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said_scarlett) wrote2011-02-21 08:53 pm
said_scarlett) wrote2011-02-21 08:53 pm
Entry tags:
On Kitties....
Nothing's really going on that I want to whine to LJland about, so....
I'm going to talk about my two cats instead. For some background:
For the majority of my life (no, seriously, this cat is ancient,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
attilatehbun can validate this!) I have had an ornery tortoiseshell named Claudia. I found her as a stray kitten when she was tiny. Bottle-feeding her formula and everything. We assume this is the reason she likes me. She doesn't like many other things that breathe. The exception, as observed over years, seems to only include people who are allergic to her. People allergic to cats? She loves them. This is because she is made of evil.
I'm not entirely kidding. She has two favorite games. The first involves my parent's overly-excited terrier/shih tzu mix. Pepper is, opposite of Claudia, made of love. There has only been one person she has ever not liked. And she loves Claudia. She spent years trying to make Claudia her best friend. And Claudia takes delight in rubbing up against Pepper, purring, and giving every indication that all she wants is to snuggle and play. And as soon as Pepper settles in to snuggle and enjoy the kitty....Claudia whips around and starts beating her in the face.
The second game involves waiting by a doorway that my father commonly passes through. Claudia will settle there and tuck in like she's going to nap. She even closes one eye completely and just slits the other. The one that's facing my dad's chair. She will wait like that until she sees him get up. Then, the moment he passes her, she will leap into action and attack his ankle.
This is Claudia's house, you see, and she is the queen.
Then we have Sheila, my eight month old Siamese. Sheila is...well, my dad alternates between calling her Space Shot and Holy Beast. She gets into everything, she's faster than a cat is allowed to be, and she has learned to turn knobs to open doors, and she never stops. We have never seen a more energetic or athletic cat before, and we have known a lot of cats. She also knows how to turn on sink faucets and likes to play in the water. And she talks. Well, trills when she's just making noise and the siamese wail when she wants something. Now while she is picky about what people she likes, everything else under the sun is a potential best friend. She even plays with the ratty girls - and they play right back. She's constantly trying to get at the bird, but not to hurt him, just to make friends. We caught her on top of his cage once, and she was just curled up purring. The bird was terrified. She's not allowed outside, since her reaction to a family friend's giant shepherd/pyranese was 'zomgyou'rehugeIloveyouplaywithmeeeeeeeeee!'. This would not go over well with the local coyotes.*
The big cat has forgotten those long ago days, nearly two decades ago, when she was the annoying little kitten who pissed the hell out of the big old ornery calico we had. And because Sheila was always with me or on me and sleeps in my bed, Claudia decided to hate me. She started pulling the doorway trick with me, peeing on my laundry, knocking over Sheila's litter box, started scratching on my furniture and rug.... And all the while Sheila is trying to make friends. And Claudia beat the hell out of her (no claws, to her credit) daily. All we could compare them to was Garfield and Nermal. It helps that Sheila is one of the cutest cats we've seen IRL and Claudia is lazy and fat. I once watched Claudia walk by Sheila, look at her, keep going....then turn around, go back, and smack her for no good reason before continuing on to the living room. The best (well, funniest based on the comparison) was when we watched Claudia shove Sheila off the table. Yes, I know Garfield does that to Odie, but it was still damn funny.
Then, a few weeks ago, everything changed. Suddenly Claudia was hopping up on the couch with me and snuggling up on my lap like she used to. Now it's a regular occurrence. At first I thought it was to piss Sheila off - she gets jealous, if I pet the bird she cries - but Claudia's been pretty good with the baby cat. They've learned to share the couch, and they'll even play with each other now. Claudia will still randomly start smacking the kitten, but she randomly smacks everything. What amazes me is the energy Claudia is showing now that she's accepted this intruder into her home. She bolts up and down the house with her, almost as fast as Sheila. She plays with Sheila's toys, she's started climbing and jumping things again...it's like she's a whole new cat.
It isn't even that there's catnip in any of the kitten's toys. Sheila's ballistic enough as is, we don't want to see what would happen if she had any. She managed to still try and play and jump all over crap when she was doped up on heavy kitty morphine. The most she's allowed is cat grass.
Whatever's up with the big grump lately, I'm just glad she's happy and energetic!
*(She had never in her life seen an animal bigger than a fifteen pound terrier at that point.)
I'm going to talk about my two cats instead. For some background:
For the majority of my life (no, seriously, this cat is ancient,
attilatehbun can validate this!) I have had an ornery tortoiseshell named Claudia. I found her as a stray kitten when she was tiny. Bottle-feeding her formula and everything. We assume this is the reason she likes me. She doesn't like many other things that breathe. The exception, as observed over years, seems to only include people who are allergic to her. People allergic to cats? She loves them. This is because she is made of evil.I'm not entirely kidding. She has two favorite games. The first involves my parent's overly-excited terrier/shih tzu mix. Pepper is, opposite of Claudia, made of love. There has only been one person she has ever not liked. And she loves Claudia. She spent years trying to make Claudia her best friend. And Claudia takes delight in rubbing up against Pepper, purring, and giving every indication that all she wants is to snuggle and play. And as soon as Pepper settles in to snuggle and enjoy the kitty....Claudia whips around and starts beating her in the face.
The second game involves waiting by a doorway that my father commonly passes through. Claudia will settle there and tuck in like she's going to nap. She even closes one eye completely and just slits the other. The one that's facing my dad's chair. She will wait like that until she sees him get up. Then, the moment he passes her, she will leap into action and attack his ankle.
This is Claudia's house, you see, and she is the queen.
Then we have Sheila, my eight month old Siamese. Sheila is...well, my dad alternates between calling her Space Shot and Holy Beast. She gets into everything, she's faster than a cat is allowed to be, and she has learned to turn knobs to open doors, and she never stops. We have never seen a more energetic or athletic cat before, and we have known a lot of cats. She also knows how to turn on sink faucets and likes to play in the water. And she talks. Well, trills when she's just making noise and the siamese wail when she wants something. Now while she is picky about what people she likes, everything else under the sun is a potential best friend. She even plays with the ratty girls - and they play right back. She's constantly trying to get at the bird, but not to hurt him, just to make friends. We caught her on top of his cage once, and she was just curled up purring. The bird was terrified. She's not allowed outside, since her reaction to a family friend's giant shepherd/pyranese was 'zomgyou'rehugeIloveyouplaywithmeeeeeeeeee!'. This would not go over well with the local coyotes.*
The big cat has forgotten those long ago days, nearly two decades ago, when she was the annoying little kitten who pissed the hell out of the big old ornery calico we had. And because Sheila was always with me or on me and sleeps in my bed, Claudia decided to hate me. She started pulling the doorway trick with me, peeing on my laundry, knocking over Sheila's litter box, started scratching on my furniture and rug.... And all the while Sheila is trying to make friends. And Claudia beat the hell out of her (no claws, to her credit) daily. All we could compare them to was Garfield and Nermal. It helps that Sheila is one of the cutest cats we've seen IRL and Claudia is lazy and fat. I once watched Claudia walk by Sheila, look at her, keep going....then turn around, go back, and smack her for no good reason before continuing on to the living room. The best (well, funniest based on the comparison) was when we watched Claudia shove Sheila off the table. Yes, I know Garfield does that to Odie, but it was still damn funny.
Then, a few weeks ago, everything changed. Suddenly Claudia was hopping up on the couch with me and snuggling up on my lap like she used to. Now it's a regular occurrence. At first I thought it was to piss Sheila off - she gets jealous, if I pet the bird she cries - but Claudia's been pretty good with the baby cat. They've learned to share the couch, and they'll even play with each other now. Claudia will still randomly start smacking the kitten, but she randomly smacks everything. What amazes me is the energy Claudia is showing now that she's accepted this intruder into her home. She bolts up and down the house with her, almost as fast as Sheila. She plays with Sheila's toys, she's started climbing and jumping things again...it's like she's a whole new cat.
It isn't even that there's catnip in any of the kitten's toys. Sheila's ballistic enough as is, we don't want to see what would happen if she had any. She managed to still try and play and jump all over crap when she was doped up on heavy kitty morphine. The most she's allowed is cat grass.
Whatever's up with the big grump lately, I'm just glad she's happy and energetic!
*(She had never in her life seen an animal bigger than a fifteen pound terrier at that point.)
no subject
Glad to see you're doing well, hon ^_^ I've missed you!
no subject
I've missed you, too!
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Ahh cats. They rule our lives.
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Oh man, talk about a full house! I've got enough trouble with the one pair! Hahaha, Precious does sound like Claudia. Grumpy old cats FTW! Sheila is currently attempting to pry up my living room rug to burrow under it. *headdesk*
They seriously do. I'd still be in bed otherwise!
no subject
no subject
Hey, old kitties can learn new tricks, eh? :p