CafeChatNoir

Lily has been a bit touched in the head the past few days.  It could be that the snow days have thrown off our late afternoon I’m-home-from-work snuggle sessions on the couch.  It could be that Spot’s unannounced visit is causing her a bit of the emotional agita.  Perhaps she’s mad that the box o’ crickets aren’t for her.  Or she could just be off her little tortie kitty rocker thanks to the snow – or her just being her.

Our kitchen is of a very generous size, but horrid design.  It’s basically a wide galley, but all the working parts are on one side.  (Seriously, the kitchen at the house we rent at the beach is better designed, and if has less than half the square footage.)  There is a counter on the non-working side, and while the kits aren’t technically allowed on *any* kitchen counter, they seem to know it’s slightly less bad to jump up on the “non-working” side – which also has the dog food & various animal treats on it.

I swear, for the past four days, every time I walk into the kitchen, Lily is on the counter on the non-working side.  It goes something like this:

“LILY!  Get down!”
“MIAU!”
“Seriously, GET DOWN”
“MIAU!”
*pick up cat, unceremoniously dump on floor*
“MIAU, MIAU, MIAU!!”
“How tall are you today?”
*stands on back feet, gets many head rubs and compliments on height*
“MIAU, MIAU, MIAU!!”

Seriously, I’d swear she was part Siamese for how mouthy she is.

If it’s not me walking in on her in the kitchen, it’s something like this:

*Cindy watches TV or reads a book*
*CRASH*
“DAMMIT, LILY GET DOWN!!!!!”
“MIAU!”
*Repeat multiple times over the course of the day*

Seriously, she gets tons of food, water, treats and attention.  She’s hardly neglected.  And yet, if you asked her, NO ONE LOVES HER!

Is Carmen.  Sure, both the cats think he is the bees knees, but Carmen has decided that the dog belongs to her – not us, but her.  (Mind you, I can’t convince either one that the dog did not magically appear the day they arrived for their comfort and entertainment as it is.)

For quite some time, if the dog is around either Donald or myself, Carmen will come flying out of the woodwork and firmly plant herself in the lap of whomever is entertaining the dog.  Once the dog wandered off, she left as well.  For the longest time, I’ve just figured that Carmen was a jealous little git and wanted to make sure the dog wasn’t getting attention she should be getting.  Then I watched her a little more closely this evening.

The dog was in the basement and I was in the kitchen sitting on the floor with Lily & Carmen.  No sooner did she hear the jingle of his tags coming up to the stairs that Carmen raced to the basement door to wait for him.  Well, he blew by her.   (He has an unfortunate tendency to pretend they aren’t there – I assume it is some sort of self-preservation action on his part.)  Well, she *chased* him and then jumped up in my lap as he approached me.  As I watched, I realized she didn’t give a whit about keeping the dog away from me so I could give her more attention, it was all about her being closer to the dog so he didn’t give *me* more attention.

“Mox!  Mox!  Mox!!!  I’m RIGHT HERE!  Ignore the silly humans, I’m RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!!”

Sure, Lily loves nothing more than to dash up upon Moxley and hip-check him into the wall for laughs, but as far as Carmen is concerned, Moxley is most definitely HER dog.  (He might be more amenable to the idea if she could open the fridge and get out the packages of cheese.)

Perhaps that is why she sleeps in his crate so much – she just keeps hoping he’ll come in and they can snuggle.  I’m quite certain that’s why she ends up under the bed with him every night.

I wonder how many cats have decided that they have a dog of their very own?  I’m sure she can’t be the only one.

There’s more to talk about from the Williamsburg trip to come, but it’s all happily rattling about in my head and it will go to paper (or electrons) soon enough.

It was a really lovely little break from routine and I loved every minute of it, but coming home was just as lovely. I pulled up in front of the house and as I got the cooler of little bro’s petsitting payment of BBQ out I looked up and saw a barking and bouncing dog in the window. How great is that? Hell, when I was married I didn’t get that kind of reception when I had to go out of town.

Inside, once I got past the bouncing and kissyness of the MoxleyDog, Carmen was next in line. She seemed slightly befuddled, as if she wasn’t quite sure how long I’d been gone. But I got an, “Hey! You weren’t here, but you’re here now! Let me show you the MOST AWESOME THING!” And then she went and lounged on the super awesome cat table that appeared as soon as I’d left on Wednesday night. (This is also known as the laptop table.)

It took a little bit of calling about the house to locate the LilyMonster. I found her in the center hall, and she was angry. It went something like this… “You LEFT me! You went away, and had fun and—-MOOOOOOOMMMMMMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” and she came running down the hall meowing at the top of her lungs and headbutted me with her Evinrude outboard motor purr.

Sometimes the best part of checking out for a few days is finding out you were missed when you return. Narcissistic? Quite possibly so. Heartwarming? Most definitely so.

I am incredibly grateful that the kittens first reaction to meeting Moxley was to scramble over my human barrier and look him in the eye as if to say, “Oh hi! What’s your name?” Despite the fact that he barks at them and has made it his personal mission to keep them away from doors, they think he is the bees knees. They also really think that he was provided as part of the forever home package of food bowls, litter boxes and comfy furniture – I doubt they’ll ever really get the fact that he was here first and that he is patiently putting up with their antics.

I got home tonight, gave Mox his good boy biscuit and went about my business. I looked over a few minutes later and Moxley was snuffling about on the rug for any crumbs and Lily was right next to him, looking for whatever he was looking for. (She is the chowhound of the two kitties.) As I watched, she then just did a kitty bodyslam on him and rolled over right under his nose. Not many other ways a cat can say, “I love and trust you!!” However, the look on Moxley’s face was, “Holy shit, pointy bits up!! Move away!!!!” But it was still very sweet.

Of the two cats, Carmen is the strong-but-silent one. She’s just not the talker that Lily is. (Lily loves to hear the sound of her own voice.) Of all the other creatures in the house that she can get mouthy with, she talks to the dog more than anyone else. And it’s not “Back up dog, or I will cut you!” – it’s more of a “Hey, Moxleyyyyyyyy, whatcha doing?” as she creeps up to headbutt him. (Which also has Mox at loose ends, especially given that Snoopy & Target weren’t really into physical contact with the pup.)

Hopefully with just a little more time he’ll realize that the cats aren’t really out to get him and the pointy bits only come out when he steps on them.

Damn they move fast.  And the lighting in my room sucks to boot.  But I got 2 pics today!

They are so sweet.  Their personalities are definitely starting to emerge – Lily stops for attention before going off to conquer the universe and if Carmen is getting cuddled, she’s right there going, “What about ME?!”  She’s a leg climber and does a lovely impression of a parrot on my shoulder.  The minute she hears me coming in the room she’s off the top of the carrier and right there waiting when the door opens.  Carmen has already established her “waking up from a nap” routine.  There’s some rolling around on top of the carrier, then she slides off it, works on her nails on the little mat, then comes sauntering out to see what’s going on.  She’s figured out that the big wide world isn’t going anywhere, so she can take her time.

The minute I pick up either one, they start to purr.  Their incisions are really starting to heal nicely, thank you Dr. Alt, Clavamox and hydrogen peroxide.  This is a good thing because they’re getting more active every day and keeping them in check is getting very, very difficult.

Cat TV is awesome, they found yesterday’s episodes to be particularly compelling because of the wind – lots of leaves blowing around and the trees were moving.  Since I’ve shown them the windows, at night they look at them and look at me with this “Turn it back ON!” look.

Moxley is happy they are here, but doesn’t quite know what to make of them.  This morning Lily marched right up to him and headbutted him and then laid down right next to him.  I thought his head was going to explode.  But he stayed perfectly still, and didn’t even flinch when Lily went after his tail.  He did definitely want to go ahead and return to his station down on the couch after that.  Carmen will walk up to him and give him a, “Hey dog.” look but then goes on to patrol the master closet.  (She finds it quite interesting despite there being nothing she can get into in there.)

And on to the pics!  (Nope, didn’t make my bed this morning.)