animals, Family, home, pets, Stories, Uncategorized

Mad Cat

65 Comments

When I moved into my house 30 years ago there had been a cat door installed in the door from the kitchen to the basement.  At the time it never occurred to me that I would ever have a cat so I took out the flap (which was broken anyway) and put a brass kick plate across the hole.  Since I left the door to the basement open most of the time anyway, it was just fine.

Then I got a cat.  And a cat box in the basement.  And a dog who was VERY interested in the cat box.  Eww.  So I took off the kickplate and closed the door.  Zorro was just fine with just a hole in the door for many years, although it always bothered me.  When we got Nimue I decided that I wanted something nicer looking so I bought a cat door/flap kit to install.  Of course, the hole was too large to install the kitty flap (or any kitty door/flap that I could find) so my local hardware store crafted a piece of scrap wood to fit into the hole so I could install the door.  Of course, this makes it sound easier than it was; after I got the scrap piece in place, I put off installing the door for a couple of weeks.

At the end of that two weeks, we had a thunderstorm during the day.  I’m sure I’m probably mentioned that my Irish Setter was not a big fan of thunderstorms.  At night I could keep her a little under control but that day, while the storm raged, I was at work.  I came home to see that in her mania to get to the basement (she always thought she would be safer from thunder in the basement), she had completely clawed the wood piece, to the point where it was unusable any longer.  I decided a hole in the door with no kitty flap would be fine after all.  I left the scrap piece in place and put the kitty flap kit in a drawer.

Fast forward to this week.  Rhiannon is no longer with us and Guinevere, while afraid of almost everything else on the planet, is not afraid of thunderstorms (don’t ask me why, it doesn’t make any sense to me either).  And we have company coming in October so I have a long list of projects that I’d like to get done.  Kitty flap/door was yesterday.  Turns out that the kit had instructions written by Martians and if I originally had all the pieces and hardware, I didn’t have them now.  Punting took just two trips to the hardware store.

Once the flap was installed, I took Nimue’s favorite kitty treats, went down the basement stairs and shut the door behind me.  She came to the door almost immediately when I shook the treat container; I had a treat in my hand and was just about to partially open the flap from my side when the dog decided she needed to assist in the operation.  Unfortunately, she wanted to assist by herding the cat, which is one of the cat’s least favorite things.  She fluffed up and ran.  When YA tried to help, Nimue ran upstairs where she ensconced herself in the middle of my bed.  She practically dared any of us to get near her.

She did eventually settle down but I’m worried that her first traumatic experience with the kitty door may be a bad omen.  I put several of her kitty treats on the other side for now, so we’ll see what happens.

Have you pissed anybody off lately?  On purpose?  Are you sorry or not?

 

 

65 thoughts on “Mad Cat”

  1. I love this. And the question totally cracked me up!
    I got an email on Thursday morning. It rained hard- we got 2.9”. They predicted maybe 1/2” up to 1” in places. A big area got 2”.
    Anyway I got an email from a business in the township having water issues. Ditch was full, parking lot filling with water. He had asked me to look at these ditches late last fall. It was too late to do anything about them then, and then I forgot about it. And then Covid hindered normal group road inspections and it didn’t rain all that much this summer and here we are again. I did apologize. And we (the township) will be cleaning out the ditch next week.

    Liked by 6 people

    Reply

  2. Rise and Shine Baboons,

    If I have angered anyone in the last months, I am not aware of it. However, last January I angered a client so intensely that he fired me. This was not the first time this happened by any means, but it was quite memorable. The list of crimes I committed included needing knee surgery. Following that declaration I explained to the individual that his life would not change if he did not change how he interacts with other people and life in general. He objected and my services are now included on his very considerable trash heap.

    All I can say about that is that some losses just are not that hard to get over.

    This week I have been largely absent from the Trail after encountering Dog Drama and neighbor drama. We are now a one dog family. I will expand on this in a post. I had planned to write some posts this week, but the Dog Drama superseded anything else.

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

  3. Too funny, VS! I feel like I can relate to that entire situation.

    I stay home a lot and keep to myself, so I don’t think I’ve done too much damage. I do annoy my brothers but that isn’t unusual.

    I did have a negative interaction with an aide at Mom’s memory care place a couple of weeks ago. This girl should be fired and I wasn’t shy about sharing my opinion. That’s my mom in there and I can’t be there all the time to monitor how things are done. I changed my visit time and found out how much trouble Mom was having with supper. I tried to correct the situation diplomatically and was greeted with negativity and hostility, and Mom continued to be neglected. I reported the aide to her supervisor and she was disciplined. So I guess I pissed that aide off, but I really don’t care. That’s my mom in there.

    Liked by 6 people

    Reply

  4. Our next door neighbors to the north have a very large, badly maintained ash tree that was planted very close to the property line. The branches hang over the fence (which is their fence) and over our yard and roof. We are perfectly in our rights whenever we cut off the branches that hang over our yard, bur the neighbors hate it when we do, and last weekend rhe man neighbor started yelling at us as we trimmed yet another branch for making their tree look unbalanced. Earlier this summer one of the branches broke off and fell on our roof during a wind storm. Most of the leaves from the tree end up in our yard in the fall. We persisted in cutting the branch as he yelled, and then he ordered us to stop leaning things againt the fence on our side of the yard since it was his fence and we were going to ruin it. (All we had against the fence was a light weight wire trellis. We immediately took it down. I bit my tongue and resisted asking him if the rule for the fence included his two adult sons who hide their drug parenphernalia in the fence. We throw that away whenever we find it.) Now we all just ignore eachother when we are in our respective yards. There is one more branch to be trimmed, but we will wait to trim that until next spring.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    2. As you’ll recall, we had a similar situation with our next door neighbor. The tree issue was never quite resolved until he died. To the best of my knowledge, we were not the direct cause of death though there was little doubt that he experienced elevated blood pressure whenever he was interacting with Hans on that and many other “issues.”

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

  5. Neither of our cats were very happy with us this week when they were put in their cat carriers and taken to the vet for nail trims and checkups. The unhappiness!

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  6. When cats are upset it is a lot like the T-shirt saying, “When Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.” When the family cat ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy. How dare you tend to their good health.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  7. I am intensely disliked by quite a few people in town whose children have been my clients due to child protection concerns. Sometimes they yell at me in public. That gets embarrassing.

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

    1. Yeah, she was really mad for about an hour. When I first went to sit on the bed, she let me know in no uncertain terms that this was not on the agenda. After about 20 minutes I came back and she didn’t have any issues with me sitting on my bed, but there was no touching.

      Liked by 5 people

      Reply

  10. A political site to which I often post comments has an article this morning about the White House directing the CDC to use $300,000,000 on a PR campaign to tout Trump’s efforts against C19. Commercials starring Dennis Quaid would be produced to “defeat despair”.
    My comment, “Why is any such program needed as multiple times every day President 15 To Zero says things are going just fine? Isn’t that enough?” Lots of down votes. I’m not sorry.

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

  11. I feel guilty for having nothing to say. I don’t piss people off, generally speaking. I disappoint them, which is a lot less fun than making them mad, and it doesn’t produce good stories.

    I spent most of yesterday afternoon at a medical clinic, which is not my favorite thing to do. Last night I cleansed my spirits with cheap wine. Today is blessedly cool, with no obligatory activities. I’m curled up in an easy chair with Chris’s second novel, listening to great music, enjoying my Saturday.

    Liked by 6 people

    Reply

  12. I will be upsetting a workmate very soon. I’m just now getting to work at Children’s Hospital in Cincinnati. It’s always weekends lately. This guy, is the Q follower, I’ve mentioned before. Not 5 minutes are we together and he is going on about a late 1800’s book he has that seems to foretell Trump. I’d heard just a bit about it. So I will be asking him whether it describes Pgrabbing, sex with porn stars, paying $130,000 hush money and numerous bankruptcies. Should be fun. I won’t be sorry.

    Liked by 7 people

    Reply

  13. To be honest, I’m sure I piss people off occasionally, though usually I don’t do it deliberately. Depending on who I pissed off and why, I may or may not be sorry.

    This afternoon I spent two hours with my friend Philip who is in hospice care at his apartment. He can’t be left alone at this point because he falls He’s also a bit confused, he forgets that he is not supposed to get out of his chair without assistance. My main assignment was to make sure he didn’t get out of his chair, and keep him company if he was awake.

    After about an hour with him, he became fidgety and seemed anxious. He maneuvered his recliner to the upright position and was getting ready to stand up. He became rather testy when I told him he couldn’t get out of the chair, and wanted to know why. I told him it was because he’s too weak to stand, so he falls, and then he can’t get up again. I added, and I’m not strong enough to lift you. I asked what it was he wanted, and I’d go get it for him. By this time he had forgotten what it was he wanted. I told him I know the feeling, I sometimes find myself in a room, and have to ask myself, what did I come in here after. Then we both laughed and were friends again.

    He has fallen three times within the past two days, luckily without getting hurt, so we’re arranging for someone to be with him 24/7. At this point we don’t know if his confusion is the result of a new medication he was put on last Monday, or if he has had some sort of brain incident. Either way, while the medical folks are trying to sort that out, we’re not leaving him alone.

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

    1. So hard… it’s just incredibly hard to watch someone you care for go through this. My mom does the same. Her left hip is broken but she tries to get up and walk all the time anyway. Then she falls. She has fallen a number of times since returning from the hospital. She doesn’t remember the pain from the last time she tried this – there is no learning anymore. There is only an impulse to get up and walk and so she does. It’s hard and sad.

      Liked by 4 people

      Reply

      2. One of my besties is preparing to move her husband into a memory care facility in a week and a half. I don’t remember the name of what it is that he has — it’s a deterioration of the left lobe of the brain. And it’s time for him to be in a place where there are people who can take care of him instead of just her. But it’s just awful.

        Liked by 4 people

        Reply

        1. My friend Philip’s problem with memory is an acute one, and not the reason he’s in hospice care. He’s been medically frail for years, but his mind has always been clear – whether or not you agree with some of his various quirky decisions. What’s happening at the moment is completely out of the blue, and either medication or a series of mini strokes are to blame. If it’s medication, he may be better, so far as confusion is concerned, in a few days. If it’s mini strokes, he’ll probably continue down a slippery slope of mental decline. Either way, whatever time has left on earth is short.

          I’ve written here before about my friend Ken who has FTD (frontotemporal degeneration), and I can honestly say, I’ve never seen anything as devastating as that. Ken is lost to the world and to himself while he remains physically strong. Ken’s case just breaks my heart. He has already spent years oblivious to the world, and there’s no end in sight.

          Liked by 3 people

  15. I am petsitting my sister’s two cats this week. One of them, Lulu, has a rather grouchy face and and very imperious voice. If you pick her up, she makes a sound that sounds angry and strident, but then she will instantly start to purr. You can hold her, paws up, like a baby, for several minutes, and she’s happy as can be, but she still has this sullen expression.

    Yesterday I picked up her water bowl to refill it, but then a delivery driver dropped off a package, and I went to retrieve it and left the water bowl on the kitchen counter. Then I forgot about it. Lulu, who is what is known in modern parlance as a “chonk”, cannot make the leap to the kitchen counter, so she eventually walked over to the mat where the water bowl usually lives and made a fingernails-on-chalkboard “mmmyeaaah” sound. If I didn’t know her better, I would have been sure she was saying “So where the F**K is my water dish??” But that’s really the way her voice sounds all the time, so I can’t really tell if I pissed her off or not.

    Liked by 8 people

    Reply

  16. WP is still pissed at me and sometimes doesn’t allow me to “like” things unless I write a comment. Once I have written something, it’s okay and I can proceed with my identity and permissions intact.

    Like

    Reply

    3. Krista: when that happens to me, I need to go down to the comments box and click on the blue WP logo. Then I need to exit TB and go to any other site, then come back to TB. At that point I can comment or like the comments of others. I am obliged to do this almost once a day.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. I do that. I have to click on the WP logo, then post a comment. I haven’t had to go to another site. Maybe that is what I should try next time instead of posting another comment. I’m relieved to hear that it isn’t just me.

        Like

        Reply

  17. The dogs were pretty mad yesterday that they were inside and I was outside. They could hear me talking to people – and they might be people who were going to eat my head! Or worse… they might be people who want to adore the dogs and I wasn’t letting them do so! Soooo much talking and consternation from 40 lbs of French Bulldog(s). All. Morning. Long. (My brother and a friend of his came with two big trailers full of dirt to fill in my “muddy pit” in the back yard with some assistance from a friend of daughter’s who I paid to help with hauling from front to back.)

    When I did finally come in and let them out of their crate they were entirely non-plussed – ran outside, came back in. And then wanted to know if they could have some of my cheese.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

        2. I used to care for friends’ dogs’, and the little white one was the dominant dog. I have a picture of the two of them that would have come out better if the black dog was in front, but if the camera’s out, the white dog was the star.

          Like

  18. I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned I’m in charge of a remodeling project at a local theater.
    The electrician has told me he’ll be there tomorrow. He’s pissing me off because he hasn’t said when. I’ve asked him twice ‘What time?” and have not gotten a response. Fine, wait at the door until I get there then.
    Plus, Not all the construction inside is done, which will probably piss him off. But there is some work they have to do before construction can proceed.
    Then there’s the plumber too. But I know he has to do some stuff before I can do some stuff.

    I do like the fact the electrician is a bit of a rebel. He may piss me off and I may piss him off, but I bet neither of us will take it personal and he’ll come back when I do get the walls built.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  19. my job on the planet appears to be pissing my wife off.
    she’s home24/7 now online teaching from the couch . meetings and observations on occasion but lots of classroom zooms and correcting papers. because my warehouse is getting gone i’m gone everyday from 8 til 6 and back to do current biz after doing grunge work and when i get in the room it seems my infringing only her space is enough to piss her off. looking forward to closing the warehouse and of giving out of the house? not…
    maybe the garage workshop or my bedside desk will turn into my new favorite perch but we’ll see.
    it took me a long time to realize she goes from pissed to not thinking about it at all but it’s tiresome. my kids hate it. i hate it. she is who she is.
    it will be interesting this next corner we’re turning.
    eggshells schmeggshells . i’m doing the 27 things on my list and she will correct papers. ain’t life grand.
    i’ve always told my kids to learn from what i’m doing wrong as much as what i’m doing right. i’m a lot more natural at some of that.
    i used to think significant others would get the hang of it. i know better now .
    i’ve heard women expect men to change, men expect women not to. they’re both wrong. i’m not pissed i’m resigned. she’s pissed…
    thanks for the session
    i feel like i’m making real progress ….

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    3. I’m numb! How do you respond to this tirade without pissing off any number of people?

      I get it, tim, you’re under a lot of pressure of all kinds right now, and from what I gather, you have been for some time. Not only are you dealing with financial issues, deadlines, and strenuous physical work, you have serious medical issues to deal with as well. That takes it toll on you and your relationships, including your marriage. You need to figure out a way to enlist you wife to be your ally in this process, and you can’t do that by diminishing her role in your family. My heart aches for both of you, but please, please try to rekindle whatever it was that made the two of you fall in love with each other. What was it about her that was irresistible to you, and vice versa? Please don’t let your current stresses tear this family apart. If I believed in prayer, I’d be on my knees for the foreseeable future. ❤

      Like

      Reply

  22. After forty years, a now former friend realized, probably because it was written in an email, that all those times that I had told her something was none of her business, or I didn’t want to discuss, or that her instance on discussion only made me angrier, I was actually serious. No I didn’t want to repeatedly hear, over a period of years, whether or not I should get married or have children, how to conduct my sex life, who I should be friends with, or why I should let her select a religion for me (I’m an atheist and so is she.)

    Her classic performance was one night when just the two of us were eating in a Chinese restaurant, and she informed me, in between bites of her meat entree, the vegetarianism was the only moral way to live and that I should be a vegetarian. She at least affected to be puzzled as to what point I was making when I pointed out that she was not a vegetarian. When I told her that if she thought vegetarianism was the moral way to live, she should be a vegetarian. She laughed as if there was some silly misunderstanding and said that her husband wouldn’t let her be a vegetarian (did I mention that she thinks she’s an ardent feminist?) I wish I hadn’t stifled the urge to sarcastically say that I was sorry to hear her husband beat her.

    So when she sent me an angry email listing a number of things that I was to do in support of an issue of hers, never thinking that I might have my own opinion, and I wrote back that I was tired of being told what to do over and over and over, she was so offended that she announced that she was never bothering me again.

    I considered trying to heal the breach, but I decided she was doing me a favor.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

      1. I went over to her house years before that to tell her that since she apparently couldn’t stop nagging me on a certain subject, I was cutting off communications. Unfortunately, someone else was staying at her house, and I didn’t think that it should be a three-person conversation.

        Almost immediately after that, she announced that she was moving about 2,000 miles away, and I hoped that we would drift apart. I see now that I still should have told her. Our relationship improved, but it began to deteriorate again. So I ran out of acceptance.

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

  23. My cat also liked storms! I always supposed that it was because he had been abandoned and was living outside, and now finally had a roof again!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. My first cat was named Zorro and he came to me as a rescue and did not want to be picked up either. So I started “stealth” picking him up. Any time I saw him when I walked through a room around the house, I would pick him up and before he even knew that I picked him up I put him back down and I did that for about two weeks. Then every time I would pick him up I would count five and then put him down, did that for about two weeks then counted to ten, etc. So eventually after about 6-7 months I could pick him up and carry him around for ages. Of course as soon as I stopped moving, then he wanted down!

      Like

      Reply

        1. Can’t hurt to try it now. Zorro was about a year when we got him so he was grown and it worked for him. Good luck.

          Like

  25. My cat pisses people off all the time. ALL THE TIME. Mostly us, but also neighbours and local wildlife (if foxes and squirrels count as “people”).

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.