The world’s oddest room mate

Believe it or not, I do have a room mate. She might not be what one considers the typical room mate, but she does try to carry her weight around the house. It is due to this I don’t mind that she doesn’t share half the rent, the utilities and the internet bill.

She does do some things that bother me though. She eats my food. She eats my plants when she’s in crazy mode.

Resistance is futile to the African Violet and Corn plant in the corner!

She keeps me up all hours of the night by having dance parties and trying to give me a scratchy tongue bath.

Gizmo loves to show off how to appropriately do glow-stick dancing.

She rides her imaginary velocipede around the apartment.

She's not one for riding "tandem".

She doesn’t help me keep count when I do sit-ups as part of my work out routine; and today of all days for the first time, she threw up on the carpet; probably from eating my food and dancing at all hours of the night.

In spite of all this, she does make a really awesome friend. She helps to clean the blinds by incessantly licking them. She vacuums up her own fur using her mouth.  She lets me know if someone is at the door (in fact she’ll be the first to greet them). She’s a great listener and she also greets me every time I come home, with a kiss.

Try and tell me these ears don't listen well!

Moving to an apartment from a home can be pretty lonely, especially if you’re an extremely social person, however there is something to be said for pets…or rather animals that allow themselves to stay with you and let you take care of them. They can take the sting out of something that for most would be unbearable. I’m not used to being on my own, but we’ll just say due to Gizmo, it’s getting better all the time.

Eat your heart out!

What have your pets done for you? How do your pets take care of you in ways you didn’t expect?

All photos are courtesy of Kitty’s photography.  (Yes, that is her real name!)

Dusty; the cat who loves to burgle backyards

Recently a video has been circulating the web about a San Mateo neighborhood cat burglar. It turns out the burglar is a cat and loves to burgle things from surrounding back yards and gardens. Apparently the cat has been known to steal large and small towels, gloves, car wash sponges and loves it when he can find a swimsuit drying outside. The owners say the cat has accumulated so many things over 3 years it was too hard to keep up with whose stuff was whose; so they set out tables with the belongings on it for neighbors to re-collect. The cat has become quite the celebrity due to local news and to celebrate the community is going to make him Grand Marshall at a local pet parade. It will probably look something like this…

I for one have a problem with this. They are rewarding the cat for bad behavior. The community should enforce the fact that just because you’re cute and furry, doesn’t mean you get away with petty crime. However, they will learn reinforcements are in order when the cat starts stealing purses, wrist watches, and candy on the parade route. Unfortunately it will go down like this…

Here’s what I suggest; why not put Dusty the cat burglar to good use? The owners said he likes to collect things, so why not use him on the side of the road like most criminals?

These are just some things I felt the residents of San Mateo, California needed to think about.

What interesting things has your pet done? Have they stolen anything?

It works in the cartoons!

The summers are often hot in the midwest and when you’re a bored 9 year old your mind starts to wander. Often, if I wasn’t playing baseball outside, I was indoors drawing or watching cartoons.

This particular summer I decided to do something a little different than the norm. We had wild rabbits running in our yard and this was the summer I was going to catch one and make it my friend, or to the layman, house pet.

In years past I successfully captured other animals like fireflies, grasshoppers and butterflies but couldn’t catch wild birds. The year before wanting to catch a rabbit, I desperately wanted to catch a bird. I figured if I was quiet enough, sneaking up on a flock of birds with their backs turned would be the best way to grasp one keeping it from flying away.  Somehow, they always sensed my footsteps.

In my head, it probably looked something like this.

Previous to those attempts, at the age of two I thought I made friends with a bee in the back of my parents car. After a trip to the hospital, I quickly learned this was not a good friend to have. Another year I befriended a Bullnose snake by playing “hit the bucket” with it. I held up the bucket, the snake hit it in a cobra like fashion.  After a few rounds of hit the bucket, I went in to tell mom I made a new friend. When she came out to greet the friend she quickly threw the bucket on top of it and we ran back in the house. Both parents informed me this was an unsafe friend to have. (Later we found out the snake wasn’t venomous, but still…)

Rabbits just seemed to be the natural progression in this sequence of trying to collect animal friends. Having seen many cartoons and after having observed Elmer Fudd’s cunning tactics, I believed the best method for catching a rabbit involved a stick, a box and some carrots.

One evening, I went out with my “equipment” and set up the trap. I was so proud of the new contraption made out of things from around the house that I couldn’t stand the excitement of the possibility of having a new pet come morning time.

The next day I went to check my trap and to my delight, the box was down! Something was definitely in there. Lifting up the lid gently I noticed nothing brown or furry running out. Instead, it was even furrier and very…orange. I caught the neighbor’s cat.

Months later the neighbor wound up moving to a neighborhood he deemed highly unfriendly to cats. He asked my family if we would like to take the cat off his hands. My parents knew how attached I had become to that cat since the day it fell into my Looney Tunes inspired trap. Luckily, they said yes.

Out of a technicality, I guess you could say I did catch an animal, and eventually made it my friend, despite the fact it wasn’t a rabbit.

Sometimes, what happens in the cartoons truly does work.

What were some things you tried for your own gain because you had seen it on T.V.?

Fish-er Price

As I sit here getting kitty kisses from Gizmo I realize what originally started this whole fiasco.

I read an online article if a cat is restless and constantly causing trouble, its probably a good idea to invest in fish to keep your cat entertained if you are distracted or can’t keep them constantly entertained.

Upon reading this, two thoughts popped in my head. 1. “Thats interesting,” and 2. “I’ve always liked fish too, so why not?”

My parents had given me a joke Spongebob fish aquarium in 2005 to house toy sponge-like animals you drop in water to watch them grow. At that point in time they thought it was funny because I could claim this fake critters were my pets and there wouldn’t be any care involved which was ideal for my hectic work life.

Fast forward to two weeks before Thanksgiving this year. We decided to use the Spongebob aquarium as a starter to see if this was something we would be into for certain. We bought a filter pump after the old one failed to create the bubbles it once did.

Cost: about $10.

After we had let the water run through the filter for a week, we made a trip to Petsmart to purchase a fish. We were so excited. We went in, asked a million questions and tried to make a decision on a beta-fish. We decided on a kind of wimpy looking one, (we always go for the under-dog, or in this case, under-beta) and went to the register with our precious cargo along with her food and water conditioners.

Cost: about $15-$20.

We came home, and put her in her new home. We decided to call her Gilly.

The cats didn’t notice her. Not only did they not notice her, she would even swim to the edge of the tank to investigate what was sitting next to her new home and neither Squeaker nor Gizmo laid eyes on her. We even tried helping the cats to see her by directing their heads in the direction she was moving. Still nothing.  Here is photographic evidence…

This didn’t matter to us, we felt we did something amazing, she started gaining color, and even some blue on the tips of her fins. We were so elated we thought she deserved some food. She swallowed the food and quickly spat it back out. We thought this was puzzling.

The next day Jaysen purchased some different Beta food upon learning they can be picky eaters.

Cost: about $5

Everyday we fed her around the same time we fed our cats. Sometimes we tried to perk her up with a treat. Soon we found her to be lethargic and not moving very much. The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Gilly passed away.

After we buried Gilly and started assessing our feelings, I wasn’t ready to give up yet. I was so upset that it happened and it was something completely avoidable. People kept telling us Betas are the easiest fish to keep, however after our circumstance, we decided to believe that as bunk.

Through much of what we learned in our experience with Gilly, some research, and what we found out from the caretakers at Petsmart, Betas are like Gremlins. You can’t feed them for 24 after you get them, you can only feed them one pellet at feeding times (their stomachs are roughly the size of their eyeballs) and smaller tanks are more susceptible to have changing Ph levels. There were so many rules for keeping a hardy fish in a small tank we decided to think bigger.

We read online bigger tanks were better for maintaining Ph levels. So we went to Petsmart and purchased a 20 gallon fish tank.

Cost: about $80

This wasn’t necessarily a rash decision, we had thought about getting one when we went to purchase Gilly. We brought home the tank and decided this would be our big Christmas gift to each other and split it even down the middle. The tank sat in the spare room for a week to avoid the cats investigating it. Neither of us had the energy to set it up.

A few days after the purchase we realized we needed a tank stand and more gravel. Jaysen ran out before he went to work and purchased one.

Cost: about $40 + $5-$10

The night after that we realized the fish would need plants and scenery to swim around in. Again, we ran to the pet store.

Cost: about $25

The next night we decided to finally break out the tank and test it on the stand. It didn’t work. The stand wobbled even with the stabilizers and the only solution would be to attach it to the wall with L brackets. If this was needed to stabilize it, then we probably shouldn’t even have it in the house. We debated putting it on another piece of furniture but after testing the other furniture out with just my husband crawling on it, we decided putting a fish tank on it wouldn’t be a good idea either. Feeling defeated, we sat down and looked over what we had done. It only just dawned on us at that moment and after we started tallying up the receipts from the months’ worth of fish product purchases, how much we had spent and how much it was going to potentially cost in the future for upkeep and maintenance. Not to mention, we would have to rely on a third party to take care of our fish and aquarium while we were gone on the occasional trip, which as we found, takes a lot of work.

My husband summed it all up, “Weren’t we originally doing all of this for the cats?”

“Yes.” I said.

“Well then why don’t we just play with the cats more?”

I felt so bad, with all the trips to the pet store, all the looking and never buying and then finally buying on some trips, it was not only a waste of time and gas, but it was time spent away from our cats who only want our attention.

Hopefully we made it up to them in the recent days. We’ve not only spent more time with them, but with some of the money from the returns we were able to get Squeaker a day at groomers!

This is what I call…

priceless.

Hook, Line and Squeaker 10/17/2010

This is what woke me up this morning…

I was FINALLY asleep this morning when I heard the strange “Brrr” noise our cat Squeaker makes when he landed on my leg resting his head in the arch of my foot. Being asleep all that happened in my head was, “Brrr” followed by a big mass of fur lying on my right foot, leg, cankle or whatever you want to call it.

I tried to move my foot which caused Squeaker’s cat instincts to go crazy. How do you get a feline going through it’s “Screaming mimi’s” to stay calm on your bare foot while its been waiting for this moment all night to execute its plan of attack? I choose to believe when I moved my foot, he indeed was not in a moment he later could claim was temporary insanity, but rather playing and tickling my feet…with one claw

How many times has this happened to you? I believe dogs do this just as much as cats, but use their nose instead. Do any of you have stories like this?

Hickory Dickory Dock…

A Grandfather clock passed on to me by my grandmother now sits chiming in the living room. It wasn’t easy moving it, but somehow, I feel like my efforts in moving it were wasted.

When we first moved in, we had moved the clock up against a main wall in the house. The spot it rested in seemed temporary just sitting there. After we started putting boxes in and getting somewhat settled, one of my best friends remarked, “This is the first place a burglar would go!” Then she proceeded to mime knocking the clock over making a huge crashing sound. I asked her what her reasoning was behind this and she simply said, “It’s what you see in the movies.”

We moved the clock.

We moved it into the kitchen, which sounds strange but our kitchen is combined with the dining room. Technically the clock was in the dining room. HOWEVER, it was in a corner, against the wall, conveniently next to the microwave. It might not be obvious yet where I’m going with this, but if you’re a free running building jumper or a cat 2 years of age you would have plotted this out months ago.

Our cats, are daredevils. Even as I say this, they are currently climbing on the plant stand knocking things over in a desperate bid for my attention away from the computer.

The cats have eyed the clock as a stepping stone into a really high alcove that no human can reach unless they were that Russian guy with the pituitary problem. This clock was their path to cat sanctity.

This clock has aided and abetted Squeaker from being scolded for attacking his sister. We had to guide him down with treats and a laundry basket. This is a behavior we didn’t want to reinforce (the attacking of the sister) but at the same time we had no other way of getting him down. Both cats found solace in the alcove at some point in time or another. However, the cats figured out, the clock was a resting place of solace in itself. At first it was cute. We could see their little head peaking out the side to see if we had noticed they had climbed up there without messing up the chimes. Now its just nerve-racking. We realized even if we set fake plants up there, nothing would deter them from getting to the home base of the clock top, or the alcove.

I moved the clock and it was hard work.

I was home by myself yesterday, and had to take all the weights off and the pendulum. That was the easy part. The hard part was being patient enough to walk and rock the clock on two of its corners to its new residence. It was weird moving it because I hadn’t realized how top-heavy it was and all the artistry involved in the inner workings of the clock mechanisms itself.

Then I had to move the drum kit. Before I could even move the clock in, this had to be done. To move the drum kit, I had to move the chest of drawers to where the clock was, and the drawing table to where the chest of drawers was, and the drums to where the drawing table was. *Insert big sweat wiping sigh here.*

Now I move the clock. Wait, I tied back the curtains first, cleaned the window sills and vacuumed where the drum kit had been. THEN I moved the clock.

Everything has its place now.

Then it happened again. Apparently one of the chairs in the living room was too close to the clock, and both cats managed to find a way to do a trapeze act and get to the top of the clock. Had I let it progress, it would have resulted in Squeaker doing a high wire act across the curtain rod. In the end I had to squirt Squeaker down with a water bottle. It was just after Gizmo had jumped up there when I realized the clock hadn’t quite settled into the carpet yet and it might still want to teeter over.

I figured cats will be cats, if they know there is a will they will find a way. Needless to say, I gave up trying to discourage them and did the best I could to balance the clock.

The Cat Ran Up The Clock.

.

Hook, Line & Squeaker 6/10/2010

THERE’S A FLY IN MY SOUP!

“There’s a mushroom in my flower pot!” is the new “There’s a fly in my soup!”

Yesterday I was writing my blog when suddenly I hear my husband yell from the kitchen, “Quick, I need your help!” Usually this means Squeaker has caused a calamity, and the noise I just heard wasn’t just dishes being washed.

I walk in and see my husband, awkwardly holding our cat up against the window. Squeaker is half way through the blinds and can’t move until someone moves all the flower pots off the plant stand. This was going to be like playing Milton Bradley’s “Operation”. One false move and there could be a loud noise you don’t want to hear.

While taking the flower pots down, I noticed how abundant the African Violets have become.

Then, when I take it to the table, I see this.

huh?

What is that?

WHAT THE HECK?

I believe Squeaker caused this ruckus on purpose so we could discover the radioactive fungus among us.

This is when I realized our cats have detective skills. They are like Scooby and Shaggy, minus the canine and human bits, AND the giant sandwich. They might go crazy at times or even get spooked by something, but in the end they always alert the right people to deal with the situation at hand.

Feline Detective Agency since 2008 "We find Truffles and more!"

They always let us know when something is amiss, awry and sometimes apparently obvious. A few weeks ago the brother and sister duo alerted us to a mouse that got in our house (as reported by Jaysen on his blog) and let us know when a Raccoon has slyly escaped our vision on the back porch. Squeaker tells me when Jaysen is home and Gizmo informs me housekeeping needs to be done by licking our blinds. Gizmo is so excellent at detecting things no one else can (like invisible dirt), that she can find hidden paper clips, bobby pins and twisty ties. They’re like a furry alert system that keeps you in check.

For this, I am thankful and am glad we have such wonderful pets to love.



We pay them in artists' supplies...



and cupcakes!

What fun skills do your pets have?  How do you utilize their skills?

Hook, Line & Squeaker 4/23/2010

Don't worry, the curtains are fine.

Hook, Line & Squeaker

This is a series I will occasionally feature about the crazy things that seem to happen to my cat. They say life is 1% of what happens and 99% reaction. He’s all reaction.

Recently we’ve had a situation occur in our neighborhood. It happens on a regular basis, the same time everyday. This is what I see.

A typical day will start like this.

Then recently this has been happening!

However, he knows how to handle adversity!