[my cats]
My home is currently shared with a brother-sister pair of felines named, respectively, Darwin and Pascal. Both are basically mixed Tabby types that my girlfriend's sister obtained through her work as a veterinary assistent when someone brought them in as abandoned animals. I got them in late July of 2004 and they were already a few months old at the time and completely distrustful of, well, everyone. I guess being an outdoor cat for a few months from birth will do that to you. But they both like me and my girlfriend now, especially when we're holding a cup of catfood in our hand. They have really loud purrs, too. Like freakishly loud. I haven't yet seen (or heard, rather) another cat that I can hear purring across the room.
.:Darwin:.
When he's not running away from you, he's usually stealing his sister's share of the cat food. Of the
two of them, Darwin is the most skittish. I could walk into the kitchen while he's in there and all
of a sudden, I'm this big predator attempting to corner him nevermind the fact that I've been feeding
him and cleaning out the litterbox everyday oh for... HIS ENTIRE LIFE. Sheesh. He also makes funny
whining noises when he's distressed about something (food dish is empty, can't find Pascal). And
somewhere, Darwin developed a taste for corrugated cardboard. Any boxes that I leave out eventually
get chew marks all over them, not to mention the sprinkle of cardboard bits all over my carpet.
.:Pascal:.
I swear, some days I think this cat is psychic because she knows exactly where she's not allowed to
be and goes straight there the minute I turn my back. I used to lay out packing tape sticky-side up
to thwart her many misadventures on the kitchen counter - I came home one night to find her mewing
pitifully as she had been spending the last couple hours trying unsucessfully to extricate herself
from recently placed tape - but she's since wised up to my ways by being able smell the packing
tape when it's been laid out to trap her. Her tail fluffs up really easily too. Anytime she gets
startled or scared, ALL the hair on her tail stick out perpendicular to it. It's really quite
amusing to see.
Some highlights during our time together...
My home is currently shared with a brother-sister pair of felines named, respectively, Darwin and Pascal. Both are basically mixed Tabby types that my girlfriend's sister obtained through her work as a veterinary assistent when someone brought them in as abandoned animals. I got them in late July of 2004 and they were already a few months old at the time and completely distrustful of, well, everyone. I guess being an outdoor cat for a few months from birth will do that to you. But they both like me and my girlfriend now, especially when we're holding a cup of catfood in our hand. They have really loud purrs, too. Like freakishly loud. I haven't yet seen (or heard, rather) another cat that I can hear purring across the room.
.:Darwin:.
When he's not running away from you, he's usually stealing his sister's share of the cat food. Of the
two of them, Darwin is the most skittish. I could walk into the kitchen while he's in there and all
of a sudden, I'm this big predator attempting to corner him nevermind the fact that I've been feeding
him and cleaning out the litterbox everyday oh for... HIS ENTIRE LIFE. Sheesh. He also makes funny
whining noises when he's distressed about something (food dish is empty, can't find Pascal). And
somewhere, Darwin developed a taste for corrugated cardboard. Any boxes that I leave out eventually
get chew marks all over them, not to mention the sprinkle of cardboard bits all over my carpet.
.:Pascal:.
I swear, some days I think this cat is psychic because she knows exactly where she's not allowed to
be and goes straight there the minute I turn my back. I used to lay out packing tape sticky-side up
to thwart her many misadventures on the kitchen counter - I came home one night to find her mewing
pitifully as she had been spending the last couple hours trying unsucessfully to extricate herself
from recently placed tape - but she's since wised up to my ways by being able smell the packing
tape when it's been laid out to trap her. Her tail fluffs up really easily too. Anytime she gets
startled or scared, ALL the hair on her tail stick out perpendicular to it. It's really quite
amusing to see.
Some highlights during our time together...
- Darwin crashing into a thick glass door in an attempt to pounce on a pigeon.
- Pascal discovering the tape laid sticky-side up on the kitchen counter.
- Darwin stealing a hair band from Karen then eating it when caught with it.
- Anytime one of them stalks the other and launches an attack.
- Going to bring down a nervous looking Darwin sitting on the ledge of the loft overlooking my living room but realizing I was too late as he lands in front of me, hisses, and hides under the couch. The popular theory is that Pascal pushed him over.
- Pulling Darwin off the same ledge after watching him slip and hold on for dear life while trying to scrabble back up.
- Watching Pascal's tail poof up after a friend of mine started making a low growling noise at her.
- Waking up to the cats' figuring out that playing with the door stop under the bedroom door is an excellent way to indicate that it's feeding time.
- Pascal doesn't like catnip but she likes shoes, often triggering a catnip-like effect. Okay...
- Darwin never quite got the hang of burying his byproducts (though he is a little better now) forcing poor Pascal to go into the litterbox and clean up after him.
(c) Vince Tagle 2005. All rights reserved. Design (c) Andrew Tedstone, 2004.