Nut House

I'm a cat.  I'm no longer a kitten, but I still look like one.  I'm surrounded by crazy fur beasties, some of them related and some who think they're related.

 Let's start with the animals that think they're my mommy.  Here is Daisy, a chihueenie.  She thinks every kitten that comes in the house is her funny looking puppy.  She loved me from the start and got ready to nurse my brothers, sister, and me as soon as we showed up.  Then she remembered she was fixed and couldn't.  She will defend me to the death from anyone, even other "funny looking puppies" who try to mess with me.

So just to be clear, according to Daisy, this is Maia, a cat, an evil creature to be chased around:

And this is Toothless, one of Daisy's funny looking puppies, a creature to be nurtured and protected:



I'm sure you can clearly see the difference.  Okay, maybe not since you're just a human.  My people get them confused all the time.  One jumps on our person mommy from the left, and one from the right, and the older, much more mature girl is an inch taller and broader than the boy.  But if you were a dog, you could SMELL the difference.

Here's four legged mommy number two.  As a person, you probably think we trotted out the cloning machine.  But Daisy knows the difference.  One is Baby, an older funny looking puppy who can sometimes be chased around if she acts like a cat and runs.  The other is me, Ruthie.  I cannot be chased because I will not run.  Daisy is my mommy.  But Baby loves me, cleans me, and snuggles me like my mommy would do if she were here and attacks me and chases me like an older sister should do.  I'm much bigger than this now, but not as big as Baby.

 Everyone but Maia and the new cat in the house, Snickers, who is right now looking for a new home, has been embraced as one of our pack, us siblings.  We snuggle.  We clean each other.  We play all night long.  We are one.

Maia's picture is above.  She keeps herself separate, but she sometimes licks Toothless or lets him nuzzle her now that she's gotten over hissing and trying to kill him.  Maia's a cat, not a funny looking puppy.  She may look like one of us, but she isn't.  Snickers is kept in a separate room, so she won't be scared of being chased around by other animals when she finds her new home.  That's how Cleo behaved when she went to her new home, scared of everything.  Snickers, too, is a real cat.

Here's the other friend who isn't one of us, Pomeranian Dodger.  He lets me snuggle him sometimes, but he doesn't like other cats.  I'm special that way.  He even sometimes sniffs or licks me.

And here's our last brother, Scoutie.  He's my person aunt's cat.  He's only visiting for a few months.  But he has been embraced like one of the family.

There is our crazy four-legged family.  They're all completely nuts, especially in the middle of the night, but they're my kind of nuts, and I love them.

Kittens?

                                                  Memories of Kitten Past


Kind of a weird thing happened.  My person mommy took in another cat, a pregnant cat, so she wouldn't have babies in the snow.  Even though they've been overdosed on kittens, the whole family was looking forward to raising another batch to six weeks and giving them away.  I was looking forward to having fun chew toys to play with, smaller kittens than me.

And then they were gone.  Mama cat went from having a large belly full of squirming lumps that were clearly growing kittens to a full, well-fed belly that feels like any other cat's belly.  With no kittens or sucked-on nipples that show hidden kittens to show for it.  There were kittens in that belly one day and the next, they were gone, like they just ceased to be.  Nobody's sure how.  Did they get miscarried and eaten?  Reabsorbed?  It reminds my person mommy way too much of her lost babies.  Sad day.

The Plush Cat

You think I look like a normal cat, but I'm the eternal snuggle kitty.  Every night is fun, but I get so lonely without my person.  I love to play with my brothers and sisters all night.  We chase each other around the house, across the furniture, up and down the stairs... It's a lot of fun.  But I do all that, wishing my person would wake up. Then she does wake up, and I snuggle her.  Or let her snuggle me.  For everyone else, I only stick around while they're petting me, rubbing my belly.  I'm a normal cat for everyone else.   But for my person, I flop around in her hands and let her haul me everywhere.  I don't fight anything.  I'll sit on her lap like a blankie for hours.  I'll let her snuggle me to sleep at night light a teddy bear.  I am my person's favorite plush toy.  Until you bring out the cheese.  Then, I'm a set of claws and a stomach.  But as soon as the cheese goes away, I'll flop in her hands again.  Life is good.

Kitten Portal

Remember when I said last March, my person-daddy found a batch of week old kittens in a shed near the house and brought them home?  My person-parents thought they were done with kittens with the first batch they'd ever found in the 10 years of living in this house because they could not catch their cat-mama and therefore, supposed her to be dead.  Then they started to wonder if they were done when a few months later, I showed up in a second batch of kittens, with my five brothers and sisters.  Then they thought they might be done with kittens showing up because they caught my real cat-mama and fixed her.  Except that the next day, they saw another mama with three older kittens in tow.

 Now, they've thrown their hands up in the air and wonder if they're EVER going to be done with kittens because a few days ago, a very pregnant mama cat with no apparent owner but a real affection for humans showed up on their doorstep.  They took her in, so she could have the babies in safety and she and all of her babies could then be given away when the kittens are old enough.  I'm pretty sure there's a kitten magnet in the house or maybe a portal to the kitten dimension nearby that opened up last March, and that it will NEVER be closed.  Isn't that so much fun?

Super Kitty!

I'm Super Kitty.  No, really.  You don't believe me.  Just to prove how super I am, I went zooming around the house in a cape.  It kind of scared me, actually, because it was a plastic bag, and it was sort of an accident that I wore it like a cape.  Kind of freaked me out and everybody else, too.  But I got into it and out of it all by myself.  That just shows you how awesome I am.

See, I have claws like Wolverine.  Okay, so maybe they're a little shorter, but when they claw you in the neck, you'll be sure they're Wolvie-sized claws.  I can climb like Spider-Man.  Mostly people, floor to shoulder, but chairs and Christmas trees and everything else are no problem for a super kitty like me.  And I fly like Superman.  Clearly, I do because one minute, I'm sitting, staring up at the cheese from the ground, and the next, I'm soaring up to your shoulder to land gracefully--sort of--and beg for food.  I'm at home in the dark and have night vision like Batman, and I don't even need goggles.  And I have a great secret identity.  Cute, cuddly kitty by night, crazy nut soaring around the house by night.  You'd never know it was me.  See.  I'm just awesome.  Who needs another superhero when you have me?

Good bye, sweet jungle gym

Ruthie the kitten here again.  People say I'm a cat, but I still look like I'm not a day over three months.  And I don't think I wanna grow much more because my person loves me this size.  Besides, my mom didn't look big enough to have babies.  So I'll just stay a kitten forever, and everyone's happy.  This is great for someone who likes kittens.

Which brings me to the most awesome thing in the universe.  My people brought us a jungle gym.  It's an awesome thing.  Green with stiff, prickly branches. kind of triangular in shape.  I think it's supposed to be a tree or something, but it doesn't smell like a tree.  Smells like plastic.  Lots and lots of shiny, dangly stuff all over it.  These awesome, gold and silver balls that glitter in the light.  Little glowing lights everywhere, and a glorious frilly doll with wings at the top.  It was awesome to behold.

But even better to hide in.  And man, can those balls fly.  And the crashing, shattering sound is very satisfying.  Do you know that three or four of us almost-old-enough-to-be-cat types can fit in our favorite jungle gym at the SAME TIME?  And when we do, those pretty, dangly things fly EVERYWHERE.  It's a whole lot of fun.  We chase each other everywhere in it, climbing up and down and all around, killing everything in sight.  SO much fun.  My favorite thing was when I climbed all the way to the top and got that pretty frilly doll with wings at the top.  Pulled her right over.  So much fun.  But my people weren't so happy with me that day.  Not sure why.

Then our silly people put stuff wrapped in fragile, crinkly paper under our favorite jungle gym.  You wouldn't believe how easily and satisfyingly that paper shreds.  And then they put those packages in big, plastic bags to try to protect them from us.  Silly people.  They don't seem to know we can shred plastic, too, and climb inside to get to that wonderful, shreddable paper.  So much fun.  Our people are so thoughtful, bringing us all this entertaining stuff.

But then the stuff started disappearing, first the packages underneath.  The people got all mad at us for shredding that paper, and now, they shredded it themselves.  It just doesn't make any sense.  And now, the pretty dangly things are disappearing off the tree thing.   I wonder if the jungle gym is going next.  It was so much fun while it lasted.  I can't figure people out some days.  I wonder when it's coming back again.

Jeckyll and Hyde

I'm a sweet kitten.  I'm almost a sweet cat, almost six months old, but you wouldn't know it to look at me.  One of my nicknames is Nermal, like from the comic strip "Garfield" because I'm so cute and endearing.  I love other cats.  I love the dogs, even the visiting big border collie most of the cats and even the other dogs can't stand.  My brother is all about Mommy.  He is as old as I am, but he still sits around pretending he's a kitten nursing on Mommy whenever he can get away with it because Mommy left us to be adopted early.  But if anyone else tries to pick him up, he wants to go back to Mommy.  But I'm happy wherever I am.  I curl up on or by whomever I am near.   Even if you're a stranger, if you pick me up and rub my belly, I'll be motorized jelly in your hands, flopping and purring because you loved me.  Everybody loves me because I love everybody.  And I'm a particularly tiny cat with a cute, pudgy face, so you can't resist when I purr at you.

But everything changes the millisecond you bring out the turkey or the bologna or the cheese or anything I even sort of like to eat.  Then I Hyde.  I don't hide.  I become an insane, ravening monster likely to tear through you if you stand between me and my cheese.  I will claw you, bite you, take you out because you are a mere distraction on the way to devouring my prey.  Most cats get interested in food.  Might even steal it from you.  I kill for food.

But if the food goes away, I will snuggle up to whatever I have left of you and tell you how much I love you.  It's how I roll.