I worked late and missed it. I haven't received my penance yet but I know it's not going to be easy. Like Ronald Reagan said, "Taxes should hurt."
Name Withheld sat on the living room couch with her mother, the Lovely and Discerning Naomi Calamese. Opal, senior cat, immediately ran upstairs and hid. Otis, the more foolhardy of the two, got within sniffing distance of the Light of the Universe and, apparently, was overwhelmed by her radiance. He ran upstairs meowing loudly.
I got home about 8:30 finding no Goddess, no Priestess, no Priest, and no cats. My better 90% explained to me that the Goddess and her hierophants had to leave early. She decided that they'd stayed long enough. The cats were still hiding. About 9:15 Otis came down stairs. He looked visibly shaken. Opal was still hidden.
At 10:00 we decided to go to bed. Naomi found Opal under the bed in the master bedroom. She would not come out. In the morning I came down stairs to prepare a couple of plates of wet food for Opal and Otis. Opal came out of the bedroom but immediately raced back under the bed. Otis came down stairs with me and had a normal, by Otis's standards, morning. He picked at his wet food and then got me to play fetch. The rules for fetch are simple. They're also cat rules. The human throws the toy mouse and the cat pounces on it. The cat plays with the mouse. If the cat feels like it it brings the mouse to the couch. The human has to throw the mouse again. The cat is under no obligation to do anything.
Opal released a short prepared statement. Below is a facsimile:
Opal's penmanship has gotten better. Unfortunately she also got a large amount of ink on the rug.
Otis said: "I wasn't scared of it at all. It's a little punk. I'm bigger than it is. Opal is chicken."
As of this moment, Opal remains under the bed.
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Comments: 36
(I don't blame 'em for hiding from the kid. I can't stand the things myself.)
When the grandkids come over, Hitch hightails it to the highest place possible so no sticky fingers can get near him. Lily doesn't have that option. In the winter, she hits the sunroom and will stay out there in subzero weather until the offending urchins leave.
On a recent visit, this happened as usual. When the young ones left, Hitch came down from his perch and Lily came into the warmth. They met in the kitchen, went nose to nose for a good ten to fifteen seconds, then sat down beside each other for the first time ever. It was like they were saying "Hey! I survived it! How did you do? You still here? You OK?"
When my Mother-In-Law moved here to our town to a Senior apartment, we had to take one of her cats because the apartment only allowed one. We took the son, she kept his mother. We brought the big tom cat inside and let him out of his carrier and he disappeared under the recliner, where he stayed for the next 3 months. He'd only come out if we were gone, all outside or in the night after we were sleeping. I'd lay on the floor and talk to him under there, and he wouldn't even look at me. Then one morning I got up and there he was, sitting in the middle of the dining room, and he lived with us out in the open and interacted with us from then on. Then he died of a kidney thing :(
My mother warned me the other day, "You know... You have to be extra careful with the cats around the baby... Cats like to sit on the baby's chest and suffocate it.... Just so you know."
: ) I'm glad she's in Amsterdam now.
That is sooo cute. I guess you got told, didn't you. And what's WRONG with the penmanship. You trying to diss Opal or what? Huh? You want some of US??? Huh???
With the Hawt M's kid, Skel used to be hyperaggressive with her until he realized that she dops food all the time (and yes, my dog has been known to steal food from a baby.) The cat allows herself to be pulled and prodded and petted.
Being weird isn't just for skin-folk around here.
I was actually planning on making sure that Sophie slept with BOTH cats in the bassinet (is that how you spell the contraption?). Ya know, just to find out IF a cat would really lay on an infant's chest... I thought the experiment would make for a great Gather article. Was I wrong?
: P
One important factor here is that Bella is more or less cat sized. She still weighs under 10 pounds. She's always doing annoying things like sitting on human laps. That's enough to annoy any self respecting cat who's done a good job of training its humans.
No cat is weird. That's because the feline norm is wide, much wider than most humans can possibly imagine. :)
When the human thing takes over previous cat luxuries (like lap sitting, constant attention, numero uno noise maker, etc), it's only right that the cats rebel a little bit. They have lost their place as they knew it.... And now what are they? Merely a pet???
Blasphemous.
An adult now.....and still he rarely sleeps.
Our current black cat kept leaping up into the playard downstairs so Lee has exiled it for the time being. Our cats are baby-lovers.
I think it's a racial memory thingy... you know all cats have a horror of things that will pull ears and tails and try to yank out fur all in the name of fun...