August 11, 2006

KITTY!

Good grief, this thing packs away the vittles like a starving tiger. It's difficult to believe how tiny and meek he was when he first came to live with us. He's filling out nicely and is frankly the most athletic cat I've ever had. We can let him out of his pen and after a few skips and hops to loosen up, he lays his ears back, fuzzes himself up, and streaks around the yard at top speed, and climbs up every tree at an equal speed. And not just to the first branch--he goes WAY up in the trees, and then as far out on various limbs as he can. The kids freak out and think he'll be stuck up there forever, but they're finally realizing I was right when I said not to worry about it, using that time-tested platitude--"How many cat skeletons have you ever seen in a tree?"

TODAY'S first photo has Cat trying vainly to subdue The Cat for his closeup.

And the second is Cat in her Birmingham-Southern Panther-Cat shirt, after wrestling The Cat into submission. He got loose after this was taken and climbed a tree.

Silly Cats.

Posted by Terry Oglesby at August 11, 2006 08:21 AM
Comments

If I may share, here are some recent pics of my girl, Bennie.

Posted by: mike hollihan at August 11, 2006 01:32 PM

You may indeed--Bennie's a good'n.

Posted by: Terry Oglesby at August 11, 2006 01:54 PM

Lightning's growing into a handsome fellow.

Posted by: Janis at August 11, 2006 04:04 PM

If we could only get him to come when he's called...

Posted by: Terry Oglesby at August 11, 2006 04:13 PM

I don't guarantee it'll work but I've had luck with this: Pick a simple two or three note whistle, something unique that you *only* use to call Lightning. Nothing else.

Try the whistle when he's nearby and call him to you. Any time he comes, scratch and pet and love him to death. Do it regularly. After a while, he should associate hearing that whistle with "Come and get some love." Unless he's a roamer, it should work. It may take him a few minutes to come -- he is a cat, after all -- but he should come most times.

He's sure enough growing up fat and happy, as they say.

Posted by: mike hollihan at August 11, 2006 10:18 PM

I told the kids this suggestion, and they seem to enjoy it, despite the fact that Lightning still insists on doing his own thing, even after hearing them whistle! The idea of patient repetition being alien to them, they wondered why he hadn't learned it by Sunday.

Posted by: Terry Oglesby at August 14, 2006 08:27 AM