Popsicles? Really?!

Ok, does anyone else have a cat that likes POPSICLES?!  I'm wondering if the reason popsicles come in pairs is because someone else way back when had a kitty who insisted on sharing just like Duncan.  I love them in the summer because they're so much more light and refreshing than ice cream and the sugar free popsicles taste much better than sugar free ice cream.  It seems Duncan feels the same way.  I wasn't surprised to learn he liked ice cream -- vanilla only!  -- but the popsicles threw me!  I truly did not expect to find him licking away at the other end of my favorite summer treat so now I've learned, when I want a popsicle, I get 2 out of the freezer -- one for me and the other in a bowl, but still on the stick or else he just plays with it -- for Duncan!  Its the only way I can have any peace!  Let me know what strange things your kitties like, ok?

My cat has allergies!

Well, it turns out my cat has allergies.  Who knew?!  Yup, what I thought was a return of the dreaded ear infection turns out to be a food allergy.  Poor little guy is allergic to Temptations tartar control treats which, of course, were just on sale so now we've got 2 more bags that he can't eat.  Oh well.  Just have to get him some other kind of treats that he isn't allergic to!  And I'm sure I've got some friends whose kitty will love the Temptations! 

Off to the vet's - AGAIN!

Duncan had earmites when he first came home with me so we went back 2 weeks later to have his ears cleaned and pronounced healthy.  A couple weeks later, they were black again so we went to the vet -- what the heck, he needed to meet everyone there anyway, right?  Well, after terrorizing the poor attendant and letting Dr. K know who was REALLY in charge, we paid the bill and headed back home.  He had an ear infection this time instead of mites and had gotten some medicine in his ears that smelled like bacon so for the next 2 weeks while we made trips to the vet every Saturday, his nickname became Bacon Bits!  Finally, after 3 weeks and 2 doses of the bacony-smelling medicine, he was fine.  Then last night I noticed his right ear is all black and gooky looking again so tomorrow we head back again for more bacon bits!  Poor little guy.  Sure hope the meds work this time.  If not, I'm going to have to suggest they try something that smells like pancakes with maple syrup!

Enough with the 4:00 a.m. wakeups!!!

Ever since Duncan has come to live with me, his internal alarm clock seems to go off at 4:00 a.m.  Some mornings its 3:59, some mornings it 4:04, but its always within 5 minutes of 4:00 a.m. and I am NOT a morning person!  Never have been, never will be!  This morning at 4:02 a.m. I was awakened by the sound of a cat clawing at the mattress behind the pillow my head was resting on.  When I was finally able to open one eye and realize it was Duncan, all I could think was "WHAT NOW"??!!  Seems he'd gotten his mouse stuck between the mattress and the headboard.  And anyone who has ever been owned by a cat KNOWS that that is NOT a good thing!  Well, once he realized I was awake -- even if it was only just barely! -- he managed to get that mouse out real quick and shove it in my hand!  Now the "Throw the mouse, mommy" game began!  So there I was, lying in bed, my eyes barely slits as I repeatedly tossed the damn mouse so he could charge off the bed, bat it around for a few minutes -- and trust me when I tell you that at 4:00 a.m. the sound of a fur covered cardboard mouse ticking off the closet door is enough to drive a saint crazy! -- and then BAM, back on the bed so he can shove it back into my hand again.  Why is it cats don't react to tears -- or threats!?!  Of course, when MY alarm clock went off 2 hours later, guess who wanted to snuggle and go back to sleep!  Little putz!

WTH?

Ok, animal people, especially cat people, will get this.  Why do I continue to think that if I speak rationally to Duncan he will turn to me and say, "Why, yes, darling mama, you're absolutely right.  I shouldn't do this.  I can't imagine what I was thinking and I promise I will never knock the garbage over again and spread the contents all over the kitchen floor (or whatever crazy stunt he's pulled lately) again".  I even find myself saying things like "If you want to be a homeless kitty who has to rummage thru garbage for survival, it CAN be arranged!" and am always surprised when he does it again!  Oh well.  I guess that's why God makes our furbabies so darned cute and loveable!

Mommy's leg is NOT a scratching post!

One of the first things I learned about cats is that they need a place to scratch so when Duncan came along, he got a new scratching board, a new 3 level cat tree with a sisal scratching post and inherited the one room cat condo with attached scratching post (a piece of tree with bark included!) that was originally Gus' and I figured we were all good.  Right?  WRONG!  He does use the scratching board but I have yet to see him go near either of the scratching posts.  Instead, he comes over, flops down by my foot, wraps himself around my leg and goes wild, kicking and clawing, sometimes even biting away at my ankle!  I understand all about the attacking hands thing and if I were to rough-house with him, I'd expect to get bitten and scrached, but my poor leg is just sitting there not doing a thing while I crochet, watch tv, toss the mouse (Yes, Duncan retrieves like a real pro!  More on that later!), flash the laser light and basically revolve around the furry new center of my universe!  Hmm.  I wonder what Jackson Galaxy would have to say! 

CLUNK!

I've recently had a partial knee replacement and still need my cane to get around most of the time, especially since it seems to be monsoon season in NJ right now!  We've had so much rain and gloomy weather lately that when the sun does make a rare appearance, most of us run for shelter in mortal terror of that bright glowing orb in the sky! 

So, I'm notorious for dropping my cane -- everyone knows me as The Klutz with The Cane!  Anyway, Duncan and I were headed into the loo one day and he was dancing around my feet, all excited about getting to visit the sink so I leaned the cane on the outside of the door, reached for the doorknob and, you know how you see something coming but before you can react it's all over?  Well, I could see the cane starting to slide but before I could do anything, down it came and nailed Duncan square on the noggin!  He gave me such a look -- "What the hell did I do now?!" -- that I almost didn't make it to the potty!  But he has definitely learned a new respect for The Cane and now gives it a wide berth so it has now become a new tool in my Duncan Training Arsenal!  No need to use it -- not that I ever would! -- because he sees it and quickly moves out of its way!

Morning frights!

One morning I woke up to find SOMETHING on the floor by my bed.  Had Duncan gotten sick during the night and I slept right thru it?  No, that couldn't be possible!  Over the years I've become as attuned to the sounds of a kitty yakking up a furball as a mom does to her newborn coughing.  No way I could have slept thru it.  So what WAS that all over the floor?

It seems Duncan had "killed" one of his toy mice!  Yup, fur and plastic body were not longer in one piece!  My little guy had "saved" me from being attacked by this terrible mousey monster!  Such a good boy he is!

The first 2 months

The first 2 months of sharing life with Duncan have been anything but dull!  He is a constant motion machine!  I've never seen anything like him before -- that cat NEVER stops moving!  Even in his sleep, he twitches!  I've described him to friends as a holy terror and its about as accurate as one can get.  Heights are his favorites.  He's been on the top of my refrigerator, the air conditioner in the kitchen (which is about 6 inches from the ceiling!) and the sliding glass doors in the bathroom.  In fact, he is not allowed in the bathroom at all unless strictly supervised.  He seems convinced that my shower cap and all buff puffs are there for his entertainment even tho I've tried my best to make him realize that is NOT the case!

 

But I'm getting ahead of myself here.  Back to that fateful day he walked into my life.  March 19, 2011 -- as the saying goes, a day that will live in infamy!  After declaring his new home acceptable, Duncan proceeded to check out the real amenities -- "WINDOWS!  Oh, yay, WINDOWS!  And birdies flying around out there!  And squirrels running around!  And people!  People walking dogs!  And cars zooming down the street!"  So much to see and marvel at!  And then there were the toys!  "Mom bought a bunch of mice, some catnip balls, a scratching board, a tunnel and a few other toys and then there was the crinkle sack and the ball/track thingie and CATNIP!  Lots and lots of fresh, homegrown CATNIP!"  Yes, my little boy had chosen wisely!  He obviously knew a sucker when he saw one and I had wasted no time in proving him right!  He was in heaven when he spotted all the afghans lying about and could barely contain his pleasure when he curled up on one and started purring and kneading.  The first couple days were just a wonderland of new toys and places to explore.  That first night, when I went to bed, I called him and he came flying in from whatever he was doing, plopped down next to me and snuggled all night.  Yup, he wasn't the only one who had chosen wisely! 

In the days -- and nights! -- that followed, Duncan explored every nook and cranny of his new home.  And God help anything that got in his way!  One night, VERY late and on a work night, I might add, he discovered the air conditioner in the kitchen.  The only reason I knew about it was because I heard the crash as he tossed aside the kitty knicknacks that were on the air conditioner as they hit the floor!  That was when Duncan discovered the spray bottle!  It has been one of my tools for teaching all of my kitties the rules of the house -- what few rules there are, anyway! -- but Duncan was definitely a special case!  I had to spray him 3 times before he decided he needed to get off the air conditioner as quickly as possible so naturally he took the "overland" route -- right across the top of my kitchen hutch which meant "moving" all the stuff I have up there!  Fortunately nothing went flying too far and nothing was broken but it certainly startled both of us!  He also discovered the top of the refrigerator and the top of the sliding glass doors in the bathroom which lead directly to the top of the cabinet next to the doors!  That wasn't quite as "lucky" an experience.  My room freshener quickly fell prey to Duncan's "enthusiasm" and wound up in several pieces.  My body sponges, shower cap and buff puff were also too tempting and he decided he needed them as HIS toys.  That was when the bathroom became "off limits"!  Now the door is permanently closed and he only gets to go in and play with the water in the sink when I'm with him!

The bathroom wasn't the only scene of destruction.  Unfortunately, one of the set of lamps in my bedroom that had survived my marriage and three previous kitties could not last with Duncan on the loose.  He absolutely knows when he's been a bad boy, too!  That was one of the quietest days since he's come to live with me! 

Duncan has a tendency to sleep all day while I'm at work and then want to play -- as in ransack the apartment! -- while I'm trying to sleep.  Sleeping hasn't been all that easy for me in the last several years so hearing "BANGBANGBANGCRASH" coming from the kitchen doesn't do a lot to help me stay asleep!  Nor does holding the Indy 500 on my bed!  A friend suggested putting Duncan out of the bedroom when he starts racing around the room -- first he climbs up the drying rack, then WHAM, onto the bed shoving the drying rack over in the process, chase the "blanket mice" (aka my FEET!), then fly onto the windowsill, from there to the dresser, to the clothes dryer and KABAM, off the dresser, out the door, down the hall and then BACK into the bedroom and onto the bed -- and it made sense.  I'd done that once with my Gus and that was all it took so when Duncan started doing his kitty rain dance on my head one night around 2:00 a.m. I got up, picked him up and deposited him on the other side of the bedroom door.  Ah, peace!  I went back to bed and slept the rest of the night thru till the alarm clock went off.  Then I walked out of the bedroom. OH.  MY.  GOD!!!!!!!  It looked like the kitchen had been blown up overnight!  EVERYTHING that had been on the table was now on the floor and scattered all over and mixed with all the paper recycling that had been strewn about.  The garbage pail had been knocked over and its contents dragged out onto the floor, including the coffee grounds from the pot of decaf I'd made the night before.  It was complete and total bedlam!  How on earth had I managed to sleep thru all this insanity?!  Lucky for Duncan he had the good sense to stay way far away from me!  However, he did win that round -- I was not up to another kitty tantrum so no more tossing him out of the bedroom!  What I did do, tho, was to install the catnapper I'd gotten in one of the bedroom windows.  Now, most nights he sleeps there and we get along a lot better!  Of course, there are always the nights that he doesn't get enough of the wiggles out of his system and the banging in the kitchen starts up around 1:00 or 2:00 a.m.  I try to pull the pillow over my head and just ignore the sounds most nights -- its just "safer" that way!

As you may have guessed by now, Duncan is a jumper!  The higher the better!  And if it happens to be on mom's back, that's the best!  Yes, my BACK!  I was standing in front of my makeup mirror putting my contacts in one morning when he leapt from the bed to my shoulders -- well, ok, he didn't quite make it all the way to my shoulders so he had to CLIMB up my back to get there! -- and then peeks around to see what exactly it is I'm doing, you know, real up close and personal!  Crazy damn cat!  After that, it was open season for jumping on mama!  I'd bend over to pick up something he'd tossed on the floor and he'd be on my back.  I'd be washing dishes and he'd be on my back.  Tying my shoes -- Duncan on my back!  Sensing a pattern here?!  The BEST was the day I was bending over cleaning his litter pan.  Not only did he jump on my back but then he decided to run in circles -- ON MY BACK!  When I yelled at him, he nipped me on the butt!  Definitely never a dull moment with Duncan in the house -- and I haven't laughed this much in years!

Duncan Kelly

In March, 2010, I lost my 13 1/2 year old kitty, Esa.  He was one of the sweetest cats I've ever had the joy of knowing and his sudden loss had me swearing I'd never have another cat.  I'd lost 2 other cats, my beloved Gus in 1997 and my best buddy, Sybil, in 2005 and I was done.  NO MORE CATS!  It was too heartbreaking when they left.  Well, my friend Cheryl had other plans!  After watching me grieve for over a week she convinced me we HAD to go to PetSmart to return something I'd gotten for Esa when I thought he might get better.  Oh and while we're there, we can just LOOK at the furbabies up for adoption through S.M.A.R.T.II, the shelter that works with PetSmart to find homes for their shelter rescues.  Yeah, right.  We'll just LOOK!  HA!  However, I was determined NOT to bring a cat home with me.  So much so that I didn't even bring my carrier!

Well, we looked.  And as I walked around the tower of cats, this orange tabby on the bottom stuck his paw out and tapped me.  So, I just HAD to say hi and chat with him, right?!  I mean, it was only polite!  And he was a real chatterbox!  He told me his name was Duncan and that he would really love to come home with me and he was a very good boy and...  Well, you get the picture!  Next thing I knew, I was making that fatal mistake all animal lovers make -- I was asking if I could hold him!  That was it.  I was a goner! 

Cheryl stood by Duncan's cage while I filled out the necessary adoption paperwork and I heard her say to him "Kid, this is your lucky day"!  She later told me that he was intent on watching me while I was filling out the paperwork and whenever anyone came by he'd back away from the front of his cage, as if to say "No, its ok.  I have a mom!"  What can I say?  Esa was a total sweetheart but definitely a few fries short of a Happy Meal.  Duncan, on the other hand, is too smart for his own good!  And he recognized a sucker the second he saw me!

So, now Duncan was mine but I had no carrier with me.  Remember, I was NOT going to adopt another cat!  God bless Cheryl!  She had driven so now we had to go back to my apartment, get the carrier and then go BACK to PetSmart and get Duncan!  But it was a gorgeous day, so why not spend it in the car travelling back and forth to PetSmart?  Especially since the trip back home would be filled with the lovely strains of Duncan "singing" at the top of his lungs! 

So, the journey began.  We arrived home and Duncan popped out of the carrier, surveyed his new surroundings and immediately pronounced them "purrfect"!