Cats really can sleep anywhere

 Posted by on 25 September 2010  Modern Life
Sep 252010
 

There is something about this video, in which nothing really happens, that is both cute and greatly amusing. Perhaps it’s the incongruity of the orange juice? Neither water nor milk, it’s something no one would make up, if they were making up this video.

But I can vouch for the fact that some cat (mine) do sometimes drink orange juice. For about the first three years of her life, Shadow would try to eat/drink anything that was bright orange, and she liked sweet things like orange juice a fair bit.

She also likes peppermint, and will chew peppermint gum. For a while. Why am I not putting these things on YouTube?

PS. Happy Caturday!

Is your cat normal?

 Posted by on 28 May 2010  Modern Life
May 282010
 

Here’s a photo of my cat Shadow that Amy took. She’s a great cat, but she’s got some personality quirks that can be exasperating.

Does your cat drink from the toilet, keep you up all night and wreck your sweaters? Congratulations, your cat is normal! (As is mine.)

WebMD has a great slideshow of normal-but-possibly-annoying cat behaviours to reassure you. Check it out here.

Not a cat owner? They’ve also got one for dogs.

Cats love honeysuckle wood

 Posted by on 23 December 2009  Everything Else
Dec 232009
 

When I was a child, my parents had a large honeysuckle bush growing next to the house. Its springy branches were perfect for a young boy to climb and scarmble on. But alas, it was too close to the verandah, and when it got too large, it had to be cut down.

My dad brought some of the wood into the house to burn in the fireplace, where we noticed that the cat went crazy for it. This, mind you, was a cat that had previously shown absolutely no interest in catnip, yet he was wildly clawing and scrabbling and pawing and biting these foot-long scraps of wood.

My mom took some branch cuttings to other peoples’ houses, to test it on their cats — universally, they loved it.

Suddenly, we had dreams of making the family fortune at craft shows, selling bundles of wood as a treat for your cat. We’d corner the market! My mom even had a clever name all thought up (wish I could remember it).

Well, a couple of decades later, and we’ve been beated to the punch. I saw this in a pet store yesterday:

Sep 302009
 

This reminds me of my cat, but in certain ways, I think that’s because it reminds me of all cats. Simon draws based on life experience, I’m sure, but he’s managed to tap into a bit of the Platonic Ideal of catness.

I posted another one of his videos here.