naptime

nobody@vox.com(carriegood) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:34:44 -0500

smudge spends a good percentage of his naptime in our bed, up against my pillows. (it's not uncommon to walk into the bedroom and find... not a cat, but a depression in the bed the size of a giant salad bowl, evidencing his recent departure.)

jeff took these pics. look, my baby takes after me -- i also sleep with my mouth open.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

however, i usually keep my eyes closed. smudge is fully asleep in the below pic:

Eyes wide open

and here he is upon waking, all sweetness and floof:

Bunnybelleh

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community service

nobody@vox.com(carriegood) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:09:55 -0500

jeff subscribes to a community bulletin board service -- he gets a lot of freelance jobs that way. and he sent me a post from a woman who says she thinks she found someone's small grey and black cat with a collar who has been hanging out by her house.

hmmm. sounds like someone i know.

Just hangin'

he isn't technically "lost" as of today, because he was inside last night, and hanging out on mom's deck all morning. so I emailed her and asked if she lives at the end of my mother's street, which is where we often find him when he's out on a jaunt. it would be great if every time he's missing for a couple of days or more, we can call her and ask her to send him on home. keep your fingers crossed and maybe we'll have a remote scout for our frequent squeak-searches.

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a milestone

nobody@vox.com(carriegood) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:03:28 -0500

smudge sleeps with us every night, but it's mainly at the far corner of the bed. oh, sure, occasionally he climb's up onto jeff's chest for attention. but for the most part, he stays down by the feet. i could never get him to snuggle up next to or between us like every other cat i have ever had.

the last few months, smudge would sometimes go and lie alongside jeff, on the outside edge of the bed, but that would only be for a few minutes, and of course never with me.

until this morning, when he woke me with a timid meow and laid down alongside me so i was spooning him. he even wriggled around so my arm would be around him and resting against his belly. and he slept there until i got up, and that was only because i absolutely had to get up for work.

yay! i have a real cat! it only took, what? ...four years? (and don't think the old smudge is gone. yesterday he sat at my feet and for no reason just leapt straight up and bit into my hand.)

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everybody, on the count of three...

nobody@vox.com(carriegood) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:49:40 -0500

...think really hard: "SQUEAK! get your butt home, pronto!"

He's only been out 2 consecutive nights, and the weather has been so nice, so I'm not particularly worried,* but my mother is making me nuts.

Every other time I blogged that squeak was gone, he showed up within hours, so I'm asking you all to harness the power of the internet and send squeak a homing signal.

-------------------

*(Okay, I say I'm not worried, but last night I had a dream that squeak jumped into my mother's car when she was unloading from costco and then he was trapped inside for two days until we thought to look. So obvs. it's weighing on my mind a bit.)

UPDATE: well, the internet helps those who help themselves. One hour after this post, mom got fed up and walked down the street with a container of crunchies. she actually walked past him and he came out from a bush and meowed to get her attention. then she shook those crunchies like they were the pied piper's flute and led him home.

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a holistic approach

nobody@vox.com(carriegood) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:19:25 -0500

"I'm very glad you asked me that, Mrs Rawlinson. The term `holistic' refers to my conviction that what we are concerned with here is the fundamental interconnectedness of all things. . . . I see the solution to each problem as being detectable in the pattern and web of the whole. The connections between causes and effects are often much more subtle and complex than we with our rough and ready understanding of the physical world might naturally suppose, Mrs Rawlinson." (Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency)

i don't know that everything in the universe is interconnected. i am sure my husband doesn't. and here is why i am sure:

jeff always keeps a container of sugar free licorice next to the couch. in addition to being a big fan of licorice, he also likes the fact that the sugar free variety is an effective...um, digestive aid. so he feels like he has a medicinal justification for eating a few pieces every night. [this is not TMI, jeff. it's a fact of life for all of us. go ask jamie lee curtis.]

10:30pm: jeff gives smudge a large piece of sugar free black licorice. smudge inhales it. laughing, jeff marvels at the fact that smudge enjoys sugar free black licorice. he says "here's another smudgie, but that's it." smudge makes that one disappear just as quickly. then he jumps onto jeff's table and lays down next to the container of licorice. jeff laughs some more. (so do i, but i also wonder if sugar free black licorice can really be a good food for a cat.)

11:00pm: jeff goes to the front closet and says "oh no! i think i just stepped in cat shit! i think this is cat shit! this is cat shit!!!!"

and it doesn't immediately occur to him that there is a definite cause and effect in play here.

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grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

nobody@vox.com(carriegood) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:46:00 -0500

squeak has always been a very sweet-natured, even-tempered cat. He may occasionally swat at one of the others, but it usually seems just because someone is messing with him, or his clumsy attempt to initiate play. He will normally just avoid situations he doesn't want to be in, like when he takes a circuitous route to the door to keep far away from a tom who's been hanging out on the deck.

Even when my mother grabs him up and moochers him, squeezing and baby-talking him to death, he doesn't struggle. He just calmly waits to be let go.

So it's noteworthy that last week, he was sleeping with mom when dora came in and jumped on the bed -- and squeak growled at him menacingly during the approach, then hissed. A few days later, he was again in bed, stretched out by her hip, half awake, and dora settled in next to her shoulder, prompting another angry hiss.

This cat has only hissed once, when he had an infected wound and the vet tried to examine it.

Last night, mom had four cats in bed with her, squeak occupying the place of honor, and at one point shakes might have been purring too loudly and squeak growled his displeasure.

Our hypothesis is that after all the nights he spends outside, he's used to sleeping defensively, and any animal that approaches him is assumed to be a threat. So when someone wakes him up or comes near him in bed, he automatically growls or hisses to warn the potential attacker away.

It's just sad, because he always got along so well with everyone, and was often curled up with one or another of the guys, and I'm afraid that now he's just going to be known as the crabby a-hole nobody wants to sleep with.

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shake it off, carrie

nobody@vox.com(carriegood) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:44:11 -0500

i had a bad cat-related dream last night. well, it started out fine, oddly enough, with us hanging out at my mother's house, with the whole family plus ben affleck and matt damon (i have no idea), possibly watching tv after thanksgiving dinner. after that, it took a bad turn. bad. bad. really bad. i won't get graphic, but it involved horrible injury to all three of my mother's feral littermates: dora, minnie and shakes.

at the point where i found dora -- laying there trembling, dying, looking up at me with the pointy little catface i see everyday, except seemingly saying "how could you let this happen?" -- i woke up, just like in a bad movie...shaking, gasping, completely freaked out. and i just couldn't get normal. i wasn't just grossed out or sad, i was terrified. i had to wake jeff so he could hug me, so he could maybe physically pull me back to the real world, and i cried hysterically, which is something i've never done in my life from a bad dream.

it took me about an hour to fall back asleep, and now all day, every time i close my eyes i see those kittehs, and especially dora's sad eyes as his life ebbed away. i just can't stop thinking about it.

what the hell was that about? and how do i get it out of my head?

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direct message to squeak.

nobody@vox.com(carriegood) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:13:16 -0500

just because every time i write that a particular cat has been AWOL, he comes strolling home, i'm putting this message out there:

SQUEAK! Your mommy wants you to check in at home! I know you spent all day inside yesterday when it rained. But then you didn't sleep at home last night, and she misses you. And I'm sick of hearing "my baby's not home" every twenty minutes. So bring your cockeyed head home, eat a little, let her moocher you a few minutes, and then you can go back to wherever it is you go for days at a time. OK?

i'll update when he comes home -- let's see how long it takes. synchronize your watches: it's now 2:13pm.

UPDATE: 4:58 - it's either Leenda's voxy juju, or my sending dora out to give him the message -- one of those worked, because he was waiting by the back door. and he wants to go back out, but i'm going to slip out without letting him.

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come home, dora-doodle.

nobody@vox.com(carriegood) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:54:30 -0400

my mother left last night for a business trip. i fed the cats at 6, and got them inside for the night. all except dora, who i hadn't seen since about 3 or 4. i felt terrible, but when he hadn't come back by 7, i had to go home.

when i got here this morning, there was still no sign of dora. now it's almost 4 and i keep checking, but he hasn't shown up yet.

damn it, dora! get your butt home now!

IMG_2278

UPDATE: well, the only explanation i have is that dora has a blackberry, and he saw my post. because it is now approximately 12 minutes later, and when i went to let minnie out, guess who strolled in?

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the wacky wonderful world of smudge.

nobody@vox.com(carriegood) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:55:10 -0400

joel came over yesterday. he's one of the few humans willing to set foot in our apartment, and it's only so that jeff will fix his computer. smudge started out with his usual intimidation tactics, but joel doesn't take shit from a cat. for the most part, he would ignore smudge, and keep a water bottle nearby just in case. so over YEARS, smudge has gotten slightly more tolerant of the fact that this human has entered his domain and still draws breath. i think the last time joel was here, smudge gave a few half-hearted chatters, and then stalked off to stare at him from a distance.

and this time...smudge flopped down on joel's feet and rubbed himself all over his sneakers.

Hi joel

Mind if i crawl up your leg

of course, the honeymoon was over when joel left, then realized he forgot something and came back in. smudge was a hissing ball of fury, throwing himself at the very same sneakers he had loved earlier in a frenzied attack. a cat has his limits, i guess.

last night, jeff and i re-made the bed, so of course smudge came barreling in to take position under the sheet as it floated down over him. i love how he thinks he's such a freaking invisible ninja under there, attacking through the sheet. so we pulled the sheet back and tucked him in properly.

Make the bed

Tucked in

you know how smudge jumps up on my desk and tries biting me, and i push him away, and he jumps onto jeff's chair and lays on his back, grabs one arm, and frantically rubs his face on the arm? you know it's just the standard cat-tactic, where he's trying to be aggressively cute so that i am forced to reach out and touch his belleh and he can then sink his fangs into my wrist. but i realized that after a few minutes of the squirming, he just lays there, totally still, staring off into the middle distance...he's playing dead. i think he's trying to make me think he's dead, and therefore completely harmless, so of course i'll try to touch him and then he can bite me. (you know, it might work a little better if he isn't so excited that his tail keeps thrashing around while he's playing possum, but still, you have to admire his ingenuity.)

Playing dead

can i just point out the fat-belly cleavage above? can you see it there, below the "vest button"?

Just plain crazeeee

and to close this post, a little contrast. i get the crazy "i'll pretend to be roadkill so i can bite BITE BITE her!" smudge, and jeff gets the "i just wuv you so much, daddy" smudge.

No more puter - love me NOW

yeah, that sounds fair.

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