Happy 1st Anniversary Tiger Babies

A year ago today, the tiger kitties who would be named Mumtaz Mahal (Taz Bird, on left above) and Shah Jahan (Shahja, on right above) and were finally coaxed deeply enough into the kitchen that the human was able to close the door before they came running back. The human had been trying for weeks to capture them, as she’s already scheduled physical exams and initial shots for both cats, plus a blood test to make sure they were FeLV-free so she could start the process of introducing them to the other cats. It’s not that the 2-legged wanted more cats, but that she worried the kittens, who’d spent 6 months living on her deck and being fed several times a day, wouldn’t be able to survive on their own in winter.

The kittens passed their health checks with flying colors and were slowly introduced to the rest of the kindle. After spaying and neutering in January, great hilarity ensued as the tiger babies were very active at night and got into one thing after another after another. Fireball took the young cats under his care and taught them how to be proper adult cats and proper tigers.

Unfortunately, we lost Shahja in early June. It’s been almost 6 months and we haven’t recovered him, although we’ve had several false alerts. Hopefully, he’s since found a nice family who feeds and cares for the little guy. We still pray he will be found, scanned, and returned to us safe and whole. Until then, happy anniversary tiger babies!

(c) Copyright 2023, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Image my own.

An Enrichment Toy the Cats Like

The human tries to keep her 4-legged companions mentally engaged and entertained, so the 2-legged is always on the lookout for an “enrichment” toy. Unfortunately, if you’ve followed this blog for a while, you know that the human has a pretty bad track record of finding enrichment toys the cats will play with for more than 15 minutes — if they play with it at all.

However, the 2-legged struck gold in late January when she purchased a well-made wooden box that has large holes around the sides and top meant to hold squishy balls. Well, the kitties very quickly removed the balls and then wondered what the human would do next. Their servant remembered reading something on the box’s cover that said snacks could be put in the box, so she poured in some raw freeze-dried nibblets. Oh my goodness, the cats all circled around the box and started poking paws inside to cuff snacks out and eat them. This has become a nearly nightly routine. (They might as well do a little bit of work for their treats.)

Wiley Taz Bird has learned to hang back a bit and watch. As soon as one of the bigger cats knocks a snack out one of the holes on the side, she darts in, steals the snack, and runs off to eat it. Meanwhile, the cat that did all the work is left with nothing. Shahjah has his own unique way of interacting with the box. He climbs on top of it and then tries to cuff snacks out. Often, all 4 of his paws are down inside the box.

The cats are entertained by the box and the human is entertained by the cats’ antics with the box. In fact, everyone enjoyed the toy so much that the human bought a second for downstairs, and then bought a third for their kitty cousin back East. Finally, an enrichment toy that does the job.

(c) Copyright 2023, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Images my own.

WrestleMania

Heavyweight champ Pepe and Welterweight contender Shahjah seem to enjoy dusting it up a bit every day. The Grumpy Old Grandpa cat outweighs the Tiger Baby by at least 10 pounds/4.5 kilos, although Shahjah does a good job of holding his own.

Maybe Pepe misses Caesar, who was the only cat unwilling to kowtow to the Pepster and would give him a good thumping every time Pepe sought out a rumble. Shahjah, who desperately wants the attention and approval of the older cats, seems to enjoy it too.

(c) Copyright 2023, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Images my own.

Working to Cross-Purposes

No, your eyes are not deceiving you. That’s Mac trying to drink water out of the kitchen water bowl. Her antics with water are legendary. Note that she is standing with left paw over right and head turned to the left as she contorts her body to drink over her shoulder. (You can also tell that the absorbent pad she’s standing on is soaked with liquid that the Watery One tossed out of the bowl before drinking.) For some reason, the Merkitty has just never been able to “grok” the concept of a water bowl. If you really want to mess with her mind, you put water in a clear bowl and watch the fun begin.

(c) Copyright 2023, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Images my own.

Tiny Toys go Swimming

Someone has been removing some tiny new toys the meows received last month from the toy boxes and dunking them in the kitchen water bowl, then taking the soggy toy out and leaving it on the kitchen floor. To dry them out, the human has been clothes pinning them to a hanging basket full of vegetables.

The other morning, the two-legged found one very soggy toy still floating in the water bowl (which had mostly been emptied of water and yucked up with dirty feet) and another (also soggy) toy lying beside the bowl.

Both Mac and Pepe routinely stand in the kitchen bowl to take a drink and yuck up the water. And Mac regularly tosses water out of the water bowls and floods the floor…hence the elaborate arrangements meant to stop the tomfoolery.

As for who is taking the toys for a dunk, the human suspects the Tiger Babies — perhaps with initial instruction from the Merkitty. Cats…they definitely keep life interesting.

(c) Copyright 2023, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Images my own.

Happy 8th Anniversary Corky & Pepe

Eight years ago today, Corky and Pepe were walked in cat carriers from their old home next door to their new home when their former human had to move and couldn’t take them with her.

Those first few weeks with the bonded trio of Caesar, Mac, and Fireball were not fun for anyone but, eventually, détente prevailed. Caesar was simply not going to put up with bad behavior — not from his crew and not from the brothers.

Now, the Corkster and the Pepster are the elders and having to deal with the striped interlopers from outside. Pepe has opted to play the role of the grumpy old grandfather who has no patience for tiger baby neediness. And Corky has a new life chasing and being chased by the little tiger bandits.

Happy birthday Duo!

(c) Copyright 2023, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Images my own.

Shahjah’s Turn at the Vet

Just as Shah Jahan was starting to trust the human again after his scary visit to the vet for a checkup and shots in late November, and after seeing his sister Mumtaz incarcerated in the bedroom for a week in early January, the bad human trapped him in the bedroom and off to the vet he went the next day for neutering.

Poor little guy was so scared but he came through the procedure with flying colors. He only required 2 days in kitty prison for recovery before he was freed. Since then, he and Taz Bird have terrorized the household and kept the silly human in stitches as the Tiger Babies get into one thing after another.

(c) Copyright 2023, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Images my own.

Telling the Human You Disapproved of the Food Offering

The human is clumsy and stupid, doesn’t understand cat speak, and can’t purr to save herself. Worse, she often leaves a lousy food offering for her masters. Since the 2-legged doesn’t understand when the cats try to explain to her that they don’t like their food, the best way is to show her by leaving a toy mouse or two in the bowl. <<<Food not even fit for a (toy) mouse!>>>

(c) Copyright 2023, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Images my own.

Taz’ Very-Bad, Awful Week

Back in early January, poor little Mumtaz (left) was having a grand time running around like a manic inside the house, which turns out to be loads more fun than the (formerly great) outdoors. Taz Bird was chasing her biological brother and main squeeze, Shah Jahan (right), as well as Corky and Fireball, often tackling the bigger males and knocking them to the ground. (She’s a force of nature when she gets wound up.) And at 4 am one morning, she started making noises that — to the evil human’s ears — sounded like she was in heat…weeks ahead of time and weeks before her spaying surgery was scheduled. Worse, she had her butt in the air and the still-intact Shahjah was sauntering down the hallway with a grin on his face. When Taz went to relieve herself in the litterbox in the guest bedroom, the very bad human pulled the door shut and trapped her. That was early Sunday morning.

On Monday morning, the evil human brought her to the vet to get her second distemper shot and learned that they could squeeze little Mumtaz in on Wednesday for her spay surgery, so back to the locked bedroom went a very angry Taz. When Wednesday came, off to the vet she went again. When she woke up, fur was missing from her belly and she felt awful. Back to kitty prison once again she went. Worse, she had to have painkiller administered several times/day by the evil human, which did not endear the 2-legged to Miss Fierceness.

When one cat is locked up in the bedroom, the other cats have a sweet habit of bringing toy mice upstairs from the toy boxes and leaving them lined up outside the door. Taz was a prisoner for more than a week, so over that time a lot of little mice were deposited beside the door for her. It’s the kitty equivalent of get well cards and balloons or flowers.

When she was finally freed, off she went. Since then, she doesn’t let the evil human get too close. Clearly, that 2-legged creature is not to be trusted under any circumstances.

(c) Copyright 2023, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Images my own.

The Mighty Mushroom or What to do When Your Cats are Engineers

Another really cool gift Sandy Claws brought the kitties was a multifunctional mushroom-shaped play center. As designed, the unit is predominantly made of unvarnished wood — some of it covered with a sisal scratching surface. The bottom-most disc is grooved and, together with the next disc, holds several large plastic balls with bells that can be rolled around inside the groove. Balls can be accessed both from the side and through a series of large holes on the upper disc. That large upper disc also is grooved on the top surface. When combined with two smaller discs, it holds a series of 5 small wooden balls. A central spindle provides a tough sisal scratching surface, and the large cap also is covered with sisal, providing yet another tough scratching surface. There’s even a pom-pom that hangs down on a string from the top, which is what Pepe is beating on in the image above.

It only took a few hours the first evening for the kitties to figure out how to tip the mushroom over on its side and pop the 2 large balls out of holes from the top of the second large disc. Where those balls have gone is anyone’s guess. Also missing are 2 of the 5 small wooden balls. The human really did crank the whole assembly down pretty tight with the supplied Allen wrench — not enough that it hindered movement of the balls, but it certainly should have been tight enough to keep the cats from popping over half the balls out of the assembly. The human tried adding some additional big balls, but the replacements have also disappeared.

Despite the fact that only 3 small wooden balls currently remain in the system, the cats — especially Mac (shown above) and the Terrible Twins — really enjoying sharpening their claws on the sisal scratching surface. And occasionally, someone will knock the remaining 3 small wooden balls around inside their discs. Thanks, M&J!

(c) Copyright 2023, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Images my own.

Mac Steals Pepe’s Box (Again!)

Maybe it’s a tuxedo cat thing?

Nah, it’s a pure brat cat move by the Merkitty.

Fortunately, Pepe eventually recovered his property.

(c) Copyright 2023, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Images my own.

Sandy Claws brings Kitties a Stocking (Tunnel)

Those fortunate kitties received three fun toys from Sandy Claws this holiday. Their first was a large Christmas stocking tunnel made with crackly fabric that Pepe had to try out right after inspecting the box it arrived in (just to the left).

Goofy Boy began by checking out the secondary escape hatch. After studying it for a minute, he stuck his head and neck inside.

Then he pulled out and stuck his paw in. Always the paw…

Next, he came around to the front of the toy to check it out.

After a quick sniff, he stuck his head and neck in this end. More of him fit this time, but clearly not all of him did. (He’s a big boy.) He pulled out and discovered the two dangling balls hanging down. It’s hard to see in this shot, but he batting them wildly with his right paw.

Every few days, the human sees him walk by the toy and stop to bat those balls. He sure is intrigued with the dangling toys, one of which has a bell and tinkles when he hits it. Many thanks to JC for the gift!

(c) Copyright 2023, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Images my own.

The Evilness of Humans – Part 2

A feral female started bringing her 3 kittens by this spring. She’d eat, nurse them, rest, and then the whole crew would depart. After a few weeks, she started leaving the kittens to play on the deck all day. They scrambled up the human’s plant stands knocking pots off all over the place, then shimmied up the trunk of the ficus tree and cuffed each other. They pulled clotheslines down and dragged them into the yard (including into poison ivy, which the human is very sensitive to), and they gladly chased toys in which the indoor kitties had never shown interest. By early summer, the mother abandoned her kittens, who have spent the time growing fat and silly on the deck outside.

The human waged a slow and patient campaign to tame the kittens so she could capture them and find them a new home. Unfortunately, she got rather attached to the two that remain, and they had gotten fairly comfortable with her, nuzzling her hand, letting her pet them, and even venturing inside the kitchen. Three of the 4 inside kitties had come nose-to-nose with the interlopers. After several unsuccessful attempts, the human finally captured them 3 days before they were due to go to the vets for their checkup, initial shots, and bloodwork to check that they were kitty AIDs and leukemia free. They were. They have since been mixing with the foursome, who cannot understand what the crazy human was thinking about bringing babies into this household.

(c) Copyright 2022, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Images my own.

A Gift for the Distracted Human

Fireball hopped up on the bed for one of his many short visits and lay down on top of the human, who was reading. She petted him in a distracted manner and then went back her book as the Little Red Bee proceeded to roll his head, lick her hand and fingers, and mix on the lumpy human furniture. Then he was gone in a flash. It was only after Fireball had departed and the human moved and heard a strange rattle that she looked and found that he’d left one of his toy mice behind when he departed. Such a thoughtful little boy.

(c) Copyright 2022, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Images my own.

Tummy Tuck

Corky has rules — a lot of rules — and one of them is that the human is NOT allowed to touch his tummy.

Now, mind you, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t regularly roll up on his back and show his soft white tummy to the human.

It just means the human is in a “look but don’t touch” sort of situation and must be on her best behavior.

Recently, as the 2-legged was trying to make her way from her office to the kitchen, an energetic Corky was trotting a few paces in front of the human’s feet. He flopped down on the floor and started rolling around.

Shockingly, the human was allowed to approach and pet his tum tum. She’s happy to report that it’s as soft as it looks.

(c) Copyright 2022, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Images my own.

Outsmarted by the Merkitty Once Again

Let’s be honest and acknowledge that the human isn’t very bright — not compared with the kitties. Still, it has taken the Merkitty a year to figure out a way to flood the floor since the human switched to the heavy, straight-sided water bowl in the kitchen. While the Little Mischief quickly learned to climb up on the lip of the bowl and stick both forepaws in the water (and taught Pepe to do the same), when she scooped water up in her paws and attempted to toss it out of the bowl, the tall straight sides of the ceramic crock frustrated her efforts. The human would walk by and note the multitude of water droplets still clinging to the inside walls of the container and chuckle under her breath. The Merkitty clearly heard and finally has figured out a way to get revenge.

The human isn’t sure if the reason she’s been outsmarted is that she’s gotten overconfident and started filling the water level up higher or if the Watery One modified her scoop & toss technique. Regardless of how she’s doing it, she’s been flooding both the boot tray with dish-drying mat as well as the kitchen floor multiple times every day during the past week. In fact, just to rub it in, after a flooding session, she seeks out the human seated at her computer typing away frantically and hops up on the desk surface, forcing the human to move her keyboard out of the way. Then she head butts things off the desk while standing there with soaking wet paws and at least one foreleg wet all the way from toes to chest and shoulder. She is such a Merkitty!

The human is not sure what strategy to adopt next but she really does need to focus on solving the problem, as Miss Macaroni will not stop her mischief. Still, this has been the longest period of time the human has managed to outsmart the little monster, so at least the 2-legged has that going for her.

It is possible to outsmart a cat, at least for a little while. <<<Don’t let me hear you say or even think things like that!>>>

(c) Copyright 2022, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Images my own.

Little Toy Mice Practice their Yoga Skills

Over the last week, the kitties have brought down more and more toy mice and distributed them around and on the yoga mat during the night. The positions change, the color of the mice change, but the general trend is for there to be more rather than less toy mice arrayed around the yoga mat each morning. The record, to date, is 5 mice. Why do they do this you might ask? Because, in this house, everyone and everything needs a toy mouse or two for good measure. <<<Such thoughtful kitties!>>>

(c) Copyright 2022, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Images my own.

Yoga Mat as Cat-Enrichment Device

A few weeks back, the human finally got the last of her tropical plants dragged out onto the deck, which freed up lots of space in the “stove room” for her to layout her yoga mat, blocks, straps, and roller.

Of course, as these things go, the human hasn’t done much yoga, but the cats have been having a grand time with the mat, blocks, etc. In fact, Pepe so likes the feel of the sticky mat that he often can be found lounging on it.

It turns out that, after knocking over the formerly neat pile of blocks, the cats have been having a ridiculous amount of fun while the human flicks the small piece of fabric tied to the “fishing pole” in and out of the obstacles. They crouch down and pounce on their prey. They jump up on top of yoga blocks, and they even have figured out how to fish out the fabric on those rare occasions when the human manages to whisk it inside the roller. Mac, who usually is far too sophisticated to play with the rest of the cats has been inserting herself in the middle of the action and often has to be invited to share the toy with the others.

Sadly, the human has spent no small amount money on “expert-designed” cat enrichment toys over the years. However, most of those purchases have been consigned to the “what were you thinking?” pile that get recycled to other people with less fussy pets.

Still, the human is deeply pleased that her yoga blocks and mat are getting used by the kitties, who not only benefit by honing their hunting skills and keeping mentally sharp but also get some physical exercise as well. You just never know what will entertain a cat. <<<Certainly nothing you pay good money for will ever of interest for more than 10 minutes!>>>

(c) Copyright 2022, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Images my own.

Prisoner Cat Receives a Consolation Prize

While Corky was recovering from his dental procedure and still in lockdown, the other kitties kept vigil outside the door to his room. The morning after he returned from the vet, the human found one of the kitties had thoughtfully brought a toy mouse upstairs and left it outside his door. <<<Awww!>>>

(c) Copyright 2022, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Images my own.

Now Why Do You Think They Did That?

The kitties have been very busy carrying little toy mice all over the house. There even have been some visitors to the kitchen of late. However, their favorite location is the stove room, where the crackly paper resides. The other morning, the human came down stairs only to find on small black toy mouse partially covered over by a leaf from the Ficus tree.

Odds are good that the leaf didn’t just fall off the tree and land in such a way that it partially covered the toy mouse, since the mouse was halfway across the room from the tree. So what, the human wonders, could possibly have motivated a cat to move the leaf onto the toy him-/herself?? This is yet another of the grand mysteries of the feline masters.

(c) Copyright 2022, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Images my own.