I didn't have a chance to get to the store today and had run out of canned cat food but I kept plenty of dry food in the dish. By night I started feeling sorry for the kitties so I cooked 3 chicken patties, two for me and one I cut up for the gang. Blackie & Hairy loved it just fine. In fact Blackie wanted more. Brownie, however, was not impressed.
I came out later to toss the paper plate on which I had presented the chicken and low & behold there was Brownie sitting in the litter box. Apparently Yesterday's News cat litter has now become today's cat bedding. LOL
Well I'm not sure what to do. I had wanted the cats to start using a litter box so they wouldn't be using the yard. In fact today there was even a dropping left by someone in the carport. Not sure by who. Brownie just looks so happy laying in the Yesterday's News so it looks like time to just give in and to start looking for a new litter that they might use in a different box.
Oh yes, I mentioned the rat. So tonight I came out to check on the kitties and there in the flower bed by the carport, laying among the Wandering Jews, was a good sized lifeless rat, fully intact. I have never seen a rat near my house in all the years since I have had a home here so it was something of a surprise. Maybe it's partly due to all the digging by the county down by the storm ditch down the road. Or perhaps it's from so many homes left abandoned thanks to the housing crisis. Who knows? It's not been that uncommon of late to see a home's entire contents dumped out into the front yard to sit there for some time. Can't help but believe that's not good for rodent abatement.
I dismissed Hairy as my hero due to being declawed. So I thanked Blackie & Brownie and thought how lucky I had been to be free of rodents before the kitties came my way. I should also recap that as I shared several weeks ago Blackie had caught a mouse but did not spare the remains. ;-)
So I'm thinking it is Brownie that I can thank for protecting the homestead today. Just sorry I didn't have any kittie treats on hand as a reward.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Sometimes Slow is Good
It's been pretty uneventful around here. Tonight I made a Tombstone pizza on my Presto Pizzazz cooker and shared some of the pepperoni with the kitties. Blackie really loves it! Hairy likes it too. And yes, I do cut it into kitty sized pieces.
On a side note I added sliced Munster cheese and it was very good. I got the idea from a cable channel show about different pizzas and one NY pizza place owner was extolling the virtue of cheese slices over shredded. Maybe it's just me but it really seemed to make the taste of all the toppings and sauce pop delightfully on my taste buds and also helped keep the sauce from drying out.
I should also point out in case you don't know that my pizza cooker is the rotating wheel kind. I had always wanted one but found them hard to find at a good price. So one day about a year ago I saw one at Wal*Mart and just bought it full price on a lark. While I do like it I think I will go with more of an oven type cooker next. The Presto is absolutely horrible with any type of self rising pizza dough and of course the whole idea in having a pizza cooker is to not have to use the kitchen oven, for obvious reasons.
Lately the kitties have taken to exploring the house across the street. This horrifies me as they tend to pull in to their yard very fast. They have numerous vehicles coming and going at all hours and even covered their entire front yard with wood chips to facilitate more parking space. Brownie seems to be getting more picky about his canned food flavors but I think it's partly because he's buffet dining around more than Blackie and Hairy who usually tend to hang out by my house most of the time, but I've caught them also wandering across the street of late. I know the people across the street used to have kitties so it could be they are sitting out food for them.
As a matter of fact the previous residents across the street used to keep a cat on a harness attached to a clothesline kind of setup. It had just about enough slack to allow it to jump to a safe spot on the porch to get away from wandering dogs. I'm divided on how I feel about this idea. Obviously some cats tend to disregard the danger of oncoming traffic and at least this setup did allow some freedom of motion. Still, since most cats are so independent by nature it just doesn't seem quite right to me.
On another note I've not pressed the point but it seems the kitties don't want to use the litter box in the carport. When I first put it out there they would use it occasionally, but they won't use it anymore. I have a coupon for Yesterday's News brand litter, which apparently is comprised of recycled newspapers, so maybe a change in litter will do the trick. It does tend to be a little frustrating trying to do yard work with cat poop hiding in the St. Augustine grass or in the flower bed.
A little while ago I had just fed the kitties and thought they were set for the night. But as I entered the house Hairy dashed through the door so fast that it caused me to stub my toe! I was caught totally off guard because she had not shown any interest in coming in tonight. I guess she wasn't taking any chances that I would tell her not now.
She saw the computer was on so she sat down by it and went through her washing ritual and then later curled up under the dining table which was just a few feet away.
I was talking to mom the other day about air fares and the impact of suddenly lower fuel costs and she said I probably couldn't go anywhere because the kitties would miss me too much. Well probably but I think I would miss them more even despite being able to see them on the home security cameras via the web. It kinda makes it worse because I can see them moping around wondering when their main meal ticket will return. LOL
On a side note I added sliced Munster cheese and it was very good. I got the idea from a cable channel show about different pizzas and one NY pizza place owner was extolling the virtue of cheese slices over shredded. Maybe it's just me but it really seemed to make the taste of all the toppings and sauce pop delightfully on my taste buds and also helped keep the sauce from drying out.
I should also point out in case you don't know that my pizza cooker is the rotating wheel kind. I had always wanted one but found them hard to find at a good price. So one day about a year ago I saw one at Wal*Mart and just bought it full price on a lark. While I do like it I think I will go with more of an oven type cooker next. The Presto is absolutely horrible with any type of self rising pizza dough and of course the whole idea in having a pizza cooker is to not have to use the kitchen oven, for obvious reasons.
Lately the kitties have taken to exploring the house across the street. This horrifies me as they tend to pull in to their yard very fast. They have numerous vehicles coming and going at all hours and even covered their entire front yard with wood chips to facilitate more parking space. Brownie seems to be getting more picky about his canned food flavors but I think it's partly because he's buffet dining around more than Blackie and Hairy who usually tend to hang out by my house most of the time, but I've caught them also wandering across the street of late. I know the people across the street used to have kitties so it could be they are sitting out food for them.
As a matter of fact the previous residents across the street used to keep a cat on a harness attached to a clothesline kind of setup. It had just about enough slack to allow it to jump to a safe spot on the porch to get away from wandering dogs. I'm divided on how I feel about this idea. Obviously some cats tend to disregard the danger of oncoming traffic and at least this setup did allow some freedom of motion. Still, since most cats are so independent by nature it just doesn't seem quite right to me.
On another note I've not pressed the point but it seems the kitties don't want to use the litter box in the carport. When I first put it out there they would use it occasionally, but they won't use it anymore. I have a coupon for Yesterday's News brand litter, which apparently is comprised of recycled newspapers, so maybe a change in litter will do the trick. It does tend to be a little frustrating trying to do yard work with cat poop hiding in the St. Augustine grass or in the flower bed.
A little while ago I had just fed the kitties and thought they were set for the night. But as I entered the house Hairy dashed through the door so fast that it caused me to stub my toe! I was caught totally off guard because she had not shown any interest in coming in tonight. I guess she wasn't taking any chances that I would tell her not now.
She saw the computer was on so she sat down by it and went through her washing ritual and then later curled up under the dining table which was just a few feet away.
I was talking to mom the other day about air fares and the impact of suddenly lower fuel costs and she said I probably couldn't go anywhere because the kitties would miss me too much. Well probably but I think I would miss them more even despite being able to see them on the home security cameras via the web. It kinda makes it worse because I can see them moping around wondering when their main meal ticket will return. LOL
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Same Old, Same Old
Nothing much new to report really. While I am excited that the the Rays and both Chicago baseball teams are in the playoffs the kitties couldn't care less, of course. You can't even get them to play with a ball, although Brownie does like to play catch the stick with me. I take a long stick (long enough so that I don't accidentally get tagged) and move it around and Brownie swipes at it and tries to knock it down.
Yesterday I got home from the store and as I was unloading groceries Brownie kept jumping in to the truck to check things out. He usually doesn't do that, but for some reason yesterday he climbed back in 3 or 4 times. He's a bit on the heavy side so I finally got tired of picking him up and just went and got some can food to give him something better to do, which I think was probably his ultimate goal anyway.
Hairy, well she is getting to where any time I open the front door she considers it a invitation to come in. It was cool when I awoke so I had opened the windows. Hairy saw me through the window and jumped up on a bench in the carport and tried to remove the screen and come in. She kept meowing and looking at me as if to say, "Hey I can't get this dumb screen off. A little help here!" Guess you had to see it to fully appreciate it. LOL
Yesterday I got home from the store and as I was unloading groceries Brownie kept jumping in to the truck to check things out. He usually doesn't do that, but for some reason yesterday he climbed back in 3 or 4 times. He's a bit on the heavy side so I finally got tired of picking him up and just went and got some can food to give him something better to do, which I think was probably his ultimate goal anyway.
Hairy, well she is getting to where any time I open the front door she considers it a invitation to come in. It was cool when I awoke so I had opened the windows. Hairy saw me through the window and jumped up on a bench in the carport and tried to remove the screen and come in. She kept meowing and looking at me as if to say, "Hey I can't get this dumb screen off. A little help here!" Guess you had to see it to fully appreciate it. LOL
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
