Not-Friday Cat Blog
These are my cats, Manfred, on the left, the bigger seal point, and Margo, the smaller, chocolate point siamese:
This is a fairly representative picture of them because Manfred looks crazed, which he is, and Margo looks alert and engaged, but calm. It's pretty clear that she's not going to leap out of the cat tree anytime soon.
Manfred, on the other hand, is insane. We can't decide if he's more of a danger to himself or us. His hijinx include:
1. Opening the front door by himself. I'm used to being awakened in the night by the sound of him crawling up the front door and hanging onto the chain lock, but one night it was really getting out of hand--it sounded like he was leaping onto and climbing up the front door so vigorously that it was banging open and shut. That's because it was. I had forgotten to lock it, since I only use the front door when I go into the apartment hallway to get the mail. At 3 a.m. the front door was wide open and Manfred was sitting in the hallway, because he's not that brave after all. He didn't want to leave so much as he wanted to have the option of leaving.
2. Undoing a latch that connects a cd tower to a bookcase (Ikea Billy bookcases--you know what they look like) and knocking over the 8 foot tall cd tower, spilling every single cd onto the floor.
3. Pulling an antique beveled mirror off the wall and breaking it into a million pieces. (Margo might have helped in this one, actually)
4. Turning on the burners on the stove as he jumps from the top of the stove onto the top of the refrigerator and back. So if you're wondering why my home, though child-free, has safety knobs on the stove, that's why.
5. And his most recent escapade, the reason why I'm blogging about him today: getting himself wedged between the glass window pane and the window screen. He did this two days in a row. The first morning I woke up to a banging sound and went to reprimand him for hanging on the front door. But the hallway was empty. No kitty in any room and yet the banging continued. I finally realized the sound was coming from behind the drawn blinds. Pulling them up I found Manfred splayed between the windows, a couple of inches off the sill, suspended by his claws from the screen (good for the screen. that's totally coming out of the safety deposit). We left the window open a crack the night before. He wedged it open and then got caught when the window dropped closed behind him. The next morning, same thing, only he was waiting for me, slightly more calmly, at the bottom of the window.
But I am blogging about this today because the super stopped me on my way out this morning and said that a neighbor had complained that we had stuck our cat in the window. Or maybe they just saw the cat stuck in the window and called the super to call us. The super and I had a little bit of a language problem, so I'm not sure exactly how it went. But he did take some convincing that the cat had trapped himself. Because some people do that, you know. They trap their cats between the screen and the window for the whole neighborhood to see.
This is a fairly representative picture of them because Manfred looks crazed, which he is, and Margo looks alert and engaged, but calm. It's pretty clear that she's not going to leap out of the cat tree anytime soon.
Manfred, on the other hand, is insane. We can't decide if he's more of a danger to himself or us. His hijinx include:
1. Opening the front door by himself. I'm used to being awakened in the night by the sound of him crawling up the front door and hanging onto the chain lock, but one night it was really getting out of hand--it sounded like he was leaping onto and climbing up the front door so vigorously that it was banging open and shut. That's because it was. I had forgotten to lock it, since I only use the front door when I go into the apartment hallway to get the mail. At 3 a.m. the front door was wide open and Manfred was sitting in the hallway, because he's not that brave after all. He didn't want to leave so much as he wanted to have the option of leaving.
2. Undoing a latch that connects a cd tower to a bookcase (Ikea Billy bookcases--you know what they look like) and knocking over the 8 foot tall cd tower, spilling every single cd onto the floor.
3. Pulling an antique beveled mirror off the wall and breaking it into a million pieces. (Margo might have helped in this one, actually)
4. Turning on the burners on the stove as he jumps from the top of the stove onto the top of the refrigerator and back. So if you're wondering why my home, though child-free, has safety knobs on the stove, that's why.
5. And his most recent escapade, the reason why I'm blogging about him today: getting himself wedged between the glass window pane and the window screen. He did this two days in a row. The first morning I woke up to a banging sound and went to reprimand him for hanging on the front door. But the hallway was empty. No kitty in any room and yet the banging continued. I finally realized the sound was coming from behind the drawn blinds. Pulling them up I found Manfred splayed between the windows, a couple of inches off the sill, suspended by his claws from the screen (good for the screen. that's totally coming out of the safety deposit). We left the window open a crack the night before. He wedged it open and then got caught when the window dropped closed behind him. The next morning, same thing, only he was waiting for me, slightly more calmly, at the bottom of the window.
But I am blogging about this today because the super stopped me on my way out this morning and said that a neighbor had complained that we had stuck our cat in the window. Or maybe they just saw the cat stuck in the window and called the super to call us. The super and I had a little bit of a language problem, so I'm not sure exactly how it went. But he did take some convincing that the cat had trapped himself. Because some people do that, you know. They trap their cats between the screen and the window for the whole neighborhood to see.
posted by Margo, darling at 2:24 PM
8 Comments:
What gorgeous kitties!
But I think I live with one or two of Manfred's relatives...
Meredith's cat is plotting her murder. She wakes up in the middle of the night to see Suzie staring at her, breathing heavily.
There's actually a community on "The Face Book" called "Suzie's Plotting my Death." Most of the Spectrum members are in it.
tim j-y
I've spent the last day imagining your cat-sandwich at the window, and trying to remember if any of mine have ever done anything like that. Hmmmm. Nope. But they've had their moments.
Laura, when I read this post, I'd already read yours about your cats--and of course, thought of your kitties instantly.
Margo, who was named Margo first? You or Ms. Kitty? BTW, your cats are beautiful.
Thanks, New Kid and Joanna. I think they're kind of pretty, too. Like crazed, walking art. NK, yours always *look* serene in the pictures you post. Those deceptive kitties.
Tim, the Suzie story made me laugh hard. I can just see that. I don't know what "The Face Book" is, though.
Thanks for asking about the names, Joanna. We're both named after Margo Channing, Bette Davis' character in All About Eve. (That's why I have a picture of a Barbie dressed as Margo Channing in the infamous "fasten your seatbelts" scene for my screen identity.)
I named the cat Margo first, and when my niece was visiting last summer she wanted to know why I always said "Maaahhrgo, daahlink" to that cat, which I hadn't really noticed I was doing. I explained that that's a line from the movie and then I just kind of liked it and the persona it suggested, so I used it for my livejournal and then blog.
Your cats look psycho! Actually I do have a soft spots for cats, but don't tell. Your cats are cute, and for some reason, I dont seem allergic to them yet.
"The Face Book" is a site like "Friendster" & "MySpace" where people post profiles, link to one another & write testimonials on their friend's pages. In my experience, these sites have a lot more to do w/ "collecting" people than actually communicating w/ them.
"The Face Book" is only open to college students at specfic colleges, and accounts must be verified using campus email addresses. Its name is derived from the "face books" many universities used to (and still) provide w/ head shots of all the new students.
"The Face Book" also allows you to create communities for every inane subject you can think of.
tim j-y
I think if I'd found Manfred in the window sandwich, I'd be unable to free him for laughing so hard. What a great story!
http://kittenwar.com/
--tim
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