[ October 31st, 2002 at 12:55 pm ]

At mealtimes, groups of sparrows and doves gather around the feeder hanging just outside my window. Twinkie stalks them carefully from inside the glass, her haunches swaying. The birds don’t even know she’s there. Soon enough, though, Molly comes along. She is the cat with absolutely no real-world hunting experience. She runs up to the glass screaming, and of course the birds scatter.

[ October 21st, 2002 at 10:46 pm ]

I’m teaching Molly to enjoy being held. When she was a much smaller kitten, I respected her wishes. She did not often seek to be enclosed in my arms — sometimes late at night but rarely otherwise. Finally I realized that a psychologically healthy cat is a cat who wants to be held approximately once per day. Whether or not this idea has merit may be debated. However, in this household, I have proclaimed that a cat may be picked up and cradled at my whim and at my discretion. Molly is learning to accept, nay, even to appreciate, this truth. I think she’ll be happier for it.

[ October 13th, 2002 at 2:47 pm ]

I was at my mother’s yesterday. She is at all times surrounded by cats. In her home a pair of Egyptian sisters coexist in a fragile truce with chunky black Skeletor. As well, there seem to be a multitude of strays prowling her garden. I once counted five. My mother is fairly indifferent to them all in comparison to some cat owners I’ve known. Conversation is never dominated by stories of this or that cat. Still, she is a good cat owner, and when I mentioned Twinkie’s recent digestive woes, Mom announced that she knew of a solution. With a flourish she handed me a tube of Cat Lax.

This morning I administered some to both Molly and Twinkie (not only is it effective against constipation, but also helps prevent hairballs). Each cat got a dab of brown goo on her left paw. They spent some time wandering around the apartment in this condition, but I did finally notice that they’d licked away the mixture of cod liver oil, vaseline and carmel flavoring.

[ October 7th, 2002 at 6:32 pm ]

Molly loves food; whenever she smells food she purrs.

[ October 6th, 2002 at 11:29 am ]

I had put some butter on the tip of my finger, wondering if Molly might like to lick it off. Which she did, of course. Then she began gnawing on me as if I was her next meal. As if she thought I was a butter boy.

[ October 1st, 2002 at 9:01 pm ]

I just drop things on the floor and my cats will almost always play with them. When it comes to choosing today’s favorite toy, Molly and Twinkie don’t make distinctions between, for example, dried pasta, scraps of wrapping paper, bottle rockets, and even clumps of cat hair. Fun can be found in any of these objects.