Meandering Maunderings

IS HOME!! We found him last night, the house ate him... And then gave him back. He was in the basement the entire time. Now, my husband and I both looked down there, and since we just moved into the house in October, we don't have all that much stuff down there! It is clear that Leo got into the basement ceiling ((It's not finished) and managed to get between the three rooms that are down there, and closed from each other via doors.

Why this very noisy cat wasn't calling up a storm when it was time to eat is just beyond me. Where we sit in the living room we could had easily heard him had he wanted to come up.

The fun part- there's a cat door in the door to the basement. It came with the house, and the husband and I joked that it was one of the ways we knew that the house was meant for us. Neither cat has figured out how to use it... So while Leo was 'stuck' in the basement, he really could have gotten out at any time.

I'm just so glad that he's safe and sound. Of course, we did discover this after spending two hours in the cold with the dog putting up signs and trying to find him... (last time he got out it was Kyle that found him.) So now today we get to go out and about and pull those signs down.

(oh, and since he's been out of the basement he's been exceeeeedingly vocal about everything!)

Warning if you do not like cute kitty stories then... well, wait, why are you reading MY journal again? I mean, it's not ALL kitty stories, but check out the username... I am the person who WILL point out every kitty I see, even stopping mid-sentence to point and exclaim "Kitty!"


Anywho, so Her Royal Majesty Sasha was perusing her domain via the open sliding glass door. A safety screen kept nature from actually impinging on Her Person. I'm not sure what precipitated what follows, but it must have been Quite Significant. Her Majesty felt it necessary to give the world a most thorough dressing down. She berated it up one side and down the other, listing ALL of it's myriad failings (rain, heat, bugs that don't listen when she tells them to leave, etc.). Generally speaking, Her Majesty only lectures the Husband and myself, informing us of her hunger, or impending starvation depending on how 'late' the meal was served, or letting us know that her water bowl had gone tepid, and so on. We are used to her mannerisms, and don't take her complaints to heart... much.

After her lecture was over, she turned her back and headed off to let my Husband know that dinner could now be served. Unfortunately for him, Kyle decided that he wanted to go to the screen door to see how the world reacted to Her Majesty's lecture. He got slightly too close to Her Person, and Sasha reacted quite strongly. Kyle got hissed at and whacked across the muzzle. After whining, and jumping away, Kyle looked up at his adored daddy, his eyes seeming to say "But I didn't do nuthin'!!" To which Her Majesty hissed again, speaking in cat something that roughly translates to "You're Breathing!" Because we all know, that's reason enough.


Meanwhile, Leo was trying to simply stay out of her way. Via hanging out on the counter top, being most helpful in showing my Husband where the food lives. Obviously, if Leo did not show us EVERY time, we would forget where it was, and they would starve.

The adorable Brat-Boy has learned a new trick, heaven help us.

Like most kitchens ours has a counter with drawers underneath it, and then on one side, cabinets under the drawers. Due to one Leopolde Allen Fogg, all the cupboards have child safety latches on them. As do the cupboards in the bathroom. These make a lovely banging noise when he tests to make sure they're still locked (every couple of days).

Anyway, in the last drawer on the right side is where his treats and the little birdie live. The birdie is something I found when I was decluttering. It's got kind of downy feathers on it, and used to look like a parrot. Now it's in a couple pieces, the parrot head being one of them, and then a strip of leathery material that I think was half of the body. But he still loves it. However, after he plays for a little while, we put it away. I just don't want him actually EATING the feather/plastic bits.

Over the course of the weekend I see him standing on his back legs, examining the drawer. I knew this wouldn't be good. He managed to get his front paws on the drawer pull. It was getting worse. Then he was dangling from the drawer pull. Very bad. At some point his back legs tried to get purchase on the cupboard door below. What this really succeeded in doing was pulling open the drawer... Leo got the birdie out, VERY proud of himself and commenced playing.

Later, I put the birdie away. The next day, there he was again, dangling from the drawer and slowly managing to pull it open. Standing on the floor he stretched up and put his paw in the drawer and without being able to see- snagged the birdie!!

Pretty soon hubby and I will be irrelevant to his needs...

Leo in this case...

( I happened to log into my Flickr account and was reminded of these, and decided to share. Especially since some people haven't seen them... )

I think we may have misnamed Leo... Let's go back, shall we?

In 1997 I adopted one Sasha Allen Fogg (5 weeks old at the time, adopted from Midland County Animal Control). She was an evil kitten- but cuteness kept her alive. She used to get the cutest little mohawk on the top of her head, just between the ears, right before going batshit crazy. Ask Mrs. dagoski if you don't believe me. Ooh, and I think I have a blurry picture of it too... Anyhow, Sasha mellowed as she aged- thank God! Her food was kept in a Tupperware container on top of the fridge. It was safe there because after her initial kittenhood, she was pretty good about not going on counters.

In the last 10 years Sasha and I have had several roommates, and several animal roommates. Through it all I kept the same Tupperware food container, and measuring cup, for her food.

In 2004 the Beau (future DH) and I adopted one Leo (at 1 year old from Capitol Area Humane Society) - who we called Leopolde Allen Fogg. (the Allen bit is a long story that goes back to childhood, and yeah...) Within a month of living with us- the Tupperware container got knocked off the top of the fridge at least twice. I had been used to coming home to OMGSTARVING!!! cats. When I came home from work and was greeted with a mere 'Mew?' I worried. Then I spotted the kibble all over the kitchen floor. I cleaned it up- and those little bastards had the audacity to ASK FOR FOOD!! I disappointed them.

A month later and I was shopping for new Tupperware as the old one finally broke after one too many falls from the top of the fridge. Much sadness. New Tupperware was placed in a cabinet, that Leo figured out how to get into. Then we moved it to the bathroom closet, it had a metal folding door (it seemed like a good idea). This worked for awhile- except the new bags of food couldn't fully be emptied into the new Tupperware. The partially full bags enticed Leopolde, Crown Prince of Chaos, and he figured out how to open the folding door of the closet. So we began to wedge it shut (amazingly a particular cat comb was just the right size to wedge between the door and the wall...). Again, a solution that worked. Temporarily. Within a couple months he had figured out how to pop the door open, despite the wedge. So we opted to try to put something heavy in front of the door, thinking that would stop him. Again, this worked. Temporarily.

Leo had been doing his little kitty push-ups, as he was eventually able to shift the Dyson we had blocking the door. The Dyson weighs just shy of 20 lbs. Leo weighs maybe 11.5 lbs... From that point on the remainder of the food in the bags had to be put in our closet as it was the only door in the apartment (other than the bedroom doors) that has a doorknob. He hasn't managed to figure those out yet.

But further... Our apartment is a little odd, the second bedroom (aka Leo's Room) has a sliding glass door that leads into the living room. It's weird, and neat at the same time. So when you walk in to the apartment, the living room is on the right, and the far right wall has the sliding glass door. If open all the way it makes the living room seem bigger. This room is called Leo's Room because that's where he spends the night. He won't sleep through the night, will wake up, get bored and look for stuff to do. Stuff that usually makes noise, or makes Sasha growl. Sasha WILL sleep through the night, and has seniority, so she gets to stay with us on the bed and Leo has his own room. FYI- he had food, water, litter box, and a ton of toys and sleeping spots. It's not torture by any means. ;)

A day or so ago, I came home from work, hubby was napping, and he asked me why I let Leo out of his room. Except I hadn't let Leo out... Apparently Leo has figured out how to open the sliding glass door. We weren't sure until last night when we were putting the kids to bed. Leo got fed in his room- and all the doors were shut. Five minutes later Leo is out with us, wandering around, the sliding glass door barely opened. We currently have a huge stack of nursing school books keeping the sliding glass door shut- but it's probably only a stop-gap measure...

I think we're in trouble. If he ever learns how to open door knobs it'll be all over.




Edited PS- I'm SO glad we didn't have Leo as a kitten... I'm sure his behavior was even worse, and I'm not sure cuteness would have saved him. ;)

So Saturday the hubby and I went out to breakfast and then did a little shopping- when we got home neither of the cats met us at the door, which is odd. I headed back towards the bedroom and discovered that the screen to our bedroom window had popped out. The screen was lying on the ground outside the apartment- have I mentioned we live on the third floor? So yeah, it's a long way down.

Sasha was found in the apartment, but we couldn't find Leo any where. So hubby and I spent the next several hours looking for him under cars, up in trees, asking every person we saw if they had seen him- we split up, and were on our cellphones keeping the other updated (and to prevent searching the same space). Getting more and more hot, sweaty, and worried as time went on. Finally we were too hot to continue, hubby's ankle was bugging him, we had to call some friends to cancel on them (no way was I going out for an indeterminate length of time when my kitty-boy was missing! Hubby agreed.), and we needed to make up lost cat signs. It was very not good.

Signs were made (making me glad I had current pics of the boy on the computer so as to put on the sign) and hubby, Kyle and I went back out to put them up around the apartment complex- oh and I brought out the Pounce since Leo normally comes running when he hears it. So we trooped around again, calling for him, shaking the Pounce can, and ended up in front of the apartment when I thought I heard a meow. Turned out to be Sasha calling too us from inside. Apparently she was perfectly fine with Leo not being around and was grumpy that she heard the treats and couldn't get to them!

So we're standing by the parking lot when Kyle got fascinated by this parked car. He was shoving his nose in the wheel well, trying to crawl under it, and wouldn't come away from it when called. It was weird behavior for him, and so I got down to look under the car- no Leo. We tried to get Kyle away, but he was just obsessed with this car. I, being a silly human, was still looking around and shook the Pounce can some more, ears straining to hear a meow over the wind (it was a really windy day)- and Hubby saw him!

Leo crawled out from the underside of the car that Kyle had been obsessed with! I had looked under the car- but he was up in the body of it somewhere. He was also very panicked and was purring his fool head off when I picked him up! Kyle found Leo for us. :) Kyle got lots of treats for finding the kitty-boy.

Then of course we had to put Leo upstairs, after giving him a number of cuddles, and then go back and collect all the Lost Cat signs we'd put up... But Leo's home safe and sound- not at all hurt by the three story drop. Not only was Leo not harmed by the little stunt, he was back on that window sill later that night pawing at the glass (we weren't foolish enough to leave it open!). I'm guessing he wanted to go wind surfing again... That's my Danger Boy!!

Two years ago today I made the following post:
http://jadecat.livejournal.com/49375.html

Two years ago yesterday I picked up a certain Mr. Leopolde from the Humane Society and brought him into our house for the first time. :) He was due to come home a few days earlier, but once it was realized that he was still quite the boy cat- he had to stay until that could be taken care of.

So here's a 'Happy Adoption Day! (slightly belated) to Leopolde 'Danger Boy!!' Allen Fogg!!

To Leo, in the two years that he's been a part of our lives he's been sweet, very entertaining; after all he DID earn the nickname Danger Boy!! and sleeps in a metal cake pan, and is still waiting for Sasha to forgive him for hissing at her. I know, I know, he only hissed at her that one time, and it was right after he came into the apartment for the first time so he was drugged and disoriented. However, she's still mad.

With his exceedingly fuzzy tail he acts as a decent ceiling duster as he makes his way across the TOP of the vertical blinds. If you should comment on this to him he will simply look at you as if to say 'what? it's not a bridge?' Comparatively speaking, he's got a rather little voice, and he keeps his statements short- unlike his elder sister Sasha who orates narratives of a longer nature.

Leo has helped me turn my hubby from a 'cats are okay' kinda guy to the kinda guy that refers to himself has 'daddy' to cats and has decided that Leo is his cat. Leo has already decided that my hubby is HIS person, and I'm okay, but no daddy. Leo has even managed to get over his fear of the dog, and now they almost, kinda, sorta play. Though Leo will whine about it sometimes, it not being fair and all that the dog is bigger than him...

The picture in the icon is from the very first night we had Leo home. In it, he's recovering from having his bits removed, and is in desperate need of a bath.

Here he is six months after that:



And here's a few weeks ago:


He's an amazing little fellow and I'm very glad that he's a part of my life.

Well, good news. Sasha actually came to collect cuddles last night, and slept with us for awhile. And when we had houseguests last night Leo actually came out to say hello. :) This makes for happiness.

In following links hither and yon (specificially about Ginny the dog being honored at a cat show) I found this:

Cat Agility

http://www.catagility.com/

Probably only for purebreds- but this is something Leo would LOVE! If he would, you know, actually do it... But what fun!