Cat Catastrophe's

It's no surprise that there are times when I miss the craziness and chaos of 21 cats. It's rare that there's not some noise, mess, or cuteness going on. Sure, I wouldn't mind having less cleaning and litter scooping to do. But I truly do miss the chaos and cuteness that happens. Hearing it secondhand from Gene or Jimmi just isn't the same—yep, I get it, I'm merely writing about things they do for you to read secondhand. How entertaining could it be for you guys to read my incredibly bad storytelling?

I've been house-sitting just a few minutes away for the last two weeks. Most days, I'd stop at home for the usual various chores - making dinner, cleaning, laundry, litter scooping, etc. Home long enough to take care of stuff, but truly miss any of the fun and entertaining things. Being away from the cats makes it hard to write about them, which was kind of the whole point of me starting this blog. Relying on info from Gene to write about them is just not the same as seeing it firsthand. Here's to hoping that I'll catch some fun stuff when I'm home between pet-sitting jobs.

If I haven't mentioned it before, we have a cat wheel (the best Facebook Marketplace purchase ever!). It's hit or miss which cats use it, when they use it, and for how long. There are a few regular users: Dobby, Buddy, Smokey, and some of the kittens. Dobby likes to use it whenever she's feeling neglected. She starts off with a slow walk on the very edge, keeping an eye out for someone to look her way. But if we are watching TV and not paying attention, she runs faster and stares down whoever is in the room. Occasionally, she'll decide to just have a little nap on the wheel—who knows why—it can't be that comfortable.

Smokey uses the wheel - but not as often these days. She was the first one to truly take to it and run like nobody's business. She's always been a tiny girl - petite at under 8 lbs. She doesn't need the exercise - but if she's happy, we're happy. She also used the wheel as a way to get attention. Run = extra pets or treats.

Buddy is another fast wheel runner—still young with lots of energy to burn. I wish more of the younger kids would use the wheel—or even Roughy, who always has some pent-up anger. Buddy runs fast enough that the wheel starts to rock and looks like it's about to launch off the track. That has yet to happen, but I'm not going to be surprised if it does.

At any rate, one day in our group chat we got a picture. This picture was quite... an eye-opener. One of the cats decided to take a poop on the wheel, which is obviously not ideal, but it happens. It could have happened for any reason - full litter box, upset stomach, the sudden onset of a need to poop and not enough time to make it to the box. There's a first time for everything, and this would be the first time someone pooped on the cat wheel. Cats can be assholes, especially in my house. So why would this be any different?

One of the cats decided it would be a great idea to then run on the cat wheel—even though there was poop on it. We've now made a small mess a huge mess. It was spread all over the carpet, the wheel, the walls, the floor. You name it—it needed to be cleaned. It's always hard to determine who did what with so many cats, but even harder when they all go MIA after a major disaster. To this day, we have no idea who pooped or who decided to run after the poop happened.

All the cats are oblivious to the poop mess they left and have carried on with their daily lives as if nothing so ridiculous happened. In the meantime, we humans are left shaking our heads and laughing. Only in our house would this be a thing that happens. I'm hoping that is the first and last time we have that kind of mess to deal with.

That, my friends, is something that was funny after it got cleaned up—was it laugh-worthy as you read this? Probably not, but now you can say you know someone whose cats did the most ridiculous thing ever!

I'm dying to know—what is the most ridiculous thing your pet has done (or child if you don't have pets)? Drop it in the comments for us all to read!

Till our tails cross again,

Melanie

#lovecatsandeveything #poop #poophappens #catlife #catsfyp

Hiss, Growl, Repeat

Cats, much like humans, have strong personalities—and they certainly aren't afraid to show their personality, displeasure, or even pleasure. Having 21 cats and 2 humans is a LOT of personality to deal with day in and day out. Let's be real—just 2 humans living together can be a lot of personality. I know there are days when I get under Gene's skin just being me and vice versa. Add in the cats to that mix, and it's a perfect storm where nobody truly knows who is coming or going.

Each of our very lovable cats has a strong personality in some way. To any person stopping by, they may not see it. Cats have the best poker face—not always ready to let us know what they are thinking. Read on to get a glimpse of some personalities we deal with daily, and how it affects the other cats and humans in the house.

I'll start with the under-a-year-old group. There are 11 that fall into this category. (Yes, I just had to count that out...) Here goes: Buddy, Monkey, Missy - they are siblings and might actually be closer to just over a year. Missy was adopted out for a few months but got returned (no fault of hers). She came back to us as a sassy kitten used to a young child and one other cat. I started calling her Pissy Missy because she was just that, pissy. Pissy that she had way more siblings than she used to, had to learn to share ALL the food and water bowls, the toys, and how each of the other cats plays and when they didn't want to play. Buddy and Monkey - total lovers and cuddlers. Each of them prefers to cuddle up with us during TV time. Great at giving leg rubs & begging to be picked up. They have a preferred way to be held and will squirm around till they get situated just right, no matter if it's good for you.

As for the other 8 kittens—Wilson, Grayson, Bella, Aurora, Eclipse, Echo, Blaze, and Gizmo—Wilson, for sure, is the lead troublemaker. Always getting into everything, pushing his way, or leaping into your arms. Truly, one day he was looking for attention and jumped at me from the desk in the kitchen to where I was standing looking through the mail at the kitchen table. He was so sure of himself that he would stick his landing—no matter what. Good thing I was only holding papers and caught him.

I guess it's less of a personality thing and more of an age thing—all 11 of them are FULL of energy 24/7. They easily sound like a herd of horses running through the house, up the stairs, down the stairs, through the cat door to the sunporch and back again. Maybe there's a jingle ball or spiral toy involved, but most likely not—it's just them chasing each other. This happens in the dead of night, or when Gene is in a meeting or needs to be focused on work. If you happen to be in their line of running, watch out—they will take you down without stopping.

Gizmo does not have a care in the world when it comes to napping. Her preferred spots are on top of any other sleeping cat. Maybe on the heated bed, maybe in the basket on the cat tower that's meant to hold only one cat. She climbs right onto them and settles in for a little R & R. Oddly, none of them fight her on this; they don't even move. It's like she's their own personal weighted blanket.

Eclipse and Echo are the true calicos of the litter—very much standoffish, determined to make you work for any attention they might consider letting you give them. This is especially true of Eclipse. Currently, she's not likely to let you hold her; maybe she'll hang around for a pet, but most likely not if she's in the middle of anything other than having a rest or nap. Echo, on the other hand, is more likely to let you hold her for a few seconds before needing to move on to whatever is next on her list to do.

Aurora and Bella are somewhere between a torbie and a diluted calico. While absolutely adorable, they are coming into their own personalities. Aurora, from day one, has decided that name tags and collars are NOT for her. We've put it back on a billion times, even having the vet put it back on once—she gets it off in a mere few minutes. So she's clearly going to be the one telling US what is going on and when. Bella, on the other hand, is a bit of a happy-go-lucky girl at the moment. She's a bit of a follow-the-rest baby. If one of the cats is doing something that catches her eye, she pushes herself right into whatever it may be—helping me crochet, stealing a toy from someone, or just pushing her way in for wet food.

Grayson is keeping a low profile currently with his personality - it will come out soon enough, I'm sure. He could potentially have a bit of Siamese in him - if he does, he's going to be a little spitfire. But currently, he is the sweetest cat around - absolutely LOVES his human, Jimmi. He can always be found at the food bowl - especially if we just topped it off.

Blaze is also keeping most of his personality in check. Although he has been known to find ways into my closet—an absolute NO CATS ALLOWED area. How do we know it was him? I found his collar and name tag hanging off of my hanger, so he climbs my work clothes and one day got hung up. So he is keeping a low profile for now but is one to keep an eye on.

At the end of the day, just how much hissing, growling, and purring do they individually contribute to? Plenty! While they all mostly get along, there are times they are the instigators of the growling and hissing. Granted, the hissing and growling (and sometimes hitting) come from all the older cats. The kittens, as we refer to them, are still just full of love, fun, and want to play. They are still working on the fact that "personal space" is a real thing for animals and humans, the senior kitty may get different or special food and you have to wait for her to be done, and learning the rules of our house.

Till our tails cross again,

Melanie

#lovecatsandeverything #personality #kittens #hiss #growl #catlovers

Cat Myth or Fact?

I saw something online about cat mthys and was like that's absoultely ridiculous. I'm going to dive into some myths about cats. Ones that even the most hardcore cat enthusiast will refer to. Even I joke about some of the cat myths, that I know are just that a myth. So here goes - cat myths, truths and facts.

Cats can see in the dark, their vision is better.

How nice would that be - seeing in the total darkness of the night. They cannot see in the absolute dark, but their eyes are more adaptaive to low light. Cats eye let in more light than a human eye does. So go ahead and leave nightlight on for them. Complete darkness is not their friend.

Cats are nocturnal.

They are something - but its actually called crepuscular. Before writing about the myths of cats - I had no idea that word existed. Let's start with a definition:

Crepuscular: - of, relating to, or resembling twilight : dim

Broken down in a cat's world - they are most active during dawn and dusk. Typically they will sleep or rest thru the daylight hours. (my cats may need to be reminded of this...) You'll also find they sleep during the deepest hours of the night. Somehow, my cats must have completely missed this memo. Their best play time happens in the deepest hours of our nights. Bottom line, cats eyes function best in low-light versus a dark or brightly lit room.

A purring cat is happy cat.

Purring the feline world is not all happy. It can be a multitude of other things. It's a way they let us know how they are feeling. Purring can mean stress, pain, frightened or it can be them self-soothing. Truly understanding a cats purr is hard, but yet one of their biggest ways to let us know what is going on. To truly know what that purr means, you'll have to look at the larger picture of what is going on.

Black Cats = bad luck.

This is a big one in the USA. So big in fact that many rescues will not adopt out black cats close to halloween. For good reason most of the time, but yet sad that we have to be so careful. This is actually an old superstition that started in Medieval Europe, as they were associated with witches and perceived as the embodiement of demons. Today a black cat crossing your path is thought to be bad luck. If you live in Japan, Scotland, England or Ireland black cats could mean: good fortune, love, prosperity or impending wealth. Truth be told - I'd take any of those over the bad luck.

You can't train a cat.

There's definately a mixed feeling on this one. I prefer saying - cats have a mind of their own and are strong willed. If it doesn't suit them, absolutely they may seem un-trainable. Truth be told - training a cat requires lots of patience and positive reinforcement. Cats can be taught good manners, tricks and more. It's moreso a matter of the time and effort. I equate cats to kids. We train them, but every so often they still do what they know they aren't allowed to. We have a cat that does get grounded - to the sunporch. When he's being the most out of line he gets a time out to cool down.

Cats always land on their feet.

This is absolutely false. Granted 99% of the time they may land on their feet. But there's some things that help determine if they truly will land on their feet. Cats having something called a righting reflex - a physiological response that keeps the body balanced and upright. It's an automatic reflex (yep humans have it to). How is it possible in cats? They have flexible spines and sensitive inner ears to start, but they do need adequate space to complete the manuever to land on their feet. A fall from to low of a space - means they don't have enough room to complete the twist to right them selves, a fall from to high allows them to complet the twist but pick up lives. velocity and relax before landing. This can still end in injury. Moment's before landing from a fall, cats arch their back to absorbe the shock then flattens out their body to slow the fall and lastly extends all four legs for landing. Not as easy as they make it look!

Cats can drink milk.

A tough one...here's the scoop with cats and milk poducts. Cats are in fact lactose intolerant. Cats have an enzyme "lactase" that breaks down the sugar in milk - BUT as cats age that enzyme goes away. Kittens need their mom's milk to get a healthy start (or a kitten formula), but definately NOT milk that humans drink. When they drink regular milk it leads to upset stomach, vomiting and diarhea. None of which is pleasant for the cat or it's owners. We see it all the time - cats begging for the milk from your cereal bowl or glass of milk. Sure they love it, but it is in fact one of the worst things for them. Sometimes, if a cat has been given milk routinely from early on, they may not be lactose intolerant, although it's best if you don't let that become a habit. Giving them milk is a calorie overload on their system with absolutely no nutrition (much like junk food for humans). A small saucer of milk is the equivilant to a human eating a 12 inch pizza.

Cats have 9 lives.

This is sadly a myth - they only have 1 life. It's a centuries old provberb stemming from folklore. It most likely originates from ancient Egyptian culture. Cats were revered as gods and symbols of resurrection as well as the mystical significance of the number 9. Cat's have a few things on their side that make them live a little longer - quick instincts, fast reflexes, flexible skeletins, and agility to name a few. I'm sure all cat owners have or had a cat who seemed to use of some of the mytical 9 lives. For us that was Jasper who certaintly used all 9 and smokey who used one of hers and a dozen of mine that I surely don't have!

Drop in the comments a myth you've heard or what you thoughts are on these myths!

Till our tails cross again,

Mel

#purrfectdozen #lovecatsandeveything #feline #catmyth #catlover