Crazy Old Cat Lady

I went to the URL for CatLady to see who got my preferred URL name and it's just one useless entry and then I checked out my next preferred URL name of CrazyCatLady (son#1 calls me "Crazy Lady" and the rest of the world calls me "Cat Lady" so I thought a URL was born) and she's a great writer, but I can't find any way to add a comment telling her so. So my URL ended up being CrazyOldCatLady. My web page is http://cvanhorn.homestead.com/

Friday, June 27, 2008

OPIE GETTING INDEPENDENT



I have been giving Opie lots of time outdoors so he can get fresh air and have more space and can practice climbing up a "tree" I made for him with the fallen tree branches in our yard. He has a favorite "cave" that is an area between 2 boxes and a metal shelf up under the top shelf where he has his “outdoors” sleeping box. He can climb down from his top shelf to a lower shelf where the cats eat outside of the bathroom window, and he can climb down his “tree” to a glass table where I keep a couple of grapes for him. I bring him in each night by coaxing him to me with his supper (except for one night when I let him stay out all night when it was too hot to be in the house.)

One night about 9 PM when I hadn't brought him in yet, Chris yelled at me, "Opie's looking for you." I went down the hall toward the bathroom and there was Opie, peeking into the bathroom from the shelf by the open bathroom window. I walked to the window and leaned my elbows on the window ledge and he climbed onto my shoulder. I took him to his indoors box to eat supper and sleep.

But 2 nights ago, he got out of his “indoors” sleeping box and I had no idea if he were still in the office or if he had gone out the open sliding glass door to parts unknown.

I put food down in the office to see if he would smell it and come get it, but no response. I moved the food to the porch, but still no response. I went around the house to his shelf and there he was looking at me from his "cave". He had never been on the ground in any of that area before, but he had watched closely when I carried him in and out of the office to that area, and he just somehow got out of his box and ran around to his “tree” and climbed all of the way up by himself.

I am such a proud mama.

OPIE GETS A LESSON






Last week when it was so hot (it broke June records), I took Opie to Bill’s bedroom to stay cool in the air-conditioning. (It’s easy to rest on the bed and watch him because he can’t get off the bed). When he was sleeping under his favorite sweatshirt, I brought in my cat Sumkui to also cool down. Opie smelled the cat as soon as I put him down on the bed and came over to investigate. After he sniffed Sumkui, he hissed at him and made Sumkui freak out and run for the door. Opie thought he was pretty tough.

A couple of days later when Opie was outside on the cat bowl shelf, Sweet Pea (my least aggressive cat) jumped up and started eating from the bowl. Opie walked over to her and sniffed and she moved farther away from him. Opie moved closer to her and sniffed again. Sweet Pea moved as far over as the shelf allowed. Opie followed and sniffed again and then hissed at her. Sweet Pea calmly bonked him on the top of his head with her paw. Opie looked really surprised. He was the one to back off this time.
(The top picture shows Opie at his food dish on the top shelf of his outdoor area. The bottom picture shows how he gets to the lower cat bowl shelf. Notice that he is in his outdoor sleeping box sniffing the air because he smells Rouge- who was not the cat who bonked him. Left-click on the pictures to enlarge them.)

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

OPIE GETTING BIG

Opie isn't eating dry cat food yet (he doesn't seem to recognize it as food as he currently eats it softened in Esbilac pet milk substitute). When he eats it dry out of the cat dish like the other 'possums and is big enough that he doesn't look like something my "hunter" cat should drag in to show me, he can stay outside. He currently spends a few hours a day outside, but he mostly just sleeps in his "outside" bed that is suspended on a shelf above the feeding station shelf outside of the bathroom window. He is getting practice climbing from one shelf to the other, but he hasn't been on the ground since he fell off a couple of weeks ago. (I have plugged that escape route.) We took a picture of him sitting in his first food dish to show how much he has grown in 2 months.