Posted on 09/15/2014 11:03:37 AM PDT by Kaslin
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RUSH: A year ago, a little over a year ago now, the beloved Punkin the cat passed away. After 14 years, kidney failure, which resulted in her refusing to eat because she knew -- the vet told us, anyway -- that eating would poison her. Instinct told her so she wasn't eating anything, just withering away, and there was nothing to be done. So we put her to sleep and waited a couple of months and went out and got a new Punkin, an Abyssinian, different color. Punkin was a ruddy. This one is a tawny.
It's a completely different cat. This one we named Allie. It's an Abyssinian, but personality-wise, a lunatic. An absolute insane lunatic cat, totally different personality. So much so that we have not let her live in but two rooms of the house, the bedroom and my library. "Liberry," for those of you in Rio Linda.
The reason is not that we fear she will get lost, because we plugged up all the things that she could sneak into and get lost, you know, down in the foundation of the house. We've got all those tunnels and secret passageways plugged from long ago. But shortly after getting her, I guess three months after we got her I'm sitting in my library, and there's a two-story, two-floor library that's open from floor to ceiling and the second floor has a banister that runs all the way around it. It's a rectangle room, the banister runs around. The banister, it's a hand railing about three, four feet off the ground.
I'm sitting down there on my couch one day and I'm looking up, and she's on that banister. The banister is two to three inches wide. I'm thinking, how the hell did she get up there? I'm saying, "Oh, my gosh! I hope nobody comes in the door and makes a startling sound that scares her," because I didn't want her losing her balance. She'd fall 20 feet. I said, "Gee whiz, how did this happen?"
Prior to that, she had wormed her way through the vertical -- I don't know how to describe this -- the vertical bars in the banister to get to the inside ledge up there, which is about six inches. There's plenty of room there. But she jumped up four feet from the floor. There's no way to climb. There's nothing to climb on. She had to jump up there. And if she had lost her balance, she'd have come plummeting down 20 feet and I would never have known it 'til she hit.
So I said, "Okay, roping off the upstairs." I made a temporary cardboard door preventing her from going upstairs. So she's been living in two rooms.
We decided over the weekend that this poor cat cannot live her life in two rooms. So we're gonna open it all up late this afternoon, early this evening. We're gonna let her out of the bedrooms, open the door and just see what happens. Because if she falls, she falls. Can't watch her 24/7.
And when I say "insane," I mean funny insane, just a crazy personality. She plays fetch. She brings me things for me to throw so she'll go get 'em. And then when I bend down to pick 'em back up after she's brought it to me she darts at me like she's trying to get it from me before I can get it. Just the funniest cat. So we're gonna open up her world this afternoon, and I'm gonna be sitting down there waiting in bated breath, 'cause it's not just the library.
Inside the front door the same circumstance exists, the second floor foyer. I'm comforted by the fact that I have read stories of cats surviving falls of much -- they land on their feet. They've got spines of linguine anyway.
Now, I thought of getting pillows and a bunch of stuff to put down there on the floor in case she slips. And, you know, you can't say anything. You can't tell a cat "get off of that." She won't listen. I mean, it's impossible.
So that's what we're gonna do this afternoon, late this afternoon, unless something comes up. But the poor thing, I mean, can't live her life in two rooms. You gotta let 'em go at some point, right? It's like a kid, turning 'em loose, letting 'em go at age 18. You gotta let 'em go. Same thing with a cat.
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An Abyssinian is about the last cat I’d choose to have. Too weird and crazy.
Sadly, we all have to learn to live within our means. Sometimes our wants outpace our means, and other times our means change, forcing us to downsize our wants (or haves).
Ask yourself "do I intend to read all of these books even one more time before I die?" If the answer to any book is "no", find a good home for it now while you still have a say in the matter.
“Ask yourself “do I intend to read all of these books even one more time before I die?” If the answer to any book is “no”, find a good home for it now while you still have a say in the matter.”
That doesn’t work for me since most of these books are work related. Some I may only look at every other year, but when I need it for work I need it for work. I can always unload novels since I will re-read only a few of those. I live well within my means.
Plus, don’t land cats on their four feet?
The only fault I have with Rush is that he is a cat person.
So sue him. *rme*
At over 200 MPH, that can be very hard on the feet...
Flaps might help.
He also has a dog, if I am not mistaken
Yes, I’m certain a while back, he got an Olde English Sheepdog they named Winston.....don’t they still have the dog??
She needs a cat wheel to run on.
http://www.catwheelcompany.com/
Wellesly and Abbey
Rush, Sean, and Mark made themselves irrelevant when they decided to join the crowd that would say nothing as the Saudis put an illegal alien Marxist Muslim terrorist in the White House.
We had a tortoise hair cat that played fetch. She would bring me an un-used twist tie from a bread bag and drop it in my sneaker to let me know it was play-time. I’d throw it, she’d chase it down and bring it back and drop it into the shoe. I’d reach for it and with her big claws she’d try to swat it out of my hand. I got scratched a lot, but I loved having a cat who fetched. She also loved to play hide and seek. I’d peek from behind a door, she would see me and come towards the door to check out what was going on, I’d yell, “surprise” and she’d jump two feet off the ground. Then I’d go hide behind another door and we’d do the whole thing again. She was a lot of fun.
Thank God for Buck Sexton!
I had one too!
At the time I had Boots, I had a macramae plant hanger that I had hung a toy on an elastic string for her to play with.
She'd grab it, pull it and it would spring away and then she'd go jumping for it as it swung around.
One day I got home from work to find her totally hog tied with the string wrapped around the legs of a dining room chair and around her neck. She was totally immobilized.........I'm lucky she never choked to death. I threw that toy away........
Love ElRushbo and love this story.
Our cat’s a fanatic about being outdoors - all day & into the night. I worry about her; but to try to keep her in the boring house all the time would just make her sad - and NAUGHTY. Looks like Rush has been a mother hen about his kitty kat. I’d rather them have a year or two of outdoor happiness as many years of indoor misery and boredom.
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