Category Archives: Pets

And two cats in the yard (house, actually)

Pets, , , ,

We have two cats, Joe and Halloween. They were litter mates, born at what we called “the kitty farm” outside Elgin, Illinois. The farm was (and still is) Dean’s brother’s farm and used to be crawling with cats, many of whom were polydactyl. There are no cats left there now, thanks to a busy road and coyotes. Joe and Halloween may be the lone surviving cats from the kitty farm.

Clare was 6 and Andrew was 4 the year we decided to let Clare pick out a cat from the farm. Carol, Dean’s brother’s wife, pointed out a black and white cat that she said was really friendly, which was unusual since these cats didn’t interact with people very often. She was right about the black and white one — it was friendly and liked to be held. There was also a black cat in the same litter that caught my eye. I had a black cat as a teenager and young adult and loved her. I pointed out the black one to Clare and she ran and picked it up. It, too, was friendly — and curious — and polydactyl.

A note about the polydactyl cats on the farm — a cat with one extra toe is unique and cute. A cat with two and three extra toes is kind of freakish. Some of these cats seemed to have trouble walking with all their extra digits. Inbreeding at play.

At some point we decided to let both kids pick out a kitten to take home (the more the merrier?). Andrew chose the black and white one (a male) and Clare chose the black one (a female). We had one cat at home already, a 13 year old calico that only liked me. When we brought the kittens into the house, we tried everything the books said to introduce the kittens to the older cat. I suppose it worked, but she let them know who was the boss cat of our house.

While Velcro (the older cat) was alive — even when she was ailing, she was the alpha cat — there was no mistake. Both kittens stayed away from her, after their first few slaps.

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After Velcro died it was not clear who was alpha cat for a while, but it seemed to be Halloween. Then the tables turned, for some reason, and Joe seemed more dominant. Halloween showed her grief of losing her dominance by licking the fur off her belly and legs. That’s the way things were for many years. Joe ate first while Halloween waited for him to finish. Joe got the comfy chairs and slept on my pillow. He’d groom Halloween if he felt like it, but he’d also bite off the whiskers that grew above her eyes. (the vet thought it was one of the kids cutting her whiskers off, but we once saw Joe doing it).

This past month, however, there has been a power shift. Halloween has been the one to sleep on my pillow, hissing at Joe if he got too near. Joe now sleeps at my feet — where Halloween used to sleep. Halloween eats first and has been found sleeping in the places Joe used to sleep. Halloween’s fur has grown in on her belly — I never see her licking and licking and licking herself like she used to.

I think that Halloween has become the alpha cat in the house. About time!

No worries

Musings, People, Pets, Politics, Technology

The last few days have had the potential to be worrisome ones. My daughter’s beloved computer exhibited the dreaded blue screen that indicated her registry was corrupted. I know something about computers, but not how to fix that issue (but that didn’t stop me from spending a whole day trying to fix it). Luckily I have a friend who knows about this kind of stuff who stopped by and fixed it for her (and charged me much less than the Geek Squad would have).

Then, when I swiveled in my chair to get up from my work computer I knocked the dvd tray askew. After trying to fix it, I concluded I needed to buy a new dvd reader/writer and install it. I expected to pay a fair bit of money for this — it had been years since I installed anything on my computers, and back in the olden days a dvd drive was well over $100.

Then, Monday night when I had computer guts all over the floor of my office, my daughter told me our female cat had dilated pupils that wouldn’t constrict and the cat was bumping into things and obviously couldn’t see. She consulted Dr. Internet who told her the cat was possibly going blind. I consulted Dr. Neighbor to see if we should rush the cat to the after hours animal clinic, but he said as long as she was acting ok otherwise, to wait until morning.

Through all this, however, I refused to worry. I’ve been a worrier and I’ve known worriers and I’ve concluded that worry is an unnecessary and harmful emotion. Computers can be fixed. Blind cats can adapt.

Tuesday morning I called our vet who suggested we bring our cat in for a visit.

Then I voted.

When I returned home from the polling place I took my son to get some clothes, stopping first at Micro Center to buy a new DVD drive and maybe a firewire port for my desktop. The Micro Center folks were very helpful and I found a better DVD drive then the one I broke for less than $30. I also bought a firewire/usb combo card. Now I have enough slots on my computer to run all my peripherals.

My son has been hoping for a laptop for his 16th birthday in January — but knows that desktops are actually better deals. I offhandedly remarked maybe he could build his own and he jumped at the idea. So now he and I are going to build a computer together. Something I’ve always wanted to do, and something he said he’d considered. He was pretty excited and wants to get going right away. (Yay — another geek in our family).

The day was looking up.

When I got back home my daughter said our cat’s eyes were back to normal. I kept the appointment with the vet anyway — to see if they could tell us why.

My son and I installed my dvd drive and firewire/usb ports with no problems (it took less than 30 minutes) then my daughter and I took our cat to the vet. $200+ later we still don’t know why she spent 12 hours visually impaired, but know she’s healthy enough for a senior cat.

So, except for some unexpected spending of money all is good.

Oh yeah, and then changed happened.