Yet more wireless rapture

We all know how much I love free, easily accessible wireless. Love it, love it, love it.

Well, today was mildly crazy (though, as Kathy says, my life is ALWAYS crazy)

Anyway, due to a vet scheduling conflict, I had to leave work about 2:30 to take the boys to get their Feline Leukemia boosters. I was waiting for someone to finish something so that I could do MY part, and of course, they had system issues.

So, I said as I was leaving that I'd find wireless sometime after 4 and call into work.

And here I am, at Weaver Street (while Peter is at soccer practice), eating some lovely caraway cheddar and bread, drinking a New Belgium Hoptober (very tasty, btw), and working.

Oh, and it's 70 degrees and breezy. A lovely fall afternoon.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh

My furry little alarm clock

I had a hard time getting up this morning. Not sure why, but I just didn't feel like getting out of bed.

Jack came and hopped up on the bed, which did not help -- furry, snuggly purring kitties just make be want to sleep longer.

In the midst of being snuggly and purring, he was also grooming me (both Boys love to groom me -- Jackie grooms my skin, but Dusty, for some reason, wants to groom my head, and I'm always afraid he's going to choke on my hair). Apparently, though, Jack can tell time, and was aware that I was NOT getting up when I should've. The grooming turned into nibbles (normal), then he 'bit' my finger. This is also normal -- it's not really a bite, he just puts his teeth on me, but gently.

But today he didn't let go. Even when I called his name. Even when I patted him on the head. Even when I tapped his nose. NONE of my little tricks worked!

Until, of course, I moved to get out of bed. Apparently that was all he was waiting for!

It had to happen

Well, it finally happened.

After walking across my kitchen curtain rods for months, Dusty finally pulled them apart, and fell down!

No harm done, either to him or the curtains!

Dinner with Tucker

We were all tired and lazy tonight. We'd had a reasonably busy day (Waffle Shop, Church, Lunch, errands, haircuts...), so at dinner time we were still washing clothes so that the kids could pack (they're going to Florida for Spring Break with their Dad)

I'm also keeping Tucker again because David is travelling the first part of this week. Tucker does not typically beg, but he DOES love people food. Especially chips. So, dinners in the living room are hard on him.

Tonight we had Armadillo Grill, and did eat in the living room. Poor Tuckie wanted a chip SO bad!

PLEASE can I have a chip???? PLEASE

Dusty the Water Cat

Jack and Dusty love water, but only, apparently, running water.

They always have a bowl of water, and typically ignore it. But let me make a move towards a bathroom, and they're right there, on the sink, mewing for me to turn on the faucet.

Apparently Dusty loves this so much, he now associates the sink with all things good, because he's taken to curling up in it:

Dusty's new happy place

Even when they're not bothering me, they wake me up!

The Boys, that is.

There were tons of people in my house last night; David and his kids came over, plus my Dad and Kathy came to watch the Duke game (WOOT!) and have dinner. Plus me and mine, for a grand total of, like, 9 people in my house. Minor chaos.

But, eventually they all left. The kids and I were up for a little bit longer, but not much, then we headed upstairs to bed. I'd done tons of yard work this weekend, so I was very tired, and went to sleep quickly.

And woke up at midnight to the BBC blaring; apparently in all the DST clock changing I managed to set the clock in my bathroom to go off at midnight! So, I got up, peed, got some water, and went back to sleep, but I noticed that neither cat was in my room (a rarity). Dusty was out on the landing, but Jack was nowhere in sight.

I woke up again a little before 3; not sure why, but this time Dusty was on my bed. No Jack, though, which was odd.

And then it ocurred to me that I hadn't really seen him at all since everyone left!

Now, I knew he hadn't gotten out when David left, and he was the last to head out. But, I'd had various doors and windows open during the day (BEAUTIFUL weather this weekend), and The Boys have been known to push screens out in order to escape.

So I got worried, and started looking around for Jack. No screens missing in my room or bathroom. No cat (or missing screens) in the playroom. I was heading for the kids rooms, turning on lights as I went, when I saw him, inside, sitting by the front door. Nothing wrong, happy as a little clam. Not pouncing, grooming, crying, or any of the other things he ordinarily does to wake me. Just sitting.

Yes, I know this one was my own fault. But, DANG, it's bad when your pets disrupt your sleep by BEHAVING!

Where's Lassie when you need her?

There are so many nice, sweet, normal animals out there in the world.

And then there are the ones in my life.

So, I've got Jack, who's a needy boy, and who also likes to groom me. Including nibbling on me. At 4 in the morning, typically. Very odd, but it makes him SO happy.

There's Dusty, who likes to walk across my curtain rods!!!!

And then there's Tucker. Tucker, like Jack, is a needy boy, so he gets clingy when he comes to visit me. He also periodically gets TERRIFIED of hardwood floors, so sits at the edge of the carpet and whimpers.

And, apparently, sleeps in odd places:

Tucker's new "bed"

Now, Tucker has a perfectly good bed. Soft, fluffy, and even has raised edges so he will feel all snuggly.

He also has a pad in his crate -- again, nice and soft, and he's been known to crash there when he wants a nap.

But apparently, they were NOT what he wanted this morning!

Forget Buddy, where's DUSTY?

So, previously I said I was going to track where Dusty took Buddy.

Apparently, I need to track where DUSTY goes:

Yes, that's my kitchen window

The story?

He jumped to the fridge, jumped from the fridge to the top of the cabinets (not the ones above the fridge, the ones above the stove), walked along the cabinets till he got to the window over the sink, and was momentarily stymied.

Eventually, though, he very, very carefully walked across THE CURTAIN ROD, till he got to the cabinets on the other side, then walked to the end of THOSE cabinets, then walked across the curtain rods on THOSE windows, and finally jumped down to my table.

I told Peter it was like Lego Indiana Jones, where you have to jump to the hand-holds and shimmie across them!

Dusty the...retriever?

Lots of animals carry things. St. Bernard's carry whiskey (OK, probably not really, but they SHOULD). Hunting dogs can carry game. Service animals carry all sorts of things; books, remotes, car keys. Even cats, big or small, have been known to carry things; kittens, usually, but occasionally prey.

Dusty likes to carry Buddy, mainly.

Buddy is Peter's stuffie; he's had him since before he was born. Buddy still hangs out on Peter's top bunk, watching the world go by.

Dusty LOVES Buddy. Dusty will go into Peter's room, climb onto his top bunk (using the ladder, of course) get Buddy, and take him...somewhere.

So far, he's been found in my closet, in the hall landing, in the den, in the living room, on the stairs, in the playroom, on my bed, and, today, facedown in the kitchen.

I won't be truly worried till we come home and there's a Buddy-shaped chalk outline, and bits of fluff on the floor....

Vampire Kitties

By now I'm relatively used to the nuttiness that exudes from Jack and Dusty. They are, as we've all recognized, the silliest, nuttiest, CRAZIEST velociraptors masquerading as cats in the entire world.

But they're really nuts now.

I was packing my lunch today, and went to grab an apple out of the fruit bowl. The apples are a smidgie old, but not too bad. But this one had odd little holes in it, so I grabbed the other one...

... which also had odd little holes in it.

Then I realized, they weren't just holes, they were puncture wounds. From teeth. Itty bitty little kittie fangs.

Yep, one of the kitties (I vote Jack -- he's the most food obsessed) went and BIT my apples. He obviously didn't like it (since he didn't eat it), but he then proceeded to bite BOTH of them about 10 times each!!!

Craziness.
.

More LOL

Just cause I can

And cause Dusty's so funny

When dogs lose their minds

Not that they have particularly huge minds to lose! (Sorry, canine-lovers).

I've been dog-sitting Tucker, David's dog. Now, Tucker is a sweetheart of a dog. I really, really like him, as dogs go.

But he's a dog. And a young dog. And a young dog that was not well-taken care of for the first 10 months of his life -- not starved, or anything, but chained to a stake, and certainly not taught much about manners or impulse control.

So it's been an interesting week.

Now, the good news is having a dog has forced me to get my lazy self out of bed in the morning and go for walks. Also at night before going to bed. But, we're in the midst of a serious cold snap (15 degrees this morning when I woke up), and for some reason Tucker's excitement and energy levels do some serious spiking as the temperature drops. Not sure why; he's a mutt, true, but shows no signs of having any Husky, Malamute, or any other cold-region dog in him. Plus, he's VERY short-haired, so you'd think he'd be cold. But whatever.

So, anyway, I get up at 5:stinking:30 this morning, throw on my walking clothes, go downstairs, and that's when the trouble starts.

First, I can't find my ear-band (WONDERFUL fleece thing I bought years ago, beccause I hate both hats and cold ears). Not a big deal usually, but at 15 degrees, yeah, gets more important. I look, and look, and look, with Tucker bouncing around me doing the hurry-up-I-gotta-PEE dance. Finally, I gave up and found one of Grace's hats in the hall clost that I jammed on my head.

Then, as I'm trying to shut the door behind me, Tucker TAKES OFF, trying to get across the street to see a friend. Now, he does this frequently, though he's usually bolting for the grass to do his business. But, yes, I kinda expect it, and I keep his leash shorter as I'm leaving the house for just that reason. But he was excited this morning (he loves other doggies), and dang-near pulled me down the steps! (Dang near decapitated himself, as well, for the record).

So, I manage to get my door shut, walk Tucker into the grass, then he sits and looks at me. Um, peeing? Remember that???? He tries to go see his buddy. Nope, Mean Old Meg won't let him (I am NOT in the mood for canine shenanigans). So he comes back and looks at me. I look right back. FINALLY the light bulb goes off (or the urge kicks in), and he pees.

So, off we go -- he's gotten much better about pulling on his leash, but apparently the cold froze all his brain synapses today, and he was back to all his old bad habits: Pulling on the leash, running around my legs, etc. Plus, he'd peed but he wouldn't, uh, do anything else. And it was COLD. I did NOT want to be out in the cold, getting dragged along by a dog who's supposed to be doing what I want, in 15 degrees of coldness.

But, we persevered. Eventually Tuck got over himself, stopped pulling on me, did the rest of his business, and we made it back home.

Where he developed a sudden, irrational fear of hardwood floors.

Which wouldn't be so bad, except since my entry way and kitchen both have hardwoods, it makes it kind of hard to get him in the house, get him out of the house, or feed him.

It was actually kinda funny: he'd walk right up to the edge of the hardwoods, then stop and wimper. I'd call him, and he'd wag his tail, and get all excited....but not step onto the hardwoods.

Finally I dragged him into the kitchen so that Dusty wouldn't eat his breakfast. Once on, he was fine, but he got off the floor as quickly as possible, and didn't want to get back on it. Oh, and yeah, that also makes it hard for him to follow me upstairs, since he has to cross the dreaded hardwoods to get to the stairs!

So, yeah, no idea what's going through his little doggie brain -- he's never had a problem with them before at my house, and in fact HIS house has hardwoods in the entire downstairs.

Dunno. But I do know this: David is back in town, and I'm taking a break from Tucker-walking!!!!

They're just like kids....

The Boys, that is.

This morning when I came out of my room after getting ready, Jack and Dusty were wrestling together on the landing. Much chewing, rolling, jumping, play-growling was involved.

As soon as I came out and spoke (Yes, I talk to cats, and yes, my intelligence goes down accordingly. Today I said, "Oh, are you two playing together???"), they immediately stopped wrestling, began grooming each other, and looked at me with wide-eyed, innocent expressions.

"Us? We weren't doing anything!"

Yeah, right.

In Memorium

Dazzle Cohen
2004-2009

We've had a death in our animal family. Dazzle, Peter's guinea pig, passed away peacefully in his sleep last night. He had not been eating as much the past few days, but hadn't seemed in any distress, so we're assuming he just reached the end of his time.

Peter was very sad, but we had a little ceremony, and buried Dazzle under some cedar trees in the backyard. We marked the grave with rocks, and Peter left a carrot there. He also made a memorial picture of Dazzle on the computer, and hung it on his bedroom door. Both seemed to help.

We'll miss Dazzle; he was a good piggie.

Jack's Turn

Several weeks ago, Dusty got out. In true Dusty form, he had a daring and dangerous escape; he waited till we were gone one night, pushed the screen out of the playroom window, then after a daring and dangerous two-story leap, was free!

Except he did it right as we drove home, so we caught him and brought him back in.

Jack's adventure, in true Jack form, was not quite as exciting.

The kids had come over with their Dad to get some things they'll need for their trip to Florida; as they were leaving, I was standing in the door to the garage, saying goodbye and going over some last few details.

When Jack just toodled out the door!

We were all stunnned for a moment; then Jeff tried to catch Jack, but that of course just startled him, and he scooted towards the road. So we stopped that, but he still wandered around a bit, till finally got close enough that I could pick him up and carry him back inside.

Silly, silly, boys

The Boys' latest trick

I think that Jack and Dusty have been watching Spike during the day when I'm at work, and have gotten into Ultimate Cage Fighting.

Last night, I was in bed reading and I kept hearing thumps and bumps and swishy-cat sounds from my bathroom.

Figuring I'd better see what they were up to so I could put an end to it and get some sleep, I went in.

And discovered that their new favorite place to play is my bathtub.

Where they wrestle each other.

So, yeah, the bumps and slides and shuffles were the sounds of two LARGE cats flopping around in my garden tub!

Silly boys

Here's Jackie!!!

Don't know how he got up there (Peter's innocent this time), but Jack found a new spot today:

I'm up already!!!

I've been having a hard time rolling out of bed lately; I appear to have become immune to my alarm clock. For whatever reason, I wake nicely to the alarm on my cell phone, so I've taken to setting that as well.

Well, apparently Jack and Dusty wanted to help me get up today!

First, my regular alarm went off. OK, I lay in bed and listened to NPR for a bit. Dusty hopped up on the bed and snuggled up next to me (note: There's something very soporific about a purring cat, which may explain why I've found it so hard to get up the past, oh, 3 weeks or so!)

Then my cell phone alarm went off. I wasn't ready to get up yet, so I rolled over and hit snooze, then went back to snuggle with Dusty some more.

Dusty, though, had apparently decided it was time for me to start my day - he stuck his nose in my ear and began sniffing! YUCK! Cold, wet, kittie nose making sniffing noises in my ear! Kinda like a combination of a Wet Willie and a bad teenage makeout session! Plus, it tickled!

Then Jack decided he'd help; he managed to hoist himself up on the bed (quite a feat; he's not the most svelte cat I've ever seen!), and started licking my armpit! By this time I had my hand over my ear, so Dusty was now grooming my hair.

At this point, I admitted defeat and got up!

Is THAT why they call it CAT-5?

When I got home tonight, I wanted to do some work on the computer. Since investing 20 bucks in the world longest ethernet cable (OK, not really. But it is 100 feet!), I pretty much always just use that rather than wireless; it's more stable and faster.

But the ethernet cable was upstairs, along with my power cord.

So, I went upstairs, grabbed the power cord and one end of the ethernet cable, and headed back downstairs. The boys, of course, were following me around; they typically follow me around for about 10 or 20 minutes after I get home, talking to me (Mrow! We missed you! Mrow!!! Pet us!! Mrow! Look what we did to you toilet paper!).

Cats, of course, like to chase things.

Especially long twisty sinuous things.

Like, apparently, 100 feet long CAT-5 ethernet cables!

And, for the record, Jack's claws fit perfectly around an ethernet cable! I nearly tripped twice because the cable trailing behind me suddenly stopped, and I didn't!

Into The Great Wide Open

Or, the further adventures of Dusty the Outdoor-cat-wannabe.

Ever since his little escapade Sunday night, Dusty has been DYING to get back outside. So, Tuesday night when I was buying food for Dazzle I bought a leash and a collar for Dusty.

It was too late last night when we got home to take him out (we decided dark + kitty on a leash was a BAD combination), but today was a delayed opening for the kids' school, so we took him out a couple of times today.

I tried to capture the moment on film (ok, on memory), but Dusty has an inexplicable ability to turn his rear towards the camera right at the moment the shutter opens, so mainly what I took were lots of pictures of his butt. But (no pun intended), I did get one halfway decent shot:

He did get a little freaked out; mainly becuase Peter, Grace and I were all following him around, though! And, once we got him inside, he went straight to the front door and started pawing at it, so I think overall he enjoyed himself!