Thursday, January 26, 2012

That’s my basket!!!


A cat needs a place of his own.  A place to sleep, nap or just chill.  But who knew that, with multiple baskets around, a cat actually knows which basket is his?

Mickey, Charlotte and Gabriel do.  They each have their own basket.   Big enough to stretch out in, soft enough to ensure sweet dreams.  When I say “their own basket” I mean just that. 

Mickey’s basket sits in an armchair and none of the others dare to go near it.

Charlotte’s basket is positioned on top of the wall unit.  She likes higher ground.

Gabriel’s basket rests at the foot-end of my bed.

For the longest time everything went fine.  They each had their own sleeping place and everyone was happy.  Until the other day …

Gabriel curled up in the basket on top of the wall unit.  When Charlotte caught sight of him it was clear she did not like what she saw.  She furiously hissed at him, hit him over the head a couple of times and said something in cat language I didn’t understand.  Gabriel did and slunk out of the basket, clearly with a guilty conscious.

Before you start feeling sorry for poor Gabriel, he wasn’t quite so “poor” later that night.  Mickey curled up Gabriel’s basket on my bed, and Gabriel didn’t like that.  He didn’t like that at all. 
He sneaked up on Mickey and in no uncertain terms let him know “That's my basket!!!”  

There was spitting and hissing and some quite colorful language.  As if that wasn’t enough, Gabriel started hitting Mickey.  Mickey hit back and for a few seconds I had two prize ring fighters on my bed.  In the end Mickey vacated the basket, which Gabriel promptly took possession of.

To sum it up … Gabriel isn’t welcome in Charlotte’s basket, Mickey isn’t tolerated in Gabriel’s basket, and none of them have even tried to jump in Mickey’s basket.

And Chanel, the fourth cat, you might wonder.  Chanel doesn’t like baskets, she prefers boxes.  Whether it's the lid of a jigsaw puzzle box, a shoebox or any other type of box, if it's make out of cardboard Chanel will try to get into it.  Even if doesn't quite fit.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Cats on crack


Charlotte waiting to get her ball back

Whenever a new toy comes into the house, it’s always a bit of a crapshoot whether or not the cats will like it.  Whether they will play with the toy or be more interested in the box it came in.
Since “meeting” Sandi, the guesswork has been taken out of cat toys.  Every toy is a hit, thanks to Sandi’s not so secret ingredient … catnip.

Yesterday the latest shipment of toys arrived and it immediately had the attention of Chanel, Charlotte, Mickey and Gabriel.  Wrapped in plastic and stuffed in a bubble envelop, they knew this package was for them and gathered around.

Tree balls and a gingerbread man came out of the envelop.  Chanel claimed the gingerbread man for herself, leaving Charlotte, Mickey and Gabriel to divide the three balls among themselves.

All of them had a ball.  They held the toy between their paws, rubbed their cheeks against it and bit the toy until it was sopping wet.  They rolled around with it, threw it in the air and caught it, and rolled around some more.

Twenty four hours later, the gingerbread man is still around, but two out of the three balls are AWOL.  
No playing today, the Manero lot is too tired to lift a paw.