Emma – Page 10

No Respect

I don’t know if they are upset from their vet visits or the taking down of the Christmas tree or if it is just youthful rebellion, but I sense a little residual hostility from the cats. After I felled her great tree, Emma muttered “Yrch!” under her breath hoping I wouldn’t catch the meaning in her elvish tongue.

Sam was more bold and spoke in the Common Tongue. After I went to check on Scout to see how she was recovering from anesthesia after getting her teeth cleaned, Sam walked in and said “Well if it isn’t the dental patient and the mental patient!”

I would not say such things if I were you!^†

^†Said in your best Prince Humperdinck voice

Free At Last, Free At Last!

Emma was freed from captivity this morning, not by the Emma Liberation Front (though Scout did penetrate my defenses last night), but because she finally gave us a stool sample. We swapped Emma for Scout as she was now the lone holdout but as of 2:22pm she also earned her freedom (again, not due to the Emma Liberation Front. I suggested to Sam that perhaps they should now be the Scout Liberation Front but he said no, they had worked too hard to establish the brand).

No expectant father in a delivery room has been as happy to see his new arrival as I was to find poop in the litter box, the cats are now free to roam the house and and I’m free to stop watching for them to poop. Everybody wins!

A battle won but not the war. Tomorrow morning we have to try for a urine sample from Scout before she and Emma go to the vet. Hopefully the cat boxing will be less eventful than when Scout and Sam went a few days ago …

No Emma, No Peace! No Emma, No Peace!

I put Emma in the basement last night to isolate her from the other cats as we need to collect stool samples from both her and Scout to see which one is having some digestive problems. Emma does not like to be isolated so I spent a mostly sleepless night on the couch in the basement while she pleaded for her release.

We’re still waiting for a stool sample from both cats today so the isolation continues. Every time I open the basement door the ELF (Emma Liberation Front) attempts a mad dash down the steps to rescue the prisoner. So far I’ve managed to keep both Sam and Scout out but they have begun making a concerted effort which makes things harder.

Scout hasn’t been too happy either and spent most of the day hiding under the covers of the bed, a new behavior for her. It didn’t help that we had a couple of service people in this morning as Scout doesn’t care for strangers. Sam goes back and forth between his two sisters, sometimes crawling under the covers with Scout and sometimes meowing encouragement to Emma under the basement door.

Hopefully Scout and Emma will soon give us what we need so the household can be restored. But you know what they say, a watched cat never poops.

Emma, Are You Trying To Tell Me Something?

A minute ago Emma brought one of her favorite strings into my office and dropped it near my feet. Now she’s brought another of her favorites in and is standing beside it.

Subtlety, thy name is not Emma.

Three Years

Happy New Year everyone! The blog turns 3 years old today, my one and only New Year’s resolution is to stop using my blog to fill everyone in on the daily minutiae of the lives of my cats.

So anyway, I welcomed 2009 by playing a game of String with Scout, Emma, and Sam. I was pleasantly surprised to see Scout playing, she’s been more playful lately so perhaps her young friends are wearing off on her. After the fireworks started Scout and Emma retreated under the couch to hide from the noisy celebrations.

Sam’s appetite was unaffected.

Leaning

This is our Christmas tree shortly after we first put it up (thankfully before the ornaments went on), you can see a decided tilt to the tree. The eagle-eyed observer may even be able to tell which layer Sam and Emma decided to sleep in.

Em and the Squirrel

Many birders consider squirrels at their bird feeders to be a nuisance but I think the squirrels are cheap entertainment for me and the cats, such as Emma watching this squirrel hang upside down to get to the suet feeder.

Queen of Halloween

Templeton was never fond of visitors, especially childen, so Halloween was not one of his favorite days. Scout likes kids even less than he did — once when we had nieces visiting, she spent all of their waking hours in the rafters of the basement — so she likes Halloween even less.

This was our first Halloween with Emma and Sam. My wife said Emma (our black cat pictured here in her first week with us) was sitting in the window and some trick-or-treaters mistook her for a Halloween prop until they saw her move. She likes people and stayed with me when I took over door duty when I got home from work. Sam and Scout would play with me when no one came to the door, but took to the hills at the sound of small feet climbing the steps. Sam did stay for some visitors when he got so wrapped up in play that he didn’t have time to run away.

All of the kids commented on how much they liked the cats, with Emma being the Queen of Halloween. And I have to say, without exception the kids were all polite and wearing elaborate costumes, even the teenagers, so I really enjoyed Halloween this year even if I got home a little late.

String Theory

I used this green yarn to tie up some coneflower that were in danger of falling over and ended up with a piece of leftover yarn. During Outdoor Time, I’d drag it around behind me while running around the yard with Sam and Emma in hot pursuit. I held it loosely in my hand so that they could step on the string and capture it, then I’d pick it back up and the game started anew.

This quickly became our favorite game and the fun lasted for a week or two.

But then Emma started carrying the string away when she captured it. She’s always had a thing for strings so I didn’t think anything of it at first. If I didn’t take back the string, she’d find a spot to sit down in the yard and start chewing on the string. I thought it was cute so I grabbed the camera for a few quick pictures, but then I realized she was actually breaking off pieces of yarn and swallowing them.

I nipped that behavior in the bud right away, we’ve had a bad experience before with a thread chewer …

Some Lessons You Have to Learn the Hard Way

I’ve warned Emma to stay out of the coneflower. Oh how I’ve warned her! Time and again I told of how they’d lure her in, let her drink in their beauty, then attack when she let her guard down. But did she listen to me? No she didn’t. Some lessons you have to learn the hard way.