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.
photos taken by Ali Noel Vyain
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.
photos taken by Ali Noel Vyain
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.
photos taken by Ali Noel Vyain
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.
This month’s cat vocabulary is the word growl. When a cat growls it is a warning sign. They are warning us away from them. Usually any cat I live with won’t growl at me. They know me pretty well and trust me.
Sometimes they will. Once Sir Socks growled at me when I kept bothering while he was taking a nap. So, I left him alone to sleep. He’s right I can be too silly for my own good at times.
Other strange cats have growled at me in the past. They didn’t know me and wasn’t sure what I would do to them. I stepped back and left them alone. Cats do come with sharp teeth and sharp claws. They can and will defend themselves when necessary.
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.
It is to my extreme displeasure to announce that we have not had any charities to save up money for every month. I do know both Clarabelle and my girl have reached out to different charities to see if they were interested. One was able to get an initial response from their chosen charity. The other one heard nothing.
I myself was in contact with a charity briefly. Unfortunately, they wanted to tell the sad tales of dogs in need and my magazine is about cats. There also wasn’t enough information on the charity either. They don’t have a website. I don’t have a problem with any charity helping dogs. However, because it is a cat magazine, the charity does need to focus more on cats.
For the book Cat Tales of the Frisky9 Scarf Army, the charity is Dingo Venezia. That particular organization has a history of helping more than just cats. In fact the first animal rescued was a dog named Dingo. So, of course we will focus more on the cats, but also acknowledge that they have helped dogs as well. I don’t know if they still do help anyone other than cats.
So, without charities, and no donations whatsoever, I see no point in keeping this paid website. We have our free back up site at sirsockslechat.video.blog It is better than nothing. Perhaps you the readers would prefer a book to take with you than to donate to this site. I don’t know what you’re actually thinking.
I just hope you don’t believe that writers should always work for free and don’t deserve to earn money from their work. If you do, then I don’t know what will happen to people like my girl who work as much as she does and gets seems so little in return. Perhaps you don’t value writing work or understand what it all entails? It’s sad when people expect to get creative work for free. It’s taking advantage of the creative people who could easily starve even though they work. Often times creative people have their creative endeavors and a regular job too. That’s a lot of work in case you didn’t know…
So, yes, I’m disappointed, but then again I do know that even though I am serializing my memoirs in my online magazine, that not the whole book will be online. There are some behind the scenes that can only be found in the ebook version. I don’t know if it will be in print someday. I don’t know what plans my girl will be making in that direction. When I know, then I will let the rest of you know too.
My girl was and still is quite the klutz. I swear the first month we lived together, she kept dropping things for no reason at all. *Sigh.* She even walked into me in the dark! It startled me so much. She apologized and said she couldn’t see me once she had turned out the lights. It was her eyes. She told me she can’t see as well in the dark as I can. So, after that whenever it was dark, I told her when she was stepping too close to me. At least she has good hearing. Otherwise, I don’t think we could have gotten along as well as we do.
Oh, it was annoying to hear her dropping things on the floor. I’d be sleeping or meditating and bam! Ugh, it was too much at times. I wasn’t used to this kind of noise unless someone was about to cause some serious harm. I honestly believed her when she told me she was just a klutz. She really didn’t spill my food or water on purpose. I could tell. She typically would get down on the floor and clean up her mess. If it had been deliberate, she wouldn’t have bothered to clean up after herself. Or had bothered to apologize.
She always cleaned up her messes. That was something new and different. The place we shared was much cleaner and neater than my first home. It was amazing, but also scary whenever she cleaned. It was loud and she would move things around. I wondered if moving everything around was actually worth it. I wasn’t kidding when I call her a whirlwind… She is one in more ways than just one…
With her cleaning so much, I bathed myself until I was clean enough to be there too. I know she appreciated it. Perhaps she didn’t need to clean every week, but she seemed to think so. I don’t know why, she believed that, but I did like living in a clean place.
The blind guy wasn’t klutzy. He had never walked into me in the dark. I don’t understand why she had so much trouble. But at least she could tell me and we worked together to prevent her from stepping on me in the dark. I am glad she listened and was willing to work with me. If she had ignored me, we wouldn’t have stayed together as we have.
After that first month, I no longer woke up from a nap whenever she had dropped something. She is still a klutz, but I’m just used to her now. I am glad she’s not deliberately dropping things to scare me or to torment me. She is kind and considerate. She is what I need in a caregiver and caretaker.
I am glad she’s a part of my life even though she’s not as coordinated as I am. And there is the matter of her violin playing…
*Sigh.* The whirlwind played a violin. When I had first heard it, I cringed. I protested. I hid. I don’t know what the problem was with the violin. I didn’t know if it was her playing. I liked it whenever she played the piano as long as it’s not too loud. Her electric piano was never too loud for me. It was always pleasant, unless she got carried away with too much force. Perhaps she was just hyper?
But the violin was different. There was a horrible and hideous sound coming from it that I couldn’t stand. I don’t know why she couldn’t hear it. Something just didn’t sound right with her violin playing. I’m not entirely sure it was her. But she didn’t stop playing and eventually that horrible and hideous sound went away.
At that point, her violin playing was quite beautiful and I could sleep and meditate in peace. She had learned how to make the violin sing. But then she stopped playing it for a long time. When she picked it up again to resume her studies, the horrible and hideous sound had come back too.
So, when she was playing it everyday she had gotten the horrible and hideous sound to go away. But after she hadn’t played it often, the horrible and hideous sound was back. I have to draw the conclusion that it wasn’t her. I would have to say there must have been something wrong with that particular violin.
I don’t think she was trying to hurt my ears. She was genuinely shocked that it bothered me so much when she played the violin. I do hope if she takes up the instrument again, that she finds a better violin that won’t ever make that horrible and hideous sound.
A dog will flatter you but you have to flatter the cat. —George Mikes
Dogs tend to be happy and just want to make us happy too. Cats don’t care if they make us happy. They are far too independent. Yet, if we want them to stick around, we need to let them know and show them we want to make them happy.
You can keep a dog; but it is the cat who keeps people, because cats find humans useful domestic animals. —George Mikes
Dogs are happy to be with us. They assume we are their pack leader. Cats like to have someone looking after them. Then they can relax and play all day long as we take care of them.
Tigers, those majestic king-beasts of the feline world, are famous for a number of reasons. They fierce and capable hunters, routinely bringing down large prey in amazing feats of physical performance, and in addition to their athletic prowess, they are dazzlingly handsome, their beautiful stripes and bright eyes enchanting all those who see them. Further, firmly striking their identity apart from that of your average, everyday feline, they enjoy water and swim in it when they want to, something that we would hardly ever see your everyday feline do. Taking these qualities into account, I think it’s safe to say that I, too, must be some form of marvelous tiger, since I exhibit all the traits of one of these magnificent creatures.
I always suspected that I was a descendant of tigers, even if nobody told me. Perhaps they were trying to conceal my regal heritage from me, but that ruse could only be kept up for so long. Royal blood always emerges sooner or later. My physical similarity to tigers is undeniable–anyone who looks at me for so much as a second certainly must recognize the familial relation. I have the orange stripes, the eyes, the gait, the broad, imposing face. The only thing I am really lacking is stature, and that can be made up for with confidence, of which I have plenty.
Like my mighty relatives, I also love water. My human was surprised when spritz-bottles did nothing to discourage me. She was surprised to find me in the bath tub when it still had water in it. She was also surprised to find me tolerating baths unperturbed, especially if the water was warm. Yes, I love water. I love to stick my paws in it, my face in it, my tail in it. She fills up the sink for me to have as a giant water bowl, but I like water best if it’s being used by someone else. I investigate every cup that people leave out. I don’t care if my belly gets wet when I’m stealing a drink out of the tub. I put my paws in the toilet and drink out of it too. My human has given up trying to stop me. Silly human, toilet water is what keeps me so healthy!
When provided with this evidence, who could deny my relation to those tigers? The resemblance is uncanny, with a brilliant personality to match.
As a cat, I know about hunting. I used to do it. That was when I was young and could take care of myself without any trouble. As I got older, I tended to lose some teeth and my claws became brittle. Once my girl clipped my back claws and they weren’t clean breaks. I told her never to do it again.
She didn’t after that. She did try to say it was the ultimate in cat pampering. But after I told her not to do it anymore, I think she understood there was something wrong with my claws.
Well, I liked to hunt. It was my way to assert my independence of humans. I never had any trouble catching mice and eating them. Humans tended to find it disgusting that I would eat mice. I don’t know what their problem is. Those humans eat animals too. My girl doesn’t eat animals and she understood whenever I ate a mouse.
Or even a bird. She didn’t like the gifts I left her, but she is a vegetarian. At least she understands that I need to eat animals. I don’t think she needs to. In fact, she seems to think it will make her sick if she were to eat them.
So, I’ve had lots of mice in my time. And a few birds. There was one bird who got angry with me for eating a couple of birds. If my girl wasn’t around, I don’t know what I would have done. She rescued me from getting pecked.
*Sigh.* I no longer hunt because I cannot. I sometimes miss it, but I’m so well taken care of now that I am okay without it. I feel blessed that a vegetarian understands and knows what I need to stay healthy and that’s what she gives me. So, I’ve learned to live without it and just pretend on occasion that I’m hunting and stalking prey when in reality I’m off to my food bowl my girl has filled up. She finds the scenes I make quite amusing.
Sir Socks Le Chat 