Midnight Crazies

I first heard this term, midnight crazies, from Darby Conley, the author of the comic strip, Get Fuzzy. This comic strip features a Siamese cat named Bucky, his human, Rob, and a Shar-Pei named Sachel. I've been a Get Fuzzy fan for a long time. Bucky has episodes of what Rob refers to as midnight crazies. This is when the cat runs wildly through the house for no reason at all creating havoc and destruction wherever he goes. Or sometimes just runs through the house for the fun of it I guess. Usually this happens in the late night or wee hours of the morning, hence, midnight crazies. Both my cats have this.

The last several nights, both Puff and Godiva have succumbed to the midnight crazies and they have started fairly promptly at midnight. As I am usually just going to bed at that time or trying to fall asleep at that time, the midnight crazies are driving me - well, crazy. There is not a whole lot of room in this apartment to run so part of the path of destruction they chose includes jumping up and running across the bed once or twice then disappearing under it to lie in wait for each other. And you may have guessed it by now that jumping up and running across the bed will certainly take them across my body and neither one are lightweight spring chickens.

The upshot of this behavior is I don't get to go to sleep until they have finished their tear around the rooms and I get bounced on several time by large cat bodies. OOOPPHHH. It is a crazy cat behavior that has no known cause. One minute they are sound asleep on the bed looking like little angels and then suddenly they have been shot out of a cannon and start racing around. Some weird chemical imbalance? Some horrid dream out of a kitty psyche? Play tricks on mom? I think tonight, about 1/2 hour before I am ready to go to bed, I will turn the tables on them and see how they like it.

The Petting Hour

Both of our cats are very sensual animals. Per the Webster Dictionary, this means that they like physical sensations. That's definitely true for these two cats. Puff loves to lay on different surfaces. He likes a bit of a knobby nap on carpet and furniture. Guess it sort of scratches him as he rolls around. He loves to lay on tiles or marble or concrete. I think the coolness appeals to him. They both love clean white sheets. Ok, that part I think is just the clean and white they love because the sheets sure aren't clean and white after a few hours of fuzz.

I may or may not have mentioned that both Godiva and Puff are "tummy 'ho's". Godiva will roll over onto her back for just about anyone in order to get a good belly rub. Puff's favorite position is lying on his back while being held so you can rub his belly. Godiva does like to be brushed but she won't lie still for it. She must lean into the brush and move around. I think she is trying to control where the brush goes to get the "itch" just like you would tell someone where to go to get a back scratch. Puff doesn't like the brush quite as much but his fur is shorter so I think the brush drags too much on his skin.

If you have been reading my tales, you know the cats have been keeping me up the last several nights. I guess they are bored because there isn't much here for them to do and not really a lot of room to run around although they do manage it in the middle of the night. Last night I remembered that I can be semi-asleep and still keep the cats happy with petting them. Godiva usually wants attention first. She is also easier to manipulate so that it is easy for me to keep a hand on her and stroke her every once in awhile when I come out of the fog of sleep. Puff is a bit harder because he doesn't like my hand to just rest on him, it has to be moving in some semblance of a petting motion. So approximately between 3:30 a.m. and 4:30 a.m., we have the Petting Hour. I am positioned on the bed to reach Godiva or Puff and spend that hour dozing while keeping the cats quiet and somewhat somnolent. It worked fairly well for all of us last night. I don't feel like I was awake most of the night and they didn't get off the bed and start running around the apartment until almost 5. Yea for the Petting Hour.

I am not sure how this is all going to work when my husband gets here next week. The cats aren't going to get a half side of the bed as their own. So to reach them for the Petting Hour, I might have to contort myself and I am not really very good at that. Hmmmm, maybe hubby will take over the Petting Hour chores. Let's hope.

When Cats Fly

I found this article I'd written 5 years ago when we flew our cats to Korea. It was a very traumatic time for all of us. Thought I would share it.

When Puff & Godiva go traveling
Or
How to fly to Korea without Mom

We had flown the cats out to our daughter the day before we left for Korea. Continental airlines is quite good with animals, taking care that they are never overheated. We were booked on United and since we were leaving from Houston in the middle of August, United couldn't guarantee that they would let the cats get on the same flight as we were on if the weather was too hot. We had tried really hard to find a service to do it for us but most of them were uncooperative, uncommunicative, and willing to charge $2500 and up for the two cats but basically not providing anything except putting them on the plane after we dropped them off. So we determined to do it ourselves and decided to fly the cats to CA to our daughter for the weekend then on to Seoul. Because you have to have a USDA stamp on the paperwork within 10 days, we were under a time line to get it done quickly but also worried about incoming customs and afraid they’d have to go into quarantine if we got there on a Saturday, late, and found no quarantine officials at the airport to release them. .

Animal Port Houston, which another Chevron person had used for his dog, wanted to send the cats through Amsterdam! He proudly explained to me that they only use KLM because they provide a break in Amsterdam for 4 hours at a nice pet hotel and get the animals out of the cage and walk the dogs. Also, he told me, KLM does good work with taking care of the animals in flight. He patiently explained to me that NO ONE likes to fly animals over the Pacific because it is such a long flight. I listened incredulously and then asked him if he knew geography at all and explained to him that it was just as long going from Amsterdam to Seoul as it was from San Francisco to Seoul. He assured me it wasn't and gave me times of the flight and arrival times. Obviously this guy had never seen a globe and didn't know about time changes. He finally agreed to check with United to see about sending the cats with them. He called me back the next day to tell me he couldn’t provide the service because going with United would mean someone in his office would have to have the cats at the airport around 4 a.m. HELLOOO, isn’t that was “SERVICE” means? I had already checked the KLM flights and saw that they didn’t even go directly from Amsterdam to Seoul but had a plane change in Shanghai. I’ve been in the Shanghai airport and really didn’t want my cats there! I figured out to take the cats from Houston to Seoul via SFO was 16 hours in the air – 2 flights. To go from Houston to Seoul via Amsterdam was 22 hours in the air plus the nice 4 hours in a pet hotel and 3 flights. So might have been ok for dogs but not cats. I soooo wanted to ask him if he would sent animals via KLM through Amsterdam if they were only going to CA.

Anyway, cats are at our daughter's house for the weekend while we get into Seoul and make arrangements with our driver to pick us up at the airport the day the cats arrive, Monday. I have to say I did NOT like United service for the cats as they required the cats to be there 4 hours before the flight. So they were dropped them off at 8 a.m. on Sunday for a 12 noon flight.

We had our apartment people call and ask where we were to go to pick up the cats and got a really complicated answer so our driver from Sat said he'd take us to the cargo area. Thank goodness he did because it would have been a hell without him. We arrive at the cargo area, about 1 1/2 miles from the people terminal. We're driving around the area trying to find United Cargo. Our driver stops and goes into buildings to ask where it is and gets redirected 3 times when our cell phone rings (our first call!) and it's United Cargo saying they have our two cats and are we going to pick up the documents. Wow, I got all excited thinking I would see my kitties soon. I then give the phone to the driver and she tells him were to go. Turns out this was Paper Document Stop #1. As we are finally in the correct building and climbing up to the third floor, I think - there's no way someone carried two cat cages up to this office. Unfortunately, I was correct. This was United's office. While they had all the documentation off the cat cages - which assured me that the cats were definitely in country - all I did was sign them out of United's control, United airlines took their copies of paper work and directed us to Paper Document Stop #2 or otherwise known as quarantine.

Going to quarantine meant leaving the cargo area C and going to cargo area B, checking which building was correct again, climbing back to another third story office and paying our first fee of 10,000 Won (about $10) for a "request for quarantine". I must admit I did not like the sound of that document. The quarantine officer tells us to wait for 15 minutes and sends our driver off to pay our fee and get a receipt. These receipts are all important because without one receipt you cannot move on to the next paper document stop. When our driver returns, we get a stamp on our receipt and a stamp on our request for quarantine and are directed to the first floor and the customs officials and Paper Document Stop #3.

By now, we have been messing with paperwork and locating buildings for about 45 minutes. Now we hand our stamped papers and receipts to the "master" customs official who tells us to wait for about 1 hour. My heart sank and I'm getting all jittery because I am worried about my kitties and they are sitting somewhere without me and without knowing what is happening. "Master" customs official calls over a wizened, ole retired man who provides a service of running your paperwork around the customs office. He told us, in barely understandable English, that our paperwork must be entered into one computer and then it comes up on another computer and we get stamps here and stamps there and finally it comes up on the end computer and we get an end stamp and then we are done but it takes a long time. He sends us to the second floor lounge to wait.

I'm only good for about 15 minutes before I start fidgeting and another 15 minutes and I'm pacing. Customs closes at 6 p.m. and by now it's 5:15. I move to stand by the balcony watching for our wizened ole retired guy. I see him put papers on a desk and wander off. Our driver tries to get him to speed it up but doesn't happen. Finally at around 5:40, someone sits at the desk where our papers are and starts working on the computer. Wizened ole retired guy goes over and gets our papers, stamps them himself, takes them to the computer man at the desk next to him, stamps them again and disappears somewhere else. Our driver goes to find him and I head down the stairs because I can't stand there anymore. At 5:55, wizened guy gives our driver a bill and we pay a customs fee of about $33 and then pay ole wizened guy a fee of about $33 for his services of running around our paperwork and we leave with the precious Paper Documents, Stamped and Receipts.

Now we must return to the first cargo area to pick up the cats but NO, not quite that simple. We still need Paper Document Stop #4. We park the van and wander from one bay to another looking for the proper place to get the cats. Our driver has all our properly stamped documents in hand to show to the cargo supervisors and we keep being directed down the line. It was quite interesting to see everything because it looked a lot like Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Arc when they took the arc into the rows and stacks of boxes. There were towering stacks of boxes there and fork lifts running all over moving cargo from one bin to another or to a truck. But by now, I am a basket case waiting for my babies and can’t appreciate the science and wonder of a cargo hanger.

Finally we are directed to an office were we take a number and must pay what I called a retrieval fee - meaning someone brings the cats from wherever they are to the front of the cargo bay so we can get them and finally get the precious last Paper Document stamped and receipt. Then we must sit and wait for our name to be called. Luckily it was only a few minutes and we went into the cargo area and there were two very unhappy and tired and bewildered cats who started crying the minute they saw us. Our driver went for the van and we loaded cats and me into the back seat. I was able to open Godiva's cage enough to put my arm in to pet her and calm her. Puff was complaining so I was able to open his cage too and he pushed his way over into Godiva's cage and they sat together almost all the way to the apartment. Incheon international airport is further out of town than the old Kimpo airport so it takes about 1 1/2 hours to get back. So from the time we left the apartment until we returned, it took us about 6 1/2 hours. I am just so thankful that we got them because I had horrid visions of customs closing on us and saying come back tomorrow. About the time while I was thinking this and all the waiting was happening, our daughter was at home asleep in her bed and having nightmares that the cats had arrived but I couldn't get to them. How prophetic was that?

Anyway, it did not take the kitties long to accept that this was a good place and they calmed down immediately once we let them out of the cages. They seem happy here with Puff getting into the window a lot and Godiva finding sunbeams. Both are a little rattled and follow me all over but they did that a lot in Houston too.

The Fur Battle

My sweet baboo, Godiva, is NOT a long haired cat but she technically can't be classed as a short hair either. So kind of in between. I've already mentioned how she can shed her fur at will, especially when she doesn't want to be picked up or grabbed or to escape her "brother" when they are playing. Just on an every day basis, she is shedding all over the place. Pick her up when I am at my computer and I'd better have the air spray ready to blow all the fur off the desk. Move her off the bed in the morning and roll the sheets with the sticky fur catcher. Honestly, she's a menace with her fur.

When my husband and I first started dating, he was allergic to cats. I had a Siamese at the time with short fur and an OTC allergy tablet would usually let him stay in my apartment for an extended period of time, maybe 2 to 3 hours. He finally overcame his allergy to my Siamese and when we lost her and moved on to other cats, multiple cats, and longer furred cats, he was able to adapt. Now he has no problems at all. Because neither of us have problems with the cat fur, I tend to forget that others do or that Godiva sheds so much. She leaves her presence everywhere.

As we are living in temporary housing these days, I have to be aware of her fur more than if I was in my own home. That means brushing. It's not a problem to brush her because she likes it. She doesn't exactly lie still for it though, she's more of a moving target during the brushing. Also, once I start brushing, the fur is flying everywhere. I do have a special brush that really pulls off the loose fur and it's great but when finished, I also have to brush down my arms, clothes, the carpet, and anything else that was close to us during the process. When finished, there is usually a pile of fur sitting there that is practically enough to make a new kitten. What's worse is the minute I am finished, I can run my hand over her and there is still plenty of fur coming off. She produces fur at a prodigious rate! She spews fur more than the oil gushing in the well under the Gulf. Her fur rebounds and comes back twice as thick after each brushing, I think. I also use the pet cloths on her which she doesn't like. These are pre-moistened and supposedly get off loose fur. They don't have much effect on her. She was such a fuzzy little kitty when we got her. Little did I realize what a pain she was going to be fur wise. She's so soft though that her fur is a delight except for the amount of it all over the house. I think it is quite safe to say that I am losing the fur battle in a big way.

The Chameleon

My cat Godiva is a chameleon. We have always laughed at her ability to take on mannerisms of another animal. Her best imitation is that of an otter. She loves to lie on her back with her feet tucked up over her and looks just like an otter floating in the sea. The only thing she lacks is a clam shell and a rock on her belly.

She also sometimes sounds like other animals. She has been known to give a "woof" out of the blue. She has a snore that could, on occasion, rival my husbands but most of the time is soft and gentle. When she was younger, she did a great meercat imitation. Upon hearing unknown sounds, she would stand up on her hind legs and glance around, just like a National Geographic special of meercats. She doesn't do this one very much anymore but since we have been traveling, she has done it a few times.

Her squid imitation is particularly effective. A squid squirts out a trail of ink when trying to disappear from danger. The premise is that a predator cannot find the squid in the ink. Godiva just releases a huge wad of fur. It is difficult to find her through all the fur because you now have it all in your face and are busy trying to get it out of your face and nose and she's gone.

Finally, she has a tremendous ability to imitate a Tasmanian Devil. She keeps this evil being in check and it only comes out at the vet's office. Then she turns into a snarling, scratching, growling devil. Otherwise, she is my sweet little baboo. She has other animals that she imitates as well but they only come out occasionally, for instance, her whiskers curve in around her mouth like a walrus. She's a delight in watching the different mannerisms pop out. Every once in a while, a new one pops up but we have been watching her now for over 7 years so I think we have seen most of her imitations. What a ham.

My Devoted and Beloved Followers

Currently I am ensconced in a one bedroom apartment. There are 3 actual rooms: the bedroom, the bathroom, and the combination living/dining/kitchen. You could say 4 rooms in you count the little closet where the washer and dryer are situated. Actually this apartment has a fairly large closet too. If I had kids, I could put them in the closet with a mattress and call it a room.

Basically there are two places to sit, the bedroom and the living room. You can see one from the other. The small desk is in the bedroom and that is where my computer sits and plugs into the internet. Often I am at the computer for hours. Both cats sleep on the bed, occasionally coming to the end of the bed where I can reach them and they sit there to get some belly rubs and head pats.

When I go out to the living room to sit, I am only there 2 or 3 minutes before both cats come out to sit on the sofa or chair next to me. I head back into the bedroom for some more computer work and in 2 or 3 minutes, both cats are back on the bed. I have tested this and they do not tire of moving from room to room with me. They will keep up with me for hours. The only time they are not following me from room to room is when they are busy eating or busy with the end result of eating.

When we lived in a large 4 bedroom house with 3 floors, often it was a task to find any of the cats. They had their favorite spots and couldn't be budged from them unless food were offered. Then we started our moving from place to place. First few days in hotels, they were under the bed all the time. next couple of weeks in a house, and again they were anywhere but with me, finding places to sun, places to sleep, places to hide. How odd that it seems like the smaller the location, the more they must stick to my side. I would say it is because they just love me so much and want to be near me. However it's probably more like some cat psyche thing they are trying to tell me like "we hate small places and are going to bug you until you find a bigger place". Who knows what goes on in a cat's mind.

Size does matter

I spent a very restless night. For some reason, the cats were restless and since they sleep with us, I also was unable to get a good night's sleep. When living with my own furniture, I have a queen sized bed usually. When the cats were younger, this was fine for myself, my hubby and two cats. Puff likes to sleep on the edge and hang two paws off the bed. Godiva likes to sleep next to my head, between the pillows, so that she can be my alarm clock and be within reach for some sleepy belly rubs.

When we were living in Korea with the cats, the apartment was really big and there was another bed in the apartment so sometimes the cats would go sleep there or on the sofa. When we moved kit and caboodle to Toronto, I purchased a king sized bed. What glorious luxury. Most of the time, there was room for all 4 of us. however because there was room, both cats developed the habit of sleeping totally stretched out. Puff takes up a LOT of room when he stretches out AND he wants to sleep so that he is leaning against my legs or my husbands legs. He is a tremendous amount of cat and when sleeping like this, he makes it difficult to move. He also developed his "patented body slam". He finds the spot he wants and falls over onto the legs. This can jolt our whole body when he does this in the middle of the night. He taught Godiva this trick and she does it on my head as she maneuvers between the pillows. Many a night I have been awakened as suddenly I have a face full of fur and little room to breathe. So, even with a king sized bed, with both cats pressing against me, I spent many a night in one position, unable to turn over or stretch out. And to be honest, I also spent many a night kicking them out of bed.

Now we are on the move and that means hotel rooms that sometimes come with 2 single beds or one double bed and only sometimes a nice queen sized bed and even rarer a king sized bed. (Hotels that always have king sized beds are abundant but they don't always take pets) The cats have not given up their stretched out positions. So now the 4 of us just don't fit in anything less than a king sized bed. There is a queen sized bed in this temporary apartment. My hubby is not here yet I have the bed to myself with the cats. Last night was one of those nights when the three of us didn't fit. I find myself up at 5 because two cats were all over the place and I was scrunched up on an edge. There is a possibility that we might have to stick two queen sized beds together for us to all have enough room. The things we do for our beloved pets.

Barnes & Noble & Foster Moms

Strange things really do happen some times and they may be coincidences or fate. Coming back to the apartment today from the doctor's office, I was following the GPS directions and turned down some other roads just to listen to it "recalculate". I caught a PetSmart out of the corner of my eye and since I knew I needed a few things, I moved over to the turn lane to go into the shopping center.

In the store, I am just wandering around looking at cages and food and such and trying to remember why I needed to come. Then I had it, I needed a kitty litter mat, some Petromalt, and some weight management food for the cats. I notice a shorter lady, someone actually older than me, muscling a large bag of cat food and a large bag of kitty litter into her cart but I really didn't pay any attention to her. I get my stuff and go to pay and she is in line ahead of me. I am still not really looking at her until I see that she has a bunch of paperwork to present and then signs a "tax exempt" receipt. I figure she is a volunteer for something to do with cats. So I pay attention.

I recognize her immediately. She is the foster mother who took care of our Puff after he had been rescued as a little kitten. She recognized me that she knew my face but couldn't place me. To be sure, I asked a couple of questions on where she goes to volunteer and yep, it was here. I said the magic words: "Barnes and Noble". She dissolved into the biggest smile as she realized who I was.

Let me explain the "Barnes and Noble". All the rescue volunteers with this organization, HOPE, name their kitties and cats and give them loving care at home. Sometimes it is hard for them to part with the cats when they take them to the pet stores for adoption. Puff's foster mom had two tabby kitties who were brothers and litter mates. She had named them Barnes and Noble. We had already adopted Godiva when we saw Puff and decided we had to have him as well. So we adopted him and took him away from his brother but gave him his "sister", Godiva. His name at the time we adopted him was Noble. We changed it to Puff after he started puffing up his fur at every little thing. He is a big scared-y cat. Dolores, his foster mom, really had a hard time letting go of him.

Puff's, or Noble's, foster mom was delighted to hear that he is doing well and happy and having a good life. She made me promise to write to the HOPE organization and let them know that he is good. I shall do that. But I wonder, what are the chances that I would happen upon this particular lady 7 years after I first met her and 5 + years after I left this city. Makes you wonder about some cosmic karma out there, doesn't it.

Stranger Danger

I scared the big guy last night. I changed my MO and it totally freaked him. Puff is a big tub of love and very needy when he wants attention. We had been sitting on the sofa together watching TV and he didn't notice at all that I had put curlers in my hair. This is something I have NEVER done in the past 7 years since he came to live with us. And why would I do it now? Getting older, hair getting thinner, last passport photo looked horrid. So the big tub is getting his attention. Often this means he sits on my lap upside down and I rub his belly. Both our cats are belly 'hos. Puff especially likes to be flipped over and have his belly rubbed. Godiva prefers to lie on the floor with all 4 legs in the air.

Anyway, I digress. TV program over, I release Puff and he stays on the sofa while I head for the bedroom and get ready for bed. I sit down at the computer (in the bedroom) to shut down for the night and Puff comes around the corner and the dresser and sees me with my curlers. Dead Stop. Tail Up. Fear in his Eyes. Danger Stranger. He stares at me for a few long seconds while I am trying very hard not to laugh loudly. Finally he takes a few steps closer. Then stop and stare. Another few steps. Stop and stare. Eventually he gets close enough to me for a sniff to see if I smell right. I am able to pick him up onto my lap which gets him close enough to give the curlers a sniff. Ok, he thinks it is me but he spends the rest of the night gazing at me in confusion. This morning, he is still not sure what has grown out of my head but stranger danger has subsided.

Kitty Floss

I do like to get something for the cats, a little new toy, when they are subjected to moving about. So at the store the other day I picked up a little stuffed fish on a string. It had a plastic 1 1/2' stick then a 1 1/2' string. Puff, the tabby, who believes himself to be a great hunter, is the recipient of this toy. He dearly loves to swat at things and does some great jumps and back flips when I swing the toys around and over his head.

He was a bit less than enthusiastic about this toy. I swung it for him and he jumped and batted at it for a bit and then settled back into his cat bed and just eyed me trying to entice him to play. I have no stamina in the effort so I gave up and just placed the stick-string-fish on the bed next to him. I should have known better.

Puff believes strongly in what my hubby refers to as kitty floss. Puff is a chewer. If he were a dog, no shoes would be safe. As it is, no strings or shoelaces are safe. He chomps down on any string he finds and gnaws it continually until it is reduced to tiny pieces. I've lost many a shoe lace and boot lace to him before I learned to hide my shoes in the closet or under something. So the next morning, it should not have been a surprise when I found the stick and the fish in good condition. The string had done its job as kitty floss and was now lying on the floor in about 10 pieces. Puff denies this addiction and pretends he knows nothing about how the string is in pieces. It just reminds me that I should just buy him a pair of shoelaces.

Paranormal Abilities of Cats

Our cats have always had an ability to commune with nature. We all believe it is an inborn sense that all animals have, including humans. Just somewhere along the way, most people lost their ability to make sense of the messages from Mother Nature as too much chatter and other noises took over the senses. This happens with domesticated animals as well but most of our cats have had abilities to sense things that were going to happen. It's been up to us to decipher their clues and behavior. We haven't always done that well.

We first noticed the cats could tell when an earthquake was coming. Granted, it took us several minor earthquakes before we figured out their bizarre behavior signified something coming down the pipe. Luckily we never had to experience a big temblor although it might have been a lot easier to interpret their behavior if a big one came along.

Since leaving California, we haven't really lived in an area where much happens, weather wise, earth wise, etc. We haven't really lived in an earthquake area, a volcanic area, or a tsunami area. We did have a couple of small earthquakes in Seoul but there were so minor that we had forgotten to watch the cat's behavior for any kind of warnings. Now I'm on the move again and might wander into areas where something could trigger their innate abilities to be upset at coming phenomenon. Last night we had a rather large thunderstorm. Both cats were upset and needed to be in the same room as me. Sometime after 9 p.m., there was a lightening strike somewhere close and the lights flickered and went out briefly. After that, the cats were fine.

I am a big believer in the abilities of animals to help us and warn us and look after us. Yes, it seems like a far stretch with my two lazy sods. I am going to wander into areas where tornadoes happen, hurricanes show up with increasing frequency, and yes, some spots where earthquakes are possible. I think I'd better get into the habit of paying attention to their behavior more and not thinking it is just because they are hungry. Could save some grief.

Carbo Kitty

Our various cats over the years have had some strange tastes and cravings for different human-type foods. You'd think - carnivores - and in some instances, there is nothing they like better than to have a piece of chicken or tuna which we fixed for dinner. Our kitties have developed some rather odd tastes and unexpected tastes as well.

Our daughter's very first cat loved the taste of grapes, green grapes, BUT only PEELED grapes. As we are all slaves to our pets, of course my daughter would dutifully peel her a few grapes whenever she had some out to eat. Her next cat loved french fries. If she came home with a bag from McDonald's or Burger King, Soju would come running to get her share of fries. Rum, her other cat, would wait for the hamburger portion of the meal.

My Godiva is a carbo cat. She loves anything that smacks of carbohydrates. Chips, crackers, bread, potatoes. If it has carbos in it, she thinks she is going to want it. Her favorites are saltine crackers with a bit of butter on it. That's probably really the butter getting her interest there. She loves graham crackers. She eat a bit of bread but she's not quite as fond of it as crackers. So sometimes it's just a "gimme, gimme, gimme" and then "pooh, plah, don't want it" and she spits it out so I have a nice gummed bit of bread to clean up from the floor. Today she thought she wanted some kolaches but found she didn't like the crust quite as well as she thought. Pizza crust is good though. Potatoes - again she prefers the bit with butter on it but NOT sour cream - oh no.

She never gets very much. I try to be careful what I feed her but in some cases, she is so insistent on trying that she'll climb up as high as it takes to try and steal something out of my mouth - if I'm not really careful and watching her. She's been known to come "over the hill" to get something meaning she'll sneak attack me from the rear, jump up onto my back, scramble up to my shoulders, reach around and try and grab my face to turn my head towards her so she can get something. As she is usually using her claws to accomplish all of this, I am not very fond of this method.

She has a carbo alarm built into her system too. She can be sound asleep, several rooms and floors away from the kitchen and still hear me open a package of crackers. This even when I was standing inside the pantry and trying to muffle the sound. Traveling and staying in small studios and apartments means I have no way to escape her carbo alarm so I am resigned to letting her see what I have and giving her a tiny bit to avoid the rear action sneak attack. Did I mention she also LOVES cool whip.

the Fuzzy Alarm Clock

I'm never worried about waking up in the morning as my alarm clock is very reliable. I never have to worry about power failures or batteries dying. There are only two things wrong with my alarm clock: I cannot set the time I want to awaken and I can't shut it off. Yep, my alarm clock is Godiva, my fuzzy Siamese. She goes off between 4:30 and 6:30 every morning. Usually she has a snooze button that allows me to go back to sleep until 7:30 or 8. If I ever have any hope of sleeping past that time for any reason, forget it.

The earlier time is governed by her stomach. There is usually food in the bowl but she wants me to come with her to make sure. Sometimes I am able to convince her to go alone and check out the food bowl. I accomplish this by shoving her off the bed and waving in the direction of the kitchen. Usually this is easier to do when we are in a smaller location and the food bowl is actually visible from the bed. Otherwise I might have to get up and go with her and stir up the food so she thinks it is fresh. She'll come back in a few minutes and happily go back to sleep until the next alarm.

The next alarm starts silently and builds. First she sits up and stares at me to see if I will notice her. Then she reaches out a paw and taps my face. This is done gently and lovingly until she determines it's not working and then she turns up the "volume" by putting out the claws to "gently" tap my face. This is one method. Her other method of waking me is to sit on my chest and stare at my face. Then the tapping starts again. When she sees that my eyes are open, she joyously wants to lick my nose - which honestly I hate - so that is always successful in waking me.

Job accomplished and I am up, she follows me around to see if I will sit down anywhere - bathroom, office, dining room (when we have those rooms), so she can sit on my lap for awhile and purr and be petted. Then because of all the work involved in getting me out of bed, she's exhausted and really needs to take a nap. She joins her brother, Puff, who always leaves the morning wake up call to her, unless he's hungry.

The Cat is FAT

Honestly don't know how he got this big but the cat is fat. This is Puff, the tabby. He really doesn't eat that much but he has just gained weight from day one until now and he's a very big boy. He was weighing in at about 18 pounds last time I had him on a scale. Yesterday, riding in the car, he got out of his cage and came up to the front seat to see what was happening, plus he likes to put his face in the air conditioning vent - must be part dog. He had only been sitting on the seat for a few seconds when the seat belt buzzer started dinging. Fat boy had tripped the buzzer that I had a passenger without a seatbelt. Oh my gosh.

We have tried to put Puff on a diet before but he resists very vocally and gets rather mean and nasty to other cats when he's hungry. You know Puff is hungry when he runs into a room, bowls over one of the other cats and starts chowing down on their head. Naturally, the other cats don't like this one bit. He doesn't start chewing on us at all but he'll come stand on us and that's enough to make you pay attention, especially if it's the middle of the night.

Time has definitely come to seriously get very serious about putting him on some weight control. Now if I can just figure out how to keep everyone safe when he's hungry!

Current Status of Cats

Currently traveling with my two cats. We left Toronto in April and moved my daughter to the San Antonio/Austin area to start looking for a job. I had to hang out in that area to register the car back in the U.S. Amazingly hard to do even though it was a U.S. car to start with. Three inspections and two weeks later, I finally had the Texas plates and was able to leave.

My cats are an overweight Brown Mackerel Tabby named Puff who is afraid of just about everything and puffs up his tail when confronted with life. Then there is the prissy, spoiled semi-long fur Tortoise-Point Siamese who imitates a good many other animals including a squid. Instead of ink, she poofs out a cloud of fur and hopes to distract and disappear in the cloud and coughing. They are both a bit over 7 years old. They are also both rescue cats that we got from foster parents of a rescue shelter when there were 3 and 4 months respectively. Their first 3 and 4 months must have been traumatic because they have some odd habits.

Now we are traveling and you can see my blog at www.travelpod.com under carpe feline and Nomads in the U.S. with two cats for reasons on the travel. The cats let me know immediately when they like or dislike a location. They didn't much care for the hotel in San Antonio and spent the first 6 days under the bed only coming out for food and litter box and sometimes to sleep on the bed with us. They like this location much better. They have only been under the bed once. So things are looking up. We'll be here a month as I get visas and other business things and visit friends.

Goodbye to Rum

Goodbye to Rum

It's Mother's Day. We are meeting my daughter later for a late lunch and then go to a movie, prezzies, and good stuff. We will both probably start crying when we see each other and then my husband will tear up too. This isn't because we haven't seen each other in awhile, it's because her cat, Rum, died yesterday. He was a super cat. A purebred Seal Point Siamese, he was a beauty.

She had Rum for a bit over 13 years and I know she feels cheated that she didn't have him even longer. Of all the cats between the two of us, some 10 at different times, her Rum and Soju (his cattery sister who died a bit over 3 years ago) were by far the best cats we have ever had. This is due in part to the nature of the breed but also to the love and care that my daughter gave to her cats.

Rum was a one woman cat. He tolerated the rest of us and we always felt special when he would sit on our laps and purr. His name came from his purr which was so loud you could hear it across the room. Rum, short for Rumbler, was her protector too. After Soju died, he took it upon himself to check out everyone who came to the door. If he thought someone was up to no good, he'd growl and put them on notice. Otherwise, everyone loved him. He was funny and had great habits which included becoming a noodle whenever picked up.

Rum was a world traveler too. He started life in a cattery outside Houston. After a few months living with us, she moved the pack (her, Rum, Soju) to San Diego. From there they moved to Alameda, CA. Soju lived out her life in our house there and was the queen of the roost. After she died, our daughter and Rum joined us in Seoul, Korea for a year. Then it was back to Texas and then a drive through the states to Toronto, Canada for two years.

Rum used more than 9 lives. He has been living on borrowed time since December of last year. We almost lost him several times as it took the vets quite a while to diagnosis his problems which turned out to be diabetes. We didn't think that he would be able to make the trip back to Texas. He lost a lot of weight and was in and out of the hospital for months. Finally we got him on insulin and he was making a slow recovery. We got him back to the warm weather in Texas but it was just not to be. Poor Rum was out of time. He finally just couldn't recover from his last dip in ill health. He has been cycling up and down for awhile and finally it was too obvious he was going to continue getting weaker and weaker and worse and worse.

He was just the best cat ever. I was always a wee bit jealous that he was her cat and not mine. that's how cool he was. He has left a big gap in our lives. yea, he was just a cat but he was such a great member of the family. he will be sorely missed for a long time to come.