Posts Tagged ‘cats’
Critter Controllers
Back in October of last year, when we arrived as new owners of this property and home, we immediately discovered that mice and moles appeared to be all too comfortable here. The mice inspired our energies toward getting a couple of cats as house mates. Mozyr was to be our big mouser, based on his incredibly intelligent and athletic showing-off performance during our visit to the feline rescue shelter.
Pequenita is just a wee little thing, but proved to be quite the go-getter and primary instigator for affection and initiator of conflict.
Neither one of them has left a gift carcass for us, during the time since we brought them home, but we have not seen any evidence of a mouse indoors during that period, either.
They are doing something right for us.
Last fall, the grounds here had an unnerving amount of dirt mounds and trail scars to indicate we had quite an infestation of moles and/or gophers. There are oodles of suggested ways to trap them, poison them, or chase them off. One brilliant method involves eliminating the insects and grub worms under the lawn that the varmints find so appealing. I’m just not up for all of that.
We got a dog.
Up to this point of the summer, we haven’t been seeing any new mounds of dirt, but something is slowly, but surely, tunneling under the grass, leaving a maze of scars in the lawn. I have no idea if Delilah will turn out to be the solution for driving off the moles, but last night, she displayed a fair amount of interest in chasing a scent she picked up when I directed her attention to one of the soft spots trailing across the turf.
Not Food
Time appears to be assuaging the angst, and moods are lifting for all the inhabitants of our household. Yesterday, for the first time since we brought her home, we let Delilah spend some time in the yard with us, off leash. She did wonderful. Since she was focused on the play, it’s not entirely clear that she even noticed that she was free of the leash.
Before untethering her, Cyndie was tossing the squeaking tennis ball for Delilah to help her practice catching it in mid-air
We continue to work on training her to respond to our commands, and she is showing continuous improvement, thus far.
There was also significant advancement in the process of acclimatizing the dog and cats to sharing house space. The cats are both showing clear behaviors of decreasing the distance they have been maintaining from Delilah, and the dog has actually had moments of calm, or at least, semi-calm, in their presence.
Last night Cyndie was coaxing the cats closer with some treats, and then decided to share the treats with Delilah, too, for behaving civil with the cats in plain sight, and within close proximity. It seemed like a moment of family bliss, and a hint of possibilities for the future.
A bit later, when Lilah was straining on her leash to get after Mozyr, she didn’t even realize that Pequenita had come to sit on the stool just over her head. The dog made a loop around to the other side of the kitchen island, searching for a better look at Moz, and then came back, suddenly appearing surprised to find Nita just sitting there overhead, inches away.
We were pleased to see Nita hold her ground, and even swing to tap away Lilah’s nose when she felt it was getting too close for comfort.
The phrase, “friends, not food” is being repeated often around here lately. I think we are getting the message across.
Just missed.
Ball is hard to spot; in line with the truck front bumper.
Home Again
photo by Elysa Hays
We made an early exit from the balloon toss competition this year. Elysa snapped this photo, in which I am holding up the remnants of our water balloon. Cyndie made a perfectly good throw, but I messed up the catch. Somebody immediately hollered that it was a classic example of farmer’s hands, since I didn’t execute the soft catch required.
We endured some long traffic backups on the drive home yesterday, due to the heavy volume of holiday traffic. I plan to do some exploring in the future, for the possibility of using back roads to avoid the areas where a turn causes a log jam of vehicles to accumulate.
Our cats didn’t seem to hold a grudge against us for having left them alone, and immediately sought as much hands-on attention as we were willing to give. It appears we won’t have to worry about leaving them alone for a weekend.
We decided to give our attention to the labyrinth for the rest of the day. I used our old reel mower to cut the turf at the lowest setting, while Cyndie did some weed pulling and trimmed the long grass around the perimeter. Then I measured and marked the last of the areas where Cyndie wants to do some planting, along the axis where the entrance is located.
The essential steps that remain after that are, laying markers to establish all the lanes, and putting down some gravel or wood chips on the path. Optionally, we are still considering planting a tree near the middle, and we are hoping to do a bit more work dressing up the grounds immediately surrounding the labyrinth. Cyndie would like to make a bench out of found natural materials, to be located near the entrance, allowing for a moment of pause before embarking on the journey.
Something tells me there will be a permanent urge to continue to refine and enhance the whole thing. It will likely always be a growing and changing space, which will be a reflection of our growth and change with the passing of time.
Consolation Prizes
I still sort of want to tantrum, but not quite as much as yesterday. By the time I am writing this, my friends have probably already ridden double-digit miles, on the first leg of a week of cycling. There is some consolation for my not making the trip, in which I will attempt to find solace. I got to sleep in my bed last night. I was able to “sleep in” this morning. I will have a week with my wife that I didn’t expect, and it’s a week that is completely open and unscheduled –except for that pesky work thing that is the whole point of my needing to miss the trip in the first place.
Lately, the previously shy and reserved Mozyr has taken to hanging out with me when I’m not in the bedroom. If you recall, he is virtually banished from the bedroom by his sister, Pequenita. Now Mozyr likes to pace around and through my legs, rubbing as much as possible, when I am in the kitchen or bathroom. He has taken to sitting beside me on the couch when I settle in for a while there. He stands on the edge of the tub when I shower.
In the last few days, he has even jumped up on the counter when I am at the mirror in the bathroom. This is a surprise, because it is so out of character for him, from what we know since we brought him home last fall. In fact, it is very Pequenita-like behavior. But, maybe just to out-do her, he decides to take it one step further. He not only gets up on the counter under the mirror, he settles into the sink, making himself comfortable while keeping me company.
It makes it rather complicated when I’m trying to brush my teeth, but it’s great to have him as my new buddy in the evening bathroom routine.
Now, if I could just get him to make me laugh as much as all my cycling friends do…
Cat Nap
When there is too much going on in life, it is not uncommon for people to drop something from their days that seems expendable… hours of sleep. Even though I know better, sleep is one thing I sacrifice all too often. Now that I have been spending significant hours on the highway in a commute to and from work, lack of sleep has become a scary hazard. That afternoon drive home has been a real struggle for me, more times than I care to admit.
Regular readers here will be able to recognize the times when I needed to cut short my time for writing, and post a quick picture or poem. I love to write, and will admit that it is too easy for me to borrow hours from the block meant for sleeping, to play on the keyboard, hunting for words.
The other day, in a pause between other commitments, I tried to do a little work on the laptop. I was probably composing a poem about slumber! I think Pequenita recognized I was doing more napping that typing, and decided to join me. How could I resist? Cyndie ran for her camera when she discovered this scene of my nodding off in front of the computer, and being kept warm by a napping partner.
Cat Attacks
After 4 months of what appeared to be a relatively equal feline partnership in our home back at the end of March, our two cats, Pequenita and Mozyr, entered into a mode of battling for position and control. At the time, I wrote a poem about the night the new conflict materialized. It surprised and frustrated us, bringing discord where there had previously been none. At the rescue organization from which we adopted them, they had been together in a room housing multiple cats, so we surmised they would already know each other. We brought home one female and one male, spayed and neutered. They are not biologically related, but we refer to them as siblings. They are “adopted” siblings.
Mozyr, the male, took a long time to warm up to us and his surroundings, finding solace as far under our bed as he could get. Pequenita was immediately friendly and craved as much petting and scratching attention as we could provide. There didn’t appear to be any conflict between them.
In a very short time, they were both curling up on the end of our bed, sleeping nights with us. Since Mozyr was almost always keeping himself at arm’s length, having him showing comfort in being next to us on the bed brought us a lot of satisfaction.
My limited experience living with cats left me clueless about the conflict that suddenly erupted. Both Cyndie and I wanted to intercede and bring things back to the way they were during the early months after they arrived here. We have since done some reading and learned that what they are demonstrating now is classic feline behavior. We are begrudgingly working toward accepting the odd hierarchy they seem to be establishing.
What bums us the most is that Pequenita has claimed our bedroom as her solitary turf. Mozyr is absolutely not welcome, and the majority of time he respects that, laying down on the rug outside the door.
Pequenita is smaller than him, but she has been the aggressor every time I have witnessed a conflict occur. Maybe it is because she is smaller than him. She controls the engagements, and takes it to him almost anywhere in the house, …until meal time.
We have two separate bowls for wet food, and they each dive in as soon as it is served. After a few gobbles, Mozyr will walk over to the other bowl, and take over eating where his sister started. She always backs off, appearing very timid, and walks over to finish eating in the bowl he just left. He shows her that he can eat whatever he wants, wherever he wants.
When dinner is over, she is back in charge. He will be totally innocent, snoozing on a chair beside us, and she will pounce up and swat him. He doesn’t fight back. He just takes off running, usually retreating under the dining table.
I keep hoping he will get fed up and bop her back one of these days, but he seems too much of a gentle cat for that. I feel sorry for him, and want to admonish her for being such a brute, but now we know better. They are cats. They’ll behave the way cats behave with each other.
We are just their servants. Our place is to observe and respect them.
Couple Images
Due to circumstances related more to our day-jobs than the weather, we stayed overnight in the Twin Cities last night. That gave us a chance to join Cyndie’s parents (who have returned from wintering in Florida), and also, her brother, and his wife and daughter, for dinner. It was a treat to see them, and worked well to save me the commute, but it does put a wrinkle in my usual routine.
I had hoped to post a picture of the amazing snow-scape from yesterday morning, showing the results of our overnight storm that dumped almost a foot of cement-like snow. I didn’t have time to process one, so I will resort to sharing a couple of recent images from my files.
A few days ago, I posted a picture of me napping with Mozyr, and described how differently his sister behaves, when it comes to close personal attention. I think it was the day after I wrote that, when Pequenita showed up on my chest, and my camera was within reach. While keeping one hand on her neck, giving her a soothing scratch, I snapped this shot with my other hand. Here, you have visual evidence of what I was attempting to describe.
It is interesting that this behavior can sometimes become burdensome, and aggravate us, but after a night of being away from her, and seeing this image again, I am noticing pangs of missing her little intrusions on my personal space. She is obviously creating a bond.
The next image is a fascinating collection of shapes that evolved in the snow that was melting on our lawn, …before the latest winter storm buried it again.
It is a little like looking at the amazing variety of possibilities that materialize in the clouds when sky watching. How many different things do you see?
Helping Hand
It’s hand specialist visit day! Wish me luck for a definitive diagnosis, and hopefully, a plan toward fixing whatever is going wrong in there.
I think my brace has been helping in the last few days. I’ve been wearing it selectively, and when it is not on, trying to do normal activity with that hand, as much as possible. I’m noticing just enough improvement that I worry it won’t present well for diagnosis this morning. I may have found a way to self-treat this recent flare-up, but I still am hoping to learn why the thumb joint has been a chronic nuisance for the two years prior, especially if it is determined not to be the arthritis that I assumed it to be.
When you are feeling kind of punky because you have an “owie” hand that makes it hard to do pretty much everything that you can think of to do, you just might find yourself crashed out on a bed for a sulking nap. Either that, or the napping cat just looked so irresistible that I succumbed to joining him. Cyndie found the visual irresistible, and grabbed my camera.
That’s about as close as we can get to Mozyr, before he takes his leave. There’s no snuggling with that cat, yet.
Pequenita is another story. There’s no not snuggling with her. She walks right up on top of us, steps between our face and anything we happen to be doing, and demands hands, pushing her nose under our fingers, while kneading our chest.
She will probably be as happy as me to have my left hand be freed from pain, and available for full strength use again.
Hurried Tidbits
I’m short of time, and seem to have just bits and pieces of news and thoughts, so I’ll take a shot at just tossing them out for today…
• Worked a 12-hour shift at the day-job yesterday, and thus had a chance to drive home after the daily rush-hour traffic jams. There was noticeably less traffic than I commonly face in the mid-afternoon time slot I usually target. That’s not a bad option.
• Minor, but exciting, progress on fencing yesterday. The area is too wet to work in, except up near the barn, so that is where they confined their efforts. They installed fences that create a channel out of the door, which will lead to gates at the entrance of the two paddocks.
• I got a call while I was at work, from the fence contractor checking if it was okay to put all their equipment in the barn, as more precipitation is predicted for the next few days. Rain and/or snow. There is a possibility for heavy rain. Due to that, and the snow that has yet to melt, our region has been put under a flood watch.
• After a brief period where our two cats seemed to be getting over their unexplained spat with each other, they resumed the hostile animosity a couple of days ago, and have us rather confused. Also, the wee one, female, Pequenita, seems like she doesn’t feel well. She doesn’t always keep her food down, and seems to have less of her usual energy. It may or may not be related to their relationship troubles. A check up with a vet is in the plans.
• My thumb pain continues to debilitate most of my actions. I bought a brace, which has helped to protect from exacerbating the problem, and I am eagerly awaiting an appointment to have a specialist look at it on Thursday morning.
• Thursday’s weather could make the driving to the appointment a little challenging. I’m going to do everything possible to get there. I sure hope the specialist has a similar level of determination.
• In light of the recent terror bombings in Boston, I want to echo something that I read, credited to actor, Patton Oswalt: (paraphrasing) “There are more good people than bad. We outnumber you, and we always will.” For every tragedy that bad people unleash, a much greater number of good people respond, giving care, soothing others, spreading love.
Those are my bits for today. Stay warm and dry, and do something good. Spread some love.
Mysterious Conflict
.
in the deepest, darkest hours of the night
awakened by crashing and thrashing sounds
traveling through the house
toward the spaces directly under my bed
I discover a voice I’ve not heard before
a mixture of breath and growl
and a hint of a hiss
that goes on at length
telling me someone is not happy
but I can’t decipher who
and I’m tired, so I go back to sleep
hoping whatever the problem is
it will pass with the night
and normal will arise at daybreak
except we don’t make it all the way to light
when the fighting loudly resumes
and that growling breathing sound
picks up where it previously left off
its cadence speaking an eerie gloom
and I wonder with hope
if this might be
the first battle with critters
since the cats had arrived
to lay claim on this abode
since no mice have dared appear
now that cats have settled in here
and when morning eventually dawns
with rain showering from cloudy skies
that clearly filled my dreams
with visions of leaks in my house
from windows in ceilings above
and making rivers into a dirt floor garage
it takes some time
before a feline decides to appear
it’s the wee she who jumps up on the bed
obviously nervous to a dramatic degree
and I get no sense that this escapade is over
when she tries to act normal
but can’t let down her guard
shortly after, proved to be true
when he, too, showed up on the bed
trying to act as if nothing was wrong
and she immediately attacked
appearing the offending aggressor
and he takes flight with her in pursuit
and crashing and thrashing ensues
out of sight, so I only hear sounds
and I wonder, if there is fault
will I figure out who is to blame
.
.
Relative Something 