black-and-white cat – Page 32

Scout Says No

I took Scout to our vet yesterday to get her left eye looked at, the same eye that bothered her earlier in the year. Scout is pretty shy and hid under the blanket in her carrier, but once in the examination room she turned on the charm and all were sorry to see her go. As suspected earlier in the year, it looks like she has a viral infection that will come and go, she gets the eyedrops from before that prevent a bacterial infection and also a new gel to minimize the effects of the virus. The gel is given orally and is described as “a highly palatable gel”.

Scout says no.

At least she would if she were talking to me.

Kiss Kiss

Emma’s been complaining that I’ve posted too many aggressive pictures of her, baring her teeth or mauling feathered toys or rough-housing with Sam. So here’s a picture of her planting a kiss on Scout.

One More Time!

I can’t resist another shot of Scout as a kitten. We got her this toy beaver (the state mammal of Oregon, since Scout was our only native Oregonian at the time) so that Scout could have one toy that hadn’t previously been Templeton’s.

Of course Scout never played with it much, whereas Templeton took a liking to it. He didn’t play with it all that much, but sometimes I’d hear loud but muffled mewing and then Templeton would walk into the room. I didn’t even have to look at him to know that he had the beaver stuffed into his mouth, it was the only toy he’d do that with.

If we ever had an infestation of beavers in the house, I knew which cat I was going to call …

Smitten With Kittens

As long as we’re journeying back to 2001, how about another shot of Scout as a kitten? This one has never been online before. I’m outside with the cats at the moment, Sam and Scout are playing in the catnip while Emma remains a little more dignified and is off exploring on her own.

Couldn’t Have Come At A Better Time

For today’s post, I set the way-back machine to 2001 when Scout was just a little kitten …

The timing of Scout’s arrival was impeccable. While Templeton was vigilant in keeping the little gray mice in check, he adopted a live-and-let-live policy towards the large pink mice. Their population exploded as a result, but with Scout on the prowl, it wasn’t long before even the pink mice were brought under control.

Another Quiet Saturday

I haven’t done any hiking the past month or so, choosing instead to stay at home over the weekends. There have been different reasons on different days, sometimes I’ve had to work, sometimes I’ve been too tired, sometimes I haven’t felt that well, sometimes there was other stuff to be done. Today was a little mix of everything, I did some work early in the day, then worked in the attic to clean up the debris that fell when the new roof got put in. It was hot and tiring work and afterwards I needed to lie down for a while, then in the evening the cats and I went outside. Sam and Emma are well behaved enough out there now that I got some yard work done, trimming some plants and watering and snacking on blueberries and strawberries.

Sam and Emma have been with us for over six months now and have really brought a lot of joy into our lives, waking up at 5 a.m. to your toes being gnawed on notwithstanding. This picture of Scout playing in the catnip is from last weekend.

I Guess I Can Kiss That Pulitzer Goodbye

So perhaps my exposé of the catwalk was just a little contrived. One of Sam’s paws was moving in his picture anyway, so it was pretty obvious he wasn’t sitting still. It was easier for Templeton to enjoy catnip since he loved to eat it and I could feed it to him inside the house, but Scout much prefers to roll around in it. Some of the neighborhood cats have been wreaking havoc on the catnip growing in the backyard, killing one plant entirely and breaking stems on the other. I decided to cut a few of the stems and lay them on the sidewalk in our backyard to let Scout have at it.

I was surprised to see Sam join in the fun, as Scout didn’t care for catnip as a kitten, but as you can see she has a grand old time with it these days.

The Catwalk

While I love living in Portland, it has a dark underside that most choose to ignore. Known as the catwalk – short for catnip sidewalk – once promising felines lie about nearly comatose, drugged out and destitute. Once a cat ends up here, they are unlikely to ever leave, unlikely to ever recover.

The Good and Gentle Queen

Like most cats, Scout doesn’t like a lot of change in her life, but she’s had to adapt to quite a lot since December. First her beloved Templeton died early that month, then two strange kittens showed up at the end of the month. While she wasn’t happy at their presence when they were kept in isolation, she quickly warmed up once they were all in the house together. She bonded quickest with Sam, the youngest, but was more on friendly but cool terms with Emma.

Over the months though she’s opened more and more to Emma, and lately I’ve noticed Scout specifically get up and lay down near Emma. This is one such occasion, she had been sleeping in one of the chairs in my office but got up to join Emma on the carpet. It was all I could do to not pick up Scout and give her a hug, but that’s one thing that hasn’t changed — as affectionate as Scout is, she hates to be picked up — so I let sleeping cats lie.

A-ha! Caught You!

Scout is a tidy sleeper, sleeping either on her stomach with her legs and tail tucked up underneath or on her side curled up in a ball. But recently I walked into the living room and found her all sprawled out on the window seat, sleeping with one leg actually jutting out and hanging down. I went to grab my camera but by the time I came back she had woken up and was grooming herself, denying me the evidence that she had ever slept in such an untidy fashion.

I’ve been hoping to catch her again but she’s been on her guard.