Automat

My wife got tired of the cats waking us up at 6:00 AM on Saturday and Sunday morning. She gets up pretty early on weekdays, and feeds the cats on her way out the door. This managed to get them on a schedule...a schedule that didn't abate on weekends. We haven't had a decent night's sleep on the weekend in months.

She found an automatic feeder that you can set to dispense food at certain times of the day, and ordered that. We just got it set up the other day for the first time.

Jupiter was really hungry that day, and was begging for us to feed her early for hours. She didn't know that it was out of our hands now. She just kept rubbing against our legs, walking in front of us everywhere we tried to go, running to her food bowl each time we seemed to have noticed her presence, and meowing the most pitiful whining meow you've ever heard.

We were determined to be strong, however. It was set to dispense food when the time came, and we were going to let that thing take over. Then, on Saturday mornings, the cats could whine at it if they wanted to be fed early.

It did finally fill the bowl with food, and Jupiter was startled and worried about it. She stared nervously at it as it put more and more kibble into the bowl. When at last it seemed to be done, she ventured forward to figure out what had happened. There was food here, and she was hungry as hell, so she dug in. The feeder wasn't even quite done, and ejected another batch of kibble onto her nose, but she didn't care. She kept on scarfing. 

I'm hoping that my wife is right, and this thing is the answer. Maybe next Saturday, I won't awaken miserable and tired because of cats for once. Crossing my fingers.

New Kitty-Cat

Our old cat, Juno, died last month. It was difficult for the family, particularly my youngest daughter, who was the cat's favorite. Juno spent most of her time in my daughter's room, sitting on her lap, laying right next to her head while she slept, and so forth. So, when the cat was gone, my daughter was pretty upset. 

A few weeks after the cat had died, my daughter came downstairs looking a little rough, and my wife said, "Are you okay? You look like you've been crying."

"Oh, I was just thinking about Juno," was her response.

We have another cat, named Jupiter, but she's not nearly as cuddly as Juno was for my daughter...or anyone else. 

She likes to play and run around, but hates being picked up, held, or even to sit next to somebody. That may change when she gets a little older, we only got her a couple of years ago, but for now, that's her temperament. 

My wife thought a good plan would be to get a new kitten to replace Juno. After all, she says, we're a two cat household now, not a one cat household. I wasn't so sure that we needed to remain a two cat household. I like Jupiter a lot, and am happy with her, but I like my daughter even more, and I'm willing to do whatever I can to make her happy, so I agreed.

On Sunday, we got the new cat from Somebody who lives out in Spring. It's a pretty cute cat, but it is painfully skittish. It's so nervous that you can't as much as clear your throat without sending it running, and reaching toward it to pet it is the most scary thing it can imagine. It spent the first several days hiding out under our bed. We gave up and put its bed under there, and it laid on the bed under the bed for the first 24 hours or so.

I wasn't even totally sure what it looked like. When we got it from the woman, it had been in the cat carrier, and wouldn't come out. We had to dig it out and then drop it into our cat carrier to take it with us. As soon as we opened our carrier, it fled under the bed. My son got a few pictures while he was sitting next to the bed, reaching in under to pet her.

He had to use the flash for the picture, because the cat wouldn't come out of the protective dark under the bed.

It wasn't until Monday morning that we were finally able to coax the cat out with a toy that interested her too much to turn down.

She stayed right at the bed's edge, though, and retreated back under it if anything made her nervous at all.

While I was at work on Monday, my daughter and son managed to get the cat to feel a little bit more secure. They decided on the name as well. They were torn between the name Nyx and Freya, thinking both were cute, and wanting to see which went better with the cat itself. It is now decided that the cat will be called Freya.

Days in now, and she's a little more adventurous, but not a whole lot. She still spends most of her time hiding, and we often have to turn our couch upside down and dig her out of the space she's climbed up inside of to hide. Somehow she manages not to just hide underneath, but actually goes up inside the back of the couch. It's a nightmare.

We've tried introducing the two cats, but it hasn't gone very well. Jupiter growls and hisses when she sees the Freya. Apparently, that's the standard, and you have to keep them apart to where they can see each other but not interact with each other until they get used to the idea of the other cat and then you can bring them together. 

I hope it happens. For two years with Jupiter, Juno did nothing but hiss at her any time the two were near each other. I hoped that Jupiter wouldn't act that way because of her past experience, but no, I guess cats are just that way. 

All I can say so far, is that I prefer Jupiter. One of the main reasons I didn't like Juno was because of how much of a scaredy-cat she was. She ran from me every time she saw me as if I had kicked her over and over. That really rankled after a while. My wife insisted it was because I was just the loudest person in the house, and it made the cat nervous. I just hated getting treated like a monster without even getting the joy of being a monster to deserve the treatment.

Now, we've got another skittish cat. My wife keeps saying that I just need to be patient, coax her out, give her time, and so on, but I don't have the time to do all that. I've got all sorts of crap taking up my time, and I can't spend it all sitting around waiting for a cat to feel comfortable enough to come out from under the bed long enough to be touched.

I fear that this cat will always dislike and fear me, and maybe it's my fault, but I'm not sure if I care enough to change that.

Cat Picture

I'm pandering to what folks actually want.

Crossing her legs, just chillin’.

Holiday Sweater, But Not For Me

I put a pet sweater on Jupiter today.

She didn’t like it much. She doesn’t even like it when someone picks her up, so it’s no surprise that something that was constantly grabbing her all over wasn’t going to be a hit.  Luckily, I got it at 5 Below, so it wasn’t too expensive. Worth it for the pictures, I guess.

The Curse Of The Curious Cat

 My daughter opened up a new puzzle yesterday. All the pieces came in a plastic bag, and she dumped them out and the table, tossing the bag aside.

Later, however, she discovered that she should have thrown that bag out right away, because she came downstairs to see this:

Jupiter has always liked crinkly things like plastic bags, and she had to investigate this one too. It was just the right size to squeeze inside of.

The bag says to keep it out of reach of babies and...but then you can't see what else. I wonder if it says pets. How many times have you seen cell phone video of some poor raccoon with a bottle stuck on its head, Jupiter could have wound up like one of those poor creatures.

Luckily, my daughter was there to help, but even if she hadn't been, it would have been okay, because Jupiter extricated herself from the bag all on her own.

I wouldn't be surprised if something like this ended her some day, though. She is the proverbial cat that was killed by curiosity.

More 'Shrooms

I had a post a few weeks back about seeing some mushrooms in the parking lot at work, and how, as a boy from the dried out west, this was a big deal to me. Well, it's been raining a lot around here recently, so there have been plenty more mushrooms where those first ones came from.

I ran a bunch of them down this weekend when I mowed the lawn, for example.

But today, while I was out doing my morning walk, I found some that I don't think I've seen before. Check these guys out.

I thought they were cool enough to stop and take a picture of. But then I turned around, and on the other side of the trail, back in with the thick brush, there were dozens and dozens more.

The vines and branches are really thick off the side of the trail, but I decided to push my way back through and get some pictures of them too.

On my tiny phone screen, I couldn't tell if the scale of the number of mushrooms was coming through, or if they were just to spread out to be able to tell. Now that I've got the photos home, and I can see them bigger, it seems like you can tell that there is just a ton of these things, and the pictures actually look pretty good.

I took a couple of wider shots to try to show how many mushrooms had sprung up in this spot, but they are the ones that don't seem to show the scale nearly as well.

This one is a little better.

I do really like how the pictures turned out.

They're neat looking mushrooms. They look like tiny umbrellas. Umbrellas for fairies or something.

I'm not sure if it was worth it to traipse back into the brush like I did, however. At one point I got stuck, because the vine I had brushed up against wasn't like the others. This one had thorns. It felt like I'd bumbled into a wild blackberry bush or something. I had to stop walking, and back up several steps just to get the thorns to release me...and they didn't leave me unscathed.

I look like I've been playing with my cat. She's a vicious little beast.

Is This Weird?

I'm not a cat person, so I don't know, but I'm guessing this is not normal for cats. I have a cat that likes to play ball.

That's not a normal thing for cats, is it? Everybody knows that dogs are known for playing ball, but cats?

The ball is one of those little Nerf things that can be used as a bullet in a particular Nerf gun, and it's just the right size for her to grag in her mouth and carry around. It cracks me up every time I see her pick it up in her mouth...it's just so dog-like.

She plays with the ball all by herself, knocking it around with her paw, or backing up and then pouncing on it. And she chases it every time you kick it across the floor.

She hasn't quite figured out the ball game, though. She picks up the ball in her mouth pretty often, but not every time, and she brings the ball with her in her mouth, but she doesn't bring in back to me so I can throw it again for her. When she get that down, I think we can officially start calling her a dog.

Maybe that's why I like this cat so much more than our other one. She's basically a dog in cat's clothing.

Tie Fighter

Little went to the dollar store the other day, and found that they were selling Halloween-themed bow ties...for cats. Well, he couldn't turn that down, and it was only a dollar. Something he couldn't possibly just walk away from. It's like Russell said on Pixar's Up.

When fate looks you in the eye and smiles, you don't just walk away, folks. You take her up on her offer.

So, they got Jupiter a Halloween-themed bow tie.

Now, anyone who has ever owned a cat...or really, any pet...knows that they aren't interested in or fond of wearing clothes. You might be able to train a dog to wear a sweater, but this is a cat we're talking about.

He came home and put it on her, and she immediately tried to get it off. Eventually succeeding. A couple of days later, he tried again, and this time, he made sure to get a picture as soon as he got it on, because he knew it wouldn't last very long.

Isn't it darling? The funny part is that, since cats don't make facial expressions, you can't see the utter disgust that she's feeling at being forced to wear this stupid bow tie. She almost looks like she's posing proudly, showing off how great she looks in a bow tie.

If it were video, however, you'd know. If by nothing else than the fact that she struggled her way out of that tie in seconds flat.

Oh well, at least we got a picture. That's worth a dollar, right?

Rule #1

Blogging rule number one, if you run out of content, and have nothing to say, but are still trying to do a daily post, then just post a cat picture. That will satisfy almost 100% of people.

Only Rish Outfield will complain.

Other Choices

I figured I had to post this sequel to yesterday's post just to show that Jupiter isn't always crazy. Sometimes she chooses a soft bed too...but that doesn't necessarily make things any better. When I was looking at photos yesterday, I happened upon this one that I took back in May.

See, she doesn't always choose hard beds. Sometimes she decides to lay all over our freshly washed and folded towels.

She never does use the cat bed that we got her though...wait, I take that back, one time when we put the cat bed on top of the table where she isn't supposed to be allowed to go, then she jumped up and laid in it.

Is That Really Your Choice?

My kitten, Jupiter, is a little weird in many ways. The old cat, Juno, always looks for a nice soft place to loaf and lounge, but Jupiter is not that way. For one, she'll flop down in the hard floor and lounge there all the time while Juno chooses the couch. But Jupiter is also a curious cat, and has to investigate every new thing in the house and try to find some way to play with it. Then she combines those things, like so:

That's boxes full of Ikea cabinets for our kitchen. We've been bringing them in from the garage and working our way through putting them together. These two were brought in, but we hadn't gotten to them yet, so, of course, Jupiter came along to investigate the new boxes, and then chose to lounge on them for her afternoon nap.

She steers clear of our bed, or the couch, but finds a box full of wood (particle board, let's be honest) to be a lovely place to rest. Weirdo.

It's A Different World Than Where You Come From

Most places, people who have cats can expect the cat to leave dead mice out for you as little presents to gross you out every now and then. But in Houston...

...In Houston, the cat brings you dead lizards instead. Thank you for the present. Thank you for caring, Jupiter.

Cat And Mouse

Some cuteness for you.

I find this to be pretty humorous when Jupiter tries to catch the mouse's cursor on the screen of my computer. She tries to catch flies and other insects that get into the house, so I shouldn't be surprised if she's going after something that looks like a bug.

Enjoy:

Attack Of Cuteness

We lit up the fireplace the other day when it had turned cold on us. I don't know if we did it all winter through, but judging by the kitten's reaction, we had not. She came over, and enjoyed the warmth, and my daughter got this video of it. It's pretty cute, so I thought I would share.

Modern Art

My wife got a bunch of cupcakes to take with her to work and give the rest of her coworkers a treat. Unfortunately, Jupiter (you know, that cute cat that got lost for a day last week) had another idea.

Truthfully, it was just an accident. My daughter was playing with the cat, and then she stopped...but the cat wasn't done playing. So, when my daughter went into the kitchen, and stood next to the island where my wife had left the cupcakes until morning when she would bring them, Jupiter decided to jump up on that counter to get her attention.

When Jupiter performed that leap, she flew right into into the container of cupcakes, and knocked it right off to the floor. Now the cupcakes look less like food and more like abstract art:

Yikes.

So, no, my wife didn't take them to work to treat her coworkers with. Instead, the kids scarfed them one by one, because they didn't care about how pretty they were, just how much sugar they mainlined into their veins.

Worse yet, no, my wife didn't go back to the store and get a new batch of cupcakes. The accident happened after she'd gone to bed. I wasn't able to pick up new cupcakes because all the stores close at 11:00 PM now, which is before I can get to them. My wife couldn't buy more in the morning either, because the stores don't open till 7:00 AM which was after the time she was supposed to arrive at work the next morning.

In the end, Jupiter forced my wife to call a coworker and beg her to stop in at the store and get cupcakes for her.

But at least we got this great bit of modern art.

The Very Next Day

The cat came back!

I guess disaster is averted. I spent the whole day getting used to the idea that our kitten was lost to us forever, worrying about how badly the kids were going to take it when she didn't return, and then she returned and made all that moot.

I texted my wife just before leaving work, asking if there was any news, and she said that there was nothing. 

Friends on Facebook suggested putting out her litter box, because the scent would draw her back. They also said to put out a bowl of her favorite dry cat food to see if its scent brought her running as well. Unfortunately, the only thing that came running was a big possum, that was really enjoying the food we left out.

We had to bring that in, but we left the litter box. The possum could eat all of the treats in there if it wanted to.

So, I drove home from work, parked my car on the driveway, and went to the back door to enter the house, when I heard meowing from beside me. I gasped. My kitty was back! I grabbed her before she could run away again, and brought her in the house.

She hates to be picked up, so she was struggling to get away, but she wasn't meowing anymore, so I was able to walk to our bedroom and surprise my wife with what I'd found...or better what had found me.

She yelped with happiness too. I think all the noise scared the cat half to death though. Jupiter ran for it, hotfooting it out of our room quick as she could.

My wife called my daughter down to tell her the news, and she came running. I feel bad for my son, who was probably the most emotional of all of us about the situation, because he was already asleep, so he couldn't participate in the homecoming festivities.

Jupiter was very hungry when she got back. She went straight to her food bowl, and ate non-stop for a long time.

My wife and daughter were so glad to see her, and wanted to pet her so much, but they also wanted to let her soothe her rumbling stomach, so they sat on the floor next to her food bowl and just watched her while she ate.

The cat was a little jumpy. At one point, I accidentally dropped my keys as I was trying to hang them up, and she leaped away, and scrambled out through the door to the dining room. My wife said that food went flying out of her mouth when she jumped in a sort of feline spit take. Who knows what horrors that kitten saw during her day out that made her skittish like that.

She didn't scare for long, though. she was still very hungry. Before long she was back at her food bowl, scarfing down more.

Eventually, the pit in her stomach was full, and she was ready to be sociable, and she was showered with love. Each of us took our turn petting, scratching, stroking, and hugging her.

"Jupiter, we missed you!" my wife kept saying over and over. Now we could all finally sleep soundly, no worries tonight.

My Baby

Oh man, I don't know what to do. My wife let the cat out in the backyard last night, and she disappeared. My wife couldn't find her to bring her in last night. We hoped that the colder temperatures of the late night or maybe her rumbly tummy would bring her back, but she still never showed up in the morning.

She's never been outside for more than a few minutes, so we are all fearing the worst. I spent all morning taping flyers up to the stop signs around the neighborhood.

The kids are going to be devastated if she doesn't come back. My son was crying this morning, and the only way I could get him to stop was to have him come out and look around for the cat on the way to school.

My daughter was hoping this was an April Fools prank, and said that she would cite this trauma to her shrink one day as the thing that started it all.

Forget the kids, I'm going to be destroyed if she doesn't come back. I know it sounds crazy coming from me, since I've professed for so long to hate cats, but this cat has taught me that not all cats are standoffish bastards that would just as soon eat your corpse as the food that you put out for them each day.

That's just what our old cat, Juno, is like. This new kitten is wonderful and fun, and she better come back, because I won't ever be able to smile again if she doesn't.

Staking Her Claim

I guess I’ll be doing something other than using my computer right now, she doesn’t appear to want to move.

Doing The Laundry

 She's still at it. I did a post about how much the cat loves playing in laundry baskets.

Anytime we leave a laundry basket around, Jupiter jumps in and rolls around inside of it.

I figured that everybody loves cute cat pictures, so here you go.

Jupiter vs The Tinsel

I got some tinsel at the dollar store because I thought it would look good on my Christmas shelves. I thought I could stretch it across the front of each shelf, and give my study a little extra oomph this year. I might have done it too, if it weren't for that meddling cat.

If I'd put up the decorations sooner, the tinsel probably would have survived, but I just didn't feel like it. I was still trying to get the regular decorations up.

I put it on my desk, and didn't worry about it, but Jupiter doesn't care about rules or restrictions. She just walks right through that caution tape, and does what she pleases.