The cats keep dragging my sweatshirts off the shelves to nest and play in. I washed a batch and put them away this morning, but an hour later, half of them were on the floor again. Here is Zoe with her head inside a wool sweater saying "I'm invisible!"

Opal has won the title Queen of Mischief in the household. Her latest bad trick is getting onto the kitchen counter, mainly because she wants to look out the kitchen window that is over the sink. Last night during dinner, she kept going after a small container of vitamins on top of the toaster oven. She was getting into similar mischief last night when Randy and I were trying to play World of Warcraft. He had to chase her down from trying to get onto the top of a torchiere, but then three minutes later he heard her meep and found she had brought him the Mousie of Apology to make up for it. She is an Imp from Hell, but a totally adorable one.

Meanwhile, her sister, Sapphire, has taken responsibility for being the new Broomslayer. Simon lost interest in it months ago and Saffy seems to think that somebody has to do it.

Another first with Ariel -- she let me pet her while she was eating. I was giving her the usual scritchies and she was doing the Elevator Butt. She decided to move over to her food, as she's done a few times before, but this time, instead of moving into her normal secure position where I can no longer touch her, she stayed in her Elevator Butt position near me and let me continue petting her. Wow.

Henh, Zebedee threw caution to the wind after facing Puck down. Puck started to wander away and once again Zeb leapt into the air and landed on Puck's back. Trouble is, Puck ends up playing rough and Zeb soon had tufts of fur pulled out of his back. Not that he seemed too worried about it. A few minutes later, he was rolling around on the floor with Mojo and losing more tufts of fur.

I found a soggy, drowned mousie in the water bowl for the third morning in a row. I wonder if the guilty moggy would try to drown an actual mouse like that? Then again, I doubt any of these youngsters would know what to do with a live mouse.

Jetta's ear tufts.

I forgot to relate that the vet's office called yesterday with the results of Tosca's test and everything came back negative. Now I'm seriously perplexed. Tosca, Mojo, Kate and other cats have diarrhea, but I have no idea what could be causing it if no parasites or worms show up. They're getting very good quality food, so it shouldn't be a food problem. Lolette has offered to provide me with safe anti-diarrhea meds which I need to pick up from her. Otherwise, I'm out of ideas on what to do.

I treated the Horde to some catnip and wasn't surprised to see that Tom is a Nip Fiend. The moggies rolled around in happy delirium for a while. Now they're sleeping it off.

Diva's eye looked goopy again this morning, so I put in more ointment. Very soon now she will run from the sight of me and the hated tube of ointment.

I realized that Tom has another claw on the deformed paw that is longer than normal and he can't entirely retract it so that it catches on the ground. He won't sit still for letting me trim his claws. I have to chase the claw around with the clippers and then, with speed and dexterity, snip it before he notices. And I did! If only that was worth a merit badge.

I managed to grab a shot of Smokey, the feral Siamese. Isn't he a beautiful boy? And so cross-eyed.

It's the spring batch of new moggies. Randy spotted an even younger black kitten on the porch, about half the size of D'Artagnan, still in the Giant Bat Ears phase. D'Art is extremely shy of us, of course. He scampered off to the driveway one time when Randy went outside, then sat there crying like a lost kitty. Smokey and Sasha quickly ran over to make sure he was all right.

Saffy played fetch-the-fishie for a little while this morning. She hardly ever does that any more.

Besides her mousies, Opal's favorite toys are ping pong balls. She moves like lightning and ping pong balls are great for that kind of play. Except that she keeps losing them. Randy found four of them, perfectly lined up in a row, under one end of the sofa. If they were any smaller, they'd all be under the oven.

Diva's right eye had extra goop in it this morning, so I wiped her eyes with a tissue. She hates it when I do that and you'd think she'd appreciate have the goop removed. Late afternoon, I saw that the eye was seriously gooped up and I worried it might have been an injury or infection. Fortunately, I keep eye ointment on hand, so I put some in. Diva hates that even more. But tonight the eye is looking pretty good, so I'm relieved.

Argghh, I was right about Tosca, that she wouldn't be happy about being locked up. I put her in the cage last night and she trashed the place. The cat box was turned ninety degrees and there was litter EVERYWHERE. I'm lucky she left some litter in the box. The cat bed was crumpled and folded over, the cat food was a soggy mess on the cage floor -- it was a disaster. On the plus side, I got the sample I needed and that goes to the vet tomorrow morning. I sure had some cleaning up to do, though.

Mojo is getting a new nickname -- The Button Maniac. With the warmer weather, I'm wearing more shirts with buttons and that cat is determined to pull off every one of them!

Tom has now been here for one month as a "guest" cat. It's beginning to look as though he may be a permanent guest. He hasn't made any friends yet, but he's doing all right otherwise.

This morning, the porch was covered with cats, nearly all of the regulars. There were the Three Mouseketeers (inseparable buddies) -- Sasha, Smokey, and Desert Peach -- plus Bowie, plus a possible new regular. Starting a couple of nights ago, the Mousketeers have been accompanied by a D'Artagnon, an attractive young tabby who looks like he's around five months old. He's a highly spotted tabby, more spots than stripes, with pale green eyes.

A short time later, I saw Opal and Pippin fixated on something in the back yard. It was a strikingly pretty young calico that I've never seen before. She had unusual face markings. She looked as though she was wearing a black bandit's mask. Typical Opal though, she couldn't get at the cat outside so she turned and whacked her brother right next to her instead. Poor Pippin! He was just minding his own business.

Interesting. I'm seeing a change in the quality and feel of Theseus' hair. It's gotten softer and he no longer gets the matted dreadlocks that he always had. I can get a regular comb through his fur for the first time ever. I'm not sure what caused this, unless there's something about the recent food that is better for him. I've been feeding them either Felidae or Chicken Soup for Cats (more the latter these days). He continues to stay at his lower weight and hasn't gone back to being the giant Sumo wrestler he was before. That's good for his overall health, though I would feel better if I knew why he lost so much weight.

Puck was playing with Zebedee and Puck tends to play rough, so I was keeping an eye on them. At one point, I gently intervened. Puck started to walk away and a small orange streak leapt out of cover in a high arc and landed on Puck's back and off they went again. I guess Zeb wasn't all that intimidated after all.

I continue giving Ariel her scritchies, twice a day if possible or even more. It's been going well, but today she had a Feral Moment and whacked my arm to the point of drawing blood. About a week or so back, I instituted a new policy where I no longer back off when she has a Feral Moment. I withdraw only slightly for several seconds. I talk to her encouragingly whenever I give her scritiches, so I keep talking, then I go right back to the scritchies again. So far, I'm able to keep scratching and petting her right after a Feral Moment. I don't stop until she's content and purring again, so that I'm ending on a positive reinforcement.

I keep trying to evaluate what brings on those sudden feral reactions. My best guess is that is has to do with whether she can see my arm hovering over her. When I scratch her head and ears, she puts her head down and leans into it, so she isn't looking at me. She's enjoying the sensation. When I run my hand down her back and scratch her Elevator Butt, she also has her head down. But sometimes when she gets happy, she rolls over on her side and suddenly she sees and is aware of a human and a human arm looming over her. That seems to be when she has the reactions. I think we made a big mistake by sending her off immediately to be fixed after we trapped her. In retrospect, I think it would have been better to have established a relationship at least for a brief time before doing that. Instead, all of her very first experiences with humans involved being trapped, being terrified and suffering pain (from surgery). I should probably count myself lucky to have gotten this far with her.

I found Ariel in her bed this morning, but the bed was moved halfway across the Cave. It was positioned almost in front of the gate, in fact. I wonder what she was up to in the night? Maybe she was having a par-tay.

Tiger was being a major pain yesterday. He was fighting with Scooter (yet again, again) and he viciously chased Peaches out of MY yard. I was totally fed up with it, so I chased Tiger out of the yard with the garden hose. Didn't actually get him wet, but it sure got the message across. They've added a bell to his collar which helps a lot in tracking him down.

My neighbor came by and knocked on my office door. The Puckster, ever alert to the opening of the door, seized the opportunity and dashed out. I let him eat some grass and roll in the dirt, two activities he adores. Ten minutes after bringing him back in, I got to clean up the obligatory Grass Upchuck.

Mojo succeeded at his button wrestling and popped off one of the buttons on my shirt. It clattered to the floor and I had to leap to retrieve it before it became a hockey puck. Then Mojo went to work on another button. One down, four to go.

How to vacuum your cat. It helps that the cat is deaf. What's amusing is how many more videos there are of cats being vacuumed!

I was petting Scooter this morning when I discovered a fresh bite on his flank. It was clean and not deep or serious, but I put some Neosporin on it as a precaution.

I haven't been able to catch Tosca in the box at the right moment. I'm toying with the idea of putting her in Hotel Moggy overnight. That way I might be able to get the sample I need by morning. I know how much she's going to hate it, but it might be the best solution.

Saffy brought me a golf ball so we could play fetch. That's a first. I buy the plastic practice golf balls. They're great for cats not only because they're fast and lightweight to bat around, but also they have holes in them and cats can carry them around by hooking their fangs in the holes, which is what Saffy did. Tom batted the ball around later, being quite the playful boy.

Sasha didn't show up Sat. night until midnight and we made sure to feed him. He hasn't wandered off for too long since then. Sasha rarely uses his cat house/bed during this warm weather, but we often see Peaches in there.

Tom has taken to sleeping on my printer when I'm working at the computer so he can be close to me. He almost had a confrontation with Puck. They were facing off and making sounds, but I took care of that in a hurry.

Somehow, somewhere, Zoe has found a styrofoam peanut, much to her joy and my distraction because she's batting it around at the base of my office chair.

Opal apparently didn't care for a program we were watching the other night. She stepped on the remote and turned it off.

Another funny cat site -- cats and Shakespeare...sort of.

I haven't seen Sasha all day. He wasn't out there this morning and I haven't so much as glimpsed him. I can't help but worry when he disappears for a whole day, though he'll probably show up tonight. After all, he knows the good food (canned food) is served out in the evening.

I had a Feral Moment with Ariel because she was lying in her bed facing south. I'm trying to get her accustomed to letting me pet her when she's in that position, but she's resisting. Instead, she got up, turned around and settled into the bed facing north and lo! suddenly I can give her all the scritchies in the world and stroke her back and scratch her Elevator Butt. I figure this is the first stage toward really being able to pet her any time any place. I also figure reaching that goal is a long ways off.

Tom is on my desk right now, giving me that "Pet me, you fool!" look. It's that right ear of his that cocks differently from his left ear. It gives him a certain rakish quality. The scars on his face add to the effect, too. He's a scar-faced boy.

Speaking of scars, I was petting Scooter yesterday and discovered a very nasty injury on his neck, or what was left it because it was a large v-shaped scab by this time. It looks like he had a bad bite there which luckily has healed up. That may explain why he didn't appear for a week.

Ah, Mojo has settled into my lap, which makes typing a challenge, especially when he's trying to eat one of my buttons.

We had a Drama the other day. Scooter showed up for the first time in about a week and this not-so-conveniently coincided with Tiger gettting out and coming over to mix it up with Scooter. I called my neighbor who promptly came over with three of her girls. Tiger was nabbed, but in the process Sasha fled for the hills from the onslaught of the Preteen Girls. He didn't come back until late at night. Oh, and as I predicted, one of her females is already pregnant again.

The result from Tosca's fecal came back negative which made no sense to me. I questioned the tech about whether freezing the sample overnight might have affected it. You see, I was told earlier by another tech at the vet's that I should freeze Pippin's fecal sample until I could bring it in. It didn't sound right to me and I questioned her on it, but she assured me I could do that. She was flat wrong. That means that both Pippin's and now Tosca's samples were ruined. To their credit, the vet's office said they would redo the sample for free, but now I have to watch Tosca so I can catch her in the act again. Last night, when I sat down to clean the cat boxes, I called out, "Tosca, come over and take a crap for me." She immediately trotted over, squatted in the box and tried to produce! I was amazed. She didn't manage to get anything out for me, but she tried.

I've been crazy busy for the past few days. I may have another major round of medicine-giving ahead of me because Tosca and Jetta and possibly some other cats continue to have severe diarrhea problems. I sent in a sample from Tosca and am waiting on the results.

Opal is such an imp. She is obsessed with getting into dark hidey holes. She keeps trying to pry open cabinets and crawl into opened drawers or open the closet doors. She has those tortie traits of being too smart, too energetic and too easily bored. We did have a nice session of fetch-the-mousie the other morning. She must have fetched it at least a dozen times. That's a record.

Pippin, on the other hand, is rather a slug. We're having trouble getting him to do any kind of exercise at all and he's getting fat. He was wildly enthusiastic about the birdie toy for the first couple of weeks. Now he barely deigns to notice it. He wants real birdies, like the ones he chatters at through the bedroom screen door.

When I enter and leave my office, I change between my cat clothes and my house clothes in order to keep the allergens to a minimum. I have a coat rack in one corner to hang the clothes and I use one of the "branches" to hang my keys. Zebedee decided the keys were a prize to be had, so he climbed from the cat furniture onto the bookshelves and deftly lifted the keys off the rack. I caught him in the act when I heard the keys hit the concrete floor.

Tom is doing well, though he's not showing any interest in making friends with the other moggies. He comes onto my desk to say hello and get some petting once or twice a day.

I'm making nice gains with Ariel, too, as long as I keep the Feral Fang Shui in mind. Now I can stroke her back and she does a pronounced Elevator Butt. She loves butt scritchies and holds her butt as high as she can when I doing it. What a change!

Zebedee, the Key Thief

There's been no sign of Tiger and Sasha is behaving more like his normal self. Last night, he soaked up attention like a sponge. This morning, he was waiting for us the way he used to do, and he was around most of the morning.

I really should take a vow not to keep styrofoam peanuts anywhere in my office. The cats had another peanut party. I had a peanut clean-up party.

Tom is a quick learner. He has already gotten down the treat-giving routine and is showing up demanding his share.

Happy May Day! And Happy Arbitrary Birthday to Zoe, who has turned two. I missed some cat birthdays in April, I think. Opal, Pippin, Sapphire and Jetta also turned two. Mojo was one year old on the 24th of April.

No sign of Tiger, Sasha or Scooter today, though I did see Bowie this morning. The yard has been eerily quiet.

Tom-Tom has found a cat bed in a nice, secluded spot on the storage shelves and made it his. He looks quite happy about it, don't you think?

Or go to Archive Index Page