Her Royal Catness

Each morning, I am either awakened by Eli bellowing, "Hull-oo-O?" outside my bedroom door; Rooney "wuffing" at Andy to get up because she's bored or Andy unintentionally letting The Boo! in while he's juggling his coffee cup, breakfast shake and the door handle simultaneously. She is quick. And practically invisible as she flies past human legs on her way to wherever those legs wish she wouldn't go.

Her first order of business is to jump on the bed, then me. In a burst of Boo!-ness! she smothers me with Boo!-juice sloppy kisses and insists I wake up and pay attention to Her Royal Cat-ness. Unlike Eli, who is so heavy, when he jumps on you it's like having a bowling ball dropped on you, Boo! is more like a mosquito. You can't really feel her but you know she's there - and there - and there.....

She looks like a chipmunk here.
This is one of the reasons I
can never get upset with her.

I never want to break her spirit but, sometimes, she is just too much. Like the other day, when I stupidly placed all six ceramic cat bowls on the counter, then turned my back for one second to reach down into the dishwasher to get a spoon. Boo! in her excitement to get the very first bowl of food, jumped onto the counter, right on top of the six bowls. I was able to stop all but one from crashing to the tile floor. It just so happened to be my favorite color, too. Of course she had to be right in the middle of cleanup, too. Did I mention it was a ceramic bowl? On tile...

Then there's her current obsession with nail files. She enlisted the aid of her brother in this one. I just know, like every other little sister (or brother) in recorded history, she talks him into doing her dirty work. Dash will jump up and take one from the tray next to my chair, then run over to her like a triumphant warrior bringing her the spoils of battle. Like I wrote in a FB post, I'm not sure what they're doing with those coveted files. I can only hope they aren't sharpening their teeth and nails in preparation for an insurrection.

This is a sample of a typical interaction with Boo!:

Me: (Upon hearing a crashing sound.) Boo! What have you done now?

Boo!: (Looking innocent and as small as she can possibly make herself.) I didn't do anything! Why don't you blame the other cats?

Me: (Looking around at five other cats, in a deep sleep.) Because the boys are all sleeping! You're the only one awake and there's broken glass right here on the floor!!!

Boo!: Oh, yea. I saw that! It just fell off the counter, all by itself. I swear!

Me: So, you had absolutely nothing to do with this?

Boo!: No. Come to think of it, Dash did it. He knocked it over then jumped into his bed and is pretending to be asleep.

Me: I do not believe you, miss. Now, scoot while I clean up this mess.

Boo!: Can I help you? I want to play with the shiny pieces! Pleeze?

Me: No! And unless you remove yourself from this area immediately I am going to get the water bottle.

Boo!: You're mean and I don't like you anymore.

Me: Well, I love you and I'm just trying to keep you alive. Could you work with me here?

Boo!: Oh - poo on you! I'm gonna wake up Dash. He's the only one who understands me....

Here she is, mad at me because I won't let
her sit on top of the hamster aquarium.

And off she goes to terrorize Bennett (the Bearded Dragon) or Emily Elizabeth (hamster) or her brother. That's our Boo! and I wouldn't have her any other way.

Cat House

Jack and Rooney do not share in my passion for cats. Well technically, they are passionate, just not in a good way. Certainly not in the way I would like for them to view the outdoor cats whose trust I am valiantly trying to gain. Their idea of dealing with cats is to leave the indoor ones alone while launching a scorched earth policy with regard to any who show up outside the house.

Now, I have made great progress with Shadow, the cross -eyed Siamese. He and I are at the conversing stage. He is quite chatty and answers me when I ask a question. He still keeps his distance - about 8 feet must separate us for him to be comfortable.

Shadow, sleeping on the neighbor's ledge.

This morning, there was a different cat outside waiting for breakfast. A beautiful orange and white one that reminded me of a Creamsicle.  Anyway, it got to breakfast first - a deeply disturbing thing as far as Shadow was concerned. He stood on the edge of the driveway watching the whole thing transpire; loudly voicing his concern.

He was greatly relieved when I brought out another dish of food, and put it closer to his safety zone. You see, he was afraid to come closer to the porch because both Jack and Rooney had scared his eyes straight by launching themselves at the window as he passed by. He was afraid to come closer despite my assurances they could not get him.

When I tried to explain to J and R that I am trying to get the cats to feel comfortable coming around, they looked at me as much to say, "Look, we put up with the cats you brought inside - all bets are off with whatever is out there." I get the canine (and feline) equivalent of an eye roll a lot.

Speaking of the felines, Boo! and Dash have been enamored with "their room" since I gave it a thorough cleaning. The reason for the cleaning had to do with a stolen loaf of bread.

The other day, I heard a strange rustling sound and went to investigate. That was when I saw Miss Boo! with a loaf of bread in her mouth; hauling ass through the house and into the front bedroom. She dove under the bed with it. I dropped down to take a peek and was shocked at what I saw. Apparently, they have been stashing all sorts of things under there!

I found a nail file, a dead lizard, almost every cat toy I've ever purchased, a blue, rubber dog bone and a cat scratcher festooned with an old, dried up hairball. I just crouched there, blinking. The decision was made to clean the room.

I tossed all of the cubes and tunnels and beds into the adjacent bathroom and filled a basket with as many of their tiny toys I could reach. They reminded me of my kids when they were little and I did a purge of their rooms. They kept inspecting everything as I moved it to another spot so I could vacuum. I moved furniture around and found even more "treasures."

When I was finished, the room looked much better. I tossed some old items and left all of the toys in a basket. I washed all of their bedding. I was happy.

The next morning, I went in to see how things were. To my shock, someone had removed every single toy from the basket and left them lying on the floor - as if in protest to my neatness. Now we're talking about thirty assorted items - balls, crinkly things, furry toys, etc. I guess they like it better this way. 

The purple basket had been filled with toys.
Somebody removed each one and left them on the floor.

Rooney was happy to have her long lost bone back,
she just had to show her dad,
and tried to get him to love it as much as she does.