Cats: Get Down From There
It seems as if I’m always saying that to Daphne and various other cats. They seem to think this is their house or something, and we’re just the hired help. Maybe we are, but here’s a hint: Cats don’t pay well. At least not in monetary rewards.
Lady has been on her medication for a month. She’s been much mellower, but there has been a late evening kerfuffle or two, so we’re using the “halfway house” method with her. She spends the night in the cage, and in the morning, I let her out, give her the daily medication dose (she does not like this), and she’s free to roam the house during the day. She spends about half the day upstairs and about half the day downstairs. She mostly minds her own business. In the evening she either comes down on her own or Mr. L encourages her to come downstairs from the top of the stairs, and I get her when she comes down, and I tuck her in for the night. We have to go to San Antonio for a couple of days this week. We’ll take Lady and Natasha, so we can give Lady her medication and so they both can spend some time outside in the back yard, which they both love. The remaining cats will be fine on food and water towers.
Rossie has been stand-offish. Mr. L took matters into his own hands this morning and picked her up and petted her for a few minutes. She loves this, but won’t admit it. She became anxious after a few minutes, so he released her.
Ajax, for reasons we can’t fathom, felt a need to discipline Tarzan this week. We both found it interesting to watch him back Tarzan down very effectively twice in a two minute time span. No violence, just a very clear putting in his place.
Pretty Boy Floyd, after toying with Tarzan got a strong talking to from Tarzan, which was amusing to watch. I don’t know what was said, but Tarzan cussed Floyd out but good — and gave him a pat on the butt as he retreated for good measure.
Daphne is the most confident cat I’ve ever met. She’s respectful of Lady, but Lady has been more interested in sniffing her than beating her up lately, which I think is progress. When we first got Daphne, we would put her in the cage in the morning to give her kitten food. The cage allowed her to get more kitten food before the big cats took it away from her. She’s adapted to that very well. Each morning when I let Lady out, Daphne enters the cage and sits waiting for her food. I put a handful of kitten food in for her to eat and close the door (but don’t lock it so she can come out when she’s done). I guess when the kitten food is gone, I’ll have to give her a handful of regular food. We’ve created a monster.
Natasha, Delta, and Ruby are all fine. Ruby is a little too stand-offish lately. She tends to that but isn’t quite as bad as Rossie.
Sneaky is doing great. Orange Creamsicle, Creamy as I call him for short, has been hanging around a lot. I try to talk to him when I’m petting Sneaky — yesterday he stayed fairly close (for him). I’m trying to decide if I’m going to be able to entice him to befriend us or if I should try to trap him to get him in for a medical exam, neutering, and shots. I want to make sure he’s healthy, and he doesn’t need to be making any more kitties. He, like Sneaky, will be an outside cat if we can interest him in hanging around, which he seems to have chosen to do.
I posted this picture on Twitter and Facebook yesterday soliciting suggestions for names and received Spot, OC, Star, and a long list from another friend of interesting choices. Feel free to add any suggestions you have below. What I’ve been calling him is probably okay, but formally naming him Creamy doesn’t seem quite right. He has a massive head for his body, but at least he isn’t as skinny as he once was. Sneaky does share her food with him.