9 posts tagged “cats”
... and a squinting cat. I woke her up and she wasn't too happy about it.
Convincing either cat to look at the camera while taking their picture is a real feat. I managed to get both of them today, so now y'all get to see their faces. Tubbs:
Not a very good pic of Buddy, but you should expect bad photography from me by now:
And it wasn't even supper time. Good kitties ... for the moment.
So Mike and I attended the Bluenose Cat Show at the Dartmouth Sportsplex on Saturday. Ironically the cats don't interest me (you can't pet them and they look bored to tears in their cages); we go for the vendors. Unfortunately there are never many and this year there seemed to be even fewer, maybe five tables. We bought a corner scratching post for our poor couch (they scratched right through the last post) from a New Brunswick vendor who makes lovely cat trees ... but charges way too much. We also picked up this bright pink cat tent. We had no choice but to buy pink as they only had pink designs left.
Yes, that's our treadmill covered in plastic in the background, to keep the cat hair off (Tubbs sleeps on the belt). Tubbs actually checked out the tent first, then Buddy thought he'd see if two cats could fit in there. They probably could if one didn't hiss and swat him. The bottom of the tent is a nice fuzzy material, and Tubbs scratched the heck out of it yesterday. So it's a tent and scratch mat. Hopefully they continue to use it once the novelty wears off.
So some nights my kittehs just don't want me to sleep. Nighttime is playtime for Buddy. I'm used to going into the hallway around 4 a.m. and shooing him off of Tubbs a few times. That's usually the extent of it. But some nights (I should say mornings) it's nonstop. Like Friday night/Saturday morning. I got practically no sleep thanks to Buddy chasing Tubbs here, there and everywhere, scratching the apartment door, jumping on and off the bed, meowing his way through the room, getting behind various pieces of furniture and scratching the wall, and even chasing Tubbs up onto the bed so they could fight on my legs. Thanks, Bud.
When I get no sleep I still have to get up and function. What do they get to do? Sleep all day.
Don't they look sweet and innocent? Don't be fooled ...
Tubbs does not drink from a dish. She does not drink from those fancy water-fountains-for-cats either (that was a waste of money). Nope, it has to be the sink. I can count on one hand the number of times in the past seven years she has drunk from a dish. Just recently I witnessed her drink from Buddy's water dish, but that shouldn't be surprising - whatever Buddy has, she wants.
Ninety-nine per cent of the time, however, she leads Mike or me into the bathroom, hops from the floor to the toilet to the sink, and waits for us to turn on the water.
So Tubbs has a new ritual for mealtimes: not eating.
She has decided her diet food is no longer worthy. When I put her food down, she will not touch it. Instead I have to hold her back when I put down Buddy's food. She sits and waits for Buddy to finish, hoping he'll leave a few morsels. Her food remains untouched. Okay, if I leave it down long enough she'll pick at it, but come Monday breakfast she won't have that luxury; I'm not leaving it down all day while we're at work. She's going to be a very hungry cat tomorrow ...
This has been the regular scene this weekend (pardon the panoramic view of our kitchen, I'm a lousy photographer):
Buddy eats, Tubbsie watches. Her dishes are just around the corner from the stove. Buddy goes for some fresh air on the balcony, Tubbs licks up what little he's left. She's not even interested in her dry food. Hopefully the work week will break her of this newfound habit, when she'll have about 10 minutes to decide whether or not she's going to have breakfast that day. Cats ...
Update: I have taken to standing over Tubbs to ensure she at least eats a few bites of her food before honing in on Buddy's. This has helped a bit. It also helps that Buddy has been eating more of his food in one go rather than thinking he can pick at it later. So some success ...
It’s rather difficult to describe the experience of feeding two insane cats at the same time twice a day; each day is a little bit different. Tubbs is perpetually on a diet, so she gets Hill’s r/d (reducing) wet food and seniors dry. Buddy, still a skinny kitty, usually gets Friskies, but because he is technically a senior at 7, he gets the same dry as Tubbs.
Tubbs had never been a finicky eater. She used to eat what you put in front of her. I don’t know if it’s because he gets non-diet food or because she feels all cat food is inherently hers, but I can NOT feed Buddy without Tubbs trying to horn in on his food.
A good day looks like this:
- Put down Tubbs’ wet food (she’s always fed first). She chows down. Put down Buddy’s wet food. He chows down. Put down dry food for both. Go about my business for a few minutes. When they’re done the wet food, let them on the balcony for a little fresh air. When they come back in, they eat their respective dry food. End of meal time.
That happens about once a month. Most days it’s a variation of this:
- Put down Tubbs’ wet food. She begins chowing down … until I put down Buddy’s wet food. Tubbs stops eating her food, sits in middle of kitchen and watches Buddy. This is provided Buddy is not having a “picky” day and completely ignoring his meal. In which case Tubbs helps herself immediately to his food and I have to take it up. Tubbs completely ignores her own food. I shove both cats on the balcony so I can get ready for work/get dinner going. When they come in, if I’m lucky, Buddy finishes off his food and Tubbs eats hers. If not, Buddy just eats his dry food and Tubbs does her level best to eat Buddy’s wet. Eventually both dishes of wet food end up in the garbage.
Yeah, fun.
I’ve tried feeding Buddy in a separate room, but it means even more time wasted keeping them out of each other’s dishes; I just cover more distance to do it. So even though it’s a pain and puts me behind in the mornings, it’s actually easier to keep them at either end of the kitchen than either end of the apartment.
Some nights bedtime becomes a Battle of the Cat Wills. We only have a double bed, so there’s really just enough room for Mike and me. When we only had Tubbs, she either slept on my pillow (pushing my top half over) or at Mike’s feet (pushing his bottom half over). Now with Buddy, we never know what pretzel-like shape we’ll find ourselves in.
Since Buddy is not on friendly terms with Mike, he’s usually on my side. Before he gets comfy, though, he kneads the blankets for a good 15 minutes, purring the whole while. And did I mention his nose runs? (Eeew.) Then he sprawls his long body out, pushing me into the middle of the bed and practically on top of Mike (not necessarily a bad thing in certain circumstances, but when you’re trying to sleep …).
Then comes Tubbs. Sometimes she is content to take over Mike’s foot space; most times, however, she wants my pillow. If Buddy’s head happens to be in her way, too bad. She’ll lie down anyway. Buddy gets a faceful of gray fur. No fight ensues, fortunately; Buddy just turns around so I have not one but two cat butts in my face. Feel the love. The best scenario is Buddy stretched out parallel to my body (as opposed to perpendicular and taking up way too much space) and Tubbs at Mike’s feet. That way I’m not the only one trying to sleep in a yoga pose.
This doesn't even touch upon the nights when Tubbs is on the bed and Buddy wants to play/fight. I don't even want to get into that ...
Buddy will probably get more blog-time than Tubbs. Tubbs is, for the most part, a "normal" cat. She is quiet, laid-back, greets company at the door, and lets us clip her claws without too much fuss. Even though she's overweight and her sides pooch out, she's a graceful finicky cat who is aging well.
Buddy, on the other hand, is the complete opposite. He is vocal, skittish, runs from the door whenever someone comes over, and there is no clipping of the claws except by professionals. Neither cat likes to be held, but Buddy, who is about five pounds lighter than Tubbs, is more adept at squiggling free of my grasp. He hisses at Mike - actually, he won't go near any male. He has long hair and a long body, but he is clumsy and completely lacking in social graces. When he eats, his food goes everywhere. When he uses the litterbox, the litter goes everywhere. And when he plays with Tubbs ... well, lets just say the fur flies. He just doesn't get some things that should have been learned as a kitten.
Tubbs spent six years as the only cat, and methinks she misses those days. When we first brought Buddy home from the Spryfield Animal Hospital (shelters and the classifieds aren't the only places to find kitties up for adoption, vets are inundated with unwanted pets), we left him in his carrier in our office for a few minutes so Tubbs could check him out. Instant hissing on her part. In fact, she has yet to grow to like him. It would help if Buddy knew how to play. His idea of "play" is to start out playing - they chase each other around the apartment - but he doesn't seem to understand that when Tubbs lies down that she's done playing, and that jumping on her and biting her back won't exactly win her over. Some mornings Buddy gets "time-outs" in the office (like 4 a.m. mornings) when he will not stop attacking Tubbs.
I dunno ... maybe he wasn't socialized as a kitten. All I know is his previous owner dropped him off at the vet to be put down because she couldn't afford to treat his ear abcess. Of course the vet treated the abcess, cleaned him up, paid for complete bloodwork and put him up for adoption ... at which time the previous owner wanted her cat back. Tough. And despite Buddy's social ineptness, and despite his aversion to all things male (go figure), he's still a playful, healthy, happy kitty.
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