I'm Rocking the Cat

My cat, Poppy, is a rambunctious little girl. Her favorite thing to do is to "flip and flop." She loves to roll around on the rug looking as cute as a button.

Unfortunately, she likes to flip and flop on my lap, too, and it never ends well. But I've finally found a trick to keep that wiggle-worm still. I rock her--like a baby. When I'm at the computer and she jumps onto my lap, I scoop her into my arms and we sit and have a cuddle.  This has turned our mom-and-girl time into a much more pleasant experience for both of us. (When I'm sitting on the couch, Poppy likes me to have an afghan on my lap. She'll liable to sit with me more often when I've got an afghan.)

As it turns out, Poppy likes to watch YouTube videos almost as much as I do. Just this week we've watched episodes of Restaurant Impossible and What's for Tea? (Love What's for Tea? It's about Scottish woman, named Sheryl, who cooks dinner (sharing the recipes) often in a crock pot, or a grocery store haul, and she ends her videos with beautiful shots of Scotland. (I love her!) This is the kind of food I grew up with. (My mother wasn't Scottish, but my Dad was half Scot.) This is the kind of food I want to make.  (Poppy is content with 9 Lives.)

But Poppy isn't just a mama's girl. Lately, she's developed an independent streak. Instead of spending all her time with us in our offices, she's been snoozing on the couch or behind the living room drape. Go figure. But our times together are much more calm (with a lot less biting) than they used to be just because I finally figured out what she needed as opposed to what she wants.

Does your pet require you to adapt to its needs?

Rock-a-Bye Poppy

For a while now, I've been having a problem with my baby girl, Poppy. She's the sweetest little girl in the world. Unlike her sister, who pays attention to everything and comes when she's called, and does everything she's told, Poppy is a rebellious girl. She doesn't listen all that well. Like her sister, she's a flipper and a flopper. She loves to roll on the rug--back and forth and forth and back. She's a good lap cat at the end of the day and will sit quietly, but during the day? Not so much.

She also likes to bite -- everything. Not just me, but paper, boxes, desks, you name it, she bites it. She's not teething. She has passed her first birthday, but she still likes to BITE.

Recently I realized that there was a way to calm her. She will settle in my arms and I rock her like a baby. She purrs and purrs and then falls asleep. This is all very nice and loving ... until my arms and feet fall asleep. Then I have to put her down and she almost immediately jumps back on my lap. This makes it very hard to get any work done.

The girls chill under Mr. L's lamp.

Luckily, Mr. L has a 200 watt light bulb in his office. Under the light we've placed three cat beds. (We used to have more cats.) The girls often sleep under the warmth of that incandescent bulb. (We aren't going green with that lamp any time soon.) I also have a small oil-filled radiant space heater in my office and I keep a cushion next to it that's big enough to accommodate both girls. Now that the weather has turned, I'm hoping they will use it more and let me work.

It's not a terrible problem to have cats who love me and want to be with me. I just need to convince them that they need to change their timing.

What's your biggest pet problem?

Poppy and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Our kittens are growing like weeds, but they are still kittens. They get into EVERYTHING.

Yesterday, I pulled out my computer tower because I needed to unplug it to try to coax it back to life. (It has issues.)  I try to start it up (cue the Stones) every few hours. Because I was going to do that, I left it pulled out from under my desk.

For some reason, the kittens decided that playing behind the tower was a fun thing to do. They got yelled at several times, but--they're reckless teens. (That's why we have no guns and motorcycles around here.) Poppy got back there and, usually when I holler, she listens to me and stops her bad behavior, but this time she didn't come out. I hauled the tower out even farther and found she was totally entangled in cords for the computer, the label printer, the Internet, the router--you name it. One of the cords was wrapped around her neck. Needless to say, I panicked but quickly managed to extricate her. Holy crap! My kitten nearly strangled herself!!!

Half an hour later, they had their (second) breakfast. (They get kitty kibble as a snack, then an hour or so later, the REAL breakfast of Friskees.) Soon after Poppy ate her food, she started pawing at her mouth and sounding like she was choking. YIKES! She did this for about ten minutes. She let me look in her mouth, but I couldn't see anything stuck on her teeth.

I called the vet, but got put on hold. While waiting, she stopped the pawing. I got cut off, but decided I was overreaching.  Until ... two hours later, she started doing it again. Now I was getting panicky. What if near strangulation had hurt her throat? She seemed to be breathing a lot faster than her sister when snoozing.

The vet was able to squeeze us in and so off we went. They had a lull and we were sent right in and were relieved that it was our favorite vet who saw Poppy. As soon as I told her about the noise Poppy had made, she went, "Aha." And then she showed us that Poppy already had a couple of her adult teeth, and that her gums were a little red and she had a wiggly tooth, but not wiggly enough to come out. (She tried.) Boy, was I relieved.

I'M A NEW MOM. I PANIC, OKAY?

And just as good, the vet didn't charge us for our little emergency.  (The woman is a saint and a brilliant kitty surgeon.) She said all Poppy needed was a visit from the tooth fairy.

Okay, I've lived around cats all my life, but we weren't around the babies all that much because we worked 8-5. Now, more than 20 years later, we're around them 24/7 and ... honestly, I never saw a kitten teething before.

So, first Poppy nearly got strangled, then her teeth hurt, then she was stuck in a carrier and driven to the (horrors!) vet. Yes, it really was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day for Poppy.  But we gave her extra cookies for Happy Hour and she seems to have overcome her ordeal.

Have you had a panicky moment with your pet?

Smile for the camera?

After a lonely eleven months without cats, five weeks ago we got our new furbabies Emma and Poppy. They're adorable and they are a pain in the butt. We haven't given them the freedom of the whole house yet. During the day, they are with us in our offices, climbing up on our desks and walking over our keyboards. We're getting lots of work done. NOT.

They have beds they can sleep on or a cushion next to the heater in my office, but they prefer to sleep on our office chairs. (We both have two desks with chairs.) They are also what I call wiggle-worms.  They roll around a lot. They roll off the chairs sometimes.  Yesterday, Emma rolled off while sleeping.

Emma ... just after she rolled off the chair.

Emma (the silver tabby) will "sit pretty" for just about anything. When she's curious, when she's looking out the window, at dinnertime. But can I catch her doing it when I've got my camera or phone in my hands? Nope.  They are incredibly cute until I pull out the camera--either that, or they'll be doing something cute and before I can snap a picture or hit the video button, they stop and/or leave the area. They are definitely camera shy. From these pictures, you'd think they live very quiet lives.  Nope. They sound like a herd of thundering elephants.

They have toys everywhere and two are favorites.  First, their tunnel. Cozy Chick emeritus, Ellery Adams, sent the girls a bag of toys and the tunnel. They play in it every day, They race through it, have life-and-death wrestling matches in it. Good clean fun for a couple of hours a day.

Their other favorite toys are crinkle balls.  (That's what it said when I Googled it.) The bag Ellery sent had a few of them in it, and then (current Cozy Chick) Mary Kennedy sent them an entire bag of crinkle balls. Holy cow! When we need to work, another on gets tossed on the floor and we're guaranteed at least 20 minutes to sneak in some work.

Emma has been sneezing, so we're going to the vet this afternoon. She did not like the carrier when we took her for her shots, so this should be an adventure. Poppy hasn't been left alone. She'll either be freaked out, or yawn and take a nap.

Either way, my camera won't be far away. But I think I might need to buy another photo card. With these girls, I think I'm going to need it.

What are you pet's favorite toys?