it's to be expected, i guess. everything on the floor is smudge's. that's the rule. purses, shopping bags, coats, laptop bags, pants, papers, mail, shoes...if you leave it laying on the floor, smudge will lie on it and claim it as his. so when we brought the wii fit home, it was no surprise that he immediately took to the box - wide and flat, it made the perfect couch, and he lounged on it frequently.
today, i decided to get off my butt and do some exercise. so i took the board out of its box. now there's another low flat item for smudge to claim. you can see how this poses a problem for me, as i need to stand on it quite often in order to use it.
we had to pull him off it several times as we were registering and weighing and doing the body test to get started. jeff tried holding him, but smudge twisted until he was hanging off jeff by two claws, and thereby secured his release. then he tried laying on the floor in front of it, but he leaned on it too much and threw the readings off.
my "step class" was lots of fun. every time i stepped off, he stepped on. the wii kept asking me if i was having trouble following the really simple instructions. by the end, i thought he tired of the territorial wars, because he went off to watch me from under the dining table. and then, he came at me at full gallop, thundering through the room, and trampled over my feet as he stormed over the board on his way past. i almost fell, and thank god i didn't, because it would be really embarrassing to show up at the ER with a broken ankle caused by cat stampede.
then i tried the ski jump. smudge sat right behind me, and every time i lifted my heels up, he pricked at them with one razor sharp claw. that's when i said "screw it, the thing is yours" and walked away.
poor kittehs. big snowstorm coming our way, and i am not spending it holed up at my mom's waiting for the stragglers to make it back, so i haven't let any of them outside since thursday. when i come by, dora just stands at the door and looks back at me with big sad eyes, and squeak runs from door to door, trying to anticipate which one i'll open.
poor smudge. he's been enjoying his catgrass quite a bit, and i've certainly noticed the difference in the litter box every morning. but he's also been meowing a lot when he goes. he'll go in and out a few times, meowing loudly, which makes me think he has to try several times, or maybe there's just so much? and what if the meowing is cries of pain?
that's it. catgrass in the garbage. i'd rather have a slightly constipated but pain-free kitty than one whose overactive bowels are making him miserable.
shakes has discovered the castle - and unlike squeak, we didn't have to pick him up and deposit him on it. (mainly because shakes won't let us touch him). but he loved it. minnie tried to get up there with him, but didn't quite make it.
squeak is healing up very nicely -- but he's going stir crazy. so last night jeff and i went out and bought him one of those platform trees. when he saw it, he sniffed it, he scratched it, he rubbed it, then he went crazy-eyed and tried to eat it. jeff put him in the top platform, and he ate the feathery dangly thing, and then fell asleep. i think he likes it.
that's me, official catsitter. my mother just left for a vacation, a whole week out of the country. and since i work for her, most people assume it's a vacation for me too. and it is, in a way, because it's so quiet here now. but it's also way more work for me. i now have to get here early to feed the cats and let them out, and i have to stay late to be sure they're all in for the night. right now it's 9:45 sunday morning, and while jeff is sleeping cozy in bed with smudge, here i am, on the computer at work because i just had to email her and tell her that i couldn't get through to the concierge at the apartment she's renting because the prepaid calling cards she left me talk to me in spanish and other than "numero no es valido" i have no idea what to do.
UPDATE: randi the cat lady came through again! when jeff dropped off little gray, he showed the guy there how nice gray was, rubbing against jeff's hand through the cage, and he called randi and convinced her gray was adoptable. so she pulled some strings, or begged, and got gray a slot at the cattery/adoption center. sure, it's costing us more money, but he'll be fully vetted and then put up for adoption. and if he never finds a permanent home, he can stay there, inside and warm and they're really good to the kittehs - lots of love. i'll miss him, but i'm so glad he's off the street.
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okay, not much time, hard at work today, but must post -- there's a feral tom that's been hanging around the last few months, we named him little gray (and not because of the character on gray's anatomy).
friday was a very bad day in smudge's world. every friday is pretty stressful for him, what with evil cleaning woman sofina coming, and that scary vacuum monster, and him locked up in his cage while they are stomping around his territory...but this friday was way worse.
shortly after he went into the cage and evil sofina got here, all hell broke loose. water started pouring from the bathroom ceiling and flooding the bathroom and the hallway. then it came pouring out of the hallway ceiling. and the bedroom. and the living room. daddy and evil sofina were running around taking things out of the bathroom and scooping water out of garbage cans. then that other man smudge hates, he comes to fix things and when he's here smudge has to go into the cage too, so he's almost as bad as evil sofina, well he came in with two other guys and they kept running in and out and smudge could hear them running around upstairs banging on things, and then they took down the bathroom ceiling, and some other man came in a suit, and he was telling the men what to do, and there were five people - interlopers - in smudgeland, and smudge could do nothing but watch from behind bars. for five hours.
so when everything calmed down, and everyone had finally left, jeff and i went out to the pet store, and we came home with a new crinkly frog to match the crinkly turtle smudge loves, and a new pot of catgrass.
and smudge was happy again.
a few points. first of all, i showed great restraint. i must have taken twenty videos, but i know you don't need to see fifteen minutes of a cat mowing grass. just please look at his fat tummy when he's eating the grass. you can see his belleh cleavage. and when he plays with froggie, he's so happy to have his new toy, that he doesn't do what he normally does with turtle. with the crunchy turtle, he does do the whole clasping it to his chest and rubbing his face all over it, but at the same time he also tries to disembowel it with his back legs. he started to do that a little bit here, but i think he was so happy with new frog, he didn't want to kill it just yet. he couldn't resist getting a few kicks in, though.
right now, juan and the two guys are back putting a new ceiling in the bathroom, and smudge is back in the cage again. i'll have to find some really good treats for when they're gone. i'll also have to be very sure they cleaned up completely, because when they leave behind little chunks of plaster, smudge eats them.
well, it wasn't paintballs. the bright pink was actually blood, which he had been licking from wounds and then licking the rest of his fur, dying it pinkish.
on thursday, squeak just laid around on the bathroom floor. he seemed to be ok, he was eating, and he purred and otherwise enjoyed strokes and scritches, but he just didn't want to move. at one point i saw him lean over to the food dish and pull it closer with his chin so he could eat without getting up. but really, we didn't see any wounds, he wasn't limping, we even held him and he was fine.
when we took him to the vet, it was immediately obvious something was wrong. as soon as he touched his back legs, squeak growled, hissed, swiped at and tried to bite the vet. sweet little squeak. clearly, he was in pain, and dr. josh couldn't even examine him. so we left him there and they would sedate him and see what was going on.
turns out, squeak got beat up pretty badly in a fight with another animal, something bigger than him, like a dog or a very large raccoon. his back legs were all bitten up, but the worst was his back, where the spine meets the ribs. he's badly bruised there, and there's some torn muscle. the vet even took x-rays, half expecting to see a broken back.
squeak has been there since, and will stay another night. they're soaking his wounds several times a day to keep infection away, and the poor little guy is still in a lot of pain, even with the painkillers they keep giving him. the prognosis is good, he should be fine, it'll just take a while and he'll be in pain until...well, until he's not. dr. josh said imagine if you were beaten up by a baseball bat, you'd hurt too.
oh, this is just breaking my heart. i mean, i'm relieved there's no permanent or serious damage, but it's killing me to think of the sweet little guy hurting.
twice in the past week, squeak has come home bright pink. like fuschia. it comes off with a wet paper towel. and last night he came home not only pink, but unable to climb the stairs - like he's sore all over. jeff thinks someone is shooting him with paintballs. who would do such a thing?
