Strawberry Ice Cream to be exact. To be even more "exacter": Blue Bunny Double Strawberry - No Sugar Added, Lower Fat Ice Cream sweetened with Splenda.
Yes, our loveable but dense tuxedo cat, Rufus, is an ice cream lover and a serious mooch.
If someone (say, for the sake of argument, ME) is sitting with a bowl (or the entire carton) of the treat, Mr. Cat will approach looking hopeful. Of course nothing is forthcoming so he gets vocal about the kitty abuse that you are perpetrating. After a few reproachful howls, he will leap into your lap and approach your face (the better to lick your lips for any lingering traces of frozen goodness).
He then tries to stick his head into carton or bowl, whichever is handy. Last night I went to push him off my lap and on his way down he made it a point to land his right front paw directly in the carton,
"Yeah Lady, you KNOW I've been in the litter box! Enjoy your ice cream."
Well, I figured I have a good immune system so I kept eating. He got me though. I had left the lid to the carton on the kitchen counter and when I went to put the carton back into the freezer, he was calmly polishing off the melted ice cream on the inside of the lid.
Dang Cat!
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Monday, May 9, 2011
Because it's what I do best...
Guilt. Ah, that wonderful, all powerful tool that is so useful in the home. I didn't have to get it out even once this last Mother's Day weekend. What a shame, as I had it all perfectly polished up and ready to go...
Did I get the perfect card? No.
Did I get to sleep in? No.
Did I get breakfast in bed? No.
Instead I got the gift of a guilt-free construction project. Perfect!
When we had to cover the pond to prevent the ravages of predator birds, the canvas top did nothing to improve the health of the waterplants. We have been planning to replace the canvas with a redwood lattice roof for a couple of years now, but that project always seems to come in second to more pressing needs.
This year, it was announced that The Bearded One and Stubble were going to begin on the new roof for the pond enclosure - without my even asking! How nice! A construction project in which I have no part to play except for spray painting the joist hangers gloss black.
It is going to look absolutely awesome. Of course, it is going to take about 3.1416 times as long to finish as they had planned.....
Did I get the perfect card? No.
Did I get to sleep in? No.
Did I get breakfast in bed? No.
Instead I got the gift of a guilt-free construction project. Perfect!
When we had to cover the pond to prevent the ravages of predator birds, the canvas top did nothing to improve the health of the waterplants. We have been planning to replace the canvas with a redwood lattice roof for a couple of years now, but that project always seems to come in second to more pressing needs.
This year, it was announced that The Bearded One and Stubble were going to begin on the new roof for the pond enclosure - without my even asking! How nice! A construction project in which I have no part to play except for spray painting the joist hangers gloss black.
It is going to look absolutely awesome. Of course, it is going to take about 3.1416 times as long to finish as they had planned.....
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Protect Wildlife - Please Crush...
Rufus the Unhinged, my furry little tuxedo cat, helped me clean the litter boxes this morning. We keep our litter scoop in a cut down half-gallon milk jug. While Rufus was "helping" he went to sniff the bottom of the milk jug. Then he stuck his head all the way in, no doubt to get a better sniff...and got stuck.
I couldn't help him right away and he blundered around the laundry room shaking his head. His sister Kimi couldn't figure out what was happening to her brother although she tried to help by backing him into the corner by the pantry. As I was going to release him from his HDPE 2 prison, Rufus gave his head a mighty shake and the jug came off. That he got stuck at all was surprising as the entire top half of the jug is removed. Trust Rufus to figure out how.
On a really serious note: As I was shaking my head and smiling over the cat, it occurred to me that while I was fine with waiting until I had finished scooping the litter and no permanent harm would befall the little fuzzball, in a "wild" setting, this would really be a problem. I hereby resolve to crush all of my Yoplait containers even it it gets yogurt splashes on my floor.
I couldn't help him right away and he blundered around the laundry room shaking his head. His sister Kimi couldn't figure out what was happening to her brother although she tried to help by backing him into the corner by the pantry. As I was going to release him from his HDPE 2 prison, Rufus gave his head a mighty shake and the jug came off. That he got stuck at all was surprising as the entire top half of the jug is removed. Trust Rufus to figure out how.
On a really serious note: As I was shaking my head and smiling over the cat, it occurred to me that while I was fine with waiting until I had finished scooping the litter and no permanent harm would befall the little fuzzball, in a "wild" setting, this would really be a problem. I hereby resolve to crush all of my Yoplait containers even it it gets yogurt splashes on my floor.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Splish Splash
We "opened" the pool yesterday. Last weekend we removed the winter cover and put on the solar cover. We cranked up the solar heaters. Yesterday when I headed for our garage-gym it was quite warm with the sun beating on the garage door. I decided to open the garage door and go check the pool chemistry while I waited for things to cool off. Well, the pool chemistry was wonderful and the pool temp was over 80 degrees, so instead of putting on shorts and getting my earphones, I got a bathing suit and spent a couple of hours in the pool...
Wish I had remembered the sun screen!
Wish I had remembered the sun screen!
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
She's Baaaaaack!
I have not been a well person for awhile. I am much better now: "Every day in every way, better and better".
I'm happy to be back and happy to be writing again. It actually took a couple of months before I could string two thoughts together into one coherent sentence. I could only do the simplest tasks like cleaning out a closet or sweeping a floor...nothing complex like writing...
During the time I've been away the holidays have come and gone, Spring is here, and Rufus and the Ninja Sisters will be one year old next week.
I'm happy to be back and happy to be writing again. It actually took a couple of months before I could string two thoughts together into one coherent sentence. I could only do the simplest tasks like cleaning out a closet or sweeping a floor...nothing complex like writing...
During the time I've been away the holidays have come and gone, Spring is here, and Rufus and the Ninja Sisters will be one year old next week.
They are all grown up now and have developed some interesting talents. Kimiko (now known as Kimi-Cat) can turn on the bedroom lights (touch sensitive ones) and has been known to do so in the middle of the night. She can also open doors that are not completelty latched by jumping up and hitting them with her front paws in the vicinity of the latch. She finds this especially handy for bathroom doors. She also has a very real talent for sneaking into places if you give her half a chance - like closets and pantries (and the DRYER!) - where she plays (or sleeps) happily until you miss her and find her.
Katsu (who has now become "CAT-Su") is the tiniest and (we believe) the smartest. She is the one who will do all sorts of "forbidden" things in order to get attention, but she does it with "flair". For example, she will climb on the counter tops, but instead of chewing on things or knocking things over, she just sits there looking cute and waits for you to pick her up for a cuddle. Now after you have picked her up, she doesn't want to stay cuddled, but she will have pulled your attention from the other furry ones.
Rufus (now known as "MR. CAT!" or "Rufus the Unhinged") is a very "elemental" cat. He is a big bully when it comes to his sisters (or us) and a champion "leaper" able to jump to great heights from a standing start. We believe that Rufus suffered some brain damage at birth because, while he manages to eat, drink, and use the litter box appropriately, he seems to exist at the most basic level -he purrs and sleeps, but appears to have no understanding of language at all. He doesn't exhibit the curiosity of his sisters, or the ingenuity, but he is loving, sheds profusely, and will eat anything semi edible.
Katsu (who has now become "CAT-Su") is the tiniest and (we believe) the smartest. She is the one who will do all sorts of "forbidden" things in order to get attention, but she does it with "flair". For example, she will climb on the counter tops, but instead of chewing on things or knocking things over, she just sits there looking cute and waits for you to pick her up for a cuddle. Now after you have picked her up, she doesn't want to stay cuddled, but she will have pulled your attention from the other furry ones.
Rufus (now known as "MR. CAT!" or "Rufus the Unhinged") is a very "elemental" cat. He is a big bully when it comes to his sisters (or us) and a champion "leaper" able to jump to great heights from a standing start. We believe that Rufus suffered some brain damage at birth because, while he manages to eat, drink, and use the litter box appropriately, he seems to exist at the most basic level -he purrs and sleeps, but appears to have no understanding of language at all. He doesn't exhibit the curiosity of his sisters, or the ingenuity, but he is loving, sheds profusely, and will eat anything semi edible.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Plenty
This time of year it seems that every time the mail arrives (or email for that matter) there is another request for donations: Food Pantries, Toy Drives, Homeless Shelters. The list goes on and on. We pick and choose the charities that we donate to, looking for ones that do the most good in our own community: Preferably ones who operate with lots of volunteer rather than paid help. We do that so that our donations go the farthest toward helping those in need, because as we keep hearing, the need is greater than ever this year.
Need has always been all around us. We used to shop at a lot of thrift stores when doing theater, looking for props, costumes, or set pieces. But we were doing it for fun. And all around us we could see people for whom the thrift shop was their store of choice – out of necessity.
The Bearded One and I were discussing the huge amount of unmet need this year and deciding to contribute a little more than usual this holiday season and both of us remembered the exact same incident from many years ago:
We were looking for matching glassware at a Salvation Army Thrift Shop. Near the racks of men’s dress shirts were a young couple looking to be in their early to mid 20’s. They were looking for a dress shirt and tie for the husband to wear to a job interview. As they paid for their selections, the wife was looking at a rack of paperback books that stood by the cash register.
“Can I buy a book?” she asked wistfully.
“Yeah, you can pick one out,” he answered.
They were 25 cents apiece. When a single quarter is an issue of great importance, need is very great indeed.
I’m really counting my blessings this year.
Need has always been all around us. We used to shop at a lot of thrift stores when doing theater, looking for props, costumes, or set pieces. But we were doing it for fun. And all around us we could see people for whom the thrift shop was their store of choice – out of necessity.
The Bearded One and I were discussing the huge amount of unmet need this year and deciding to contribute a little more than usual this holiday season and both of us remembered the exact same incident from many years ago:
We were looking for matching glassware at a Salvation Army Thrift Shop. Near the racks of men’s dress shirts were a young couple looking to be in their early to mid 20’s. They were looking for a dress shirt and tie for the husband to wear to a job interview. As they paid for their selections, the wife was looking at a rack of paperback books that stood by the cash register.
“Can I buy a book?” she asked wistfully.
“Yeah, you can pick one out,” he answered.
They were 25 cents apiece. When a single quarter is an issue of great importance, need is very great indeed.
I’m really counting my blessings this year.
Rufus and The Ninja Sisters
Note: The post below was written on 8/30/10. I just found it and am now publishing it. There have been many changes since this was written.
Why do we have 3 kittens when we agreed to adopt 2? When one of the adoptive families fell through, we were asked would we possibly be able to take 3. We have had 3 cats at times in the past and The Bearded One had finished a glass of Cabernet…..and he LOVES cats.
Rufus got his name from the lead character in the movie “ffolkes”. Stubble and his friends decided that the two female cats were “little cat ninjas” because of their stalking and pouncing (on each other and on their brother and on us). We googled “female ninja names” and came up with Katsu and Kimiko.
How quickly one forgets what kittens are like. Well, it maybe isn’t so unexpected when you consider that we have been cat free for nearly 2 years and that our cats are complete house cats and so tend to live long healthy lives. We have many years of living with adult cats who are more, um, sedate than rough and tumble kittens. The night before last, in the middle of the night, at least two of them pounced on my toes and began chewing…little monsters. I wound up putting on my thick Thorlos socks and they went away. No doubt because it isn’t as much fun to chew on me when I’m not screaming in pain.
They arrived on Saturday and proceeded to attempt to eat the carpet and attack the furniture until The Bearded One had the happy thought of moving their climbing tower into the living room. It doesn’t provide any additional ambience, but it has so far saved the furniture. The mini-blinds and verticals are permanently closed so that the kittens can’t get to the screens; they managed to badly damage one of the screens in the dining room before we figured out what they were up to. Stubble’s shower curtain is also a victim of climbing kitties. His shower curtain is a loose weave, though, so I should be able to “massage” the fabric back into shape. His bathroom door is staying closed, however.
Sunday night, the climbing tower got a little too close to the living room slider and before you could say, “wait, stop, don’t do that”, Rufus was on the top rail of the verticals “walking the parapet”. Stubble couldn’t reach him to get him down and when we finally got something for him to stand on, the kitten would just happily walk to the other end of the rail and laugh at us. He finally decided to get down on his own and jumped right onto the climbing tower – which is now in the middle of the room rather than by the window.
There have been the inevitable accidents when kittens didn’t find the litter box in time. They are in a new house that is bigger than the house that they came from and to be fair, they really don’t know their way around yet. So when we aren’t around to catch accidents immediately, into the laundry room they will go. At least for the next little while.
Their first vet visit is tonight. I will be taking Stubble as back up to help keep all three of them in play and out of trouble (if that is in fact possible). Because we were so late in getting possession of them, spaying and neutering isn’t far off. Maybe only a week or two. I’m not looking forward to the expense of two spays and a neuter, but the alternative is unthinkable, so we’ll just have to make do. It will be at least another 20 years before I can handle any more kittens!
Follow up: We quickly discovered that the only way to get sleep at night was to keep the kitties in the laundry room. They didn't seem to mind at all. Just last week we were able to release the kittens from their laundry room when we are not in the house. Of course, now they won't go into the laundry room at night any more and are sleeping with us, but being a little older, they are now perfectly fine bedmates.
Why do we have 3 kittens when we agreed to adopt 2? When one of the adoptive families fell through, we were asked would we possibly be able to take 3. We have had 3 cats at times in the past and The Bearded One had finished a glass of Cabernet…..and he LOVES cats.
Rufus got his name from the lead character in the movie “ffolkes”. Stubble and his friends decided that the two female cats were “little cat ninjas” because of their stalking and pouncing (on each other and on their brother and on us). We googled “female ninja names” and came up with Katsu and Kimiko.
How quickly one forgets what kittens are like. Well, it maybe isn’t so unexpected when you consider that we have been cat free for nearly 2 years and that our cats are complete house cats and so tend to live long healthy lives. We have many years of living with adult cats who are more, um, sedate than rough and tumble kittens. The night before last, in the middle of the night, at least two of them pounced on my toes and began chewing…little monsters. I wound up putting on my thick Thorlos socks and they went away. No doubt because it isn’t as much fun to chew on me when I’m not screaming in pain.
They arrived on Saturday and proceeded to attempt to eat the carpet and attack the furniture until The Bearded One had the happy thought of moving their climbing tower into the living room. It doesn’t provide any additional ambience, but it has so far saved the furniture. The mini-blinds and verticals are permanently closed so that the kittens can’t get to the screens; they managed to badly damage one of the screens in the dining room before we figured out what they were up to. Stubble’s shower curtain is also a victim of climbing kitties. His shower curtain is a loose weave, though, so I should be able to “massage” the fabric back into shape. His bathroom door is staying closed, however.
Sunday night, the climbing tower got a little too close to the living room slider and before you could say, “wait, stop, don’t do that”, Rufus was on the top rail of the verticals “walking the parapet”. Stubble couldn’t reach him to get him down and when we finally got something for him to stand on, the kitten would just happily walk to the other end of the rail and laugh at us. He finally decided to get down on his own and jumped right onto the climbing tower – which is now in the middle of the room rather than by the window.
There have been the inevitable accidents when kittens didn’t find the litter box in time. They are in a new house that is bigger than the house that they came from and to be fair, they really don’t know their way around yet. So when we aren’t around to catch accidents immediately, into the laundry room they will go. At least for the next little while.
Their first vet visit is tonight. I will be taking Stubble as back up to help keep all three of them in play and out of trouble (if that is in fact possible). Because we were so late in getting possession of them, spaying and neutering isn’t far off. Maybe only a week or two. I’m not looking forward to the expense of two spays and a neuter, but the alternative is unthinkable, so we’ll just have to make do. It will be at least another 20 years before I can handle any more kittens!
Follow up: We quickly discovered that the only way to get sleep at night was to keep the kitties in the laundry room. They didn't seem to mind at all. Just last week we were able to release the kittens from their laundry room when we are not in the house. Of course, now they won't go into the laundry room at night any more and are sleeping with us, but being a little older, they are now perfectly fine bedmates.
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