This is Not a Photo of My Cat

Yesterday one of my cats was sleeping with his neck wrapped around the arm of the chair in a most amusing manner. But by the time I got my camera he'd woken up. So you'll just have to imagine it.

Thunderstorms

We have been having thunderstorms every day for almost a week. One of my cats is terrified of thunder -- he goes creeping around the house to hide under the bed, or the couch, or wherever he feels safe, and doesn't come out until the storm is long over. The other cat seems oblivious.

Black and Blue

I guess that really ought to be "blue and chocolate brown."

How Indigo Got His Name

My cats were given names by their previous owner which I never really liked, but it took me a while to come up with new ones. A certain event gave Indigo his name.

Many years ago, when my cats were only four years old, our household (two humans, five cats) moved to a new apartment, in a part of town where we thought it might be safe to let the cats go outside. We discovered our mistake when one of them dragged himself back to the house with an injured hind leg.

The vet said it was dislocated, and that he had been hit by a car. (In fact, if it was a car, he was so incredibly lucky not to have been more seriously injured that I sometimes wonder if it was something else.) Anyway, he came back from the animal hospital with two big pins holding his leg together. Plus all the fur had been shaved off, so it looked like a chicken leg. It was so very upsetting.

There was an open wound on the leg as well. As the wound healed, the new skin grew back in this amazing dark blue color. I've never heard of such a thing, but the cat was renamed Indigo in honor of his healing process.

However, I couldn't change his name until his brother also got a new name (that wouldn't be fair.) After deep thought, it occurred to me that his brother was a plump pear-shaped beast, very much like one of those dark green Avocadoes. Thus the new names were bestowed.

My Elderly Cats

My cats are thirteen years old (turning fourteen in a couple months.) They're brothers, and they've lived with me since they were little.

Until recently, they never had any health problems. But now the vet tells me that one of them is diabetic and the other one has hyperthyroidism. The diabetic one just got back from spending three days at the vet, being monitored I guess.

The good thing is that both of these conditions are treatable. I just gave my first insulin shot today, with the assistance of the vet's assistant. It's the kind of thing you imagine you could never do. As a matter of fact, the cat barely seems to notice. His brother complains a lot more about the thyroid medicine which has to be shoved into his mouth.

The best thing is that they are still happy and active. That's what really matters. I know that someday we'll have to say goodbye. But hopefully not yet.

I should tell the story about how my cat Indigo got his name.

Yet Another Kitty Picture

Sleeping Next to the Heater

Cat Words

My cats are half Siamese, which means they are very vocal. Here are some of the distinct "words" that I believe I can recognize:

• Hungry!
• Bored! (This may also mean "lonely", as in "everybody has gone into the other room and left me here by myself.")
• Going somewhere! (This is a funny one. When they get up, jump off the chair, walk over to the food dish, etc. they really do make a noise. Announcing what they're doing. I suppose it may also mean "Coming through!" -- ie, they're not trying to sneak up on anyone.)
• Good morning. (As soon as they hear me stir in the morning, they jump right up on the bed and greet me.)
• Pet me!
• Don't stop! (This is what they say when you're petting them and then take your hand away.)
• Love you. (This is not a demanding noise like "pet me." It's more of a happy cuddly sound.)
• Put me down. (or, "Stop." Normally they don't mind being picked up. But if they suspect that I am carrying them towards the cat carrier, or intend to shut them in the bathroom temporarily, or do anything to them that they would not enjoy, they will complain.)
• Angry (for when they're fighting--snarls and yowls.)
• Intruder alert! (I wrote about this here. They never make this noise when they're fighting with each other.)
• Playing. (If they run up to each other and fake an attack, for example, they'll make this noise.)
• Bird! (I have heard other cats make this noise. It's kind of a lip-smacking. I think they only do it for birds--not squirrels, for example.)

There is also a typical noise they make after using the litterbox. I don't really want to try to interpret that one.

They each have individual tones of voice, different intonations. Also, they each vocalize about different things. For example, only one of them really ever says "Put me down!" The other one will just struggle silently--but, he is much more vocal when he's hungry. I also think he uses the "going somewhere" noise more than his brother.

Then there is body language. That's a whole other set of "words."

Cat in Window

Here is the story to go with this picture:

This cat once had his leg injured, and although he's normally fine, I have noticed that he doesn't seem to do as much jumping as his brother. Specifically, one day he wanted to jump up on the windowsill but he couldn't quite go for it. He sat up and gazed at the window, he ran back and forth under the window, he mewed, but he didn't jump.

Meanwhile, his brother was sitting up in the window and decided to come down. He could jump, but he's too lazy. Instead he climbs down by way of the couch.

On this occasion he noticed that the other cat wanted to get on the windowsill. So he stopped with his front legs on the back of the couch and his hind legs on the windowsill, and stared at his brother. He waited until his brother saw him up there, and then he very slowly climbed down. He was obviously showing him how to do it. His brother observed this, came over and climbed past him up to the window.

Now they can both sit up there--as long as I have the window open.

Finally, I Can Use the Web for its Intended Purpose

. . . posting pictures of my cats.

Here they are:



Here they are again:



Here is the devil kitty:



Awwww . . . so cute.

Obligatory Cute Cat Story

Last night I was having a private moment with Cat #1*, when Cat #2 jumped up on the bed and laid down between us.

Cat #1 promptly bit Cat #2's tail. Then he did it again. After the third bite, Cat #2 mewed and gave his brother a look that clearly said, "Why are you biting me?" ("Why do you think he's biting you?" I asked.)

Cat #1 immediately jumped on Cat #2's back and bit him on the neck. Then they rolled off the bed together.


* They do have names, but they're also interchangeable. Whichever one you see first is Cat #1, or "Thing One" as I called them when they were kittens.

Looking in a Mirror

I swore when I started this blog that I would try to avoid writing about my cats. Because once I start, I don't know if I'll be able to stop. But there's no way to avoid it now. This is the story of the week.

My cats sit in the bedroom windowsill night and day. Sometimes, in the middle of the night, they see something that makes them growl and snarl and make a noise that I can't even describe. It's sort of a bubbling wail of menace. I never got to see what was causing this.

Then, on Saturday morning, they started making the noise again. I thought, "Aha! Now that it's broad daylight, I can see what's out there." I looked out in the yard and didn't see anything. Then I looked at my cats, to see where they were looking.

My cats are black, with yellow or green eyes. One of them has a white spot on his chest. And when I looked at them, I saw a black cat with yellow eyes and a white spot on his chest - on the other side of the window.

"How did he get out there?" I asked myself. Then slowly I realized that it was not one of my cats. This foreign cat was sitting on the narrow ledge outside the window, and my cats were going nuts. He was quite calm, only snarling a little.

Ten minutes later I looked out the window again. The interloper was now lounging on the ground, about two feet away from the window, ostentatiously not looking in our direction. Every line of his posture proclaimed: "I am perfectly comfortable here, and I'm going to be staying a while." But I think he left about five minutes later.

This morning I heard cries of distress coming from the windowsill. The other cat was out there, rolling on the ground directly under the window - showing off again.

What a cute story.

Cat Hit by Car

I did not see the cat get run over. I turned around and there it was, lying in the middle of the road, kicking one hind leg. Then it lay still.

One of the people waiting at the bus stop with me walked out to take a look at it, and the person who ran it over actually stopped his car and came back to attend to it. But I am pretty sure it was dead. The young man carried it carefully to the side of the road. A small, thick bloodstain remained behind. Then the bus came and we had to leave.

Was it the same cat I have seen there before? It was orange and white, with a long fluffy tail. I think the other cat that lives around there is yellow. Well, one cat's luck ran out, all the same.

Death comes like that, suddenly, on a bright summer morning. So of course I had to dash off and write about it on my blog.

One of my cats got hit by a car once. He was not badly injured (comparatively), but it was still awful. His leg was broken, and he managed to get himself home. (I'm still not absolutely sure he was hit by a car. How could it have caused so little damage? But that's what the vet said.) Of course I felt guilty for letting him go outside, although I'm sure he enjoyed it, until the encounter with the car.

What really upset me, though, and haunted me, was the thought of his tiny body and all these big, hard, dangerous machines that move so fast and kill so easily. I don't blame the drivers. But looking at a road from a cat's point of view is truly terrifying.

There doesn't seem to be anything else to say.