WHO SAYS CATS DON'T HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR?

Have you ever wondered what to do with that fuzz in the cat (or dog) brush? Well, Rusty had an idea.

DON'T LET THE CAT OUT OF THE BAG!

One day last week:
Rusty, like most cats, loves to crawl into boxes and bags. This bag was put up on 'his' sofa so the floor could be vacuumed... He promptly crawled into it and went to sleep.

Your eyes are getting sleepy...... they are closing.........

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Meanwhile, out under the hydrangea, Spook has found a new sleeping place.

He is sure the eagles won't see him under here. If that had been Hoover, we would never have seen her. Instead, she found a different place - closer to the food dishes!

Here is Hoover is doing her best windshield wiper imitation.

RUSTY

RUSTY- INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE KITTY-SITTER.

FOOD: Rusty eats primarily Friskies Tuna and Egg. It is his favorite. He canNOT eat dried cat food. It gives him diarrhea. He also cannot drink milk. He will not eat any table scraps.

Unfortunately, he is a messy eater, generally taking the food out of his dish and putting it on the floor. We keep placemats and paper towels down to catch most of the mess.

Rusty does not like having an empty dish. (sigh) but I make him clean his plate before I give him any more to eat. He usually does. He eats a can or a can and a half of food per day, a half a can at a time. When he is hungry, he sits and stares at you or if you are walking around, he runs ahead of you to his dish and sits and stares.

So if you are walking and you hear him running towards you – just stop and let him run on by. He has the right-of-way! He might even shoot between your legs in his haste to get to the food dish before you do so he can plead his case!

He normally eats first thing in the morning – often has the second half of his can at noon, and another half at bedtime. He has been known to eat 2 cans a day, but he might not every day.

We keep his dishes in a BIG heavy dish because he used to move his food dish around the floor and this keeps it and his piggy mess all in one place.

THE BIG SCOOP: We scoop his litter box every day. There is extra litter in case you need to add some or dump it completely. He is not messy. We find this litter does not scatter as much as the lighter stuff.

LOVE: Rusty likes being held… especially he likes being up on your left shoulder like a baby being burped! In fact, he loves being patted like he is being burped. Sometimes he even burps! He does get the hiccups from time to time.

If you pat your left shoulder and say “Kitty up!” he will usually climb up to be patted.

He also likes to sit on a lap when you are watching TV.

He is very spoiled and has abandonment issues, poor thing.

He will wait for you at the door.

He will sit outside the bathroom door and wait for you.

Usually he will sleep where he can keep an eye on you if it sounds like you are getting up or going somewhere.

Rusty coughs. It may seem like he is going to chuck up a hairball, but I have yet to see one. The coughing is left over from when he was a baby and might be an allergy thing.

PLAYTIME: As you know, he likes playing with his ferret. He will bring it to you when he wants to play. Tossing it away from him is his favorite thing. He will play ‘fetch’ a few times. When he drops it some place other than at your feet, he is tired. He tires quickly.

He will chase and play with his little mice and his big white rat. Don’t worry if you lose any little mice. We have more!

He does not understand Pssss, pssssssssss, psssssss. We have never called him that way. Don’t pisssss at him.

He does respond to calling “Mouse” in a high pitched voice. This is his signal to play. It is a word that can bring him out of a sound sleep.

He also knows the word NO when spoken in a strong voice. He does not like to be yelled at, and usually that is not necessary anymore. He does not get up on tables or counter areas, but he does like windows.

Rusty loves having his belly rubbed. He will roll over for it. But if he acts like he is going to bite, that means quit… he has had enough. Unfortunately, I play kinda rough with him sometimes.

SLEEP: I am sending his towel he sleeps on. It keeps the sofa clean, and it will smell like his sleeping place. I will also send his bed.

He likes patches of sunshine to sleep in.

He likes boxes… and the occasional bag…

or the odd piece of newspaper. He has been known to sleep in the sink when it is too warm!

In other words, he is a cat. Any place is a bed!

HAPPY YULE TIDE

Rusty wishes you a very Happy Holiday, whatever your belief. See? He is bringing you some Yule Tide camellias.

    

 

AND THE POSSUM!

DUSTY (the guilty) IS HERE

Rusty’s brother arrived Wednesday afternoon. It was NOT a joyous reunion.  There was much growling, hissing, a spit or two, and running and hiding. I have been demoted to Rusty’s ‘you know what’ list since I spent most of the afternoon and evening holding a shivering little gray cat with his nose buried in the crook of my arm.

 

Rusty spent most of his time on the window in my bedroom, or on the bed.

He now owns the place here, you see.

 

Dusty has made progress… he stayed almost glued to me as I worked on the computer. I pulled up a dining room chair to get him off my lap. The next day he  moved to the sofa, then tried  out a chair or two, while Rusty napped on the kitchen rug.

 

 

Finally, it seems they have worked out their dispute, this little moment was brief but did not end in fur flying – for which I was most grateful. Dusty has found the hiding place all my kitties have used to store their toys.

Now I need to figure out how to keep him from wetting on the bathroom rug! I have put a rubber mat down under the rugs to keep the p from getting into the grout. My bathroom is tile. Washing a rug a day is getting old fast. sigh. I promise these are my last cats. I am too old for this.

RUSTY, THE INNOCENT

How often have you heard people say animals don’t have distinct personalities? Frankly, I worry about those people. And I feel sorry for them. Obviously they have not made space in their hearts for one of our little creatures, our little 4 legged cousins. (For the sake of brevity, I will not get into fish, birds, or reptiles as pets – since mostly I feel sorry for them trapped forever in a prison of glass or bars.)

I have been owned by numerous cats. Many of them have been seen here on this blog. Some have lived in the house exclusively, some outside… and, as most of you know, in the last year or so, the cat population has greatly decreased here… cancer, old age, kidney failure… same complaints the humans have, it seems. Most of my kitties live a pretty long time, the longest being Fino that I had from 1971 until 1992, and she was full grown when she followed me home! All have been rescued, or just simply arrived at my door. Sometimes, however, I wonder who has rescued whom, as they have always been there for me in my times of great sorry and need.

A couple years ago (well, almost) a friend, Charlie, discovered someone had left a  present on his land, 2 young kittens, about 3 months old, left on a baby sized blanket at the edge of his woods, left with a little plate of food, left to wait for the human who never came back to get them. Instead, I got a phone call, grabbed a cage, and set off for Charlie’s. At the time, I had 4 cats of my own here, 2 inside, 2 outside, and knew introducing 2 new boys to my resident boys would result in a major cat fight! That would not be fair to anyone, so we agreed they would live in Charlie’s shop until there was a vacancy here. 

And as you know if you have read much on here, I’ve lost all but Spook, so, Rusty (who needed vet care) came home first.

Rusty is not a healthy little fellow… my first words to the vet when we took them in from Charlie’s woods were, “If it looks like he might not make it, just put him down now before I get attached to him.” Barrett asked how long I had had the little guy… I answered, “15 minutes.” So, you see, I already knew this would probably be a very special (and sickly) little boy! He had a couple months of antibiotics and eye drops, and survived, somehow. He is lame, runs with an obvious limp, sometimes it seems his feet aren’t sure where they are going. He can fall trying to jump up on the sofa. It is a shame to laugh at him when he tries to run across the linoleum on the kitchen floor and he looks like those poor critters slipping and sliding as their feet go out from under them as they try to run across ice.

But Oh what a love bug! Like Rascal, his first job in the morning is to climb up into my lap, interrupt whatever I am doing, and rub his nose all over my chin, cheek, neck, and wrap his little paws around my neck. If you come to visit, I promise you he will be in your lap whether you want it or not. If you don’t, you need to say so immediately so I can lock him in the bathroom. Once in the bathroom, he curls up in the sink and takes a nap, but with one ear open to listen for that door. In the living room, he has taken over the couch, tho sometimes a chair feels good. I think we had one week of no towels covering the furniture. It just did not look like my house at all! So, back to normal. Did I mention he likes wearing his scarf?

His other favorite thing is to sit on a stool and look out the door at the birds. He is kind of clumsy getting up into the windows, so I put the stool by the storm door for him.

It’s funny the toys different cats pick as their favorites. Rusty seems to enjoy this ancient mini-basketball my god-daughter used to play with when she was in first grade. She is now quite grown and finished with school!

If I had to describe Rusty in one word, that word would be innocent. Few people can say that about their cats, they often seem to have some hidden agenda. Rusty’s agenda is to be loved, hugged, cuddled even before eating. Which reminds me, I am teaching him Turkish, just for the fun of it. When I call “Yemek hazır*,” he comes running! Now that is different! His least favorite thing is getting his pills, but in time, I am sure he will get used to it, because I have a feeling it will be a life-time ordeal for him if he doesn’t.

In another week, we will try to bring his brother Dusty here (after the painter is done in the Big bathroom.) We tried that once and he ran from window to window. I was afraid he would hurt himself. But, we will try again. Dusty likes to be held, too, but is not the love bug Rusty is. I will keep you posted!

*Dinner is ready.

RUSTY and DUSTY (Charlie’s angels-not)

I believe several weeks ago I mentioned 2 little kitties someone left on a piece of Charlie's land. We took the little boys to Uncle Barrett’s to get their shots, then I made arrangements to have them “tutored” at the Neuter Scooter on the 26^th. Both Rusty and Dusty are very lovable. They are happy sitting in whatever lap is handy, and they also tend to try to get in people’s cars. They don’t seem afraid of anything. Charlie, who claims to be a dog person, is actually quite taken with the little fellows and can often be found sitting in his old rocker in his shop with one or both in his lap.

Dusty seems to be a home-body, Rusty is the more adventurous, apparently not at all shy about going in any open door. One day last week-end he disappeared. We were sure someone had picked him up and had taken him home. Charlie walked around the neighborhood knocking on doors asking if anyone had seen the little orange cat. Oh, yeah, folks had seen him. But no one knew where he was.

Then, one day I went into the Post Office – well, I go in there every day, actually – and one of the girls there asked me about a little cat her husband had brought home. They had kept him for 3 days. I asked if he was orange? Yep, she said – and there he was curled up in the chair at the Post Office. Michelle had put a notice up on the bulletin board and was getting ready to call the lost pet service at the radio station. It was Rusty. Oh, my I was so happy to see that little boy! (And I bet Michelle was kinda sad to watch him go!) I took him back to Charlie's and headed off to Wal-Mart to buy them collars so folks would know they belonged to someone.

Apparently Rusty had been going into Dr Bundick’s office every time the door opened and made himself at home on which ever lap was handy! He even tried to get in several of the patients’ cars. Bundick really did not want another cat and certainly did not want one in his office, so he asked one of his patients to please take him home. That was Michelle’s husband.

Charlie is keeping them inside – after all, their “tutoring” has been paid for and will take place on Friday. Then we need to keep them confined for another week ‘til they heal… in these pictures, you will see they have a heated “bedroom” like Spook and Punkin, but it has not been cold enough for that to be turned on. Rusty really likes his little cloth cat house… Dusty prefers Charlie’s chair. This is a picture of Charlie pretending he is not a cat person!