Month: June 2012

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Cotton Candy for the Buddies

You know how everybody has at least one peculiar habit?  Some are fairly innocuous…and some head a little more into that borderline-disgusting territory.  Otto and Wanda both have a predilection for cotton candy, but not of the same kind, and certainly not of the spun-sugar variety.  Wanda, like apparently many cats before her (per Google), has a fondness for spider webs.  The dainty little flower of a cat will prowl the front porch, looking for hapless spiders who were just trying to spin a few fibers and make a living, and delights in eating both their fishing net and their catches.  This afternoon at lunch, we witnessed a spider fleeing in terror while Wanda systematically destroyed, then ate, his house.  Wanda just stood there, shaking the sticky stuff off her face, completely oblivious that she had just effectively become that poor spider’s very own natural disaster.  

Otto, on the other hand, seems to have developed a fondness for Mister’s discarded hair.  Lucky for him, Mister discards a LOT of it, on a fairly regular basis.  Mister, as you might remember, frequently gives himself Brazilian bikini waxes, but lately he’s been pretty indiscriminate about where he’s waxing.  Last week, Sean saw him tug at a tuft of hair so hard on his back that he lost his balance and fell over.  I kid you not.  Lucky for him, Otto is more than happy to clean up the clippings for him.  We’re really not sure why.  We feed them good food, give them plenty of water.  Why both of our Siamese cats would develop Pica in their later years, conveniently at the same time that Mister has developed Trichotillomania, is beyond me, but I have to admit that it’s pretty good timing.
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Beach Buddies

One of our favorite things about going to the beach is getting to see all the other Buddies there. We miss our Buddies a great deal, but somehow, seeing the pelicans, lizards, deer, herons, and the elusive alligators makes it a little easier.  We just got back from a trip to the beach where I woke up early to go for a run, and found a mother deer outside the house with what looked like a small terrier dog walking around her in the underbrush.  I ran to get my glasses and took another look, fearing that the deer was being bothered by the little creature.  It turned out to be a baby deer, roughly the size of a Cocker Spaniel, with such boundless energy I thought she was going to pop right out of her dappled skin!  Momma deer was ever on the alert, looking here and there for danger, tasting the wind with her nose and long tongue.  Baby deer was just along for the ride, but if Momma said “danger–let’s move!” the baby did so with flourish, kicking up her little rear heels into the air as though to say, “danger–what fun!!”  Every move that little gal made was with complete ebullience and abandon.  She was practically humming with the sheer joy of being alive.  I had to go wake my husband to see this.  

He didn’t seem to mind…

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Prehensile Love

One of Elroy’s more amusing and endearing qualities is his tendency to use his tail like a monkey might use it–with prehensile qualities that make it more useful than the typical swish-and-shake that most cats have.  Sometimes Elroy uses his tail like an arm, and sometimes it’s almost like an elephant’s trunk, without, of course, the ability to blow things out of it.  

For example, when Otto wakes up from a nap, and Elroy feels the need to go give him a cuddle of some sort, and head-bunting and running him into the wall with his shoulder just isn’t enough, Elroy will take his tail and wrap it around Otto’s shoulders, like a little kid would, putting his arm around his best buddy.  Or, when you’re sleeping, Elroy will take his tail and wrap it around your head, sometimes creating interesting-looking “facial hair” that really isn’t.  
We’ve never had another cat who could use his tail as precisely and emotionally as Elroy does, though Wanda can make question-marks with hers and Mister alerts us with his whenever he’s getting really to spray something by shaking his tail vigorously first.  We much prefer Elroy’s use of his tail to Mister’s, but I have a feeling Otto would disagree with us on that one.