Wreck the halls!

  

As the holidays roll around, I have to say I am breathing a sigh of relief this year.  Gamora usually gets crazy when I put up the tree and decorate the house.  Her favourite thing to do is find low hanging ornaments and pull them off to play with.  Or she will remove a stuffed ornament and carry it away, like a prize she just found 🙂  The worst part is when she attacks the manger (and the tree skirt), just beneath the tree.  Last year, she upset the Bethlehem scene more than once and having a little OCD, it just really ruffles my feathers when I have to fix it again!  This year, strangely, she has limited her naughty behaviour.  I can count less than a handful of times that she wreaked havoc.  She removed my Harley Davidson snowman ornament, trashed the stable, and disturbed my Grinch sled set-up (she chewed the reins) once!  It is like she is growing up and feels that she needs to do these actions only one time to get her fix now.  Although in the moment it is frustrating, I have to admit it is quite entertaining and funny—unless she finds tinsel to chew.  I am glad I have taken pictures of the destruction she caused over the past five Christmases.  The older she gets, the more reluctant she may be in getting up to no good.  Oh well, at least she doesn’t climb the tree (because I KNOW she likes heights) and she hasn’t broken an ornament in the longest time.  Still, the Christmas season is not over—maybe she’s planning a huge last minute coup on me!  It might be her gift, for lousy 2020 😀

Yes, Mother!

     
Groot                                                                Gamora

You know when you talk to your fur babies and you believe that they really understand you?  Well, they do!  They know when you are talking about them, they understand their names, they understand commands (no matter what language!).  I have two anecdotes that give a perfect example of this.  First, I’ll start with Groot.  As you may recall in a previous post, I mentioned how he loves to visit the bathroom: whether it is to accompany us to the throne, sit by the shower, or drink from puddles in the sink.  He even loves to play with the bathroom mat!  Anyway, all this to say that if one of us ventures into that room, he needs to follow.  There is one exception—when I am actually cleaning the toilet, tub and counter.  I don’t want him in there with all the cleaning products frothing, waiting for me to disinfect surfaces.  I am afraid he will try to lick harmful chemicals that haven’t been wiped away yet.  He cannot enter when I do clean in the bathroom but I need to keep the door open for air circulation.  So, how does he know?  When I tell him!  🙂  If I am ready to clean and he is about to enter, I turn to him and say, “No, Groot!  Danger.  You can’t come in here right now.”  He knows the tone and automatically, he turns away and walks off.  He knows what the word “danger” means.  With Gamora, it usually has something to do with food.  Once, I went down to let them out after their breakfast and although she had eaten all of her wet food, she didn’t really touch any of her hard food.  She was exiting her room when I was disappointed and exclaimed, “Gummy!! What happened?  Why didn’t you eat more of this?”  She responded with a meow and came back into the room and knew exactly what I was talking about, cause guess what?  She went straight to her dry food bowl and started eating more of her kibble!  I have to admit, I was taken aback when she reacted like that … then I said, “They are smarter than people think!”  Don’t be fooled by their innocence; your pet knows what you are saying.  Whether or not they want to respond to you is another story.  LOL

I’m afraid of no noise!

 

Most cats freak out when they hear loud and unexpected noises.  Gamora and Groot fall under that category.  Let’s just say they get spooked pretty easy.  Not Noogie.  All her life, Noogie was a cat that was calm and collected.  She never flinched, jumped nor fled when she heard crazy sounds.  Not when the vacuum was on; not when there was booming thunder during storms; not when my husband played his didgeridoo; not when she was sitting next to a grinder in the garage—not even when the high pitched smoke alarm in the house went off (which could make anyone drop to their knees)!  And if you think she may have been deaf or had bad hearing, that was certainly NOT the case.  She could be on another level of the house and yet, she would come running whenever I called her name.  She also could hear when I opened any kind of can 🙂  It was remarkable how she tolerated high decibels without a visible reaction.  It is as if she was wearing invisible ear protection.  I think once, she may have looked at me stunned, when a clap of thunder shook the house!  … And then she went back to grooming or sleeping.  I mention this trait about her because I think it is rare for a cat to not react when the volume gets too high for them.  It may also have helped her to enjoy the company of so many people, including my rambunctious nephews and nieces.  Maybe she tuned out loud noises for the sake of being close to others.  She would rather bear the discomfort of practically going deaf than be in a quiet room by herself.

Dedicated love song

So, my sister and I were always doing crazy things with Noogie and Pookie.  We would try to dress them up or we would make them dance to music.  We were in our early 20’s (twenty years ago, in fact) when we heard K-Ci and Jojo’s hit, “All My Life“.  One day, when it was playing on the radio, we decided to dedicate that song to both of them.  We literally picked them up and serenaded them by singing it to their faces, swaying them to the music.  They were really good sports about it!  To this day, I remember that moment—while millions of others used this song for their wedding that year, we used it to commemorate our love to these two wonderful furry family members.  Even now, whenever I hear it playing, I smile because it reminds me of them.  It makes me laugh too because we enjoyed the theatrics of it all when we were doing it to them, while they stayed immobile and unresponsive, waiting for it to be over.  But we thought it was a perfect song for them and when I think about the lyrics, they’re pretty accurate (just change the word “lover” to kitty or bunny).  I haven’t found a song fit for Gamora and Groot but if I do, you’ll definitely be informed.  Or perhaps I could compose my own songs for them and be like Freddie Mercury, who loved his cats so much that he actually recorded musical tracks in honor of them 🙂  Oh, the things we do for our fur babies!

 

Too soon?

I haven’t written a blog post for almost a month and this was because I was away on vacation.  Among wonderful experiences and everlasting memories from my trip, I was also reminded that there are tons of friendly cats just wanting attention and affection.  My heart still felt sad that Noogie was gone (it has been exactly six months on July 23rd, since we put her down in January) but I also had a yearning that was not expected just yet.  The picture of the feline above was a random friend that was waiting in the shade of a tree, after we got off our dolphin tour in South Carolina.  I was not sure of its sex but it certainly was not scared and enjoyed the scratches under its chin and belly rub that I graciously provided.  It even became playful and meowed in contentment.  I don’t know if it was a stray or owned by someone near the area.  The interaction I had with the cat, however,  made me want to adopt sooner than I ever thought I would.  Part of me felt a little guilty: shouldn’t I just wait a little longer before taking on another cat or two?  Was my mourning period too short?  Would Noogie be SAD that I have moved on?  I spoke to a few colleagues at work and one told me that she thought now was the perfect time to adopt, as Summer brings along many animals that were given up during Moving Day.  She encouraged me to become a cat “mother” as soon as I could.  Another co-worker told me that my heart would let me know when it was right.  Both agreed that in no way would I be replacing Noogie.  What they did mention was how adopting two would be beneficial for the cats themselves and me, at the same time.  Perhaps it was my mistake to look at the SPCA’s adoption page this past week and get sucked into the cuties awaiting at the shelter—now I will be passing by this weekend to see if a match is even possible!  Is this goodbye to Noogie?  No.  This blog is dedicated to her (a companion I will always LOVE) and I still have her name engraved on a necklace that I bought in her memory.  But a tiny voice (maybe hers?) is telling me that it is time to share that love with other cats who are waiting for a comfortable home and welcoming arms.  I am ready to accept the challenge.  We’ll see what happens 🙂