It looks like I won’t get to wear my robe this morning.
Category Archives: Story Time: life with cats
Emotional support animal
I have been roundly harangued.
We both have been. Since Brian left for work at the usual time and hitched a ride to ConCarolinas last weekend, and I left at the usual time to do my Friday errands, our cat Koushka, who normally sees the last minute dash and large batch of suitcases and figures out we are leaving, didn’t have a clue. So he did not have to be removed from blocking our car so we could leave, but he also was VERY WORRIED that we would never return. If I could translate what he said, loudly, it was along the lines of, “Where were you? I was so worried. I became frantic with worry! Don’t you love me? Why didn’t you TELL me you were leaving (so I could block the car)?” Et cetera, et cetera. Then he stuck to us like glue for about 36 hours until he was sure we would not disappear on him.
I’ve come to the conclusion we are his emotional support animals.
Shady character
This is Tigre, modeling what it looks like when the full sun is too hot in the South. Sunbeams: optional. Nap times, mandatory
Today’s writing buddy: Luka
While working here in FL I have an assistant, Luka the calico cat. She makes sure I take frequent cuddle breaks and is in charge of getting cat fur on my clothes.
Roofer + Cats = Trauma
Yesterday we had a horde of roofers descend on our house. Tigre, our Zoolander Cat (he is a gorgeous peanut butter tabby but incredibly stupid) normally lives outside but he cowered indoors, sticking near me like a blister and looking anxiously up whenever a loud noise happened on the roof.
This is Tigre.
Koushka, our Mini House Panther, is a big, bold Alpha cat. Unless there’s thunder. Then, he hides under the bed. He thought the roofers were thunder and spent all day, except their lunch break, in hiding.
Koushka, at lunch.
“Well? Are they gone yet?”
He was also convinced that my husband’s coincidental arrival when the roofers were leaving meant that Brian had somehow chased the thunder way.
Story Time: Cat Harnesses
Cat Harnesses
OR
Why I have outdoor cats and don’t board them when we go away.
Years ago I went to Sweden for a week. At the time I was living by myself and had no one to check in on my cat, Toonces. So while I was away I had her boarded at a vet.
Now Toonces, like many quasi-sentient animals, was not fond of the vet’s office as a vacation spot. She’d nuke it from orbit if she had opposable thumbs. But this is the cat who got into repeated fights with raccoons, who had her food stolen by a dog when the neighbor left it out for her the last time I went away (so she killed and ate a full-grown rabbit including many of the bones). I wanted to be there if she needed a trip to the vet after one of her “adventures.” I boarded her for her own safety.
Toonces was an extremely unhappy cat when I dropped her off. I wondered if she’d ever forgive me.
When I picked her up, she could not wait to leave the vet’s. “Thank GOD you’re busting me out of this joint!” she seemed to say as she strained at the end of her leash-and-Chihuahua harness, nails dug deep halfway up the door to the outside.
However, the minute we were out the door, she clung feverishly to the outside of the same door, wanting back in. It was a noisy street downtown, and after a week indoors perhaps the sun was blinding. I think she went into sensory overload.
I pried her nails out of the door. Once I had carried her around the corner she saw our car. Now this is a cat who does not like to ride in cars. She hated it. But this time she recognized my vehicle as something familiar, and she streaked to it on her leash, screaming to be let in. I was very happy to get her inside the car as I was afraid she’d get loose in a strange neighborhood and I’d never find her.
But…the instant she got out of the car in my driveway, in less than a second she bonelessly twisted out of that Chihuahua harness like Houdini on steroids and streaked off. I stood there, holding the now-useless leash, in shock. Had she done that in the parking lot at the vet’s, I’d have never seen her again. I think losing a beloved pet in a strange city might be every pet owner’s nightmare.
So that’s why I leave my cats a big bowl of food and fresh water and get someone to refill them ever so often when we will be away for more than a day or two. Because I nearly lost the Toonce and I don’t want to go through that with any pet ever again.