When I wake up in the morning, it's not to an alarm clock, or the rising sun. I wake up to a howl. Here is the howler:
This cat was rescued from the street about 16 years ago. I think if he had been left there he would eventually have been the leader of a large colony. This cat has a sense of himself and does not acknowledge any masters.
Here he is sitting on my footstool. He is about two inches from my legs, and he's angry. He wants food now.
It doesn't matter that he has food on his plate. He wants other food. He will go to the plate, rummage through and toss food around discontentedly.
If I outlive the cat (not a certainty), I will have to get a new rug. No matter what precautions I take, he carries the food beyond the perimeter and leaves kernels everywhere. Several times a day I go around and collect his discards.
I guess this is where I tell my readers that my husband and I love this cat. He brings us joy every day. His antics are amazing and hilarious. I think if we were younger and we had children or responsibilities, we might find the cat annoying. As it is, he is a source of great entertainment. My husband is fond of saying, "He's his own man."
Here he is giving me that angry look again. If I don't move soon, and get him what he wants, he will poke me with his nose. He may climb on my lap. This is not affection. If he thinks I don't get the message yet, he will stretch his paw out and tap me. This is not a benign gesture--he has very long, sharp claws.
Check out the video below, where he is playing and at the same time displaying those claws.
They say cats don't have a large vocabulary. I can't tell. He is so ornery that maybe his failure to respond to words is just an expression of his independence. I do know when I say we are leaving, he looks at me resentfully. I cannot leave him in my office alone. If he is in there he rampages through everything and causes a mess.
The cat is on a special diet. He had kidney issues years ago and ever since has been on a urinary tract diet. Whatever is missing from that special food makes him crave plastic. He will chew bread wrappers (and bread), plastic on water bottle packages, and even the sleeves that surgical dressings are kept in. My husband had an operation a few months ago and the cat keeps sneaking around, trying to get pieces of the surgical wrap that is left. I have those supplies buried behind boxes but he pulls the boxes out if I'm not watching and then proceeds to eat the plastic.
He is an extraordinarily cute cat. At least, that's what we think.
The funny thing is, the cat is not even ours. He is basically a refugee from the dog that has moved in with my daughter. She lives downstairs. It's her cat. My daughter has the cat litter in the basement. She is responsible for the cat's care. But he eats upstairs and mostly sleeps upstairs. Here is the 75+ pound dog the cat escapes from:
Things have settled down since the dog moved in a little over a year ago. Basically, the dog is amused by the cat, and wants to play. However, the wrong kind of play could be very dangerous to the cat.
Recently the dog has started to come upstairs when the cat is here. We keep an eye open and the cat knows how to give the dog wide berth. Both animals are a source of great joy, but it's the cat that has won my husband's heart.
(That's my shadow hanging over the cat's tale)
We send each other pictures throughout the day when the cat is assuming one of his cute poses. When my husband was in the hospital in May, I was tempted to bring the cat in to cheer him up, but I knew I'd never get away with that.
The cat likes to sleep in the room with us, but we discovered that is a really bad idea. If he gets hungry in the middle of the night, he climbs up on the bed and pokes me. We realized we had to shut the door and leave him outside. Even then if one of us gets up in the middle of the night he sometimes tries to run into the room and hide under one of our chairs.
Here is another sleeping pose. You can see why we forgive him anything.
Very early in the morning, when the cat believes he is entitled to breakfast, he does whatever he can to wake us up. He howls. He howls outside the door. He goes downstairs and howls while my daughter is getting ready for work. I manage to go back to sleep, but it's not really the same again.
When I finally do wake up in the morning, before I have my coffee, or get my bearings, I have to give the cat breakfast. He usually gets two or three helpings before he is satisfied. And I love every bit of it.
I'm adding a new tag today to my blog, an initiative started by @ericvancewalton and @tengolotodo: #goodvibesonly. The tag signifies that I'm posting positive stuff in blog, stuff with a good vibe. You can read more about the new tag here.
Postscript:
I forgot a door open this morning while I walked the dog (briefly). I found the cat astride a loaf of bread. He was tearing at the wrap and eating both the bread and the plastic. I lifted him and he continued to hold onto the loaf of bread. The whole loaf. He carried that loaf for about 60 feet, until it finally dropped to the floor. Here's a picture of the rescued bread.
And so another day begins....
I love this and what a brilliant additionfor #GoodVibesOnly
Animals are amazing, I am more of a dog lover as I have had more dogs, but I do love cats too, and they seem to love coming up to me for some love.
You nailed the word ornery, I think when you look in the dictionary you will find a picture of a cat. My sister in law's cat most certainly can be ornery when he wants lol!
Oh my heavens. That is so funny.
Animals are amazing. We've had all kinds, and no matter how 'ornery', an animal might be, we never gave up on any of them....
I love the tag and will be using it again when appropriate.
Hehe they really are amazing, and I love how they live in the now :)
That cat sounds like a character! Animals bring so much life into a home (sometimes bad but most often good). : ) They're the best companionship a person could ask for. We've been without our beagle since early 2023 but I think we're just about ready to get another one, maybe this coming spring. Thank you for your contribution to #GoodVibesOnly!
I love the tag! Not only does everyone know that a positive blog follows, but it also encourages people to write positive blogs. Nothing wrong with that :)
I'm very sorry about your beagle. It reads as an easy phrase, the loss, but it's so hard to write and get used to. We are dog lovers. This means that over the years we have had to say goodbye to beloved pets as their very, very brief life spans came to an end. In recent years, it's my daughter who has the dogs, but we share them through love and through care-taking. About three years ago we lost a beagle, the sweetest dog imaginable. This beagle helped to raise my granddaughter...it was her sibling.
Thanks for stopping by. I'll look for the #GoodVivesOnly tag and try to support others who use it.
Thank you! I'm glad you recognize the value in it! I hope it helps to elevate the vibe here a bit. You had a beagle too so you know! : ) I'd had pets before but never bonded with one as closely as Amstel—beagles are special. Saying goodbye to him was probably the most difficult grief I've experienced aside from my father's passing. Our Amstel was such a constant and great companion to us from 2009 to 2023.
Here a photo of him:
What a beauty! Lovely, lovely face. Beagles don't live long enough, none of them do. OMG...how do you say goodbye? I am sorry.
Thank you! He was my constant shadow and partner in shenanigans. : )
Great story!
My daughter's cat was a lovely lover of a cat. UNTIL I brought my dog with me on a visit. He, the cat, now gets right in my face and yells at me. He drew blood on my last visit. Very scary! I am planning a visit without the dog largely to repair my relationship with this cat because, just like you, I love him.
Hey, I just learned that cats do not want to eat near water. Perhaps that's why you find his food all over the place - he might be depositing it in "safer" places. Apparently, food near water sources in the wild is often rotting flesh and dangerous to eat. Try moving his water at least six feet away from his food.
Hey I think I said that wrong - rotting food near water holes contaminate the water, so the water is unsafe to drink. He might be protecting his water from stupid human contraptions.
Just read your answer :)) Was on the phone with my daughter when I was posting the response. It's the water, not the food :))
I finally found where I saw it.
That's a great video! Some changes have already been made. That food bowl pictured in the blog? It has been converted to a water dish. The cat now has two water dishes and a flat dish for food--still too close at a foot away. In the daytime when the dog comes up the food dish is actually in another room because the dog steals the food :))
He has plenty of climbing. Dressers, window seats, cat hotel. And two scratch posts. He doesn't have to worry about me cleaning too much :)))
It's a good video. A little alarming, and also sad. We had a female rescue that was not spayed. She died of mammary tumor. However, the choice not to spay her was necessitated by physical reality. My daughter found her in a car engine when the kitten was just a week or two old. The animal's leg was broken, irreparably. She never really thrived. Always was underweight, and a little simple minded. We once asked about amputating her leg and spaying her, but the vet could not assure us she would survive the operation. So she lived a short, but happy life as a lame animal.
Anyway, good video. A lot to think about. Not that many modifications necessary here. The cat rules!
I never knew about the water! Great idea, certainly worth a try. I tried cutting the food into smaller pieces and that seemed to cut down on the debris significantly, but who wants to add that chore (mincing the cat's food) to my list?
I'm not very surprised about the cat's reaction to the dog. A few weeks ago I was walking with my daughter and her dog when I grew tired, really tired suddenly. I had to stop and sit right there on the curb. A cat lived at the house I randomly chose. The dog stood next to me. The cat walked up to the dog, sniffed him, and gave a gratuitous scratch on the nose :) :) :)
I love a cat with spirit, but that was a bit much.
Don't take the dog back with you. That is a very funny story (even with the blood).
haha i get you, i have 2 cats, both stray, one grown by hand with milk aswell, and they wake me up at 5 for THEIR breakfast
:)) That does seem to be the hour. Just finished feeding the cat, twice before making breakfast for me. He's finally resting peacefully behind my chair so I guess I can eat!
Haha that's the first thing I gotta do too, not even bathroom, no i wake up and immediately feed!
So youthful looking for 16+. I can see from the haughty poses that this cat has your household taped; he knows exactly how to get his way(and where all the tasty bread is hiding). So cute!
Yes! We never had a chance. No matter what he does, he gets away with it. He does look grand for 16+, doesn't he? You should see him run. He's very spry. We delight in that.
Thank you my friend 🌷
Aw, what a character!! I love rescue cats. We have two kittens right now, they are awesome. Cats good such a special place in the heart!
Yes, a character. A wonderful character. In our family we only adopt rescue pets. When one passes on, it hurts, but then we think of all the love we have to give another animal, so we go again.
We love cats, and dogs and birds and... :)
All of the creatures!! 😀😀
What a cat! He looks a lot like my daughter's cat. Although he's not as old, this one is eight years old. They're definitely independent, with distinct personalities. My daughter's cat is quite gentle and loving. Skittish, he even runs away from my wife's Yorkie, who's half his size. Maybe he's a pacifist. Ha ha ha.
Best regards, and I wish you lots of good vibes this weekend.
:))
We do love that cat. He has really put a bit of drama in our quiet house.
Good vibes, for sure. We'll make our own if they don't come our way. Regards to you also, @janaveda
I like how his face looks (politely attentive, a slight reproach can be seen in the eyes :))))) Our new cat this morning slightly trampled on my stomach for 2 minutes, but was unable to get me up.)
Have a great day! and !PIZZA
He's reaching the boiling point in that picture. I can almost read his mind: What can I do to make her move???
😂
Aww, so beautiful!!! 😍😍😍
Thank you!!
We all love animals very much and it is a good thing that we keep them at home and feed them on time because when they live outside, they cannot get food on time and it is also a good thing to treat any injury.
$PIZZA slices delivered:
@qwerrie(1/5) tipped @agmoore
Come get MOONed!
How comfortably he sleeps, it seems that he is quite comfortable
He sleeps fine, very comfortable. But he doesn't let us sleep!!! He howls away when he wants breakfast :)))