Scout – Page 9

Sidka Meets the Queen

Not too much to report on the dog front, I called my wife when I got off the train last night so they walked down to meet me halfway. What a happy girl she was to meet me — she being the dog 😉

Sidka met the cats again last night while I held her and they mostly milled about at close and not-so-close range. The big difference from the night before is that the Queen came down to greet her new subject, I told Sidka that if she won Scout over the others would soon follow. All three are still in the curious-but-cautious stage, when treats were brought out all three came up pretty close to the dog.

Sidka is still in her curious-and-let’s-go-meet-them stage so I’ve been keeping her close at hand on her leash. No one is showing any signs of aggression, not even a hiss from the cats, so things are looking good on that front. Even the introduction of Sam and Emma to Scout brought some hisses. Not to mention the how-could-you-betray-me-like-this withering looks from Scout that make me shudder to this day.

I fell asleep early last night and then woke up at 2 a.m. and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I turned on the light to read. I was shocked to see Scout separated from Sam by a few inches, she remedied this immediately by snuggling up to him, he draped one arm across her face and another around her body and soon they were asleep again. It took me a lot longer to follow them this time.

Oh To Be a Cat

So how traumatized are the cats by meeting the dog for the first time?

Scout is sleeping upstairs on my side of the bed, one of her favorite spots. Sam is sleeping in the heated bed next to me, one of his favorite spots. Emma is sleeping on my feet like she has been all week.

Oh to be a cat!

Since my wife has been sleeping with the dog in the basement this week, I’ve been reading in bed to help myself fall asleep. Last night while I was reading, Sam jumped into my lap and then Scout followed and curled up tight against him. She lay across him and put her head under his so that he would lick her head and clean her ears.

I don’t think he knows how much it means to her, Templeton started doing this for her when we first brought her home as a little kitten. In the early days she’d look like a drowned rat after he worked her over, less so as she grew older, the ritual continuing up until he died. But maybe Sam does have a sense of it, he started purring in full voice and that started Scout’s motor so I put down my book and listened to the harmony.

Sam wasn’t sleepy and eventually got up and Scout moved down to my feet. Emma then came up and curled up beside her, Scout fell asleep almost instantly and her loud snoring didn’t keep Emma from following her into slumber.

I turned off the light and joined them.

The Things I Learn When Scout Sleeps On Me

When Scout sleeps on me while I’m sitting in my chair, she likes to stretch out like Superman across my chest so I can’t really get much done. This evening I had my laptop beside her and could surf the Web but not type.

While browsing I came across a site that reports the demographics of the U.S. audience of a web site relative to the average (and as we all know, my site is far above average). I have no idea how they estimate this or if it’s even remotely accurate, but here’s what it reports about my site:

I do really well in the age group of 3-11 year olds, accounting for one out of every five of my visitors. Probably attracted by the frequent poop references in recent days.
I have a higher than normal incidence of visitors with children. Oh no! Babies having babies!
In regards to earning power, the report says I attract a less affluent audience. To my three year old readers: I’m very, very disappointed in you.
For education level, it reports a high index of college graduates. Oh three year olds, I’m so sorry! I take it back! I’m very, very proud of you! But you probably should have majored in something other than art history.

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.

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.

Best Friends Forever

After Templeton died a year ago we were trying to decide if it was too soon for Scout to add more cats to the household. We felt she would be happier with other cats around, as would we, so we adopted Sam and Emma and hoped for the best. Fast forward to today and here is Scout with her new best friend curled up on the window seat, watching the snowy scene before them. They are often curled up together on my legs when I wake up in the morning but this is the first time I’ve seen them together on the window seat.

Scout is seven years older than Sam, half a lifetime, so I’m thrilled to see them get along so. Emma willingly bears the brunt of most of Sam’s kitten energy and he’s learned that at this stage of her life Scout usually prefers snuggling to horseplay. Sometimes their little lovefests wake me up in the morning as they rub their faces all over me and each other but there are worse ways to wake.

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.

A Matter of Trust

Another picture of my favorite bear from my trip to Washington. I watched it graze on huckleberries for an hour in a meadow below the Skyline Trail in Mount Rainier National Park, so it was already pretty comfortable with me when it started moving up towards the trail. I could tell where it wanted to go so I moved down the trail in the opposite direction to give it plenty of space.

I assumed it would continue higher up the hill but instead it started walking down the trail in the same direction I hoped to head. I followed at a long enough distance to keep it in its comfort zone, so mostly I had a view of its rear end. I should post a gallery of animal rear ends I’ve taken over the years, keeping an animal in its comfort zone doesn’t necessarily lead to the best pictures 😉

I’ve experienced this in my own home, Scout has liked to sleep on me ever since she was a little kitten, but unlike Templeton she often sleeps with her rear end pointed towards my face. Sometimes to the point that she actually sits on my face, when she was younger I woke up many a time getting smothered by a little kitten butt. My wife convinced me to take it as a badge of honor, that she was showing trust by exposing her most vulnerable position, so I’ve adopted the same philosophy to animals on the trails. Missed picture opportunities are a small price to pay for earning their trust.

In this case though, the bear’s desire to fatten up for the winter worked to my advantage, it turned aside for a moment to grab a few more huckleberries before continuing down the trail.

Siamese Twin Cats

The other morning I woke to the purring not of Siamese cats but Siamese twin cats. As they approached me on the bed, their two heads rubbed against one another and their tails were intertwined. I expected them to be identical twins, but to my surprise the twin on the right was an orange tabby and the twin on the left had black and white fur and golden eyes.

Having reached me they rubbed their heads against my own, my hands rising to scratch their heads and stroke their backs as if responding to some unspoken command. In that moment I was given the gift of healing and the conjoined twins split apart, but their bond proved too strong and they soon rejoined. My eyes played tricks in the pre-dawn light, for it seemed they were now joined on the opposite side as before.

Eventually their desires for affection were satiated and the twins finally separated for good, Sam departing for parts unknown and Scout curling up beside me to sleep.