You Gotta Love Cats

I love Cats!! I find them infinitely beautiful, amusing, fascinating, and sometimes frustrating. As I write this, one of my cats is reclining on my lap and another is trying to move her out and take it for himself. The lap is prime territory; it’s the kitty version of calling shotgun. I also have several feline clients; each one is unique and so amusing in their own special way. Thought I’d write about a few of them.

On weekday afternoons, I take Dina out for a walk or an outing. Obviously, Dina is a dog, but she has two kitty brothers, Zack and Max. They are both very sweet boys and the polar opposites in personality.

Zack is a clown. He’ll do somersaults down the stairs or some other silly thing for attention. It works; he’s so cute you have to stop and pet him. If he were a human, he’d be a comedian. Always doing something to get a laugh. Max is just as sweet and friendly, but also reserved and dignified. A human Max would be an intellectual type, maybe a professor. He’s ever so charming in his own subtle way. Max would never think of doing the silly stuff for attention, he’s way too cool for that. I adore them both.

I once spent half an hour looking all over the house for Zack. I looked in all the rooms in the house, under, behind and on top of furniture, cabinets, and beds, and in all the closets. You really get to know a person’s home when you go on a cat search in it… LOL! I finally found him, locked up in a closet that, until then, I didn’t know existed. I was soooooo relieved to find him. When I told his mom about it, she said it’s happened before; he sneaks in there to sleep and then gets locked in. Now I know where to look first the next time I can’t find him.

One of the sweetest and most tolerant cats I know is Cody. He’s always happy to see me. I think it’s amazing that Cody so friendly and welcoming of me, since I have to hurt him every other time he sees me. Cody has medical issues and needs Sub Q fluids every other day. This requires inserting a large needle into the skin on his back, and then he has to hold still for several minutes while the fluids slowly drip into him. He obviously hates this procedure, I can feel him steeling up for it when I lift up his skin and then flinching when I insert the needle. I hate it too! When it’s finished, his back feels like a furry half filled water balloon. He’s a total trooper; he just hunkers down in his bed and waits for it to be over. While he does verbalize his displeasure, he never tries to bite or scratch. He doesn’t even try to get away, well most of the time. When I’m ready to leave, he’s happy to let me pick him up to say good-bye. Cody is a down to earth kind of guy and he takes life as it comes. I think his human alter ego would be a farmer.

Most of my feline clients really like me, and then there’s Tuna. We have a love/hate relationship… I love him, and he hates me. The first couple times I visited with Tuna, he hid until I put out his food, and then left to walk the dogs. Tuna LOVES food, he would eat, and then hide again when we got back. I only caught glimpses of him dashing behind the closest piece of furniture. However, Tuna is a tough guy, who doesn’t intimidate easily. He soon stopped hiding and now he orders me around. While I’m fixing his meals, he stands nearby and orders me to hurry up. He still doesn’t like me and tells me so continuously. Tuna has a well-developed range of nasty sounding growls and hisses, which he freely demonstrates. He’s not afraid to take a swipe at me, just to let me know he’s the boss. Tuna’s human job would be as a Marine Drill Sergeant. I really like Tuna; his grouchy attitude cracks me up. Although I try not to let him know I’m secretly laughing at him, he might make me do push ups… LOL!

Dogs, a Kid and a Hole...

Today Jesse and I took our client Dina to our favorite park. We do this pretty much every weekday afternoon, so we’ve gotten to know several dogs and their people who we see nearly every time we’re there. The dogs are all good friends now and they play very well together. We humans enjoy watching the dogs play, while we chat with each other. It’s a nice way to let the dogs get lots of exercise, without having to exercise us… LOL!

Jesse, Dina and their friends tell me this park is their doggie Nirvana. They have a couple acres of open space to run and play in, off leash and free. There are tons of sticks everywhere. Sticks are great toys to tease other dogs, play tug and fetch with… and to chew on too. It has lots of trees to dodge, hide behind, use as mailboxes, and rest in the shade of. There are multitudes really awesome smells; hundreds of people and dogs use the park, along with all the wild animals who make it their home after dark. To a dog, it’s like a symphony for the nose. When they get hot they can romp in the river to cool off. They can dig as much as they want and no one scolds them for it. They get to be dogs there and they love it!

Anyway, Jesse, Dina and three of their pals did some major digging today. They spent a great deal of time and energy excavating a large hole. When they finally decided the hole was finished, they each took turns urinating in it… They like to sign their work. Just then a woman came by with her six-year-old daughter and their eight-month-old Weimaraner puppy. We all forgot about the hole as our dogs came over for a meet and greet with the new puppy. Then they all ran off for more doggie games. We adults stood around watching the dogs play; laughing and narrating their silly antics.

After a couple minutes, we heard the little girl call out one of the phrases that can make an adult’s heart stop, "Hey Mom, look at me." You never know what you’ll see when you turn around to look… maybe the kid has climbed up a tree and is about to show mom she can fly.

We all turned around to look and she was happily lying in the very same hole that only moments earlier all the dogs had used as a urinal. Of course neither she, nor her mom knew about that small fact. I so wanted to laugh and exchanged looks with my friends and knew they did too. I could also tell that, like me, they were wondering, “Should I tell this woman her daughter is lying in dog piss?” Somehow we all non-verbally agreed not to mention it.

But when the girl got up from the hole, she had small wet, dirty spots all over her backside, and we all lost it. Then her mom asked us what she had on her back, so we had to tell her. She laughed too, what else could she do? It was funny ☺

There’s No Place Like Home

As part of my Pet Sitting business, I often do overnights at my client’s homes. I usually like doing overnights; unless I have an ill or behaviorally challenged fur kid, overnights are an easy gig. I’m there for at least twelve hours, but for most of that time we’re sleeping…

Or not, it takes me awhile to get used to the sounds of every home and neighborhood; the ones my clients sleep through, but Jesse and I hear. So we often don’t sleep well. And even though the bed is very comfortable, it just feels different. However, it is sort of refreshing not to share a bed with my cats. It’s amazing how much space such small creatures can take up. It’s nice to be able to move without: 1. Being growled/hissed at, 2. Having to move a cat, or 3. Not being able to move at all, because all the cats are sleeping right next to me, on top of the blanket and it’s weighted down.

Last night I had one with a couple of really wonderful dogs. I’ve stayed with them a couple times before and we’ve become great friends. They have a lovely home and I enjoy staying there, but it’s just not as comfortable as being at home. I miss having Internet access too, but it gives me a chance to do some writing or read.

When I got home this morning, I could hear Jesse and the cats at the door. It was a cacophony of barks, whines and meows on the other side of the kitchen door. They’re used to me being away, sometimes until late in the evening, but they don’t like it when I’m gone overnight. Jesse is always beside himself with joy when I come home, even if I’ve only been gone a few minutes, but he’s over the top on these mornings. It takes him longer to calm down and take care of morning business. He also has to sniff me all over, and isn’t all that thrilled to smell two other dogs on me. Then he keeps a watchful eye on me, in case I may be planning on leaving again, until he can’t stay awake any longer and takes a long nap. I don’t think he sleeps well when I’m away overnight (I don’t either).

The cats seemed to have really missed me too… they were all over me when I came though the door, meowing and rubbing on me as if saying, “Where were you all night, we thought you weren’t ever coming home again. By the way, where’s breakfast? Oh yeah, and the potty boxes need to be cleaned out too.” It’s nice to be home and to have been missed!

My First Blog...

This is totally new to me and I’m a little intimidated to publish my thoughts for anyone to read. I’m not a great writer, so don’t expect beautiful prose, but I hope you’ll find some of my stories amusing.

Most of the time my visits with my fur clients are pretty routine, but there are times when weird stuff happens. Like the time I was out walking a couple of my clients…

It was a warm, August evening and we were having a very pleasant walk through their neighborhood. We had gone a few blocks, when we turned a corner and ran into a lot of smoke coming from the back of a house. I mean A LOT of smoke! I seriously thought the house was on fire. The thick smell of wood burning was choking me and it was agitating my dogs and all the others nearby. The neighborhood was aloud with barking and howling.

I was just about to call 911 and report a fire, when I saw some people out in their yard next door. They were hanging out and chatting, like nothing was wrong. I asked them if they’d called 911 about the fire. They laughed and said it wasn’t a fire, they were just barbequing next door, and it happens all the time. I’m still not so sure; I was thinking that it was too much smoke for a simple BBQ. But then a man and his two boys came out of that house to play catch in the front yard. I asked him about the smoke coming from his backyard and he confirmed the neighbor’s story; he was barbequing some steaks and hotdogs.

I’ve lived in So Cal almost my entire life (I won’t say how many years, but it’s more than 40… ha ha), so barbeques are nothing new to me; we BBQ often, and all year long. I’ve been to BBQ’s where we’ve roasted a whole pig, to restaurants with giant smokers, and to huge bonfires at the beach, none of them produced that much smoke. I wondered then, and still do, what kind of fire he had going back there and if it might have been a bit overkill ☺