My Cat Is So Weird (Part 4)

C age ing · Post by **C age ing** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 1:56 am

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Cats of the world Unite!
2007 is your year.

Send your silly human's, cash, stocks and shares to:-me, P,M first

Lambchop · Post by **Lambchop** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 2:03 pm

Oh! The darling stories I could share about my budgerigars . . .

Post by **Nanohedron** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 5:31 pm

Lambchop wrote:Oh! The darling stories I could share about my budgerigars . . .

Ooh. Budgies. Fresh treats on the wing.

But yeah, I've had some as pets. They're cute little clowns.

Lambchop · Post by **Lambchop** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 5:51 pm

So the story goes that when the first English explorer asked a native Australian what the little birds were called, he was told "budgerigar," which meant something like "tasty snack."

They're really excellent for making pleasing environmental sound-effects -- now that I've four of them, the burbling and chittering never stops. They even mutter softly at night. It's very soothing.

djm · Post by **djm** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 10:43 pm

Lambchop wrote:now that I've four of them, the burbling and chittering never stops. They even mutter softly at night. It's very soothing

Oh, dear. That's not a good sign. I'm afraid budgies are, in fact, nasty, mean-spirited little Basmatis and if you knew the things that they're saying about you I'm afraid it'd bleach your fleece!

What ever you do, avoid flushing them down the loo. They breed in the sewers. This was done unwittingly in England a few years back and resulted in great, evil-smelling flocks of huge, soiled budgies flying out of people's lavatories, infringing their personal freedom!

djm

Post by **Nanohedron** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 1:08 pm

Update concerning my "well-mannered" cat: it seems that her not stealing food from counters has all been an excellent ruse to lull me into complacency and to drop my guard. She happily steals from the fridge when my back is turned, I have just seen. Now that the jig is up, I wonder: what next?

Cynth · Post by **Cynth** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 2:12 pm

Now that is a smart kitty

! Maybe you should cover your food up in the refrigerator---I mean, don't you normally do that anyway? Is she reaching into a can of olives or dragging out whole turkeys or what? Oh, I know, it's the left over baked beans

.

Both of our kitties were quite good about not getting up on the kitchen counter. Then I had the bright idea that Flora might like to sit by the window and watch the bird feeder---Lilly is not very interested---so I put a special towel on the counter for her to sit on. She was supposed to confine her activities to the towel

. What was I thinking? Anyway, she rarely sits on the towel because she has a better view from the sink. She gets on the counter a lot now and will eat anything that appeals to her so we have to be very watchful. The other night she very quietly got up there and ate Lilly's entire dinner which we had put up on the counter for safekeeping. I take her off the counter and say NOOOO in a deep voice, but I can hardly take very stern action when I'm the one who told her she could get up there in the first place. I must confess that it is pretty funny to see a pair of cat ears poking up out of the sink.

djm · Post by **djm** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 2:18 pm

Nano wrote:Now that the jig is up, I wonder: what next?

My advice: keep your underwear drawer tightly closed. My black cat would sit by my dresser, and if she could get a paw in at all, she would use her claws to hook out whatever she could reach from the drawer. I was never sure if this was for fun, revenge, or just boredom. Cats' minds are sooooo complicated.

djm

Post by **Nanohedron** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 2:19 pm

Cynth wrote:Maybe you should cover your food up in the refrigerator---I mean, don't you normally do that anyway?

Um, like, no. I'm a guy, and consequently an armpit-scratching meathead. Duh.

Covering food -- ridiculous. That means more dishes to wash or foil/plastic wrap to pollute the earth with.

jsluder · Post by **jsluder** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 2:24 pm

We learned years ago that our cat will go wherever she wants. The only way to keep her off of anything is to shut her out of the room. (She knows how doorknobs work, but she can't grip them well enough to turn them. We've watched her try; she grasps the knob with both paws and tries to turn it. It's a good thing we don't have those lever style handles on the doors in our house.) If she has access to a room, all horizontal surfaces (and quite a few vertical surfaces) are fair game.

Post by **Nanohedron** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 2:28 pm

djm wrote:
Nano wrote:Now that the jig is up, I wonder: what next?
My advice: keep your underwear drawer tightly closed. My black cat would sit by my dresser, and if she could get a paw in at all, she would use her claws to hook out whatever she could reach from the drawer. I was never sure if this was for fun, revenge, or just boredom. Cats' minds are sooooo complicated.

djm

Mubu loves the clothes drawers! She'll enthrone herself in them, pleased as punch. Doesn't take much to thrill her, I'll say.

Cynth wrote:I must confess that it is pretty funny to see a pair of cat ears poking up out of the sink.

That's funny, all right. Know what? I recently caught mine drinking out of the toilet. Never knew a cat to do that, before. And yes, I leave the seat up. I'm a guy. See above. Anyway, but then again she likes to pounce upon bits of whatever lying on the floor and eat them. She is most funky at times.

crookedtune · Post by **crookedtune** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 2:49 pm

My cat's so weird it's a dog. Born that way and refuses to change. Go figure......

kkrell · Post by **kkrell** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 2:50 pm

jsluder wrote:We learned years ago that our cat will go wherever she wants. The only way to keep her off of anything is to shut her out of the room. (She knows how doorknobs work, but she can't grip them well enough to turn them. We've watched her try; she grasps the knob with both paws and tries to turn it. It's a good thing we don't have those lever style handles on the doors in our house.) If she has access to a room, all horizontal surfaces (and quite a few vertical surfaces) are fair game.

We had a pair that learned the trick to this: Leap up and drag BOTH paws on ONE side of the knob as gravity takes you down again. At least we had warning before anyone stuck a paw in our mouth while we were sleeping.

Kevin Krell

Post by **Nanohedron** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 3:13 pm

kkrell wrote:At least we had warning before anyone stuck a paw in our mouth while we were sleeping.

I don't recall ever having had to deal with that. What sort of warning? Oh: the door-opening trick, I suppose.

I loves me catz, but that is just rude. Ack. Pfftht.

jsluder · Post by **jsluder** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 3:20 pm

Nanohedron wrote:
kkrell wrote:At least we had warning before anyone stuck a paw in our mouth while we were sleeping.
I don't recall ever having had to deal with that. What sort of warning?

I loves me catz, but that is just rude. Ack. Pfftht.

We used to have a cat who would wake us up in the morning (so we could prepare her breakfast, of course) by licking our faces. What we didn't realize for the longest time was that the 10 minutes prior to waking us up were spent licking her own fuzzy little butt.