[ October 10th, 2010 at 8:54 am ]

Here is how I know that my cats are spoiled. Every morning they act as if they are starving to death, as if during the night they ate all their food and now blame for not leaving enough out for them, and yet they’ve left behind every morsel of dry food that is not whole and perfectly formed. That’s right, my cats are so spoiled they will only eat unbroken cat food pieces. I guess this is why nature invented scavengers.

[ February 21st, 2010 at 9:36 pm ]

A song for Twinkie: “You’re such a lovely animal, we’d like to take you home with us, we’d love to take you home.”

[ August 13th, 2009 at 10:11 pm ]

Twinkie has pretty eyebrows! I don’t know why I’ve never noticed that before.

[ July 26th, 2009 at 4:19 pm ]

Cats are basically like small children who are forever making messes because they don’t understand what tidiness is, much less why or how to clean up after themselves. And so you must go around sweeping the floors and picking up their poop. Such is the life of a cat-parent.

[ June 15th, 2009 at 12:01 pm ]

The other morning I awoke to find my two cats coming at me from both sides, as if they were a pair of lionesses on a hunt, stalking their prey. Twinkie was on my left and Molly was on my right. Instead of going at my jugular vein, however, they sat down next to me on the bed and began to purr.

[ April 15th, 2009 at 2:55 pm ]

Twinkie and I learned a few things at the vet the other day.

1. Cats get acne too! Specifically, older cats apparently sometimes suffer from blackheads. To an untrained eye these may look like scabby sores that never seem to heal. Luckily the problem is much more benign than that. My vet shaved Twinkie’s chin, cleaned up the inflamed area, and gave me some topical zit cream to put on it. Problem solved.
2. If your cat has more earwax in one ear compared to the other, it could be a sign of an ear infection or an injury. In Twinkie’s case it was just earwax.
3. Twinkie may have a thyroid gland condition called hyperthyroidism, common in older cats. (In fact, Mia, the temperamental Siamese cat who was my childhood pet, had a pretty bad case of hyperthyroidism that eventually left her skeletally thin and even more temperamental by the time she died at 18 years old.) Blood tests can highlight a thyroid problem, but other symptoms to look for include an increased appetite and decreased weight, along with more vomiting and random meowing in the middle of the night. Treatment could involve orally medicating the cat for the rest of her life, or alternatively there is some sort of radiation therapy that’s effective. The jury’s still out on whether Twinkie really has a thyroid problem, but I’ll know more in a couple of months.

[ February 16th, 2009 at 1:35 pm ]

After many months of leaving the cat tree territory to Twinkie and Twinkie alone, Molly has moved back in. She prefers the top level, whereas Twinkie prefers the middle level, so it’s not as bad as it could be, I suppose. Still, this new encroachment is causing some strife because Molly loves to reach down from above and bat Twinkie on the ear. Twinkie is actually very tolerant of this behavior; she doesn’t give Molly any satisfaction by getting annoyed or fighting back. She just hunkers down a little more so that Molly can’t reach her. A few minutes ago, however, Molly took it a little too far. As usual, she was leaning down to bat Twinkie, and Twinkie was making herself as flat as possible, which made Molly lean even further down, down, down, until finally she lost her balance and toppled right out of the cat tree, tumbling onto the floor in a whirlwind of fur. She ran away into the bathroom and I haven’t seen her since. Has Molly learned a lesson? Time will tell.

[ December 3rd, 2008 at 1:29 pm ]

This morning I found the most amazing hairball. It was dense and small and it sat on the welcome mat just inside my front door. The hairball was exactly the same size and shape as a jellybean — much like a large pill, but even I could have swallowed it (or coughed it up) with little trouble. Normally my cats’ hairballs are much larger, say the size of a baby carrot or a piece of salt water taffy. The great mystery, of course: Whose hairball was this? Being gray in color, I surmise it was the handiwork of Twinkie, who doubtless spent days perfecting it. Perhaps it was a little gift from her to me. I did not express gratitude, exactly, but I did exclaim at the hairball’s pleasing dimensions.

[ July 31st, 2008 at 4:44 pm ]

This morning I found Twinkie sprawled out in one of her usual spots on the closet floor. Unfortunately she was sitting right next to some poop. I gently scolded her: “Why are you sitting next to your own poop?” As I grabbed various items of clothing from my dresser drawers, I noticed that she kept looking over her shoulder at the pile of feces, as if surprised and disgusted to see it there. She was trying to feign ignorance, but I didn’t fall for that. I came back with plastic baggie to clean it up and she ran away guiltily.

[ January 6th, 2008 at 11:19 pm ]

Today’s experiment was to test whether Twinkie really knows her name. I always think it’s cute that Twinkie will respond when called, but I’ve suspected that she’s attuned more to the tone of voice, and the eye contact that goes along with it, than to her actual name.

Me: Twinkie!
Twinkie: Meow!
Me: Twinks!
Twinkie: Meow!
Me: Twinkle-Toes!
Twinkie: Meow!
Me: Molly!
Twinkie: Meow!
Me: Kitty!
Twinkie: Meow!
Me: Mommy!
Twinkie: Meow!
Me: Poopy!
Twinkie: Meow!

Hypothesis? Proven.