Jul 142009
 

Mark my words, within a year this cat will be queen of our house. And I suspect she will have claimed The Director as her own particular human.

Alpha Geek gave her supper while I was gone. But he’s not an early riser by nature, and I’ve taught her not to meow at our bedroom door. So for the last four days she’s been waking The Director up for her breakfast.

She still doesn’t like to be picked up, but she’ll tolerate it for a moment while you move her to your lap (because she knows there will be petting). The Director is a little guy, and still getting the hang of picking up a cat; sometimes he picks her up in an awkward bundle of legs sticking out of his arms. She’ll give a meow to let him know she’s not enjoying it, but then just hang there and wait until he sits down and starts with the petting.

Duchess

Every morning we get to discover what she’s found to play with during the night. One morning she had murdered my feather duster. Another, I found some kind of cord on the staircase—I have no idea what it’s from. Once I left a scrunchie out on the end table. She had a ball with that, it was completely unraveled by morning.

Her absolute favorite toy so far is a handmade potholder The Director made years ago, one of those where the kid weaves loops on a loom to make Mom a tiny little potholder. It was too small to use, so I hung it on the pantry door.

Anything dangling is fair game for this cat. She pulled it down one night and has loved playing with it. It’s big enough to get a good hold on, with a good texture for claws to hold, and soft enough to be fun for wrestling. It’s a wonderful cat toy. The Director was delighted that his handmade craft became her specially favored toy.

 Posted by at 6:36 am  Tagged with:
Jul 052009
 

Yesterday I introduced Duchess to the Bad Kitty bottle.

Haven’t really needed it up till now. Once she got up on the table, and once she experimentally began clawing the carpet—both times I clapped my hands sharply and she immediately stopped the unwanted behavior and didn’t do it again.

But in the mornings, she’s on the other side of the bedroom door. Meowing. She learned quickly that the alarm means I’ll be coming out and giving her breakfast and petting. If the alarm doesn’t go off at a time she feels is reasonable, she’ll start meowing for me.

The time she feels I should be coming out to pet her has been getting earlier and earlier.

Yesterday she started meowing for me at a quarter to five in the morning.

I’m normally fairly patient with critters. Even when they’re being annoying, they aren’t doing it maliciously. But at five in the morning I am not a patient person. Enough is enough already. I retrieved the Bad Kitty bottle and gave her a squirt of water. She disappeared down the hall.

Twenty minutes later she tried again. Other behaviors I’d put a stop to immediately, but she’s been doing this one a while so she didn’t get the hint as quickly. She got another squirt.

It took her three tries, but she got the idea. She left me alone to sleep.

The Bad Kitty bottle seems to have worked quite well; this morning she remembered not to wake me up for food and attention.

Instead she woke up my son.

*sigh*

 Posted by at 12:27 pm  Tagged with:

Should have named her Tigger

 Cat Tales, Geek Wannabe, General  Comments Off on Should have named her Tigger
Jun 302009
 

The wonderful thing about Tiggers
Is Tiggers are wonderful things.
Their tops are made of rubbers
The bottoms are made of springs.
They’re
Bouncy,
Flouncy,
Trouncy,
Pouncy,
Fun, fun, fun, fun, FUN!!!

She’s quite at home these days, and she wants to play. And play. And play. First thing in the morning, she’s dashing up and down the hall. She pounces on my hairbrush. She attacks my shoelaces. She literally climbs the walls—the light or shadow of something on a high shelf intrigues her, and she keeps trying to jump up to catch it.

She’s been very attached to me (can’t help it, I’m a cat magnet) and somewhat skittish of the boys. Particularly Alpha Geek and The Artist, because they’re both very tall, and tall = scary. Once they sit down she’ll come over, but when they’re standing she skitters away. She’s also been wary of The Director, because he’s a wiggly, energetic, in-your-face kind of kid and she’s not used to any kind of kid.

She has greatly warmed up to The Director, though, because she’s discovered that he’s the one person in the household who has the energy to play with her as much as she wants. He’ll run the laser pointer for as long as she’s willing to chase it. He improvises toys by tying Lego tires onto string for her. He drags things for her to chase and dangles things for her to catch.

If I could only bottle their energy, I’d be a millionaire, I tell you.

 Posted by at 2:16 pm  Tagged with:
Bear