Anyone with a cat knows two things: 1. these fuzzy love lumps are a delight to have in the home or garden, and 2. they have peculiarities that make them endlessly fascinating.
I don’t need to explain the first point, do I?
The second point accounts for most of the postings in this blog. For example, the boys seemed to like their second birthday gift, a toy featured in a recent blog, though the thing they were really interested in was the shipping box it came in. Dougy is especially interested in such things.
They still play with the Cat’s Meow, the birthday toy, but they still prefer feather toys or…. Ready? The red plastic lid off a can of smoked almonds! That’s Andy’s new favorite toy, as you can see from the tooth marks in it.
There’s an object in the upper left hand corner that the boys fight play with, too. It’s a sheet of paper that fell out of the wastepaper basket directly behind it. In past magazines and other pieces of paper served the same function, which is as a well-defended territory. One or the other cat will lie down on the paper or magazine. If the other brother walks by, there is a stare down and a chase that follows. Andy is especially protective of this latest piece of paper, so I have to wait till he isn’t watching to toss it.
Recently, he decided an issue of Time magazine was his. In his defense, Andy chewed it up. I don’t mean he read it cover to cover.
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I don’t recall any nicknames that stuck to me. I am a bit stuffy about such familiarity. My cats, however, don’t get any respect.
Andy has at least two nicknames. “Pretty Boy” and “Pretty Tail”, spoken in an excited tone. Spoken while petting him, these words seem to suit Andy’s needs.
Dougy gets the stick with his nickname, but he’s so mellow he doesn’t care. Yep, his nickname is “Chubs” because he is a bit porky. Not bad, but to a point I make sure to get his veterinarian’s opinion about it each time the boys go in for checkups and booster shots.
Endearments are simple. Both are “Sweety”, because they are. Same for “Good Boy”, which mostly is true!
The boys’ nicknames came out of the confusion I endured when they were kittens and looked identical. Revisiting the videos and photos from that time, I can see the distinctive Andy and Dougy characteristics that weren’t so obvious then. The endearments come out of affection, of course, for a couple of pretty good cats.
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Andy and Dougy are tough little cats. The racket of a major thunderstorm doesn’t phase my boys.
They got through the excessively loud Fourth of July, worst one I remember. Not a whisker out of joint!
We live near a senior care center and two major roads. Lots of ambulances, police cars, and fire trucks blazing through our neighborhood (or “into”) day in and out, any hour of the day, yet my little cats handle it with great sang-froid.
In my opinion, they would make great warriors since nothing much bugs them. Except…
Even then, don’t you think Andy handled himself very well?
Yes, my cats are tough little cats! I bet my cats can lick your cat, your dog, and your Mama, one hind leg stuck straight up in the air!
Come to think of it, where was Dougy was during this interlude? Dougy! You can come out now, sweetie! I promise. The lawn mower’s gone, and the vacuum cleaner’s just sitting there. I promise not to use it just yet! Dougy? Dougy? Did Andy chase you again?
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Yesterday’s Big 2 birthday for Andy and Dougy brought many greetings from all over the world. Once again, thanks to all who did your part to make the boys’ day a big one. If it were up to me, they would get food and water and a little loving, but not much more. The cat toy gift is an exception to my rule. I’m not a birthday sort of guy.
Cat-cousin Sox, a real fox!
The boys especially liked an e-card their Auntie and cat-cousin Sox in Seattle sent: A chorus of kitties meowed through the “Happy Birthday” song! Cute!
I also enjoyed an animated Beatles video of their birthday song another friend (“seeker”, not to forget Maurice and Lucy) sent the boys. It was hugely amusing to me, though the boys were worn out from playing with their toy and chasing each other by the time I opened the video. They just sat there. Well, “sprawled”, but you get the idea.
theseeker57.wordpress.com Speaking of “seeker”, here’s a link to her inspirational blog. Check it out!
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Face it. There are times cats just aren’t fun. Like when Andy and Dougy were babies and had diarrhea from an intestinal amoebic parasite. First they’d poop outside the litter box. (Little kitten legs couldn’t carry them there fast enough – I forgave them that!) Then I’d have to give them “poop baths”, as I called them, to put a joke on top of a crappy situation. Ever bathe a cat!? Two cats!? More than once or twice or three times a week!? I shudder to recall it!
Or, they aren’t much fun when you have to catch not one, but two cats to take them anywhere. They learn from each other’s mistakes, so you can’t let one see how you trapped the other or you will be late for your veterinarian or groomer appointment. Oh yes! Even if one don’t see you catch the other, there is an art to cat trapping. Maybe I’ll write about that some day. I’ve a fair amount of experience.
Or, you pick one cat up and he’s happy for five seconds of loving before he wants down again, so you pick up the other and find out he’s not only not in the mood for five seconds of loving, he’s having a hissy because you interrupted something he really, really wanted to do instead. You know, like nothing! Claws time.
Then there’s the fun side of cats, the “most of the time” side, where they purr when they see you. Or bump a tiny nose to your extended finger in a cat greeting. Or when you blinky-eye them your love, and they blinky-eye you back, forgiving you all those baths and other intrusions in their otherwise perfect existence.
Or waking up in the middle of the night because one of your cats is kneading bread all over your body in a little love fest of kitty massage. Oooh! It feels good, though I make sure all skin is covered because kneaded bare skin is not fun. My boys have their claws!
Or there’s cat play, a manifestation of pure joy we all should emulate before we turn into cranky old coots.
But enough of this! Tomorrow, Andy and Dougy will be the Big 2. Coincidentally, our great next door neighbor to the north, Canada, will be the Big 146! I’m a day early – I’m too excited! – but Happy Birthday, Andy, Dougy, and Canada! You all are the cat’s meow, purrfect, pussycats, and the cat’s pajamas! You all make me feel warm and fuzzy!
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Not much happening down by the settee today. Took in a little cat fishing, but regret to tell you I had little luck! Lots of nibbles, though, and it felt like a 11 pound or so lunker on the line early on. It got away, of course, because cat fishing is harder than it looks.
Little did I know when I wrote this post as it originally appeared that June 25th, today, is National Catfish Day in America, as proclaimed by Ronald Reagan in 1987.
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Andy and Dougy are out of sync today. Dougy wants to play; Andy will have nothing of it; Andy is excited about birds outside the back door; Dougy’s licking his bum in obvious contentment. You just can’t predict the plan for the day with these boys.
Andy is the least predictable. He’ll walk up to me, give me kitten eyes, maybe put his little front paws on my leg in an inviting way. “Oh, you want me to pet you, darling pet,” I say, and reach down to stroke his soft wee ears or to scratch his kittenish chin. Purr-purr-purr! I’m all excited for our cat-human bonding moment!
Then, quicker than my hand can reach Andy to start the love fest, he gallops away from that very hand that dares to stroke his silken Persian magnificence!
“Rats! Foiled again!” I curse as my hand barely touches Andy’s fabled “nice tail”, the one he arches so gracefully over his back when I touch it, run it through my hand and say the magic words, “Nice tail, kitty! You have the nicest tail of all cats ever!” He likes this, so he generally lets me do it. It’s our “thing”!
Flattery usually fails on cats, though.
On the other hand, or maybe “under the other hand”, there is Dougy, a personable cat much like the idealized cat humans often think all kittens grow up to be. You know, kittens still, playful, affectionate, amusing, lap-dwelling lumps of love, which is to say meatloaves with personality!
(I thought I just heard a disbelieving voice say, “You mean they don’t???”)
I confess I am more like Andy than Dougy many times: “Give me my space. Don’t press your luck when I clearly am not interested in interacting with you just now. Leave me alone, I’m thinking. Maybe not about useful things to you, but I’m thinking, and it is pleasant for me not always to be social.”
Shame on us both! You saw in the video what our unsocial ways did to poor Dougy! He had to make his own fun! Hey! If I didn’t already do that myself, I could have learned that from my cat! In case you need a life lesson on having fun, I offer that one to you for free. We’ll call it “The Dougy Principle: Make your own fun.”
Incidentally, Andy is at my feet at this moment, giving me kitten eyes. “I want you to think I want something, which I don’t, but I will play my favorite cat game with you till you figure this out: When I sit at your feet giving you kitten eyes, I’m just trying to fake you out!”
I ignored him. No fuss about it, he simply moved on to find something else to do. Maybe I can learn from my cat if I want to!
POSTSCRIPT: Dougy had to make his own fun this morning, too, and is a stronger cat for learning to tough it when everyone, cat and man, ignores him.
Honestly, though, sometimes he’s so frustrated he could just kill a bird!
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The closer we get to Andy and Dougy’s Big 2nd Birthday on 1 July 2013, the more nostalgic I am about that stressful time when they were two sick kittens, a period that pretty much covered the first two and a half, three months I had them.
Fortunately for me, I made videos of the boys so I’d remember them as they were, and have a way to see how they’ve grown and changed. The following video is on my YouTube account, http://www.youtube.com/user/phainopepla95,
but I’ll spare you locating it among the 150+ videos there:
Gad! They were cuties! They were just starting to grow out their Persian hair. They are smoke Persians, so that new hair foretold how handsome this pair of cats were destined to be.
Maybe this video is more interesting to me than to others. I made predictions about their personalities then that are a hoot now. Andy as a “lap cat” is my favorite. It didn’t happen. Neither boy likes more than a little hold time, though they are friendly cats. Dougy as an explorer is true still, though both boys have normal cat curiosity about everything. Dougy is the camera hound still, but Andy is considerably more curious about that thing pointed at him, and he always wants to come over and sniff it.
Dougy still went by “Doogie” back then, the Scottish pronunciation of his name and mine. I’m not sure when I decided to throw caution to the wind and just call him “Dougy”. So what if people accuse me of vanity for naming my cat after myself? Dougy definitely fits the name, as does Andy his. “Douglas” and “Andrew”, their full names, not so much. He answers to “Dougy” so he isn’t confused with me. I’m the one who answers to “Doug”.
My Dad and I shared “Douglas” as first names. We had different middle names, so I wasn’t a junior, though no one ever got that straight, including family. I didn’t want my wee cat to go through that hassle, too. Before you call Dougy “Junior”, be aware his middle name, James, isn’t mine! I made sure of that!
Their big day is close now. The boys were born on Canada Day, 1 July 2011. No significance, I suppose, to that, though it is an easy date to remember!
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I try to give my Persian cat brothers as much environmental stimulation as possible. A happy cat doesn’t urinate on the carpet, for example, or get to star in a “My Cat From Hell” episode on the Animal Planet Channel.
Stimulation is the primary reason I open windows to let in outside sounds and give a clearer view of what’s happening outside. You who watch my endless cat videos know I even put a little chair and a large pot next to the door so Andy and Dougy are high enough at the back door to observe the bird activities without having to stretch.
There are times, however, that the environmental stimulation is excessive, as evidenced in this video of Dougy birdwatching this morning but getting caught by the birds!
I read that cat chattering is now thought to be the cat mimicking prey vocalizations to improve hunt success. While I don’t think Dougy will eat a big fat robin today because of his vocalizations, chatter as mimicking prey vocalizations is an intriguing idea.
I hope this link works. It’s the one about cat chatter.
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Cats are exasperating. Cats are lovable. Cats do their thing. Cats relax us with their sweet response to loving! Dougy is the star of this newest video. He often perches or sprawls right on my computer desk, usually where my mouse hand or arm rest. He’s been like this since the first day I brought him home, and he appears in several videos hogging my desk and restraining my arm with a sleepy head or paws. Aw! Gotta love him!
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