Check THIS link out, everyone!
Anderson Cooper is now officially available for adoption! Thanks to Shana for sending me the link.
It looks like he's at Jones and Co in Marysville, WA, one of Noah's satellite adoption locations. I hope he finds a special family because he's one special boy!
Still waiting on kittens, folks. Like I said before, we're at the top of the list, so the next ones that come through the door are ours. I've said this before too,,, it's always a good thing when there are no kittens coming into the shelter.
Thanks for being patient.
So while we're waiting for kittens,, tell me a funny cat story. I know you've got one. Let's give everyone some good stories to read in the comment section.
What do you say?
OOH! Anderson Cooper? I need to check him out! As for funny cat stories...
ReplyDeleteWhen my Zozo was a wee little baby with a huge sense of entitlement, one day I was standing at the kitchen counter looking for jobs in the paper. (It was that long ago - you still looked in the paper.) She circled my feet peeping at me to me picked up. "Give me a minute, kitten." Meow meow meow. "Just a second." Meow meow meow. Finally she got sick of waiting, launched into the air, and simultaneously clawed and bit me on the rump. I thought my mom was going to choke, she laughed so hard.
Funny kitty stories? I don't know about stories, but I can share tidbits from my own batch of furbabies. Like -
ReplyDeleteThe time my orange boy terrified a vet tech. I'd had to board my kitties for a day or so at the vet - they needed shots and so forth, and my apartment complex was spraying pesticide that day. I'd left each of them with a toy or two and a towel to curl up on so they'd be more comfortable. Well, when I went to pick them up, the vet tech comes out wide-eyed "I can't find the orange one!" (She brought out the other two.) So I went into the back with her, thinking, "I bet I know where he is." Sure enough, he'd rolled himself in the towel and was hiding in a corner of the cage. The poor tech thought he had run off!
It's because of that same cat that I use a hard drive platter to hold my fridge door closed. He's strong and big enough - and smart enough - to open the fridge door.
Ah yes. Curator's story made me think of one. My friend fosters for the ASPCA in Las Vegas, NV. The batch of kittens she had on this particular visit were a hilarious and adorable bunch. Cinnamon was a meek little seal point, entirely too curious for her own good. Several of us were standing around shooting the breeze, and M was standing by a chair. Nobody noticed a curious little Cinnamon climbing her way up to the chair. She climbs all the way up the back and starts sniffing at M's jeans, then jumps onto her rear end, clinging with two sets of claws for dear life. The rest of us keeled over dying of laughter.
ReplyDeleteMy cat gave me a Mother's Day gift one year and its now a family joke. I'm not one for breakfast in bed, in fact, I normally get up before anyone else in the house and enjoy the quiet before the storm of the day. This Mother's Day was no exception and I just made my cup of tea and was settling into my comfy chair ready to enjoy the sunlight streaming in the window and the stillness. My cat, Hemmingway, jumps up on the ottoman but instead of curling up with me, he gives me this intense stare, like he wants my attention. When I give it to him, he coughs up this giant hairball without further ado, then sits back, like he's saying "There! For you!" He has never done this before or since! Gee, um.. thanks Hemmingway!
ReplyDeleteInstead of telling you a story, I will share many. I blog when I feel like it. I blogged a lot last summer. You can click on over and fall in love with me...
ReplyDeletefatcataccess.blogspot.com
I am already friends with Charlene on Facebook.
Oh Curator and This Space for Rent your stories are so cute. They reminded me of my sweet Molly McButter. She's a beautiful petite silver tabby girl with hints of peach in her light fur. She's kind of shy around humans most of the time. That is unless it's snack time. Molly, apparently, has a pocket watch b/c she has snack time down to the exact minute it's supposed to happen. She magically appears at the appropriate time and demands her snack. She starts by rubbing on your leg. Then jumps up to eye level and gently head bumps you all the while drooling on whatever you happen to be working on. Should you manage to somehow ignore this command performance, Molly works her way behind you, revs up and gives you a good shove on the rump with both front paws. Sometimes that shove if accompanied with a light nip if she's especially impatient. The message is quite clear don't ya think?
ReplyDeleteOh, Anderson is such a handsome little guy! I hope he finds a greeeeeat home. :)
ReplyDeleteI have recently adopted a tiny kitty to make friends with my big beautiful lady Agatha. His name is Arthur (that's right - Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle). He is a tiny ball of pure energy, and runs around like crazy all the time. One time I was working out in my treadmill watching Glee and Arthur got closer and closer. At first, I thought he was just going to be scared of the moviment, but no. He attacked the treadmill with all his guts, scaringthe hell out of me - and himself too! :)
I adopted Einstein out of a cardboard box in front of the grocery store over Thanksgiving weekend. This teeny tiny torbie terror got her name the following Monday when I went back to work. I only worked 5 minutes away, so I ran home at lunchtime to check on her. After searching the house frantically for several minutes, I found her underneath the refrigerator and had to pry off the grill on the front so she could escape. She ran as fast as she could... straight to the litter box. "Smooth move, Einstein"... it stuck.
ReplyDeleteA guy who I had recently met expressed interest in meeting Einstein the crazy kitten. We got married two years later in a city 4 hours away. The woman who managed the catering hall had adopted her cat from a cardboard box in front of a grocery store in the same town on the same Thanksgiving weekend. Apparently, she had adopted my wild child's sister.
I had just adopted my old-man cat Gus, and his first couple of days were spent mostly hiding/sniffing around cautiously. Definitely not much snuggling. I was living alone in my early 20's at the time, and had a slightly irrational fear of home invasion. On Gus's second night home, I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of heavy breathing in my bedroom. I was petrified - I thought my worst fears were coming true. Suddenly the heavy breathing turned into...snoring? I sat up in bed and found Gus cuddled up next to me, snoring away. Relief + cuteness!! After that, Gus slept next to me every night until he passed away five years later. His kitty cat snores became the best white noise ever. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm the happy kitty-mom to a 3yo maine coon boy and a 5mo siamese kitten, and boy do I have some funny albeit moments with my pair. Every since we brought the kitten home, he and the maine coon have been inseparable. Everytime we take the kitten to the vet the maine coon is lost without him. It's just so adorable to see how much they love each other :) They will even snuggle up together and clean each other. I'm also a mom of twin boys and my husband says the maine coon and siamese are just like twins from different moms. Love my funny kitties!
ReplyDeleteMy old boy Barnabas was three years old when I met my husband and five when we married. B was a real character and soon adopted his new slave. DH loved him back but hated the way B would demand his breakfast loudly if we got up a second after he thought we should. He also would then walk away without tasting the food (I told DH it was normal feline behaviour!) and it drove DH mad. He threatened to buy him Farmstores cat food, the cheapest muck you could get. One day, he actually did buy a tin and used to wave it threateningly at B. One day, B woke us up and just wouldn't shut up, then he started knocking things off the dressing table and DH was so mad he got up and opened the tin of Farmstores just to teach B a lesson. So, all you cat people can guess; B tucked right in, making chomp-slurp noises and clearing his plate! The best bit was watching DH's face!
ReplyDeleteI was the only human in the house on a cold winter night. This was when I shared a tiny house in the middle of the woods in upstate New York with my sister. She was away for the weekend, so I decided to watch some of the scary movies she didn't care for. I popped "Black Christmas" into the DVD player and curled up on the couch.
ReplyDeleteIt got darker and darker, and colder and colder, but I was too engrossed in the movie to get up and turn on a light or turn up the heater.
The policeman in the move had no sooner gotten out the words, "The call is coming from inside the house!" when the house was filled with a horrible grinding noise. I screamed at the top of my lungs, knowing that there was nobody within miles to hear me.
After a minute I could tell that the noise was coming from the kitchen. I cautiously peeked around the doorway to see that I had forgotten to unplug the blender, and Mr. Whiskers had climbed on the counter and pressed the "on" button. Poor cat must have thought I lost my marbles.
P.S. - the carafe was on the blender at the time; Mr. W. was nowhere near exposed blender blades.
ReplyDeleteAnderson Cooper is a very handsome mancat - love the picture.
ReplyDeleteLoved reading the stories. We have a snorer in this house too. And mom cracked up at the blender story.
Too many things to think about last night, but when mom checked her email last night after getting home, Malay sat right in front of the screen staring intently at that moving cursor. :)
Allie (along with the rest of my cats) has a strange fascination with plastic grocery bags. One time I was replacing lightbulbs in the basement (why do they all burn out at once?)and putting the old ones in a bag. I paused to do something with laundry and foolishly left the bag on the floor. Next I heard rustling and as I ran for the bag, Allie panicked and ran with the bag handles caught around her neck. She ran up the stairs, circled the kitchen island and the dining room table, scattering bits of lightbulb as she went, and finally ended up under the buffet. Since there were no injuries it's kind of funny, but what a mess! This hasn't cured her of the bag fascination either.
ReplyDeleteThis is a borrowed cat story. My previous boss raised Persians, and they were used to turning on the kitchen faucet themselves to get a drink (it was one of those with a push down lever.) My boss was going on vacation and didn't want to have to worry about water running, so she taped the faucet so the lever wouldn't go down. The cats got so mad that not only did they jump on the lever so hard it broke all the tape and turned the water on full blast, they also threw paper towels into the sink to block the drain. My boss came home to a flooded house -- and some very smug cats.
ReplyDeleteOur 6 year old cat loves Youtube videos of other cats, or birds. She (Clover) watches for awhile, then gets up to look closer, then looks around the computer screen and behind the screen trying to touch and sniff watch she is seeing.
ReplyDeletePS: Thank you for your blog, it brightens my day!
I just adopted my year old guy Dashiell about a month ago. He is a total joy, but we are having some issues with sleeping. Starting around 3AM, he wants my attention, so he curls up on my pillow and alternately places his paws (no claws) on my eyes until I wake up and give him the scratches he so desperately needs. He'll do this a couple times a night. Not great for my sleep habits, but so damn adorable.
ReplyDeleteAbout a month after we adopted Roxie, she decided that when my husband came in through our front door one morning, she was going out to see the big world outside our windows :) She slipped through the door just as it was closing.
ReplyDeleteI had just gotten out of the shower and was still in the bathroom with one towel wrapped around me and one wrapped around my hair. He's yelling at me to come out as Roxie got outside. I grabbed the Temptations treat bag and out the door I go.
I'm running around our front yard and driveway trying to coax Roxie over to me with the treats..she is happily rolling around on the driveway..my husband is trying to stay ahead of her to stop her from going on the road or neighbours yards.
I am trying to keep the towel on me from falling off, the towel on my head from falling off and shake the treats and talk Roxie into coming closer. We finally got her cornered by our front door and when she went to scoot past my husband, she hit my arm..most of the treats went flying everywhere, the towel around my head fell down in front of my eyes and well....I was out of hands at that point. My husband got a hold of her, opened the door and unceremoniously deposited her back in the house, I dropped the rest of the treats, retrieved my towel and then we sat on the front step laughing and waiting for the birds to swoop in for the cat treats.
I'm sure the neighbours got a good laugh watching us running around the yard..and more than they bargained for when my towel fell off!!
Of course, when we went back inside, Roxie is sitting in the front window washing her face with a look that said "That was fun, can we do it again??"
I've got a new foster. Norman is 3 years old and getting over a nasty URI. He lost a ton of weight while he was sick, so he's acutally smaller than the 6 month old kitten.
ReplyDeleteHe was staying in the bathroom isolation ward during his recovery. He decided that he liked the bathtub to sleep in. So I obligingly piled old towels and sheets into the tub so he would be comfortable.
One evening I came into the bathroom to take a bath. He was out of the tub and chilling on the floor. I pulled out all the linen in the tub and started the water. The tub was 1/3 full when Stormin' Norman decided he wanted to take a nap. Without a pause, he jumped from the floor and into the tub. :)
He would like me to inform you that he planned it that way. He also would like to note that it's impolite for foster parents to laugh at poor and sickly fosters.
I was a kitten foster for several years for the Dane County Humane Society in Madison Wi. My last kitten was Keegan he came to me very ill and had lost his mom at less then 1 week. http://www.flickr.com/photos/22704725@N07/5468305069/in/set-72157623843918521/
ReplyDeleteI also had been fostering a 16 year old sweet lady Madeline Rose http://www.flickr.com/photos/22704725@N07/4567591063/in/set-72157623843940485/.
As well as having Madison who is the queen and alpha cat of the home. http://www.flickr.com/photos/22704725@N07/3157870775/in/set-72157608164707013/
My Grandfather passed away and we were inundated with family from out of town. Madison and Keegan got along ok before but during this time Madison became protective of him unless he had the "cat crazies". However at 2 months old Keegan was just too much for Miss Madeline Rose.
The day of the funeral we had many people here at my home. All three cats curled up and hid in my bedroom something they had never done before.
When I went to check on them Keegan was jumping on my bed like a jumping bean while Madeline Rose was curled up trying to sleep.
I was going in to intervene when Madeline Rose with all dignity of 16 year old queen cat stood up slowly with her arthritic hips walked over to Keegan and bopped him on his nose. He tried to run around her and she bopped him again. The third time she kept her paw on his nose until he slowly laid down looking up at her. She kept her paw there until he knew she meant business then she laid down close to him and snuggled him in tight. She had never allowed before. After that when Keegan was in need of comfort he would come to Madeline Rose until we lost her this summer. To this day if Keegan is getting out of hand Madison will hold her paw over his nose like Madeline Rose did.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22704725@N07/4452249075/in/set-72157623543050303/
Well, one of my very favorite: I was pet-sitting a classmate's hamster - it was a school hamster, and during summer vacation. I have two cats, and one of them is an adamant huntress of stuffed animals.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, to protect the poor hammy, I put him in my study room and kept the door closed. Boy, those cats were not happy to be excluded from what they were sure was a tuna-fish-salad party.
One day, Jonah, my little orange tabby, scooted into the room with me. Before I had the chance, he jumped up on the desk to examine this little intruder.
I held my breath, expecting him to pounce on the cage, or at least start batting at it.
Instead, he and the hamster took a long look at each other. "What are you?" I swear was in their faces.
And then they booped noses.
Awwww.
I scooped up my little rascal and praised him for being such a good boy....
My mother was up visiting once, when my Babycat was actually still a baby (and a tiny terror at that!). Mom was half asleep waiting for her coffee to brew one morning when Babycat got just too interested in the movement of the drawstrings on her pajama pants and made a leap to bat at them.
ReplyDeleteNot sure my mom needed the coffee after that.
On a sweeter note, my Nim seems to understand enough of what's going on to locate his sisters for me when they've been missing when I asked. Sam (RIP) got accidentally trapped in a dresser drawer one day, and Babycat once hid herself in this platform my mattress sits on. He 'told' me where they were in moments after I started going, "Nim, where's ____? Where's ____?'
Last night I couldn't get to sleep and I kept thinking about you waiting for kittens... so I made up a bunch of songs, like "Send in the kittens, there have to be kittens... " (send in the clowns) and a million other. So silly.
ReplyDeleteHow about funny cat pictures? This is my (rescue) boy Lincoln, wanting to get at the wild turkey(s).
ReplyDeletehttp://www.facebook.com/album.php?fbid=1138192574635&id=1222008517&aid=22577#!/photo.php?fbid=1881678241312&set=a.1138192574635.22577.1222008517&theater
in the meantime, how about some more Bean. I never get tired of the Bean!
ReplyDeleteHis name was Badfinger (19 white toes, 1 black). He was born near the main library at Yale to Mollie Bloom. B.F. became a commuter cat, days at the family business, nights at home being bottle fed. Most fun we had was when he was commuting to work and my step-dad turned on the back wiper blade to give him something to chase. Can't tell you how many near accidents we caused with this trick but it beat having him on the dash, blocking the driver's view or stepping on the turn signal as he got up there!
ReplyDeleteI am so disappointed of my cat haha
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CduMUTbPsi4
My Mousebait showed up when my mother was dying; he was only 5-6 weeks old (according to the vet) -- stealing the visiting wolfhound's kibble! I caught him and brought him in to see her, and she laughed and said "Oh, I see how it is; you're trading me in for another cat!"
ReplyDeleteHe was a darling, and so itsybitsy. Until he grew, and ended up an inch taller and 3 inches longer than the next biggest cat; I think it was the wolfhound chow!
The first time my husband (to-be at that time) came over for dinner, we were sitting on couches in the living room and Mousebait crept up next to P, reached over, and casually grabbed an entire pork chop.
6 months later my neighbor had caught a feral mama cat and was finding homes for the kittens, and I brought Aodhan home.
Mousebait immediately decided this was his baby and washed and loved him.
And *nursed* him -- I heared the funniest noise a few days later, and there was Aodhan suckling on Mousebait as he got a thorough bath.
Mousebait was the most patient mama in the world, too; he didn't wean Aodhan until he was over a year old, and they were best buddies all Mousebait's life (he passed over 4 years ago).
Aodhan will be 17 this spring, and while he's never nursed any of the others, he's an excellent uncle cat and loves and washes everyone and tussles with them like a much younger cat.
Hee hee, does Anderson Cooper come with his own vehicle? ;)
ReplyDeleteI'd say the funniest thing I've ever seen our kitty Meow Meow do is startle when Dieter moved his (giant) foot while sitting at the kitchen table. Meow Meow likes to hang around when we're eating to beg for a lap, but she wasn't expecting his moccasin to come alive. She hopped sideways, knocking a nearby garbage can a foot to the right, and then looked sheepish. I think she realized mid-startle that Dieter's foot was ... well, just his foot.
As a teen girl, I had a male tabby named Beesh. He was VERY attached to me, and the feeling was mutual. In my house at the time was an old princess style phone where the handset sat on a Y shaped mechanism that pushed down into the phone's base to hang up the phone. As I was a teen I was often on the phone with boys. Beesh hated this and would yowl at me whenever he heard a male voice on the phone. One night I was having an argument with my boyfriend and suddenly the phone disconnects! I look at the base of the phone, and there was Beesh with his paws on the Y mechanism, pushing it down. My cat had hung up on my boyfriend! The boyfriend had a hard time believing that excuse.
ReplyDeleteMy kitty Star (14, solid gray with a tiny white star on her chest) is not fond of too many people, mostly my husband. And me when he's not around (and she's supposed to be MY cat!) My niece moved in a few months ago and Star doesn't care for her much. Except for her hair! She's always loved wet hair and will roll on it if you let her and rub her face all over your head getting all tangled up in it. She acts like it's catnip! But with my niece, she doesn't care if it's wet or dry, if she gets the chance, she will rub all over her hair and even hold her head still with her paws so she can shove her face in the locks! That's the only thing she likes about the niece.
ReplyDeleteAt least that's what I thought.. The other day Star trotted upstairs in front of me like she usually does, heaven forbid I go to a different floor without her escort! She headed straight into the nieces room. I peek in and see that my niece must have stepped out of her jeans and left them in the middle of the floor and there's star.. grabbing them with both paws and trying to roll over with them! She must have laid there, clawing and trying to roll over and chew on them for 5 minutes. All I could do was watch and laugh! Do I have a new home business: cat distressed jeans?!
As adorable as Anderson Cooper is, I'm not sure I want a feline that could drive off with my car. :)
ReplyDeleteMy former cat Truman was the sweetest, snuggliest love bug ever. He was such a good, obedient cat. He was also the most skilled escape artist I've ever met. I'd frequently be woken up at 3am to him yowling on the front porch and have no idea he was gone or how he got out. I swear he could teleport! One day he made a bid for freedom by jumping out a second story window. He landed on my car and jumped off to the ground. You could almost hear him singing that George Michael song! I caught his sister, Rocky, on the outside ledge about to join him. I managed to get her inside safely, but chased him for 20 minutes before I caught him to come in. (We lived on a busy street) I still to this day can't believe that laid back cat did that.
It was really, humid and hot the night my polydactal tuxedo kitten, Boo! decided that he needed to share me with the rest of the world.
ReplyDeleteWe lived in a third floor apartment that overlooked not only a parking lot but an identical building across the way, and more apartments in the bottom of the "u" between us.
We had been sleeping all night in the living room with the patio storm door open and the screen door closed in the hopes of catching a breeze when as it came across the small porch.
Dawn broke and the birds started doing what they do at that hour and they were too much temptation for my Booberry, he took a running jump for the top of the screen, knocking it out of the frame. The noise woke me to find him and the door teetering across the porch's wrought iron railing, ready to topple three stories!
Without a moment's thought I ran out onto the patio to grab the door, Boo!'s extra claw's were doing a fine job of holding onto the screen, I was doing a fine job of hauling it all back in then I looked around to see neighbors leaving for the early shift and someone having a cigarette on the balcony across the way.
Did I mention that I slept naked that night??? Thanks, Boo!, I miss you.
This isn't so much funny as it is sweet. My now deceased cat Grover and I were best buds and we were familiar with each others routines. In good weather, we would go for a morning walk outside together so he could sniff the fence and I could drink my coffee. We would settle in at night and not get up until the morning. One night, my nephew called and told me that I had to get up at 2 in the morning to go look at the lunar eclipse. Being the cool Aunt that I am, I promised him that I would and set the alarm. At 2 am, the alarm went off and I struggled out of bed, put my coat on and went outside to look at the moon. Grover was not impressed. He was very nervous about my moving around and did not like that I went outside. We never go outside during the night. He started making circles around me and made the circles closer and closer. When he got close to the house he meowed at me and kept going with the circles. I realized that he was trying to herd me back into the house. I obliged and he happily curled up and went to sleep on me again. I'm sure he was thinking how hard it was to keep his person under control.
ReplyDeleteOnce when I was very carfully blocking a new hand knit shawl, carefully placing the T-pins around the bottom, I looked up to see Moo, my 5-year old domestic smarty very carfully unpinning the top of the shawl. I took pictures for proof!
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to tell a story about Melly without acting it out since hers is a very physical brand of comedy, so here is a little anecdote about Scarlett:
ReplyDeleteScarlett likes to find a sock, usually one left carelessly next to the bed in the morning, and carry it into the entryway of the apartment. Once there, she drops the sock and wails like a banshee to announce its presence. Yesterday, I heard Scarlett’s telltale howl and went to the foyer to retrieve the sock and put it in the laundry hamper. Except it wasn’t a sock – it was one of my, shall we say, more delicate undergarments.
The laundry hamper was closed, the dresser drawers were shut; where she got it remains a mystery.
First - if Anderson Cooper from CNN is googling himself, he has to be laughing about someone being able to adopt him lol.
ReplyDeleteNext...my Nermal is a pizza thief and decided when I layed my plate down and Nerm came over grabbed the pizza and hid under the bed and ate her pizza. Silly Cat.
Another story about the Gus: At the time we were living in a very old apartment that had a small hole in the wall behind the kitchen sink that led to the outside. Needless to say that in the winter, we got mice. Fortunately Gus & our other kitty Spike made short work of them. Gus didn't much care for Spike but the two of them made a great mousing team. I always knew when we had a new mouse, because the two of them would sit side by side in the kitchen for hours, listening to the wall.
ReplyDeleteOne morning Spike came into the bedroom with a "present." Gross, but by then we were used to disposing of them. Except this one was still alive! As Spike sat on the floor playing with it, Gus came creeping up behind him and booped him on the butt! Spike was startled into dropping the mouse, and in a split second, Gus snatched up the mouse and took off to the other end of the house. Spike never even knew what happened - he was looking for it on the ground and crying at us, like "hey, where'd my mouse go?" My husband and I couldn't stop laughing - our 18 yr old had just stolen a "toy" from his 2 yr old nemesis. I can still see him trotting off haughtily with a wriggling mouse tail dangling out of the corner of his mouth!
I'm sorry but i can't resist a final mousing story about Gus:
ReplyDeleteDuring the time of his mousecapades, my husband was applying to grad school, and our living room had become his "office" - laptop, printer, envelopes, etc all over the place. He came home from work one day to find Gus & Spike crouching in front of a half-empty ream of paper. Uh oh. The paper package was made of clear plastic, and inside, he could see a mouse. Some how the cats had cornered it inside the ream of paper! Ever so slowly, Gus would reach into the package, press his paw on the paper, and slowly, slowly drag out the top sheet - with the mouse still on top of it. The mouse would get a just couple inches away from the opening before it realized what was happening, and then scurry back to the closed end of the package. Undeterred, Gus would repeat with the next sheet. Hubbie said this went on for about 10 sheets of paper before he intervened - he said he couldn't sooner because he was awestruck by the whole process.
My husband also loved that Spike sat off to the side watching, equally fascinated by Gus's ingenuity. It was like Gus was giving a master class on mousing!
Natalie, my cat Tilda makes that exact noise when hunting! Except her prey is feathered whale toys. There are three phases: the plaintive wailing as she looks for her whale; the muffled shrieking while she travels around the apartment looking for a place to take her prize; and then the loudest of all, her triumphant "MOM MOM I GOT YOU A WHALE MOM LOOK" noise.
ReplyDeleteHer new favorite thing is to hop up on the headboard and drop a whale in my face while I'm sleeping, or trying to, anyway.
Also, if I leave home for more than a few hours, I am sure to come home and find a whale on my pillow, inside a slipper, or sometimes in a bra I'm not wearing.
She's a cute one.
I'd been fostering a feral 4-month old and he'd finally come around to me a tiny bit. One evening, I was brushing my teeth at the sink, which in my itty-bitty-bathroom was located directly next to the toliet. Trying to get a closer look at the running water in said sink, my feral friend got up such that his hind paws were balaced on the side of the toilet bowl rim and his front paws and chest were up on the side of the sink. But his delicate balance tipped and he landed unceremoneously tail-first in the bottom of the toilet bowl. Kerplunk! I swear time stopped for a minute as we both gasped and stared at each other with wide-eyed wonder trying to figure out what just happened. And then he bolted out and off under my bed to dry off his hind quarters in peace. The indignity. Almost six years later I'm still laughing at the silly guy (how could I NOT adopt him after that smooth move, eh?).
ReplyDeleteThis happened yesterday. I ran out to a local craft store to pick up some quilting supplies during a holiday sale. I was meandering around the store, wasting time, when I got a text form a neighbor in my 4-plex that said, "I think your cat is in the hallway..." I bolted home and found him cowering on our landing, smushed into the corner by our door. As soon as he saw me, he started YOWLING and got all poofed up. I opened the door and he raced in and snuggled down on my bed where he slept for the rest of the day. I was only gone for about a half hour, but I'm glad to say I think his little mis-adventure has cured him of his door-darting ways.
ReplyDeleteThese are such wonderful stories - so funny and so well told! I feel I've gotten to know so many more cats today.
ReplyDeleteOur guy Panda came to us unexpectedly about 3 years ago when we found a handsome teenage boy kitty outside our high-rise, limping, flea-ridden and malnourished. We figured he'd fallen from a balcony, so we took him to the vet to get x-rays, and put up signs around the building, but no one ever contacted us. It turned out his front leg was broken in 2 places, and his hard palate was cracked - injuries consistent with our theory. He had to have surgery to fix his leg, and the vet told us to keep Panda in a crate for 6 weeks to let the leg heal. Panda had other plans. As soon as we got him home, he scampered (as best he could with a broken leg) under the futon in the spare room, and began biting the stitches open, tearing his skin in the process even though the vet had put on bitter ointment to deter him from biting them open. Back to he vet we went for more stitches and extra Panda-proofing. This time he got an Elizabethan collar. But not for long! This went on for a couple of days, and we soon realized that trying to keep him crated would be an impossibility. We devised a mid-way solution of keeping him "crated" in the spare room, playing gently with him, and giving him time-outs in a smaller crate when he needed to wind down.
Amazingly Panda made a speedy and full recovery. He is a very intelligent and playful little creature who likes to sit in boxes and be pushed around (like riding in a car), and enjoys eating flowers. He also likes to steal toys from the kids next door.
I should also mention that while Panda was recuperating from his surgery and on massive meds, he acquired the nickname "Panderson Pooper", due to a particularly unpleasant side-effect of his meds!
everyone’s stories are heart warming - especially after a horrific day in NZ - makes me miss my furbaby even more - miss you Genghy
ReplyDelete(http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-earthquake/4692170/Christchurch-quake-toll-75-hundreds-missing)
Here's another story, this time about my parents' late cats, Star and Comet:
ReplyDeleteThe first Christmas we had Star and Comet, the cats were understandably thrilled and fascinated by the tree and the ornaments. They gleefully attacked all the ornaments on the lower branches, pulling them off the tree and making off with them. One morning, my mother went into the living room to find that the whole lower third of the tree was stripped bare. Dismayed, she began scouring the house for the ornaments, muttering about naughty kittens as she went. When she went back into the living room after a fruitless search, she found three ornaments arranged in a row under the tree, next to a small pile of most of the remaining ornaments. All bore tiny teethmarks.
My tabby cat, Sam, came bursting through the cat door the other day making a muffled, whining, worried sound. When I looked up he had a bright orange/brown butterfly in his mouth! He was looking at me as if to say "well, I caught it, now what do I do with it?" He went from room to room trying to decide what to do, whining away till finally he decided there was only one thing left - he ate it!
ReplyDeleteMy first cat, Fox, a Himalayan X, used to come in from playing and send out an "where are you?" meow and I'd say kitchen or bedroom or whatever and then my blue eyed boy would appear. This time I thought I'd hide and see how long it took him to find me. I curled into a little ball by the wall side of my bed and waited...and waited...and waited...when I finally looked up Fox was sitting a metre away, head tilted to the side looking at me as if to say, "what are you doing?" I had to scoop him up and cover him in kisses.
Which reminds me, Fox knew lots of words and one that made me laugh was "squish". I pick him up, say "Squish?" and Fox would make a little squashed/breath exhaling sound without me doing anything more! He'd learned that making the sound meant he wouldn't get squished! They're soo clever!
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ReplyDeleteAnderson Cooper is neutered? *shocked*
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to pick one story. I have a very sweet tabby girl who was a foster, named Rogue, who is obsessed with chewing plastic bags and carrying plastic straws all around the house, ultimately dropping them in droves by her food bowl. Although she is endlessly entertaining, my big 20lb orange/red boy Lionel is probably the most quirky.
ReplyDeleteI just got new furniture, and didn't fully think about the logistics of the pieces with Lionel's love of opening drawers and cabinets. Every day when I come home from work my kitchen looks like a scene from Poltergeist....every cabinet is ajar. After bringing the new dressers into my apartment, I excitedly put all of my clothes in the new pieces. Anyone with cats knows that a new addition in the house is cause for much exploration. After the initial inspection both seemed to have lost interest and strolled out of the bedroom with me. Less than two minutes after we left the bedroom I heard some ruckus and crept towards the bedroom. Lionel had opened all three bottom drawers and had emptied them of all of their contents on the floor and one was occupied with a very large kitty, peering out at me from about a 4" opening. I guess it's time to invest in baby latches!!!!
Like Amelia, I have difficulty picking just one!
ReplyDeleteWe used to have a pair of littermates, Hadrian and Trajan (we lost them both last year at age 14). Trajan was intelligent; Hadrian had common sense.
We used to feed them as the very first thing we did when we got up in the morning. One day, our alarm went off about an hour early. We are NOT morning people, so you can imagine how thrilled we were. We could not figure out how it happened. I turned it off, went back to sleep. It happened again the next morning. On the third morning, my husband happened to be awake already, and saw Trajan standing on the dresser next to the clock. He batted at it two or three times until he hit the switch to turn the radio on, then raced for the kitchen!
We a) moved the radio where he couldn't reach it, and b) stopped feeding them first thing in the morning.
Several years later, he re-learned the trick. Although he didn't use it to wake us up, I found the two sleeping on our bed in the sunlight, listening to the radio, several times one summer.
This extremely intelligent cat couldn't figure out that if he sat in the *shade,* he wouldn't get so hot. Hadrian had no problem with this concept, though, and always looked like he was shaking his head in bafflement when his brother went racing inside, panting.
Our skittish orangie, Oliver is the nursemaid for our 6 month old daughter. He will carry dropped pacifiers to her room and put them under her bed, when she is crying he walks the floor in distress, and he sleeps on the rocker in her bedroom at night. And although he loves sleeping on nice warm laundry, he never sleeps on hers, going out of his way to move even a baby sock so that he's not on any of her things.
ReplyDeleteOur other cat, Lucy the Determined has been trying to sit on the baby's lap since the day we brought her home!
I was studying for grad school midterms when we brought baby Simba home. He spent the entirety of his first weekend at home sitting on my shoulder, purring non-stop, while I studied for my exams. To this day, I can't truly focus on reading without some sort of background noise... fans, television, car motor. (I'd prefer a purring kitty on my shoulder, but at 17 pounds Simba no longer fits up there)
ReplyDeleteDuring the summer of the chipmunk, we couldn't go a full week without the kids leaving a door wide open (which invariably invited a chipmunk with a death wish into the house)...
During chipmunk invasion number one, we opened the sliding glass patio door with the intention of chasing the chipmunk out the door. It worked, but we failed to notice that Simba had parked himself outside the door. He caught the escaping chipmunk and brought it back into the house to start round 2.
In chipmunk invasion eleventy-billion, Simba and Einstein worked together for probably the first and only time of their lives. They tracked down the chipmunk and located it hiding in the baseboard heater in my son's room. They parked together and stared at that spot on the wall until my husband got home to extract it. He put Simba out of the room because, while Simba is an excellent trapper, he prefers to release and chase over and over again. He kept Einstein the killer as a chipmunk catching aide. Several minutes, crashes, and swear words later, he also dropped Einstein outside the door because "wherever the chipmunk was, she wouldn't let me catch it. She wouldn't get out of the way." The kill was HERS and she wasn't going to let my husband get any of the glory. The exhausted chipmunk was exceptionally grateful when my husband put it back outside.
My 11 y/o tortie-and-white, Abby, absolutely adores The Today Show. Every morning at 6:55 or thereabouts, she gets on the bed and takes her place (at the end, right in front of the TV that's on the opposing chest of drawers.) The TV is a couple of feet higher than the mattress, so I know she's watching it and not just communing with whatever it is cats commune with. A couple of weeks ago, I noticed she was watching coverage from Egypt especially intently...which made perfect sense to me; any place that used to hold cats sacred is a place you want to keep tabs on. Once the story on Egypt was over, her attention wandered.
ReplyDeletePart of The Today Show charm could be its personalities--Abby was nowhere to be found Monday, when Matt, Meredith, Al and Ann were off for President's Day. (My husband swears Abby has a crush on Matt.)
More of a sweet story... Itty bitty baby Malcolm came to live with us when he was around 6 weeks old. His first night, I slept on the couch, as I had a friend visiting and staying in my room. Me, 3 cats, and one kitten on the couch. In the middle of the night, I felt someone pawing me in the face, and it woke me up. It was my darling Atticus, 13 years old now, waking me up because baby Malcolm was mewling. I wouldn't have woken up had Atticus not whacked me in the face to alert me.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was young we had a very friendly orange tabby named Fusa. He was so lovable and he and I spent a lot of time together. One night when I was about 10 or 11 I was heading to bed and I was surprised that he wasn't already on my bed because he would usually sleep with me. Not thinking too much of it I went to bed and then soon after decided that I need to use the restroom. I was still afraid of monsters under the bead but decided to be brave and put my feet down right next to the edge of the bed. Well, Fusa was waiting for me apparently because he stuck his paws out and batted my ankles. Needless to say I jumped out of my skin and ran to get my parents. I bet he was surprised that he got that much of a reaction out of me!
ReplyDeleteAnderson Cooper adorable but I'd only adopt him if he didn't drive stick. I'm not about to report my car stolen by my cat hellbent for capnip at Petsmart.
ReplyDeleteIn the summer of 1991,my boyfriend and I lived in a big,old house in rural Kentucky.Living with us was my black cat,Demon. I had raised him on bottle, and he thought I was HIS person,much to my boyfriend's dismay. During this particular hot humid summer,the area where we were living was experiencing a hatch of cicada(a large flying insect that makes a loud buzzing noise to attract mates)There were litterally thousands of them everywhere!You couldn't even go outside without them flying into your hair,or sticking to your clothes. My boyfriend was from Philladelphia, and to say that he was a cityboy was an understatement. The giant bugs were really freaking him out! Since we had no airconditioning, we had to leave the windows open,and since only a few had screens, these things got into the house! This particular morning,Demon was playing with a unusualy large one . The cat was the only one enjoying the infestation,the cicada providing both a toy and a tasty snack in one package! My boyfriend had decided to lay down on the sofa and take a nap,and I was watching TV ,when I spied Demon on the back of the sofa. Before I could move he dropped "bugzilla" right in the middle of my boyfriend's bare chest! He woke up to a huge buzzing bug flopping around on him,and began screaming like a twelve year old girl! Demon was on the back of the sofa,and his expression was like"you are'nt actually going to MARRY him,are you?" When my beloved finally stopped screaming,and I stopped laughing, Demon retrieved his prize from floor, and set off for a quieter location to enjoy his kill. Almost twenty years later, I am still married to my bug -shy beloved, although sadly,Demon passed away due to cancer in the summer of 2004. We still laugh about the "Bugzilla incident" on hot summer days when the cicadas are droning in the trees.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, your Demon sounds like quite a personality! Panda loves catching cicadas from our roof top patio (14 storeys up, not too many bugs make it), and bringing them into the apartment in his mouth. We call them his "vuvuzelas". The first time he brought one inside, I had no idea it was - it sounded like a broken sprinkler.
ReplyDeleteI have an off-topic question. How do you make your vidoes using your pictures? What software? Settings? etc..... Thanks.
ReplyDelete@Rona, my cat Emma is similar. I was making full length drapes (lined) and as I was pinning it, I looked to my right and saw her taking out each pin. She has this "thing" about something being stuck to something else. I was putting bumpers on the back of framed artwork just to see her pulling them back off. Bows are pulled off packages, and the "dot" on the pool table went missing. :) Love her to pieces!!!
ReplyDeleteI've had my tail-less tabby Boo for ten years now, so we've had a *lot* of funny times together. Here are a couple of my favorites.
ReplyDeleteAt one point I decided to see if I could train her to go into her cat-carrier on command, by calling her and tossing a treat in there. Worked like a charm - in no time at all, I could just go up to the carrier and call her, and she'd run right in. It never once failed...until the day I had to bring her to the vet. Years later, I'm still trying to figure out how she knew!
When she was young, I had to give her a bath after she'd been sick and messed her fur, and a friend offered to help. We dunked her in the tub, washed her fur, and rinsed her with another dunk - all to the accompaniment of the most pathetic cries you can imagine. We were trying to decide whether she needed another rinse, and my friend said "What do you think, Boo, do you want to get dunked again?" and I swear, that cat immediately whined 'Nooooooooo!'
My first cat, Sophie, was a complete sweetheart. She would let me dress her up and carry her around in my doll stroller. In the evening, she would sleep cradled like a baby in my mom's arms while she watched TV.
ReplyDeleteMy second kitty, Cookie, would hide behind the stereo speaker next to the living room entrance and jump out at my mom when she walked through. We also had to make sure no hands or feet were sticking out of our beds at night or she would bite them.
My third cat (current), Mina, was addicted to watching the Teletubbies when she was about 2 or 3. Her favorite was Dipsy.
Finally, my fourth kitty (also current), Lucy, was a little Houdini as a baby. The day I brought her home from the shelter, she escaped from her box twice. And when we made her wear a kitten harness on the balcony, she managed to get out it. To this day, I still have no idea how she did that.
I have to share another one, this one about my girl cat, Daltrey. When she first came to live with me, I had a dear friend as a roommate, whom Daltrey loved to pieces. My roomie would chase her around the house, then turn around so the kitty could chase HER for a little while. Daltrey would spend each night going between our rooms - spending part of the time snuggled under my roomie's blanket, and part of the time on top of me.
ReplyDeleteWell, my dear roommate was visited by her family's dog - a sweet little golden Retriever named Femme. Femme had grown up around kitties and was very, very respectful of them - and she gave Daltrey a lot of room. Daltrey was not happy about this oversized intruder.
One day, my roommate was playing with Femme - Femme would growl, and grab her sweatshirt, and my roommate would pull on the shirt, and they were generally having a good time wrestling.
I noticed Daltrey watching the activities very closely. She seemed agitated - I presumed it was because of all the noise - until she found an opening, ran between Femme and my roommate, and started growling and hissing at Femme. Daltrey was trying to protect my roommate!
Femme immediately stopped the play and looked genuinely confused about why Daltrey was so mad.
I still remember her loyalty and her bravery to this day, my brave little princess.
Sorry for posting again, but just to clarify: the box was during the ride home from the shelter, as I didn't have my kitty carrier with me - so they put Lucy in a big cardboard box with holes. She, however, preferred to ride on my shoulder!
ReplyDeleteOne summer day, I saw my brother's cat, a big red tabby named Dunkin, sitting in front of a tree, looking puzzled. I came over to see a chipmunk a foot away and acting rather strangely: it ran around the tree a few times, stopped to chitter at Dunkin, shook its tail, ran around some more, chittered again, and then... Dunkin wandered off. I guess he'd had enough taunting! I swear, the chipmunk and I exchanged confused glances. I've adored chipmunks ever since.
ReplyDeleteSince y'all have gone. . . I had to leave a lovely bluepoint Siamese mix, Mithril, with my parents when I moved. She often decided she wanted to go _out_ when we were eating lunch. She'd sit patiently by the back door, waiting for my Mom to open it. But Mithril could lost patience too. When she did, she'd approach my mom's chair and lift her paw to poke Mom. I swear Mithril extended only ONE claw and gently tapped Mom's behind. Got results every time.
ReplyDeleteAnderson Cooper is a very handsome. I like the picture. I find reading your blog very interesting. All the stories are good and very touchy. Thanks for sharing all the stories.
ReplyDeleteThe most recent good story is of our second oldest kitty's escape. We don't let our cats go outside unless on a leash, but we do have a big screened porch for them to lounge in. The screen material is supposedly indestructible, even to dogs and cats.
ReplyDeleteWell, only 6 months after being built, a corner of one panel of screen gave way. We didn't know this until my husband was looking into the backyard one morning.
Husband: "Hey, there's a cat in the yard that looks a lot like Sidonia. That's weird."
...."Man, that cat really looks like Sid. Have you seen her around lately?"
I was skeptical that it was her, but I looked, and sure enough, she was out there sniffing a tree. I approached her cautiously, not wanting to spook her. Because our cats don't go out onto the ground very often, I was worried she would freak out. Instead, she meowed happily and ambled on up to me like we were taking a stroll in the park.
I then wanted to get her inside, so I opened the door to the porch, hoping she'd follow me inside. She did, but she hopped back through the tear in the screen, like she'd been doing it for years!
I'm just glad she didn't run away for good, nor that any of our other cats ran off!
Willy Nilly, the tuxedo boy love of my life, provided us with 17 years of entertainment. He and his 4 siblings had been orphaned and were being hand-raised by their owner and her neighbors.
ReplyDeleteThe first time we met him he was standing in a pie plate of food, completely covered in it, looking like a punked-out, spiky meat loaf. That was Willy, no half-measures for him.
He gave head bumps and purred so loudly at his vet until Dr. C. had to tap Will's nose with an alcohol dampened cotton ball to startle him into silence so he could hear his heartbeat.
He made fly-bys, grabbing asparagus (his favorite), roasted red peppers and once, a chicken thigh off Uncle Tommy's plate. Whenever I sliced open a cantaloupe he cried pitiably until I gave him several pieces.
There was the memorable winter Sunday morning (6:30 to be exact) when we were getting ready to go someplace and discovered Will had ingested the string from the bag of litter. Before taking him to the ER, Ron fed the other four kitties, giving Spot his medicine and keeping Willy away from food and drink. Except Willy ate Spot's food, then threw up in my shoe.
Will threw up a lot. Every single time he rode in the car, for 17 years. He peed and pooped and cried, too. It was horribly traumatic for both of us.
Then there was the time all five kitties were in the car with me and the engine caught fire. I was taking them in for their yearly check-up, driving a rental while my car was in the shop. I had to leave the cats and the car at the side of the road, because my phone jack didn't fit the rental's cigarette lighter. I was practically hysterical, walking away from a carful of freaked-out cats (my babies, let's face it).
I called Ron, who had to get another car, since his was a sports car that couldn't accommodate four carriers, AND deal with a semi-hysterical wife. And when it was all over and we came back to get the rental, we found it'd been towed, because I'd parked it in a merge-onto-the-freeway lane.
We laugh like crazy about it now, since it was over 20 years ago. Thank God for perspective, eh?
Musing ... you know, I've always wanted a silver fox ... Oh, looks like Anderson has been adopted. It's for the best; my cat is firmly of the belief that we are a one pet household. :)
ReplyDeleteAnderson isn't listed ... must mean that he was adopted !!!
ReplyDeleteAnderson Cooper is a very handsome.All the stories are very much inspiring me. Thanks for sharing this article with us!
ReplyDeleteReally Anderson cooper is looking so beautiful. I am impress with this stories. I am so glad that you share this article with us.
ReplyDelete