Is there such a thing as a "normal" cat?
Oct. 6th, 2005 09:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wordinistaThe kitties have lost their minds. Or maybe it's been a long time coming; I don't know.
I knew their personalities would undergo a bit of a change after they got spayed, but lately they've just been acting like they're on crack. Kisa, who used to be timid and shy is... well, she's still a total scaredy-cat, and she's still the first one to bolt when someone knocks at the door, but lately she's been bullying the hell out of Bronte, who is far larger than she is. If Bronte's happily curled up in one of her five favorite spots, Kisa will come over and climb up with her. They'll cuddle in sisterly adorableness for a few minutes, until Kisa starts this little... stretching technique, planting her paws and streeeeeetching until she's taken up the entire spot and Bronte jumps down in search of another "favorite spot." Kisa also gets into a snit if Bronte settles down in one of her spots, and will bully her away (particularly if Bronte curls up on this one Miami Hurricanes blanket we have). Forget about it if Bronte decides to crawl up into mine or George's lap. *shakes head* And when we scold Kisa, Bronte runs away as well.
It bears mentioning that one of Bronte's favorite spots -- indeed, I suspect it's her top favorite spot -- is a cardboard box. Yes, really. It's one of those shallow boxes that come when you buy a 24-pack of bottled water. I don't have the heart to throw it away, because it's like her most favoritest thing evar. Except that they've started CHEWING on it, and... yeah, time to go. We buy a lot of bottled water, though, so she'll have a replacement in no time. At first the box had that stiff plastic wrapping around it (I just cut the top of the plastic wrapping to pull the bottles out), and she'd been using the box -- and wrapping -- to play a game I've dubbed "Black Kitty in the Tall Grass." She'd get into the box, hunker down behind the wrapping (which, btw, is clear) and stalk/pounce things (real things like toys, feet, a stray crumpled straw-wrapper, and her sister -- as well as imaginary things) near the box. Funny as hell to watch. And it's absolutely imperative to do a whole "National Geographic" voice-over monologue while she's doing this:
"Witness nature's fiercest predator: the black panther. Watch as this female stalks its prey -- she has chosen a fuzzy plush ball as her victim. Observe how she keeps the unfortunate item in her sights, never wavering, never blinking. --Yes, yes, there it is: the preparatory wiggle of its hind end just before... Ah! She pounces! What precision! What grace! What a fierce killing machine!" (George sometimes does this with an admittedly bad Australian accent.)
Another weird thing: since they've been fixed, both girls are SO vocal now. Particularly around mealtimes -- their mealtimes. Good grief, y'all would not believe the racket in the morning when I feed them.
Which leads me to the current "weird as hell" situation. We ran out of kibble the day before yesterday. I go grocery shopping today. So the girls had to go without dry food all day yesterday and part of today. Kisa is remarkably okay with this. Bronte? Not so much.
Bronte does not like wet food, apparently. I put it in her dish and set it down; she sniffed at it, then looked at me with those big amber eyes and let out a plaintive, "Mreeeeew!"
"Sorry, Bronte. No kibble till later."
"Mreeeew-eeeeew!"
"Eat the wet food, Bronte-bear."
"Mreeeee-eeeee-hewwww!"
Meanwhile, Kisa is moving back and forth between the two dishes like she's at an all you can eat buffet. I swear to all things holy, that cat is going to outweigh Bronte by the time they're two.
I also suspect they've (or at least Bronte, since she does seem to be the brains of the operation most of the time) learned to operate our iPod mini. I was listening to it last night and left it out on the living room table. I'd been listening to my J-pop playlist, and when I came out this morning it was playing -- and it was playing an entirely different playlist. Yeah. *eyes cats warily*
Speaking of the weirdness that is teh kitties, another testament to Bronte's superior intelligence amusing incident happened a couple of weeks back. We've been trying to train the cats to stay off tabletops and countertops, right? So I went out into the kitchen for one reason or another and found Bronte in the kitchen sink (Kisa was sitting on the floor, looking up at her). I scolded her, of course, and then kept walking through to the other end of the kitchen...
...
Where I saw that their water dish was very much empty, and had been pushed around the floor.
*shakes head again*
And now Bronte is alternating between sitting next to me on the couch and just looking at me like, "Make with the kibble, Mom," and getting down on the floor, going on her hind legs and digging her claws into my knee--OUCH, dammitagain and looking up at me (again with the big amber eyes of kitty-pathos) like, "FEEEED MEEEEE!"
Honey, really -- out of kibble. Eat the frickin Iam's SELECT CUTS THAT MOST CATS WOULD GIVE THEIR TAILS FOR! Jeez.
And a linkpimp that ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
aoi_tsuki1 showed me -- cat owners will likely find this webcomic particularly amusing: http://www.twolumps.net/ Quite a few of the comics had me laughing out loud, particularly a little "trip to the vet" arc.
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Date: 2005-10-06 02:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-06 07:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-07 12:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-06 02:28 pm (UTC)The cardboard box I can understand. Only my cat has issues with any paper product. It will die a slow and painful death from her sharp claws. One drawback to teaching your cats to stay off the counters: mice. At the other house, we had a mouse that decided to move in with us. The cat would sit in the floor and stare at the mouse as it ran along the counters, but would not get up there.
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Date: 2005-10-06 07:34 pm (UTC)as big as your headare, and if mice entered into the equation, I'd probably wind up moving to Antarctica.As for paper products -- Bronte LOVES to play with toilet paper. We have to be verrry careful to close the bathroom doors around here, or there will be TP confetti EVERYWHERE. She gets up on her hind legs, places her front paws on the roll and spins it, unraveling the stuff everywhere. And then she plays in what she's unraveled.
*sigh* Nutty, the both of them.
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Date: 2005-10-06 07:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-06 07:31 pm (UTC)Yeah, they're hilarious. It's really funny watching the two of them play together. We got litter-mates, so they'd never be alone.
When they were very small, they were like Pinky and the Brain -- I kid you not. Bronte was the one figuring out how to open doors and get into spots she wasn't supposed to get into. Kisa was the one trailing behind her... attacking her tail. (Bronte's pure black and Kisa's a silver tabby.)
No kidding about Kisa being a total chicken, though. Last Christmas we got them a couple of collars with bells on them, right? Well, apparently Kisa was afraid of bells. (Hell, Kisa's afraid of everything.) But we didn't know this at the time. We put the collars on them, and the second that little bell started tinkling around her neck, Kisa went mental. She was tearing around the apartment like, "OMFGWTFSAVEMEEEE!!!!!111oneoneone!" I was laughing too hard to chase after her, I kid you not.
They're a couple of sweethearts, though. Bronte is, I maintain,
an evil geniusthe softest cat in the WORLD. Like... like rabbit fur. SOFT. And she seldom ever wants to be petted, which is such a shame, because she's got this soft fur that you just want to snuggle up with.no subject
Date: 2005-10-06 07:37 pm (UTC)Omg...your car stories are going to kill me! XDDD oh man XD Pinky and the brain XDD *keels over laughing*