Fat Cat

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Photos of the pets I encountered this weekend:

Maddy

This is Maddy.  This pic is from my camera phone so the quality isn't so great.  Maddy is the resident cat at Basket of Yarn.  She's a small, friendly kitty who hangs out in her chair or near the door.

Buddy Dog

This is Buddy the dog, as opposed to my Buddy the cat.  I know, poor lighting.  Buddy is the dog of my mom's friend Ruth, who hosted a jewellery home party on Sunday.  Ruth also has two cats of whom I didn't get pictures, which is unfortunate since one has the largest eyes I've ever seen on a cat and the other is a gorgeous Siamese. Buddy followed us around but made it difficult to pet him as he was more interested in jumping on the petter.  I tried anyway.  ;-)

Aaand, just to show what my Buddy goes through every six weeks:

Oh the indignity

This is my boy-cat getting a trim around the bum.  He picked his hind legs up off the table, so his back end is being held up by his tail.  Oh, the fit he has every grooming session.  The groomer is Lisa, and her hubby Anthony is the "muscle."  When it's all over he hides under the bed for awhile to rebuild his self-esteem.

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Squares

So I'm on my way with making this afghan.  I'm not even close to following the pattern; it's more of a guideline.  Yeah, that's it. ;-)

And a picture of Buddy I took this morning.  The groomers came yesterday to brush him out, clip his claws and shave the hair around his bum.  He puts up a huge fuss, but I think he ultimately appreciates it.  I know I do, since he won't let me come anywhere near his claws with the clippers.

Buddy

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... and a squinting cat.  I woke her up and she wasn't too happy about it.

Tubbs and Fish

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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:

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Not a very good pic of Buddy, but you should expect bad photography from me by now:

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And it wasn't even supper time. Good kitties ... for the moment.

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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. 

Cat Tent

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.

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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.

Not So Innocent

Don't they look sweet and innocent?  Don't be fooled ...

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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.

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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):

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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 ...

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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.

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