arms and snuggle up with your head. They just enjoy being held so much. At the shelter, you can tell one way that the cats like to be held by the fact that if you opened up their cage door to go to clean it out for them....that they'd leap out of the cage right onto your shoulder as if to prance around on your shoulder and back, as if they're saying "Heyyyyyyy J! Thanks for coming to see us! I appreciate you cleaning my cage for me! You're an awesome person!!!"

(Wow. If I only could get that much attention from people in general, especially single and attractive women. )

One of the cats who loved to do that was ... my cat Sylvester. This was back before I even adopted him. In fact, he became my buddy AT the shelter becuase he was so loving like this. I was even the one who named him myself - Sylvester, because of his black and white fur design, and his cute lil' pink nose, and his friskyness for being a year and a half old (estimated) cat.

He'd jump out on my shoulders, lay around my neck, snuggle up next to my head, and try to roll around playing without falling off. We got to having so much fun that we'd begin to dance around the room and just act silly.

Eventually of course I adopted him and brought him home and added him to the family. I did say here earlier that "my cat Sylvester".

But just because we're not at the shelter anymore, doesn't me me and 'Bester don't still dance. Every now and then for no reason if he jumps up on my shoulder and I'm holding him, we'll get to dancing around and he'll still snuggle up next to my head like he's enjoying it. This morning? He was acting crazy rolling around on the bed meowing and suddenly on the radio station we were listening to the song "Safety Dance" came on. So I allowed him to jump up and we danced around the bedroom to "Safety Dance". Just me and 'Bester, acting silly like the goofy guys we are.

Who's to say that I don't love my cats and appreciate them and act silly with them?

a call-to-action for help for all pet lovers

As some may know and while others may not know, since June 2004 I have been a regular volunteer at the local animal shelter in my hometown, the Central Aroostook Humane Society.

Recently I discovered there is a promotional fundraiser for animal shelter facilities nationwide in a contest competition. The grandprize, as well as other prizes, are funds for "shelter makeover". the grand prize? Nearly (up to) a million dollar makeover at the shelter facility!

WOW!

The CAHS shelter that I volunteer at may be not as large as other facilities, but they do a good service for the area. With all the homeless and unwanted animals including dogs, cats, rabbits, and other critters in the area, CAHS works expertly and professionally and with love and compassion for every single animal's well-being in hopes of placing it in a new and warm and loving home.

So what I am asking of anyone who may read this blog, is to please support CAHS in this event.

Simply log onto http://www.zootoo.com/. Register on the site - IT's FREE!!!. You can add pictures of yourself, and add your pets to your profile too. Don't worry, if you don't have any pets thats fine. Then after getting your profile set up, there is an option for selecting a shelter. Where you can enter in a zipcode please enter 04769 and then select the shelter named "Central Aroostook Humane Society" among the results for the zip. After that it's easy. You can comment on news articles, rate and review animal/pet products and services, and more.

The more you do the more points you accumulate. And the more points that you accumulate it helps support the shelter. The top shelters will receive the monetary prizes at the conclusion of the competition, which I believe is in March 2008, or so.

So please log on and help support CAHS. The more points we can achieve, the greater chance for success we will have in possibly winning one of the top spots and money of a undetermined yet amount for renovation and upgrades to the shelter!

All the homeless pets will thank you.

I will thank you.

Four of my pet cats will thank you - as 2 were adopted from a shelter downstate, and 2 were adopted right here at CAHS in Presque Isle, Maine. And I know Whiskers and Sylvester would just love to know that you did something to help their friends back at the CAHS be able to have a wonderful shelter to stay at as they wait for a new loving home.

Please log onto http://www.zootoo.com/ and register and select CAHS (after entering in zipcode of 04769).

Thank you.

"Pet Tails": aftermath of a vet visit

Like regular clock-work during the year, and because I do have FIVE cats..... I regularly receive in the mail reminder cards about my pets from the vet. Different cats due for routine examinations, feline leukemia shots, rabies vaccinations, and whatever else they are in the need for. Recently three of my cats were scheduled for their annual vet visit. Porkey, Tabby and Athena. However, due partially to financial constrictions I decided to see if any cats could be re-scheduled for a later date when I'd be sure to have the money to pay for all their fees. As it turned out... Tabby had another appointment needed in November for a shot or something, so I simply re-scheduled her visit for November. So on Friday of this week it was just Porkey and Athena going to the vet with me.

The night before I tried to tell the two cats about how they were going to the vet with me on Friday, but I don't think they caught on. Not until bedtime, at least. Maybe its just coincidence that they are the two that do this, but.... the night before I was laying in bed playing a video game and they both were up on the bed with me hanging around. Wanting attention. Like they always do at bed time when ... I'm trying to go to sleep. Haha. This time they were hanging around knowing that I was still up purposely. Almost as though they were trying to talk me outta it. Haha. Lucky try, but it ain't gonna work kitties.

In the morning, I went around to get their respective cat carriers together. See, because I have the cats that I do and at any time may need to move them all at once... I over time purchased a cat carrier for each cat. Not expensive ones, but some cheap one found at Walmart, but still pretty sturdy. Anyway, they do come apart for easy storage and such. So..... I knew I had carriers all over the apartment so I had to find specifically Porkey's and specifically Athena's. This because I had all five written with their names on the top of it. I know, ain't I cute? Well.... as it turns out the two that I needed were the two I had to deal with. One was underneath Mr G's (my gerbil) cage collecting falling wood shavings. So I had to move him somewhere else and clean out that carrier. The other one was in the bathroom on the floor that I've used overturned as a cat bed for Sylvester with a towel in it. So I had to clean out that as well. And in both cases,.... I had to find the metal door that goes on the front.

Finally got into the vet. Noticing a few cars in the parking lot I figured there'd be some people in the waiting area. Not a problem. Just hopefully not too many dogs. Well....

Entering there were a half dozen people. One man I ended up sitting next to had one small dog. Not a problem as it wasn't overly aggressive. Didn't really see any other pets in there right then as the other people's pets were probabl out back or something.

But then this lady came in with her small Jack Russel Terrier. Just a tiny little dog, but quite active and barking a bit. Happy cute little dog. :) Howver, after he noticed my cats in carriers he had to walk over to get a looksie. While the dog was interested in Porkey, Porkey was not in the dog. When the dog got too close...... HISS!!! SPIT!!! Porkey launched into attack mode while inside the carrier and noticably and audibly....acted as though he were defending himself. The dog backed up, but that only made him more interested in this cat that was in a carrier. The dog then began almost non-stop barking for like a good 5 minutes straight. Meanwhile I can only imagine what poor P-kitty was thinking of this critter. The dog was about the size of Porkey himself - which was funny.

Now in terms of their health evaluations...

Athena was ok. Looked good and everything was ok... except for a small spot of swelling near one corner of her mouth on the right side. Looking inside Athena's mouth the vet noticed a small sore near the back of her mouth which was probably causing this inflammation on the outside of her gums. To take care of it the vet recommended some steroid shot that would take care of it (?) and I had to bring her back in about 2 weeks for a re-checkup. So... now I can say that my cat Athena is on steroids! hahahaha. I did get worried about her, however, as that night I didn't see much of her and she wasn't up on the bed at night like she usually is. Didn't see her this morning when I got up and out the door, so when I returned from work I had to peek around under the bed to see if she was there and if she was ok. She was. Just hiding. Probably mad at me for taking her to the vet for all I know.

Porkey also got a clean bill of health. He did have some plaque/tartar on his teeth in a few spots, but otherwise was ok. The notable point of his exam came when he came back out afterward after having been given his shots and weighed.

15.2 pounds.

Last time I knew last year when he went in he was about 16 pounds. That mean he lost about 0.8 pounds?!?!?!?! WOW!!!! This is Porkey we're talking about! The biggest of my five cats. He..... lost weight!!!!! He actually lost close to a FULL POUND!!! OH MY!!!!

While this is good news as its better that he can lose weight as being overweight is never good for one's health, it did make me realize soemthing after I left....

This puts him close to, if not.....under????....the weight of Whiskers. I'd have to go back and look at their records or even try to weigh the cats here at home myself, but....

There's a slim chance Porkey may not be the biggest cat that I have. And to me this is big news as I've had him since one of the original two (him and Tabby) and since then he's been THE biggest cat of mine. So for now Porkey to be second biggest and the potential of Whiskers being the biggest..... Porkey no longer can be the brunt of fat jokes. This means Whiskers will get all the comments and jokes and teasing we do here.

All of my cats are in good health, which I do expect. At the new residence here they do NOT go outside under any circumstances, so they don't have any thing outside to affect them. I feed them decent food, and try to encourage them to run around some when I can - even if it means teasingly chasing them around the apartment. Haha.

Hey, who ate all the pizza? Porkey!!

"Pet Tails": Nightmare On CatStreet

Every once in a while things need to be done but they don't always go as planned. Such is the case when things involve my cats.

One thing that I perhaps don't do as well.... ok, there are two things....that I could do better about in regards to my cats are keeping their hair from getting matts and giving them pills.
Do I have a cat hair brush? Yes. But how often do I keep them brushed out to keep them from matting up and from keeping all the stray cathairs from going all over the place... not very often at all. So it seems like ever few months some of the cats get quite bad hair matts. And that calls the need to break out the scissors and drag a cat into the bathroom and cut the hair clumps off. Some of the cats are easier than others to deal with. Porkey? Not bad. Whiskers? Kinda difficult. Athena? Very difficult.

One of the last times that I had to cut the clumps of hair off Athena was one of the most difficult. Athena does ok when she's laying on one side or the other, but when it gets onto her bad side she doesn't want to lay down still. And its a tricky situation when I am using scissors to cut hair off and I need to get as close to the skin as can be to cut the clumps....but....heck, I have a pair of sharp scissors and this wild cat under my arms! At one point as I was cutting I realized that I felt something kinda sticky on one of my hands. What the hell..... looking at my hand I saw blood.

OH CRAP!!!

I searched all over Athena for any possible cuts hoping that I didn't cause her great injury. But I didn't see any. Where was the blood coming from?

Myself.

The scissors were sharp enough that some time they slipped across one of my fingers and sliced it open. And here I was bleeding around and even getting some on Athena's fur. And if you know her from my photos page then you will realize she is a mostly white-haired cat. Not a good combination: white hair, red blood.

So the other week after a vet visit I ended up with some pill medications for Athena. One pill I administer as a whole, but the second pill has to be given in halfs. It's a rather tiny pill, but its got a little crease in the center of it for "easy splitting". (haha.)

Beginning last Friday I was doing good at giving her the pills when she needed to get them - twice daily - but by like Saturday I wasn't doing good. I never do good in taking my own medication or giving it to one of my pets. I just don't remember most of the time. While she's gotten better by now obviously - actually since Friday night she was doing ok, but its one of those things ya know that you have to keep on giving them their meds anyway until its up - and tonight when I got home I was wondering when I'd be able to get a hold of her to give her the pills for tonight. About to start supper I looked over at the food dishes and saw her tail. There she was! Blimey, theer be da wild Feena cat. Crikey!!! So I casually reached over and grabbed the pills, by that point though she saw me and realized what was in the works. So she began to circle around the couch. While I stood in the doorway leading into the bedroom, her haven, she circled slowly around the couch and then attempted to make her getaway. But I managed to dodge downward and grabbed her. Gave her the full pill. Now I needed to cut one of the other pills in half. Without letting her go all I had right there were....those same scissors. Hmmmmm.... was trying to use them to cut the pill in half when Tabby cat came wandering by to see what was going on. As she did it lost my concentration and Athena ran off. I chased after Tabby for ruining it and soon both were running off for cover in the bedroom. Ok, forget Tabby, Athena needs her medication! However she was underneath the bed in such a position that made it difficult to reach under and get her. I went from side of the bed to the other side trying to poke and prod he to run out. Finally was able to, but by the time I got to the other side of the bed I had no idea where she went to. Out into the living room? In the bathroom? or did she just circle back around the bed? Hmmmm. Luckily I looked right down and saw a bulge by the underside of the blanket hanging down by the floor. Slowly reached under and pulled her out. Ah ha! I gotcha now kitty cat! Went back out to where I was in the doorway where the light was to cut the pill. As I did and went to feed her I felt a sticky feeling on my left hand. Did she drool on me? What was this? Looked down at my hand and saw blood again.

Damn it. I cut myself again with these scissors. The ONLY time I have cut myself on the
scissors at all have been when I have been using them in relation to Athena.

Which begs the question..... if I ever need to use scissors for something regarding my cat Athena, shoudl I use child-proof scissors? Or get an 'adult' to do it next time? Or......hell, as crazy as it sounds I might have better luck in not getting hurt using a machette or an ax or a chainsaw!

How can I keep cutting myself with these scissors? Unless......

Athena is somehow secretly using the scissors when I am not paying attentiong to try to gain her revenge.

Coming to a theater near you soon. She looked like an ordinary white cuddly cat. But behind that adorable exterior, on the inside lay a blood-thirsty demon. When you cross her path, the most sadistic evil that the world has ever seen will be unleashed. Coming soon to the movie theater its....

Nightmare on Cat Street IV: Athena's Revenge!

(Move on over Freddy, this cat's got scissors!)

"Pet Tails": The Instigator

My cats are quite an interesting cast of characters. They have their own unique personalities. And of course....someone has to play the part of the instigator.

Now, I have written before how Sylvester will frequently appear out of no where when I am opening a package of sliced meat. This also has unintended consequences.

Oh, and it doesn't just apply for sliced meats. :)

For instance, on a break from work today when I stopped by the apartment I went to grab a snack. Thought I'd open the box of Froot Loops that I had gotten at the store, and was gonna get myself some to take into work to snack on. I had the box and was starting to open it.

At the same time I looked around and saw the cats here: my girls were laying over on a storage tote looking out a window, Porkey was laying on top of a cat jungle gym just behind the couch which is right behind me nearby my kitchenette area. Whiskers was laying on the bed, which I could see from where I was standing at at the counter. Sylvester? laying in an overturned clothes basket inside the bedroom to the left. Out of sight.

I grabbed the plastic bag inside the box of cereal and proceeded to open it.

RRRRiiiippppppppp!!! Apparently it made the same sound as a opening of a plastic pak of meat. Becuase before I knew it I heard him meow outloud, and come a running out. Had to see what I was doing. What I was getting. And if he coudl get any. As I proceeded to open it he kept on meowing and talking and calling out to me. As if to say "Jay, gimme some of dat!!" I tried to tell him to be quiet or the othe cats would begin to think that I had something for them....

Too late. The girls were now focused over looking at me. Porkey was awake and looking my way. Whiskers was awake on the bed staring at me, and then jumped off and proceeded to waddle his way out. haha.

Sylvester does this every time. Anytime he thinks I have something for them to eat...even when I DON'T....he'll get to talking. I dont speak cat talk too often, but I think part of that has to mean that he is trying to convince the other cats to come by.

It's as though he's calling in the reinforcements. Figuring if they all gathered around and looked sad...that I would have to give them some of whatever it is. And if its nothing for them to be eating....

Then I should get them something.