Holidays!

I am officially on holiday. The next three weeks away from my job will make the other forty-nine bearable – just. I don’t have the resources to go anywhere and, if I did, would I leave the cats? Who would look after them? And so I remain. But this will mean sleeping in (if Tungsten doesn’t keep waking me extra early), staying up late (if I’m not too tired) and doing what I want to do (in between catering to the beasts). That doesn’t sound too bad, after all, does it?

Warm Weather Tungsten

The warm weather has come at last to southern Alberta. Leaves and bushes that have been bare until now have come into full leaf in just a few days, and the fragrances of spring are in the air. This means different behaviour for the cats, and not just because the storm windows are off and the screens are on.

Tungsten changes her behaviour the most at this time of year. She still loves her cat-bed, which fits her so perfectly, but prefers my lap in the spring and summer. Even a scrawny little creature such as herself doesn’t need the protecting shelter and heat of a cat-bed all the time. She does enjoy lying in the sun sometimes, and likes being close to her best feline pal, Renn.

And just to prove me wrong in my earlier article about her looking out the window infrequently, here she is sharing the view with my big boy. I have often wondered whether Tungsten, with what has always looked like a torn pupil in her left eye, has less than adequate vision, and thus likes the open spring and summer windows because the scents add another dimension to her observations. During the colder months, she really does pay little attention to the outside world.

But now the temperatures have risen, and the orange one finds comfort in new places. As she grows older, she takes her pleasures where she can, in the balmy breezes and the warming sunshine.

The Raid

Tungsten receives a special diet. She is given California Natural hard-food, simply because it evidently tastes a little better than other foods, and thus encourages her to eat more, and gain weight. All the beasts enjoy their Orijen hard-food and eat as much of it as I provide, but they like the flavour of the California Natural, and are always sniffing after Tungsten’s rations, especially Josie.

I keep the orange one’s food in a small bowl, and, when it is not being used, it sits on top of the micro-wave oven. When I go to bed, or leave the house, it goes into the micro-wave oven. I use the oven that often. (That’s why I don’t buy a newer model, one that weighs less than a hundred pounds; I just don’t need it much.)

One day last week, I left for work and forgot to put the bowl of California Natural in the micro-wave oven. This is what I found when I returned.

Someone had jumped onto the oven and had, probably, eaten from the bowl, pushing it with their snout, until it fell off. The crash of the metal bowl must have been terrific, and frightening – I’ll bet even Tungsten was startled by that. But once everyone had recovered from their surprise, they undoubtdly converged on the upset food.

Who could have done this daring deed?

SUSPECT 1: Josie certainly had motive. She is always attempting to eat from Tungsten’s bowl, even trying her chin on the shoulder trick to intimidate the Tiny Terror, who of course isn’t bothered in the least. But to leap from the floor up to the top of the oven? I haven’t seen Josie levitate even half that distance. She could have used the table to cut down on the height, and flown laterally, but there is just too little of the oven on which to land at that angle, at least for a cat of my Chubs’s girth. She simply had not the means.

SUSPECT 2: Tungsten of course may have been hungry. But she is older than she was when I was astounded by her five and a half foot jumps straight up into the air. That was when she was a spry seven year old. She still rockets about the house from time to time, but she is hesitant to make hazardous leaps. Besides, if no California Natural is available, she is happy to make do with Orijen. She had motive, but no incentive.

SUSPECT 3: Tucker I also disqualified. The roly poly one is the size and shape of an over-inflated rugby football, with the weight of a medicine ball. He does jump from the bedroom cat-stands to the bed, but the distance, angle and height of that endeavour do not rival any attempt to get on the micro-wave oven. As well, though he has sniffed about Tungsten's food, he doesn’t like it as much as that. Therefore, he lacked motive and means.

SUSPECT 4: That leaves Renn. My big boy is young and strong. His legs are pure muscle, and I’ve seen him attain heights of five feet in his leaps from the floor. Though I have never seen him overly engrossed in any attempt to eat Tungsten’s food, he has stopped by her bowl as soon as the orange one has finished there. I’m sure he would partake of the contents if I let him. And a few weeks before, he had leaped onto the top of the micro-wave oven, using the table as a springboard. At the time, I thought it was simple high spirits. But perhaps he was seeking the forbidden food. His scientific mind would have pointed out the necessity of reconnaissance first.

So I reluctantly have concluded that my big boy was a bad boy. He had his snack and probably permitted the others to feast off the fallen remains. There was nothing I could do when I discovered the crime scene. The deed was done.

And it was dinner-time, anyway.

Intruder Alert!

There are at least two cats in the neighbourhood who are allowed by their owners to roam free. One, I suspect, is not neutered, a jowly, yowly male tabby. The other is a black and white feline of indeterminant gender. Both have been invading my own beasts’ territory recently. They cause no harm and indeed travel only through the farthest provinces of our little kingdom.

The tabby, whom I believe lives across the street, sometimes sits on my doorstep. I have tried to get close to him, but he is too shy of me for that. At times, he will skirt my house through the driveway and into the back lawn.

The black and white boy (or girl) I’ve seen less frequently. Even in one of these pictures, he is invisible, lying ‘doggo’, as they used to say (though never of cats), under one of the litter-boxes I’d washed out that day and left to dry.

They create no problems, these itinerants, though my cats keep an eye or two on them when they are spotted. In the photographs here, you'll see Renn maintaining watch on our borders. In addition to being my leading scientist, he has apparently appointed himself warden of the marches. Other cats have entered our small castle only by permission, so he and his fellow guardians must be doing a good job.

Tucker's New Favourite Place

The storm windows are off at last and the screens are on. It’s been quite chilly at night, still, and even during some days. But now the temperatures are becoming a bit more reasonable, though it feels only as if it were early April yet. But some days have been pleasant, and one of them on a weekend was enough for me to free the windows.

The cats of course like this development. Tucker and Renn are the most excited by it. I have taken Cammie’s old cat-tree from the parlour and brought it to the bedroom. I believed its two platforms were either too high or too low for proper viewing out the windows, so I exchanged it for one from the bedroom. I have kept it, though, and placed it beside a second bedroom cat-tree, thinking that the beasts will have at least one perch in that room from which to look out.

But, once again, my cats have surprised me. My roly poly one actually likes the height of Cammie’s perch. Perhaps he enjoys the fact that he can lie at full length and hang his head down into the open window; no effort required. In any case, Tucker has found a new fun place from which to watch the wide world.

The Infrequent Observer

It’s interesting how cats can be so different from each other. Their personalities are as diverse as those of people. Renn loves to look out the window. Josie does too, and one of her favourite places is on a platform of the lower cat-tree in the sitting room. Tungsten, however, is normally completely uninterested in the outside world.

I don’t know why that is. Most cats will have some curiosity about their surroundings. Tungsten is apathetic, though in a way that suggests superior disdain for such things. A sudden, loud noise will send the other beasts running for a window, or for shelter; the tiny terror moves not a muscle. A warm cat-bed, a lap, a bowl of her favourite food and a drink of water now and then. Those are the pillars of her life.

Once in a while, though, she exhibits extraordinary behaviour. She will rocket around the house, causing the other cats to peer after her in surprise. She will eat out of a bowl containing food she dislikes. And, rarely, she will look out a window.

Most often, this occurs when I place her in a position from which she may easily observe. When she and I lived alone, before the other cats came, I would hold her at a window and we would look out together, and see what may have been seen. We do that still. But, once in a while, the orange one will show an interest that is quite unusual for her. When she does so, it is such an unfamiliar sight that she looks like a different cat.

But the moment doesn’t last long. She sees little to hold her attention. There is so little worthy of it, you understand. Then, she returns to her cat-bed, or my lap. There, she sleeps, and though her dreams were once periodically frightening, she now dreams more placidly, perhaps of sleeping in a cat-bed, or on my lap...

And for the Next Course...

Well, it was time for another attempt to get my beasts to eat healthily. So far, however, this time is proving a bit more successful than others. The hard-food that all are enjoying is something called Orijen, made here in southern Alberta, and full of good things. The surprising factor of Orijen is how much the cats like it. The bowl I fill with Orijen at the beginning of the day is empty when I come home from work in the late afternoon. I always have a second bowl, in which is Blue Buffalo hard-food; they used to like that brand, but now it is eaten only if there is none of the other.

Josie, who has become fussier about her diet as the years have progressed, waits for the Orijen bowl to be re-charged after I have given the cats their soft-food dinners, as she likes to have a meal with more than one course. She literally greets the arrival of the filled bowl with what sounds like a cheer. Perhaps it’s a whine that I took so long over my task.

As it is a dense food, the animals should not have to eat as much as they do of other foods to fill themselves up. But apparently, it tastes good, as they eat enough to empty the bowl each day. And they like the flavour enough to swallow even the crumbs from the bottom.

Now, on to the soft-food. After several experiments, I have hit upon a brand that seems to be holding its own among my finicky quartet. This is called Merrick. Most of the cats like the different flavours offered, though turkey, tuna, salmon and “surf ‘n’ turf” patés are the ones that most like the most, if you know what I mean. Even Renn, who is very reticent regarding soft-food, enjoys Merrick some of the time. I am trying less usual flavours, as well, even non-patés. I don’t usually have success with those. These include chunky or shredded recipes, and normally result in the sauce being lapped up and the dry cubes of meat, now largely tasteless, being abandoned. But in the cases of “chicken a la king” and “cowboy cook-out”, the whole serving is consumed.

Yes, I’ve reached the point at which I am providing food called “cowboy cook-out” to my pets. I pay extra and go without so four cats can feel like Scott Glenn and Danny Glover in Silverado. But if they eat something good and enjoy eating it, then I am happy to serve it.

I retain a stock of Fancy Feast even so. When I provide a flavour of Merrick for which some of the animals are less enthusiastic, it serves as a garnish that gives it a flavour that they like.

All of this narrative is in a cautionary vein, however. I have gone through numerous brands and flavours of food, especially the soft-food, changing each time the beasts have gone off their latest choice. I’ll see how long this alteration of weather lasts, and see from which direction the next breeze blows.

But, lest you think I've forgotten something, here are pictures of my cats enjoying their new soft-food, including Renn, who must eat at a height (e.g. at the top of a cat-tree, on a table) and Josie, who removes her food from the dish to the floor in order to eat it. When she starts throwing it in the rubbish bin, I'll know she wants a new menu.