Have you seen the cute Pixar animated film about a little white dog called Bolt? There's a cat called Mittens in it, which is where our Mittens got her name. As Bolt was a movie star dog he didn't learn how to do real doggy things. They made him believe he actually had superpowers, and never let him do doggy stuff. Mittens teaches him to stick his head out the window of a moving vehicle. Bolt LOVES it, though Mittens says 'meh, it's a dog thing.'
Mouse has always loved the car, but mainly for the motion and the soft cushy seats. She likes to sprawl across the back seat and sleep, reserving energy for her exciting destination. She has been in the car with Barbie quite a bit lately, and it seems that she had her own 'Bolt' moment on the way back from the beach today.
It went on long enough for me to get a good shot, then we put the window up a bit higher before she blew her eyelids off.
I haven't posted about the cats for ages because there are always so many dog stories to tell. Well last weekend I decided I would get the kitties a Kong Wobbler as they haven't been enjoying the same freedom now that Miss Zelda is staying with us.
When I first introduced the Wobbler to the cats they weren't interested at all. In fact, when I tipped it for them they flinched away from it a little. I wasn't sure how to get them interested, so I left it in the laundry with them, and also asked some advice from my dog trainer/friendly Kong representative. She suggested a lot of strategies, but when I went into the laundry I realised I didn't need to try any of them. The Wobbler had been emptied of kibble in my absence.
I decided I had to see the kitties using it and I wanted to know who was getting the most food out of it. I left my little GoPro on the floor recording and left the room. I have sped up the video but this is the result, Frou is definitely queen of the Kong Wobbler, but Mittens gets a go as well.
Click here to go straight to youtube if the video doesn't work.
They obviously didn't like surveillance, knocking the camera over during one of their little playfights. I am glad they like their Wobbler though. I think the next purchase will be a water fountain as I know that Mittens will really enjoy one of those.
The addition of a third cat to the household has certainly kindled some rivalry between them. Mittens has always been the bottom cat, and it seems nothing has changed for her.
Today Bumblebee was lying in Mittens' place on the cat tower. She wanted up, so she started hissing, spitting, growling and yowling at him. He simply ignored her and dispatched her with a few swishes of his tail. She gave up after a few minutes and disappeared.
The battle between Froufrou and Bumblebee for ascendency continues. Frou has taken to launching running attacks at Bee, swiping as she gets closer, but never quite connecting with him. Last night Bumblebee caught a cricket. He was ineffectually batting at it with his big fluffy paws. Frou soon realised he had caught something, so she ran over, grabbed it with her paw and then promptly ate it. Bumblebee didn't complain, perhaps he didn't have time to. Frou certainly believes she should be the top cat, but I don't think she has convinced Bumblebee of that.
Bee doesn't really have to do anything to prove himself. He is the big, regal, king of the cats.
He does show his youthful, three year old, exuberance often. He likes to play, and he loves to hide behind the curtains. He also finds himself inventive hidey holes. I left my sleeping bag draped over the chair in order to fluff up the down.
Mittens has never lost her kitten like obsession with boxes. Recently I got a full bike sized box which contained a frame I had shipped from the USA. Mittens had been curious about the box but I didn't think she would be able to jump high enough to get into it.
Well I guess I was wrong. She must be a brave kitty to jump into a box without being able to see what is inside. I wondered how she would get out so I waited with the camera ready. She spent at least 10 minutes just sitting in the box. I think Frou prowling around on the other side of the cardboard was disturbing her though.
Like the action shot?
She leapt for the opening, held on to the edge and kind of scrambled out. I think I will find her in the box in future, until I get rid of it anyway. It is a pity she doesn't like her 'carry box' so much that we use to take her to the vet! ;)
Doggie stereotypes are alive and well, and one of the stereotypes that irks me the most is the image of the Greyhound as a cold blooded hunter. A vet once told me not to let Barbie near any cats, and was unapologetic when I told him that she lived with two kitties. Then there are all the people who say 'oh yeah Greyhounds need muzzles because they will eat cats on the street'. Recently a Ranger advised a woman who was interested in getting a Greyhound that 'in his experience' it would eat her Maltese!
Barbie is a great example of a Greyhound who has prey drive but can live quite peacefully with her own cats. She is now always polite with small dogs, even those who bark at her.
Anyway it brings us to our story for the evening. We were all lazing around on the couch, and Barbie and Mittens were in a very similar position to the one above. Barbie then sat up, and Mittens gave her a playful swat.
Barbie gave Mittens an obliging sniff, and Mittens swatted her again, this time with her claws out. She managed to somehow dig her claw into the back of Barbie's neck. Mittens is not very good at retracting her claws, and so she got stuck. Barbie tried to lie down, and felt the claw tug on her scruff, which elicited the GSOD (Greyhound Scream of Death).
Mittens managed to let go and was duly chastised for assaulting the Princess. I had to examine Barbie's neck but found no blood. The claw was just in Barbie's hair, so no damage done.
My theory has always been that the GSOD is a signal that the dog is not actually hurt, just surprised. The GSOD also illustrates beautifully that Barbie sees the kitties as her equals and not a lowly-ranked being that can be snapped at or growled at.
Mittens says "No Comment"
Barbie is 5 now, which means we have had 3 years of harmony between her and the cats. Usually any dramas are between the two cats, and everyone else gets along just fine. Take that, anonymous Ranger!
Mittens is a very entertaining kitty. She isn't young anymore but she still has her moments, like this one where she stole Bender's tyre toy and attacked it for ages.
We have developed a little morning ritual. I am usually lying on my side when I wake up, and Mittens is usually perched on my highest point - my hip. My alarm goes off and I reach down carefully to turn it off without upsetting her. I then roll slowly onto my back, and like a veteran log roller, Mittens walks around and sits on my belly until I get up.
I usually make coffee and eat some toast, and then get ready to go, changing into my biking gear. Mittens swarms around me, dashing around my legs and standing up on her back legs to head butt my hands. When she gets tired of jumping up she will just hold on to my shorts with her claws while I pat her.
This morning I added a new element to our morning ritual. She usually sits in the bay window and watches me ride away. I decided to see what she would do if I held my hand up to the glass. She rubbed herself against the window next to my hand like one of those poor kitties you see in those glass cases at pet shops.
She has come a long way from the dirty, tiny, feral kitten we bought inside the house three and a half years ago.
OK, so we have had a houseguest for the last week, and she found it very strange that I went running for the camera when I saw Mittens and Frou Frou on the cat tower at the same time! I didn't know what was going to happen, but I was pretty sure something would happen....the cats have a bit of an ongoing war for high ground in the house. It's a strategic war and very rarely leads to a physical confrontation, usually there is just a lot of posturing. With the cats, possession really is 9/10ths of the law, and so whoever occupies the high ground the most stakes a claim.
I won't make any more comments here as it will spoil the ending, but let's just say, there was a clear winner this time.
The kitties have not been on the kitty tower together, until now. I slunk off to grab my camera because this is such a rare thing and I knew it wouldn't happen again any time soon.
They shared like this for about 10 minutes before Frou had enough and left. Mittens can't out muscle Frou, but sometimes she can be more stubborn in the war of attrition.
We are getting our new couch delivered on Saturday, and we gave away a couple of our couches on gumtree last weekend. As you can see the lounge room is quite empty. We dragged the bean bag out of the spare room to sit on. While the bean bag was in the spare room, Mittens sat on it for hours. Now that it is in the lounge room, nothing has changed, except that Mittens now has to share. Mittens doesn't like to share.
We currently have three couches, they were all acquired second hand and are all sporting a bit of damage from the cats. One of them is stained because it was outside on a verandah for 3 months when we lived in a shoebox posing as a house.
Anyway, we have decided to finally do away with them - I think at least two of them will make good couches for a student share house somewhere. The first problem is that we need to divert to cats away from scratching couches to something more acceptable.
Enter: the delux kitty tower.
I have been meaning to build them one of these for ages, but I never got around to it. N was in a spending mood when we were at the pet shop, so we settled on this tower as it was the most stable of them all. Mittens has voluntarily jumped onto it and settled down on it, but Frou only went on it when I put her there. Neither has had a scratch at it yet.
The woman at the pet shop suggested that when we get our new couch we can use a repellent type spray to discourage the kitties. I was wondering, is there an attractant type spray we can put on the tower to draw them to it?
Our friends Nibs & Ambam did a post recently where they told everyone their nicknames. Everyone in this house has a whole list of nicknames, so I thought I would share.
Barbie is known as: Black dog, Needle nose, sticky beak, slowpoke, Princess, the Hound, Barbs, shadow, lazy dog
Bender is also known as: pup-pup, boof head, boofer, doofus, blondie, Mr Barky, Benderman, Mr Bender, "shut up!!!"
Mittens is also known as: evil cat, squirrel, possum, nutso kitty, fluffball
Froufrou is also known as: Frou, evil frou, skitsycat, barrel, froufattiefatfat, limpet, leech, lap barnacle
Mittens is actually my very own first kitten (as an adult). We had kittens when I was growing up but that seemed such a long time ago. We were in for a treat with Mittens - she was always up for a game! When she first came into the house, the yellow cat in the video was smaller than her. I had won it out of a skilltester machine to give to N as a present. Mittens decided she liked it though, and as soon as she grew bigger than it, I think she wanted to teach it a lesson.
Recently we went on an extended holiday in Europe and had to sort out the dogs and cats. We were gone for 47 days, and after much deliberation and angst we decided that the kennel was the best place for the dogs - that way we would know they were safe and wouldn't get into any bad habits. For the cats, we found a housesitter - for half the time. For the other half of the time we needed to use a pet sitting agency that sent someone around to feed them, take out the rubbish and bring in our mail.
The dogs stayed at The Paw House with Claire and Leigh. The dogs have stayed with them twice before, and they both really love dogs. All dogs. The dogs seem to enjoy it there as well. When we checked in they asked if the dogs wear coats, and I said that they probably would just take them off. They said they would try and give the dogs coats anyway but they would also get blankets to curl up in. They encouraged us to email them for an update when we were away, so we did. At that point, Bender wasn't wearing his coat, he kept taking it off, but Barbie was accepting hers. About a week after Leigh sent the email, Barbie started removing her coat, so now she is really really fluffy!
See! That is one fluffy greyhound butt! For those of you who don't have greyhounds, the butt area is where they often lose hair in kennel environments!
She does have a couple of flaky spots which Leigh pointed out to me before we left - one on her thigh, and there is one on her chest. He said he had been watching and hadn't seen her licking it so I am not that worried. I'm sure it will clear up with her indoor life but she will moult all of that beautiful fur she has grown too, so I will have to make the most of it.
Understandably, after 47 days they were very happy to see us.
As we left though, it seemed that the dogs were quite attached to Leigh. They both had eyes on him until we pulled out of sight. When we got home we didn't leash them, they both went straight to the front door and Barbie practically pushed past Nic to get inside. They both pranced around the house to investigate. Bender spent more time snuffling around as there were two people he didn't know in the house during the time we had been gone. Neither paid any attention to the cats. Froufrou got up in Barbie's face, and Barbie just ignored her. Bender almost trampled her as if she didn't exist. Both of the cats seemed a bit put out that the house, and the humans, were no longer exclusively theirs.
The cats were looked after for the first three weeks by a student who does housesitting. The cats took a little bit more time to get used to him because they are used to being in a house full of women. They seemed to do OK with him though and he gave us some email updates as well. After he moved onto his next housesit, Paws in the Park took over. The cats got plenty of cuddles and attention from Lauren, though they took over the house. There were no boundaries any more. When we got home, the cats were waiting in the window and they were hungry. They were both competing for attention, but Froufrou was still the boss. When we ignored them they started climbing all over the kitchen bench and walking along the TV cabinet like it was a normal thing for them to do. We had to start enforcing the rules again. They did interrupt our sleep a little when they decided they wanted attention - Mittens by sprinting into the room and jumping onto the bed, and Frou by doing these strange little meows until I told her to shut up.
Anyway, we have a few days now for everyone to settle back into life before we have to go back to work.
Now, I have decided that I will give a shout out to a new blog each Thursday. I am going to mention blogs that I like, blogs that are new, blogs that maybe don't have many followers yet. I want to introduce them to the pet blogger community that I have enjoyed so much.
While I've been away, Desma (who is the trainer who helped me get Barbie to get her Canine Good Citizen Award), has been working on her blog, 28 Legs. Desma is particularly interested in animals in film and TV, and she has gotten TV roles and ads for many of her animals. The latest one was an IKEA ad involving her Bengal cat, Gunny. Her dogs also do agility and tracking. Check it out and say hi!
