Month: March 2014

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Standing Sentinel

The world is a very dangerous place, filled with monsters both seen and unseen, all coiling at once to spring on you when you least expect it.

At least, that’s what Mister seems to think.  Who am I to argue with him?  Cats are notorious for being able to “see” things that our feeble human eyes can’t.  Like that time that Sean’s cat saw a ghost of a little girl coming down the stairs, swatted twice at it, and ran away.  (I can’t say I rightly blame him.)
But Mister neither cowers nor runs in the face of the danger.  Instead, Mister stands his ground.  Right over my head.  True story.  Mister sits and watches me almost every night as I’m going to sleep, inches from my face.  I open a sleepy eye, and there he is, head bowed slightly down, fluffy white chest puffed out in a sitting position, looking as if he might fall asleep himself.  Instead, he watches.  
Other nights, he sleeps with his rear to me, a few feet away, always facing the door.  Because that’s where the bad things will emanate from.  Occasionally, he will cat-nap on his face (which might be the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen in my life), but he’s always just alert enough to spring into action if necessary.  You can tell by the way his ears twitch slightly.
Yesterday I was taking a shower, and I shut the pocket door to the bathroom so it was almost closed.  I say “almost” because we’ve managed to break it somehow, and it doesn’t close all the way anymore.  We keep it closed because we discovered an unpleasant habit our cats have of peeing or “marking” on the shower curtain.  We’re not really sure why.  It’s happened in other houses, and we’re not really keen on starting the habit here, so we keep the door closed unless one of us is in there to supervise.  
I got out of the shower, toweled off, and I could just see the shape of Mister on the other side of the door through the 4-inch-wide crack.  I took a closer look and noticed that he wasn’t facing me, trying to get in–he was facing out trying to keep the monsters away.  I couldn’t hire a bodyguard with more determination and dedication than that cat.  
I’m too old to be worried about fictional monsters now.  I only occasionally check under my bed and in the closet for Sasquatch and the Chupacabra (hey, those things are REAL.  Read the upcoming books from my friends Hanna and Lynne if you don’t believe me!).  
But I have to admit, It’s good to know Mister has my back.  Just in case.
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The Universe is Expanding…

When you’re a cat, and in particular an indoor cat, the world can get pretty small.  You have your house, your porch and maybe your back yard if you’re lucky, and the dreaded vet.  That’s about it.  You rule your domain with a mix of pride and discontent.  This is nice and all, but what’s down that road?  What’s behind this door?


What indeed?  

Luckily, our cats are learning to be harness-trained, and some of them can actually be around people.  And precisely two of them can travel to a place to be around people without vomiting and pooping in the car.  I’m not naming any names (Reggie).   

So a few weekends ago, on one of those borderline-warm weekend days that make you long for respite from the Evil of Winter (as my husband calls it), we tried taking Otto and Wanda out to Creekside Taphouse in separate visits.  We felt like we needed to take them separately so we could keep a better eye on them.  Otto got to go first, partly because we trust him the most of any of the cats and partly because he’s the one who begs most vociferously to get to go outside.

And what an “outside” it was…a lovely, bubbling creek with rocks and sand…birds singing…sun shining, and the best part, a bunch of adoring admirers (at least in Otto’s eyes, see below):

(That’s Sean on the right.)

I think to Otto, it was just about a perfect day.  He got to be with his Big Buddies all by himself with no interference from pesky feline admirers (no names) (Elroy).  He got to roll on the asphalt to his heart’s content.  And when we stuffed him back in his Buddy Stroller for the walk back out to the car, he attracted a bunch of middle-school-aged kids who all wanted to pet him, which he endured with just the slightest hint of martyrdom.  (Secretly, I think he liked all the attention, but he’s much too cool to admit that.)  Here’s Otto and me, enjoying the day:

Next, we decided to take Wanda out.  Wanda can be a bit of a wildcard.  She does like people, and she (barely) tolerates the harness, but we weren’t sure what would happen when we put the two concepts together.  Actually, she pretty much reacted exactly as I thought she would, which is that she did the whole scaredy-cat thing, cowering and sticking close to the table and Big Buddies, and then eventually warmed up:  

Literally, actually.  It was a warmish day, and Wanda enjoyed the asphalt.  She also wanted to go sniffing around in the grass, and accidentally sat on some dried-up dog residue.  (Hey, how was she supposed to know that those tiny little dried-up logs were dog pooey?  It’s not like she ever gets exposed to it at home.  And anyway, shouldn’t those be in the litter-box, where they belong?!?)

But I digress.  Wanda took some time figuring things out, but she did end up enjoying her day, and even made a new friend or two:

She spent the last half-hour or so in the Buddy Stroller (that’s the top of it, in the bottom left-hand side of that picture), and seemed quite content to hang out in a nice patch of sun while the Big Buddies scarfed down veggie burgers and beer from Carolina Brewery.  

Yep, the Universe is expanding.  And the Buddies are happy to be a part of it.