Kitten Wars: Sister’s Babies are Here!

27 Jun 2016 Leave a comment

by Quietude's Junction in Kitten Wars Tags: , , , , ,

The wild kitty outside had kittens in my bush, just like her momma before her. Now I have 3 rambunctious 4 week old kitties running around my porch, tumbling over each other in their joy of life. It makes you appreciate life again watching something that little be that fearless and curious about everything. These babies are precious, adorable balls of fluff. Two are tail-less like their daddy. Only the dark calico female has a tail. She is, by far, the most fearless of the bunch. She tackles the others, leaps through the air pouncing on them all with her arms spread wide. While they play on my porch, my cats watch through the glass windowed door and try to play with them.

I plan on trying to tame those little ones to see if I can find them a new home. Momma kitty is my cat’s sister. She knows where Cleo is, but when I tamed Cleo, she refused to come near. Now she keeps watching me through my glass door to see what I plan on doing. She comes to the door to tell me that I need to feed them, training her kittens to do the same. She is slowly coming closer to me each day, but I’m not gonna hold my breath about taming her.

So life continues and the circle goes on, one kitten at a time.

Kitten Wars: How to blow the mind of your cat

21 Apr 2016 Leave a comment

by Quietude's Junction in Kitten Wars Tags: , , , , ,

Step one Alter your routine. (There is only one step.)

How to blow the minds of your cats:

This morning started an hour and a half earlier than usual. I couldn’t sleep so decided to go for a walk instead of fighting the stare at the ceiling game and losing. (Yes, the ceiling is still there. It always wins that one.) When I came inside, both kitties were waiting for me at the door to tell me exactly why I shouldn’t go out into the cold before daylight. For starters, well, its COLD out there and DARK. And don’t you know that you do not go WALKING first!

They were quite forthright with much “paws out” and tails swishing making constant eye contact while they told me off for emphasis. As a unit, they decided to help me get back on my morning routine. While Cleo led the way to the shower, Jeager escorted me, herding me along to ensure that I got where I should have gone first.

Just to make sure that I stayed where they put me, both cats checked up on me a few times. They parted the curtain, stuck their heads inside, “You still with the Water Beast? Yes? GOOD!”

Kitty Love and Ownership Kitten Wars 1/28/15

28 Jan 2015 Leave a comment

by Quietude's Junction in journal, Kitten Wars Tags: , , , , , ,

Kitty love as declared by Teeny:
Perch halfway on the couch back with front paws on my human’s shoulder.
Purr LOUDLY into my human’s ear.
Avidly watch the computer while head bumping my human.
Purr LOUDER to remind her that hands need to be petting the CAT.
Dig claws in whenever she moves her shoulder the slightest bit forward.
Purr loudly and head bump harder.
Stare deeply into my human’s eyes reminding her who is in charge.
Nod at her, then rest my head on my paws which are still on her shoulder.

Kitten Wars 1/7/15: A Kitten and Her Bag Will Soon Be Parted …

07 Jan 2015 Leave a comment

by Quietude's Junction in journal, Kitten Wars, reflections Tags: , , , , , , ,

Cleo decided to investigate this over-sized bag as a possible nest for a kitty in heat. It crinkled happily and all was good until she decided to back out. Her paw caught on the handle, trapping the poor kitty inside. In great efforts to escape she made the bag go air born over and over again until she flipped it upside down and raced off.

Cleo decoded to investigate this oversized bag as a possible nest for a kitty in heat. It crinkled happily and all was good until she decided to back out. Her paw caught on the handle, trapping the poor kitty inside. In great efforts to escape she made the bag go air born over and over again until she flipped it upside down and raced off.

Kitten Wars 1/2/15: Persona Non Grata in My Own Home

03 Jan 2015 Leave a comment

by Quietude's Junction in journal, Kitten Wars, reflections Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

20140720-121720-44240593.jpg

 

I’ve had the best holiday season ever thanks to family and friends. I had my best friend come and stay for a couple of weeks which was fabulous. Both of my cats and my dog were completely spoiled by Dallas. The cats took turns getting loved on by him and would hiss at poor Buddy when he ventured too close. By the end of his visit, Cleo, my normally very sweet, everyone loves me and I love everyone kitty, actually stalked over and swiped her claws across the poor dog’s nose completely confusing him. After all, since she was being petted, why couldn’t Buddy put his big dog head in Dallas’s lap and get some of the same. But the clincher came when I returned from the airport after dropping him off to fly away home. Both cats, not just Cleo, came running to the door with the perfect “pet me” meows echoing through the apartment. Cleo in specific looked at me, then watched in disgust as I closed the door and her favorite petting friend did not come through it after me. She glared in my direction, raised her head as high as it could go with her tail straight up and marched off filled with utter disgust that I had dared to come home without him. Persona NON Grata in my OWN place. Spoiled my pets, he did! It took Buddy almost 3 hours to get over it. He kept going back and forth to my son’s room, then back to the front door looking, waiting for Dallas to come through it. The cats are still trying to decide if I’ll ever be allowed to pet them again. I’m sure they will get over it by breakfast tomorrow.20140720-121721-44241475.jpg

Kitten Wars: Ninja Kitty and the Art of Being Picked Up

13 Oct 2014 Leave a comment

by Quietude's Junction in journal, Kitten Wars, reflections Tags: , , , , , , , ,

The cats have decided that they will take turns in claiming which human they will deign to show their affection. I’m guessing it is because I am generally quietly relaxing on the sofa, that I get Miss Sofa Shoulder Cat (Teeny) much more frequently than my son who is a constant motion machine. This frustrates him because he wants to pet Teeny and love all over her, but just won’t slow down enough to do so most days. So he picks her up, a lot, which she absolutely does not like and will loudly voice her opinion about on most days.

Teeny will actually tell him off for quite a while when he picks her up. She has this little purrupt meow that she uses quite extensively in multiple sounds and ranges to convey her extreme dislike of being picked up. But, my son is not one to be discouraged. Every day, he picks her up for 5-10 minutes at least 5 times a day during the week and more over the weekends. I’m guessing that he is wearing her down, slowly. She no longer trots off to parts unknown or to the area behind my shoulders on the couch when she sees him coming. She has even not chewed him out about it a few times. So this is progress. She knows he won’t drop her, at least.

Cleo on the other hand has taken to hunting anything that could possibly move in the house. And, quite frankly, even if it doesn’t move, and she can figure out a way to make it move, she does. This includes but is definitely not exclusive to single pieces of toilet paper, nerf darts, pieces of clothing, toy discs, and anything else that she believes can be hunted.

Recently, my son has been shooting off his nerf disc gun much to Cleo’s delight. He has not figured out that the reason he keeps losing his discs is because the cat hijacks them as soon as she finds them. He will go searching for them immediately after shooting them. Counting them up, he gets annoyed when he can’t find one. Then out of the corner of my eye, I spy Cleo. There is the little tuxedo ninja kitty with a disc in her mouth as she trots off to parts hidden from view to play with and stalk her prey once more.

After she has played with her new toy to her delight, she will come out of hiding and love all over my son. I’m sure that she is thanking him for her new toy, begging him to give her more.

Kitten Wars 9/17/14 The Pounce is Strong in This One

17 Sep 2014 Leave a comment

by Quietude's Junction in journal, Kitten Wars, reflections Tags: , , , , , , ,

I came home to one very playful kitty (Cleo) and one very affectionate cat (Teeny). Now, Teeny has only recently become an affectionate every day cat. For the last week she has begun waking me at 6 AM, whether I want to get up or not, by coming up to my face, bumping it, purring, and prrruupping at me until I either get up or move her away. If you haven’t had a determined cat before, well, let me tell you, moving Teeny away is no easy feat. Oh, you can pick her up and place her off the bed, on the other side of the bed, etc while remaining under the covers. This does not deter her in the least when she wants you to get up. She knows when my alarm should go off and is determined that I get up out of my cozy nest of blankets. No amount of moving her, removing her, or discouraging her work other than placing her on the other side of the bedroom door. But, then she begins scratching at the door until you let her back in. So its either get up or have one affectionate cat all over you until you do get up because you simply cannot breathe with all of her bunny fur in your face.

But, I digress. Cleo was in a very playful mood when I got home and was gleefully pouncing on everything that moved and some that didn’t. If a shoe lace fell, Cleo attacked. If the shadow moved, Cleo attacked. If Teeny shifted her eyes, Cleo … attacked. When Teeny first came into my home in June, she was a grumpy grande dame who generally hissed at anything that she didn’t like. There were days when I believed that all she knew how to do was hiss and spit, run and hide. Those days, I am glad to say, are long gone. When Cleo attacked Teeny, rolling her over, Teeny rolled over and continued walking over to get her rub. Cleo attacked again, pouncing over Teeny this time and was completely ignored by the cat on a mission.

So, Cleo changed tactics. Instead of wrestling and pouncing, she decided to batt at Teeny’s ear tufts. Maybe this new maneuver would gain her the attention she craved. Teeny leveled a look on Cleo that any teacher would have been proud to own, stuck her paw on Cleo’s head and pressed down much in the manner of the Pope when he is blessing someone. I got the feeling she was telling Cleo something important. So Cleo backed up a tiny bit to rethink what she was doing, but when Teeny prepared to leap up to the bathroom counter, she just couldn’t control herself any longer. As Teeny’s back hips quivered in the “jump ready” stance, Cleo pounced for all she was worth. The two wrestled for a few moments, then Teeny, pinned Cleo with her paw and put her nose on Cleo’s, looking her directly in the eyes. Momentarily mesmerized, Cleo lay there just long enough for Teeny to make the leap to the counter to get her rub.

Kitten Wars: Of Night Humans and Morning Cats …. 9/14/14

14 Sep 2014 Leave a comment

by Quietude's Junction in journal, Kitten Wars, reflections Tags: , , , , , ,

This morning I learned the difference between the Night Human and the Morning Cat. I went to bed sometime after midnight or closer to one after napping on the couch a bit. Teeny does not usually bother me on the couch other than to lay within hand’s reach for the occasional pet and scritch. However, when I went to bed well, that’s another matter. You see, my grande dame considers my bed hers. Actually I believe the bed is split into sections. The dog has the foot of it. Cleo sleeps under it. Teeny has the top when she deigns to sleep there.

But last night, I did the unthinkable. I put away all kitty food. That meant NO early morning snacking for the cats. Oh, wow, that was not the answer on the morning that I wanted to sleep in. At 4 or 5 Teeny decided to tell me all about it through and intense drum session in the litter box. Calling her name forcefully was not nearly threatening enough to get her to stop. I had to get up, out of my warm nest of blankets, and stand in a relatively cold room before she raced out. We went through a few of these over the next hour before the sleepy human realized that she could lock the cat out of the room. Well, that was not a kosher idea according to the cat.

She just started soft paw clawing at the door once she realized that the door to her domain was shut! So I reached around my door and blocked her stretching post (door frame) with the laundry basket. Unable to make the wond’rous sounds that she knows drives me nuts, she started her soft purr-meow which got Cleo to come out from under the bed to then soft paw the door from the inside. I think by this time it was close to 7 AM. I gave up and opened the door for the cats. They left the room and began playing somewhere else. Thank goodness Cleo distracted Teeny!

Photo: The morning cat, herself.

Happiness is ….

07 Sep 2014 Leave a comment

by Quietude's Junction in journal, Kitten Wars, reflections Tags: , , , , , ,

I had the sweetest wake-up this morning. Teeny, my affectionate on her own terms cat, was curled up next to me purring softly as my eyes opened. I reached down to stroke her bunny fun gray tabby coat as her purring got louder. After a minute or so, she decided to walk up to me to rub noses and bump faces before tapping my face gently with her paw. She can be the sweetest of cats when she wants to be. After a couple of moments, Cleo, my always affectionate but lets play, too, kitty decided to join us. All in all it was a wonderful way to wake up.

Kitten Wars, the Waking Edition 8/29/14

29 Aug 2014 Leave a comment

by Quietude's Junction in journal, Kitten Wars, reflections Tags: , , ,

Ok, Teeny decided to let me sleep in this morning. She did not do a scratch solo last night at all. I guess a few nights ejected from my room did a little good there.  However, she truly does understand that when the alarm goes off that I should get up. So, this morning, when I hit the snooze, like I always do EVERY morning, she decided that she would instead drum on my stomach, back and arms. This is NOT to be confused with kneading in any manner. This is a fairly hard cat paw hitting in a definite rhythm. Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap  (on the stomach) Push the cat away sleepily…. Tap Tap Tap Tap (on my arm since I rolled a little) Push the cat further away this time Tap Tap Tap Tap (on my back since I rolled all the way over) Set the cat off the bed and glare at the alarm. It only went off 2 minutes ago!

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