Spot

After Spot was no longer a kitten, we continued to wrestle together. Sometimes I would jump on him and then we’d be all over the room. My girl would watch us and laugh. She thought it was a show we were giving her. I suppose in a way we were. At other times, he attacked me. But the results were always the same.

Once when we were in a wrestling mode, we faced each other from opposite ends of the room. My girl was in the middle and watched us. He and I wiggled our tails and butts at the same time. All that was missing was Ding! We leaped at each other at the same time right in front of her. Those were the days.

After we were done, there would be silence and we’d cuddle and sleep together. My girl never stopped us from fighting. She didn’t care. I think she understands that we just had disagreements and this was how we dealt with them. I suppose if we were going to harm or even kill each other, she would have stepped in. But it was better that she stayed out and let us do what we needed to do.

We cats do need to establish our own order. No human or anyone else can do it for us. We just have to have order and then we can get along after that. Although, it’s better when the newer cats are just kittens. Then they will just accept any older adult cats as the ones in charge and they won’t challenge the order. Kittens can be accepting like that.

So, I’m glad he was just a kitten when he showed up. I was happy I was the one in charge and he grew up. Kittens are truly annoying until they mature. Then it’s a another cat buddy you have around you day and night. You never have to be alone.

Even though he was no longer a kitten, he never grew out of being adorable. He continued to pose for my girl. She was able to catch him in all sorts of poses and attitudes. He truly was a model. She went through different kinds of cameras. You could say we cats outlived her cameras.

I don’t even know how many different kinds of cameras she had over her life. I certainly remember her using a Polaroid as the first one. The square pictures give that one away. The film developed right in front of us. She no longer has those pictures as hard copies. She scanned them all in at some point.

After that, she had a digital camera her dad had given her. She used it, but not as much as he would have. I don’t know why that was. She even used a camera that came with her cellphone. That wasn’t always so great for a camera. I don’t know if she will ever use a camera that comes with a cellphone again.

Spot wasn’t just adorable, he had some real cattitude, as they call it on Twitter. He knew how to pose and show it off. My girl could catch him and capture the moment digitally. I know she went to school and studied graphic design. While doing that, she stopped getting pictures printed out as she used to.

Instead, she would play with some of the pictures she took of us and sometimes she’d print them out herself. We were featured in her projects for school. It’s quite an honor to be immortalized by humans. My girl is also a writer. Most of her work is done on computers. She could do it all by hand, but it would take much longer and she could risk hurting her hands and wrists.

As you can see from some of these picture collages, Spot had a tendency to pose with a computer. Whether behind it, or to the side of it on a printer or even on top of a computer, he knew how to get her attention. He was brave enough to tell her she wasn’t allowed on the computer all day. I never would have said anything.

I knew she was working on them. I know her well enough to know she could keep herself occupied whether she worked for someone else or not. She had plenty of satisfying work she could do right in our home. I loved it when she worked at home because then she was there whenever I needed her throughout the day. She was also quiet for long periods of time so I could meditate and sleep as much as I wanted to.

By the time Spot had grown up, he had completely won me over. He didn’t grow out out of wanting to play or wrestle. He was still adorable. He was my best friend. I’m glad my girl brought him home. She must have known and understood how much I needed another cat. Even when I didn’t think I wanted a new cat around me.

He certainly has kept me on my toes. I never knew when he wanted to play or simply wrestle. At other times, I was the one who went after him. He didn’t mind. He was ready for me when I wanted to wrestle. I could also teach him more about being a cat. He was a good student. He had picked up some habits from my girl and I still don’t know what to think about that.

But what can you do when a kitten is raised by a human? Of course they will imitate the human. It was a good thing I was there or else he wouldn’t have acted like a cat too. Even though he was an adult cat, he was a real mama’s boy. He loved to be picked up and carried by my girl. I can’t say I understand. I never thought I was that bad with my mama. But Spot certainly was.

My girl and Spot were both so full of love and kindness. I’m glad I am able to share my life with the two of them. They could also play together and leave me to my sleep or meditation.

February 1, 2020 0

Diet

What we cats need to eat is not what you humans need to eat. If I’ve learned anything in my long life, it’s that. My girl was one of the healthiest humans I’ve known. She is a vegetarian. She will not eat animals. Some humans have insisted that she would get sick from a diet of mostly plant food especially all the vegetables she likes to eat.

But they are completely wrong. My girl is healthy and happy. I’m sure part of the reason is her diet. Another part is that she lives with at least one cat. She is a crazy cat lady, so it amazes me that she can live with just one cat for so long.

But back to cat diet. We cats are true carnivores. We hunt in the wild or even living on the streets. We need to eat animals because there are certain amino acids which make up proteins that our bodies don’t make. They come from animals only. As for you humans, you need different amino acids and can live without eating animals and be perfectly healthy as my girl is.

Please keep that in mind when feeding us. No animal by products. Those will make us sick. Just pure meat. Maybe a little vegetables here and there, but mostly just animals for us. My girl doesn’t have a problem with feeding us this way even though she won’t eat animals herself. She just tries not to smell what we’re eating.

February 1, 2020 0

Our First Christmas

The blind guy didn’t celebrate Christmas, so when my girl decided to decorate, I didn’t even care. But of course Spot did. He just had to attack the tree. He was such a kitten! Honestly. I just didn’t care. It was such a little tree. It wasn’t worth my time. There wasn’t anything to sharpen my claws on. It was much too small to climb on.

She had a tendency to give each of us a can of tuna for our Christmas dinner. Delicious. It made me love her so much. She never ate it, so we didn’t have to share with her. In fact, my girl refuses to eat animals. Yet, she had no problem giving any to us. She must have known what we needed to eat.

I do know she didn’t like our food. She didn’t care for the smell. I’m not even sure she knew how to prepare it. Whatever she gave us was already prepared and portioned. She knows how to cook, but I guess she doesn’t know how to deal with animals in cooking. She seemed healthy to me for a non-cat person.

With that first Christmas, we had a few presents near the tree. She even had some. She opened them for us. Not too exciting. They were toys. Spot loved them. I didn’t care. Eventually, she stopped celebrating Christmas with presents or even special meals. She just lost interest. I do know she prefers calm, quiet days to the craziness of the ever popular holiday of Christmas.

I can’t say I blame her. I don’t like too much excitement either. Let me sleep and meditate. Then I’ll be a happy cat. As I said, I don’t care for any part of Christmas, except for the tuna treats and catnip. Other things just aren’t as exciting or even interesting. Yet, as you can see from the pictures that Spot thought it was playtime when my girl was decorating a little tree.

Can you believe that kitten? Having to grab the garland as she is trying to decorate such a little tree. Then after she has it completely decorated and the lights plugged in, he had to knock it down. I hear there are humans who don’t put up Christmas trees because they live with cats. There are other cats like me who don’t care. But I suppose for the more playful cats, such as Spot, it’s a wonderful toy to have in the house.

Perhaps it’s a great toy for those cats stuck inside all day. Those forbidden from going outside at any time. Well, okay, perhaps a real Christmas tree is a wonderful to have. You can climb it. You can hide in it. But this tree my girl had was too small for either of those things. That’s why I wasn’t interested.

I can’t say I blame my girl for not liking the popular Christmas holiday. It can be too much. Spot and I once saw a family gathering she had to go to. We watched from the loft. It was much too much. Too much food we weren’t allowed to have. Too many presents. None were for us. There was a huge mess below us that the humans had to clean up.

And why? What was the point? If they were cats, they wouldn’t have cared about the lack. I still had my girl and Spot. That was all that mattered to me. I don’t need such things as all those presents or a huge dinner. Tuna and catnip are good. I like to have a safe, stable, permanent home with those I love. What more could I ever want or need?

January 1, 2020 0

Personalities

In case many of you humans didn’t notice, we cats do have different personalities. We’re not all identical just as you are not. Some of us, like me, are curmudgeons. Some are super sweet, as Isis and Nuri are. Some are playful, like Spot. Others hyper, as Nuri gets at times. Some are quite laid back, as I am.

Until you get to know us, you may not know what we are really like. For example, I was always good about asking for food and water. And of course demanding my litter box be cleaned out once a day. Spot, on the other hand, would never ask for such things. Instead, he’d get mad that it wasn’t done and knock things onto the floor. When that didn’t work, he finally went over to my girl and asked for food.

Even Nuri doesn’t complain if my girl forgets to clean out the litter box. I don’t understand that. I know my girl has had some trouble remembering due to a concussion and post-concussion or just being distracted by something else. But you’d think Nuri would say something to get my girl’s attention on this matter.

Well, that’s just how it is. We’re all different, yet we’re all cats. We at least have a few things in common with each other. Just remember that we have different personalities and you should be able to get along with us all.

January 1, 2020 0

Coats

We cats come in a wide variety of coats. Some would say we’re different breeds. I’d prefer to talk about our coats. My coat is a tuxedo with white paws. Spot is mostly white with some black accents. Isis is a sleek black cat. Nuri is a gray tabby or a silver cheshire as my girl likes to say.

We come in different colors and patterns. Well, there are tabbies or cheshires and of course classic black and white. Not to mention calico or tortie. Some are even hairless. I bet they get cold and perhaps sunburnt at times as my girl does. So, if you live with a hairless cat, make sure they have some clothes to wear or somewhere warm to go.

I suppose a hairless cat is perfect for those of you humans who are allergic to cat hair. Don’t forget there is also a hypo-allergic cat who has hair. They look like ordinary cats. But I suppose those hypo-allergic cats could make a difference and keep you from being lonely, even when you’re allergic to our hair.

December 1, 2019 0

Running Away

It’s time for a confession from me. As you know from the previous chapter, I didn’t like the kitten when I had first met him. He drove me absolutely crazy. Eventually, I got used to him as I had gotten used to my girl and the fairies. But it wasn’t a gradual thing. In fact, I did something which hurt my girl very much. I ran off. I left our home and went to live outside for a little while.

I was that mad about the kitten. I couldn’t stand to be there anymore. And, well, it was time for the kitten to grow up and be on his own. I was that fed up. So, I went outside and decided I didn’t want to go back and live with my girl or the kitten anymore. I didn’t care how cold it was. I didn’t care if it would snow. Not that snow was very likely where we were. There wasn’t even grass growing in the area. Mostly just dirt.

It was easy to get out. By then, there were times when my girl would let us out or even take us out for walks. We were never outside for long. But it was good to go out. I think my girl understood that. She just wouldn’t let me out until I had learned this was my home now.

I wasn’t that far away from our apartment. My girl came out to beg and plead with me to come home. I refused at first. But there was something in her voice that touched me. She kept begging and telling me how much she missed me. I realized then how much she loved me. I began to see how much it hurt her for me to refuse to live with her.

*Sigh.* She is a whirlwind, but she is a kind and loving person. She’s as devoted to me as I am to her. She is the one I knew I wanted to be with. She had proven it to me that she was the right caregiver and caretaker for me. I just had to accept her silliness and playfulness. She is exactly what I need in my life. Even when she’s driving me crazy.

So, I went back home with her. I also didn’t tend to go outside much after that. I knew how good I had it with her as an indoor cat. I decided to stay in spite of the kitten and her silliness.

So, why did I leave in the first place? I needed a break. Raising a kitten is hard work. I was beginning to understand why my mother had left us when she did. Perhaps we had become too much for her? The kitten could take care of himself at that point. So, it wasn’t as if I needed to stick around anymore.

I had taught him all I knew for five weeks. There wasn’t more I could teach him after that. Perhaps some fine tuning or tell him more about my brother Spitter or the little bits I remembered about Inky and Paintbrush. There wasn’t much point in me talking about my girl. Spot already knew her fairly well.

But then again, I didn’t have to act like my mother. I could go back to someone who loved me and took good care of me. I could also go back to someone who looked up to me. So, in the end I went home. I was loved, adored, and admired for once in my life. I didn’t have to be like my mother. I could do what she didn’t do for me for this kitten.

I’m glad I went back even though they are both too silly for me. At least we all loved each other and were willing to get along. That’s what it means to have a real family. We love each other unconditionally no matter how much we drive each other crazy. We have each other’s backs in tough times. We aren’t willing to give up on each other. We help each other, even if all we can do if to give moral support.

There were times when we would take turns hitting each other. Not hard. Just hard enough to get the point across. The easy and simple way to tell someone else, “You are annoying me.” It wasn’t to hurt each other. We were just venting. It was how we are able to get along for as long as we are together.

I don’t regret having a family. They mean the world to me. Having a family of my own after I had lost my biological relatives wasn’t something I ever expected to find again. And it’s all thanks to the whirlwind known as my girl. It’s all her fault and she knows it.

December 1, 2019 0

The Kitten

Ugh. My girl and I hadn’t lived together very long before she bought home a young kitten. I don’t know what she was thinking. She is a whirlwind. I had just gotten used to living with her when she brought in another cat. A young cat. He was just a little thing. He adored me from the start. And he is every bit a whirlwind as she is…

He was tiny when he had arrived. Just a furball, as my girl had called him. Just a baby. And way too playful. As soon as I had met him, I smacked him on the top of his head to show him I was in charge. He just shook his little head and didn’t protest. He just kept looking up at me.

But I couldn’t stand him. He annoyed me. He wanted to play and cuddle with me. Cuddle? He was a strange little cat. I don’t know where my girl found him. She just brought him home without warning me. He wouldn’t leave me alone no matter what I did. I asserted my dominance and still he kept bothering me. I told him to leave me alone, but as you can see from the pictures, he insisted on cuddling up to me.

Not only did he like to cuddle up to me, he liked to pose. My girl would then take lots of pictures of him. I guess you could call him a model. He loved the attention of course. My girl did catch him in all sorts of shenanigans he would get into all by himself. He never needed me to do all the things he did that she had caught on camera.

He wanted to play all the time. I don’t tend to play. Very rarely will I play with toys. But I do like to wrestle and run around crazily whenever the fairies visit me. I have to keep in shape. It’s the healthy thing for a cat to do. But he was so annoying that I just didn’t want to have anything to do with him at first. I found him more annoying than the fairies. And I’m used to fairies visiting me without any warning.

But he wouldn’t go away. He kept playing and cuddling with me. I tried to hide from him, but no, he’d find me. He thought it was just a game. He just wouldn’t leave me alone no matter what I did. To make matters worse, my girl would encourage him to go after me!

Then, I don’t know what happened. I discovered one day that I liked him. I liked him a lot. I didn’t want to be without him. I didn’t care how much he bothered me. I had someone to wrestle with. Someone closer to my own size. And the little guy looked up to me.

To me! I never had anyone like this in my life before. I had three brothers, but we were equals who were beneath our mother in the order. But for once someone looked up to me for guidance. I could teach someone young and impressible how to be a good upstanding cat like me.

Wait, this sounds just like when I had met my girl and what she did to me… Or even the fairies… She’s proven to me that she’s worthy of my devotion and loyalty. She is a whirlwind. She makes things happen. I’m not lonely anymore with her or this kitten. It does help to have another cat when my girl has to go out and do whatever it is that she does outside our home. But I still miss her when she’s gone too much.

This kitten understood about missing her too. He didn’t like her to be gone any more than I did. Perhaps not exactly in the same way, but he at least understood. We could comfort each other when she was gone for hours most everyday. We could play sometimes. We could wrestle. We could meditate together. We could cuddle to keep from getting too lonely without my girl. It was becoming a good arrangement.

So, I taught the kitten how to be a good, upstanding cat. My girl was bottle feeding him and he learned some unusual habits from her, but he learned all the best cat things from me. I taught him to how to jump and wrestle. I taught him how to hunt. I taught him how to meditate. I didn’t stop with the lessons after he grew up.

But I suppose he was going to grow up someday. It wasn’t such a bad thing. In fact, I’m glad he grew up. Eventually, my girl stopped giving him a bottle and he was able to eat all he needed to without her. But by then, he was absolutely convinced she was his mama. And that was that. As for me, she remained my girl. But there was nothing any of us could do. The kitten Spot believed my girl was his mama.

And she did act like his mama. So, let’s be fair. They were mama and son. I know other humans tried to tell her it wasn’t possible, but they were wrong. Even I wouldn’t question the relationship they have. I don’t think I was ever jealous. I still had what I needed and wanted with both of them. I wasn’t alone. I had a family and they put up with my curmudgeonly ways.

Yep, I was always a curmudgeon. I’m not ashamed of it. I just am particular about everything. My girl seemed to understand and did what she could when I asked or just as soon as I asked. She is so silly, but she loves me and I love her. That’s all that matters.

November 1, 2019 0

Tails

Our tails are something you humans don’t have. I’ve heard you have tail bones, but no tails. Pity. We can smack others with our tails. We also use them to communicate. And some of us like to play with each other’s tails. Even my girl has been known to give my tail a gentle tug. I never understood why. She’s not a cat. She’s just too silly!

Our mood can be conveyed by the very movement of our tails. Spot was very expressive with his tail. More so than I ever was. My girl would recite names to him, such as mine or Isis, and Spot’s tail would wag even harder because he loved us all.

Some people thought he wagged his tail because he was angry. Spot was hardly angry. He was so happy go lucky that it drove me crazy at times. He did have a temper, but it didn’t flare that much. He just like to wag his tail a lot.

November 1, 2019 0

Eyes

Our eyes have been known to creep out quite a few people. You can’t see us very well in the dark, but you might see our reflected eyes staring right at you. Sounds scary?

I never thought I was scary unless I was hunting. Otherwise, I was just a cat who was lying in the sun or meditating or complaining to someone who cared to listen to me.

My girl admitted to me that she couldn’t see as well as I could in the dark. She said when she turned out the lights, she couldn’t see me anymore. She used to walk into me. She apologized every time, thank goodness. I’d really be mad if she had done it on purpose and didn’t care to apologize for her behavior.

So, I did what any reasonable cat would do. Whenever she turned out the lights and she walked too close to me, I’d let her know where I was. It worked. Her hearing is better than her eyesight. Yes, she wears glasses. She wears lined bifocals now. She didn’t then. But that’s another story.

I’m glad she listened to me. She was able to walk around in the dark without stepping on me. That just proves it is possible to train your human to take excellent care of you. Just find one who will listen to your every complaint and does something to make things better. Those are the kinds of humans who are worth waiting for.

October 1, 2019 0

New Website—Same Online Magazine

So, our part of our experiment has failed on this current site. The one that has to be paid for. (sirsockslechat.com) We didn’t get any charities to promote. One talked to us and then we heard nothing else from them. One just wanted to talk about dogs and forgot about the cats. Others just didn’t plain respond.

We haven’t received donations after we got this paid site up and running. We have no money coming in to pay for this site. We also don’t get enough hits on the site every month to have paid advertising. So, that was also a failure. We do get hits. Just not enough to do these other things we wanted to do with the online magazine.

So, this issue is the last one on this site. The site is going down later this month. (October 2019) However, we still have our backup site at sirsockslechatvideo.blog. So, all the articles will be found there.

We do plan on keeping the magazine going a little while longer. At least long enough to serialize my memoirs. We will still post how many copies Cat Tales of the Frisky9 Scarf Army sells. We also want to put another Cat Tales book about the Ambassacats out to benefit Battersea. Hopefully, Gladstone will be ready to rally the ambassacats as my girl gathers all the information and pictures for the book.

Please continue to enjoy my magazine and my memoirs. There’s still more to come.

October 1, 2019 0