Every action has a reaction

It’s hard being a cat sometimes, especially if you share a house with other cats.

Even though there are three perfectly good baskets around, whenever there’s a box available Chanel, Mickey, Charlotte and Gabriel will take turns curling up in it.  But sometimes one of them overstays his welcome.  In that case patience goes out the window and it’s time for a little action.

While Gabriel was sleeping in a cardboard box today, Mickey did just that.  He positioned himself close to where Gabriel and looked at him.  Make that, stared at him.  He stared and stared and just when I thought he was about to give up, he stared some more.

Gabriel wasn’t bothered.  Mickey could stare all he wanted, Gabe wasn’t moving.  So what did Mickey do … he bit Gabriel’s leg.  He lowered his head, nuzzled his nose into Gabriel’s long hair, but instead of grooming him, he took a bite.

As planned, this action had a reaction.  Unfortunately Mickey hadn’t thought this one through though.  Yes, Gabriel vacated the box, but Mickey couldn’t immediately take possession of it.  First he had to deal with a mouthful of hair.  That comes of it when you bite a longhaired cat.

Do Mickey and Gabriel fight?  Neih, they’re the best of friends, always have been.

In general it wasn’t Mickey’s day today.  This morning I couldn’t find him.  I wasn’t really worried because I had seen him some five minutes before, so I figured he was probably sleeping somewhere.

While waiting for Mick to resurface I decided to make the beds.  I started with Dieter’s bed, grabbed hold of the duvet and flung it on the floor.  There Mickey was, with some dumb look on his face like “What the hell happened?” 

Did he get up?  If you think he did, you don’t know Mickey very well.  He put his head down and went right back to sleep.  Okay, I would come back later.  Much later.

I moved on to my bed.  Once again I grabbed the duvet and threw it off the bed.  I heard a “clonk”.  That was strange, duvets go down softly, they don’t go clonk.  This time I had interrupted Charlotte’s sleep.  She slunk from under the duvet (that was now in a heap on the floor) clearly not impressed.  She gave me a look that said “What’d do that for?”

This was clearly a no win situation for me.  So I left the beds alone and went to do the dishes instead.  Much safer for everyone.

Cat or Skunk

He looks all innocent and dignified, doesn't he?  Don't be fooled, Mickey is far from innocent and he caused quite a commotion today with something very undignified.

I’ve long suspected that there was something different about Mickey. People call black and white cats tuxedo cats, but I’ve always been of the opinion that they are hybrids, a cross between a cat and a skunk. Today this suspicion was confirmed.

You probably all know that cats like boxes and paper bags. Humans often buy toys for cats, only to find that kitty cat is more interested in the box the toy came in than in the toy itself.
The same goes for paper bags, they have a magnetic effect on cat.

So today, Dieter (a human who walks around here) come home with a paper bag and got the bright idea of putting Mickey into it.
Mickey had other ideas and didn’t take too kindly to being picked up with the intention of being stuffed inside that bag. He struggled a bit and when he couldn’t get away he came up with plan B ... he did like one of his ancestors and farted.

His backdoor draft had immediate effect. Dieter let Mickey go and fanned his nose to get rid of the smell. That wasn’t all though, when he smelled his T-shirt he had to go and change and when he smelled his arms and hands they had to be washed.

As if that wasn’t enough, the whole area where Mickey had performed his escape maneuver stank up to high heaven. Cats and humans alike could go near that place anymore. The smell took anyone’s breath away.

So you see, the notion of a black and white cat being the offspring of a cat and a skunk isn’t that farfetched.  Can someone hand me a bottle of Febreze?