Conference misery::feline_v1

    Ellen, this note kind of reminds me of Kirby, and how he's been
    reacting to a moth that got into the house.  Kirby would see the
    moth flying about, and go absolutely crazy!  We started to make
    a game of it; I'd locate the moth, call for Kirby in an excited
    tone of voice, and he'd come running to find it.  When it
    would land somewhere he couldn't see it, he'd start staring
    up at the walls and ceiling, crying out to me as if to ask, "where
    did it go, mommy?"  The moth had been in the house for a week (Murdock
    brought it down last night), and I'd often find Kirby walking around
    aimlessly staring up at the walls.  What really struck me funny
    is that Kirby is not the type of cat to jump
    onto countertops or dressers but when he saw that moth he took leaps
    and bounds like he had mastered them all his life!!  Usually, he
    is quite content letting us pick him up and placing him where he wants
    to be.
    
    --Roberta
    

    Wish I had a video camera every day when Aubrey and I go out in the
    canoe.  We've just moved to a cabin on a lake, and it took her a while
    to train me to pick her up in the canoe.  I thought when she sat on
    the shore and howled she wanted me to come back.  Silly me.  What she
    wanted was to be picked up.  She followed me along the shore one day
    and as I passed the neighbor's dock she ran to the end and howled.  I
    went up to the dock to talk to her and she jumped in.  Not bad for
    a 17 year old fat cat!  Now she waits for me to come home from work
    and the minute I open the door she runs and jumps in the canoe and
    howls "let's go!"  She likes getting in and out - she's trained me
    to let her out, then she'll run to another spot and I'll go pick her
    up.  You've never lived until you've seen a aged, clumsy, fat cat
    scrambling over rocks in the water trying to get to the canoe!  She
    likes to perch on the bow and lean out over the water - thinks she's
    a mast head.  She also likes to walk on the rim of the canoe - very
    hazardous, especially since she's such a clutz.  She's only fallen
    off on the water side once - caught herself with her front paws and
    hung over the side for a bit before she hauled herself back in.
    The really wild part is she gets sea sick - sometimes she'll ask to
    go ashore, then she'll eat grass, throw up, and howl to be picked
    up again.  To want to go even though it makes her sick - now that's
    true dedication!  Anybody know any remedies for a seasick cat?
    
    z
    

    I love watching my four now that it's spring.  I open up
    the windows so they can all sit in the fresh air & sun.
    The front yard has a birdhouse directly in front of the
    window.  The sparrows *know* the cats watch them, and deliberately
    land on the bushes right in front of the window!  The cats
    go crazy, chittering, moaning, tail twitching, the whole bit.
    Four faces peering out watching every move is good for a few
    laughs....
    
    L-

    Well, here is a funny story for you, we have a fish tank in our
    den, you know Cat T.V.  Well, Kai was up watching the fish tank
    last night trying to get Sunny our big gold fish.  Well, the fish
    tank is kinda like in a corner and the wall on the left side comes
    out further from the tank.  Kai had his two front paws up on the
    fish tank trying to get Sunny, well Sunny at first was afraid of
    Kai but he isn't anymore, Sunny would just cruise along the front
    of the fish tank and Kai would walk sideways trying to get him.
    Well Kai was doing that last night and he walked across the front
    of the fish tank to get Sunny and banged right into the wall and
    fell to the floor.  Well Michael and I were in hysterics laughing.
    It was so funny.
    
    I wish I had a VCR camera also.  Michael and I say that all the
    time.  They are such characters sometimes.  When they both are in
    playful moods we could watch them for hours.
    
    Diane
    
    

    Did any of you see American's Funniest Home Videos this weekend?
    There was a short video of a cat sitting on a fish tank in an
    effort to get at the bird cage.  While the cat was busy trying to
    figure out how to get the birds, he let his tail drop into the fish
    tank without noticing.  Well, this huge fish noticed, thought it
    was dinner, swam up to it and bit the cat's tail!  The cat jumped up, 
    very startled and stared down into the tank.  It was very funny...
    
    Jo

    
    Andy told me about something that happened with our cats last night
    while I wasn't home.  He had set up the sprinkler to water the 'lawn'
    at the base of our deck.  It's one of those sprinklers that sweeps
    across in an arc, and then comes back in the opposite direction in
    short bursts.
    
    When he came back into the house via the sliders to the deck, there
    were five cats lined up, with all five heads diligently tracking the
    water across the yard and back.  Andy said it looked like they were
    watching a tennis match :^}
    
    Strange creatures!!
    

    re: .5
    I SAW IT, I SAW IT!!! IT WAS GREAT!!!   :-))))))

One of my 2 6-month-olds loves to chase a stick as it's dragged along the floor
-- he will follow it over laundry baskets, beds, kitchen counters, up stairs, in
circles, etc.  Not so unusal, but after dragging the stick a bit, we throw it
along the floor (like down a hallway) and Ben runs to the stick, picks it up
with his teeth, and brings it back to us for more dragging!  The first time I
saw him do this I couldn't stop laughing, because the stick is about twice as
long as Ben is and usually, he picks it up from one end and has to walk care-
fully so as not to trip on it!  It's become one of our favorite means of enter-
tainment...I'll have to borrow a camera for this before he loses interest.

-Cori and Ben & Jerry

    This note brought up a memory that I wish I had on tape.  My roommate
    at the time had a dog which had puppies.  All were found homes except
    one and we decided to keep it.  Well, one day Bashful (the puppy)
    decided to get acquainted with Schnitzel (my cat)...Bash sat and stared
    at Schnitz and kind of sniffed for a bit.  Well, Schnitz took just so
    much before she raised her paw and swatted Bashful at which point Bash
    sat back a bit, squared her ears, cocked her head, picked up her paw
    and swatted Schnitzel!  The got along famously after that.
    
    P.
    

    One of our former cats was a real "hunter/killer" of...... pancakes!
    
    She would stalk the evil pancake and then pounce on it....  then when
    she knew it was finally dead.... she would drag it off for burial.....
    under the bed, with all the dust kitties.