The State of the Mew-nion: Kitty Politics for Fall of 2008 (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

Once in a while I post this. Like the new title? Heh. From oldest to youngest:

Storm is lovable and crabby at age 10. She doesn't get along with Cosmo at all, and I think the other cats don't care for her much, but since Artoo's passing in 2005, she's taken back parts of the bed at night. She likes sleeping next to me, greets me in the morning, and has this habit of meowing and running to the food bowl to voraciously eat, like she wants company while dining. Storm also tries to sneak in my den a lot.

Thisby is 8, and finally mellowing out a little. She is more friendly when food is scarce, but she comes on the bed anyway after I shower, and wants attention. She has also gotten bold enough to climb on Christine's lap from time to time. We occassionally have to pull knots out of her, but that's the long hair for you. Most of the time, though, she's hiding under the bed. She no longer has seizures when she gets excited playing with a feather or laser light dot. She seems better with her coordination when jumping from thing to thing. She's far more sociable than ever, but that's still not very good.

Cosmo is I guess 5 by now, and sleeps with CR. He tries to play the dominant Tom, but since he's away in CR's room a lot, he can't quite pull it off. He does not like Storm very much, and sometimes he fights with Taboo, but with taboo it's more of a "I am in charge" and not too fierce. He still eats dog food, and likes to swat at plants. He's CRs cat, almost a soul-mate to him. I'd hasten to say he's a familiar at this point, but CR and Cosmo fight a lot at night. Cosmo is always knocking stuff around in his room and being obnoxious.

Latte is still crazy. Maybe she's 4, we're not sure. She's still playful, and runs around with Taboo all the time. After managing to get out of and lose 3 collars, I got her a nice one that's still breakaway, but she hasn't broken from it yet. She likes to come up to the bed, get petted, and then leave the bed to meow, and then repeats this cycle. She will, eventually, come to bed and sleep there, but Widget hates her guts, and often attacks her of she gets too close at night. I think Latte has gotten to the point where she finally understands some cats/dogs don't like her and actually tries to stop sleeping on top of them.

Taboo is 3, still sleeps on my legs, and when he sleeps, he sleeps like the dead. Like you can pick him up and roll him around; he won't wake up. He's still playful with the laser dot, likes feathers, and likes to be petted a lot. He'd gained mass, but he's not muscular-dense like Cosmo. Just kind of flabby without being fat, you know?

I still miss Artoo. It's been over 3 years, and I still miss him. :( Posted in: artoo , cats , cosmo , latte , storm , taboo , thisby

Closet straightening (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

I need a housework icon.

I tackled our walk-in closet on Sunday, which had accumulated a lot of crap in the last 4-5 years (since I last cleaned it out). What made it worse is Latte has this *intensely* annoying habit of sneaking into where she isn't allowed, and then getting trapped in some room or closet. Then she will freak out, and by freak out I mean she will just start tossing things everywhere. When she gets locked into my den, she knocks stuff off of shelves, tables, and my desk. She'll go through my closet and try and knock over boxes. Artoo used to do this, which is why he was banned from my den. Except Artoo would start climbing over things and knocking them over while I was still in there with him. Latte waits until you have left. So Latte has gotten trapped in the walk-in closet twice, and both times she went nuts and pulled things off of hangers, knocked stuff off the shelves, and generally decimated the order in there until our closet was like a huge pile that sloped up at the walls. We had some artwork stored in there, and she ruined a piece I had by Venora Hagen as well as one of my favorites from Mark Mandolia. I also found mummified cat poo, which wasn't so nice. I gave the floor a good vacuuming, too, since there were a lot of feathers in there (not from anything recently alive, most were dyed purple, black, pink, and bright orange). I decided to put some bulky, almost never used items (walking boot cast, crutches, luggage we rarely use) into the attic, and I moved some low Ikea shelves that have casters from my den to the closet, so at least I have some shelf space instead of old copier boxes to hold seasonal stuff.

So now my side of the closet looks very neat and orderly, but as I write this, I thought of all the ways Latte will ruin that the next time she sneaks in and hides. Crap. :( Posted in: cleaning , housework , latte