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.

Look What She Did to My Nails!

<<<First the evil human used the even more evil clippers on Caesar and then she used them on me. Look what she did to my beautiful nails! Is there no authority protecting bodily sanctity here? Okay, so maybe I was shredding the legs of her mahogany bed when she didn’t get up and refill my crunchy bowl at 2 am. Hey, I can’t eat out of it when the bottom is showing. Besides, how are these things even remotely comparable ?>>>

(c) Copyright 2021, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Images my own.

Peculiar Things

Corky and Mac have a peculiar hang up involving the crunchy bowl.  They absolutely throw a hissy fit if, as they’re eating their way down through the contents of the bowl, they see a small space open up at the bottom of the container. Even though there are plenty of crunchies still in the bowl, it’s as though once they spy the bottom of the dish, that must mean the dish is empty.  This usually happens in the middle of the night when the silly 2-legged is trying to sleep. Corky yowls and starts beating up the curtains in front of the sliding doors and Mac does a variety of things ranging from scratching furniture to unplugging devices from the electrical receptacles. And both of the little darlings throw water all over the floor. <<You can see some in the upper right corner above.>>  The exhausted human wakes up, gets out of bed, looks at the crunchy bowl, points to all the crunchies that are still in there, and goes back to sleep. This goes on for several rounds a night until either the human gives in and refills the bowl or the cats give in and go to sleep. Well, last night, a very exciting thing happened. Apparently, they tried hard to wake the human, but she just kept rolling over and hiding under the covers. Apparently, in desperation, the cats actually ate almost all the crunchies out of the bowl. Now that’s progress!

 

 

(c) Copyright 2020, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Image my own.

Games Little Mousies Play

The kitties love their colorful little toy mice and drag them all over the house at night.  The human awakes to find them arranged in really interesting patterns that change from day to day. A few weeks ago, she found a collection of 5 toy mice arranged around the scratching pad/track ball toy in the middle of the floor. What do you suppose they were thinking about when they did that?

 

 

(c) Copyright 2020, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Images my own.

Playful Paws

Caesar Tiger Bear has some interesting bedtime routines.

First, he takes a big dump in one of the litter boxes.  What’s funny about a bowel movement? Well, he starts covering the smell in one box, and after digging frantically there (including up and down the sides of the lid), then he gets out and goes over to a second box, climbs in, and continues covering in that box.  Presumably he’s not quite clear on the connection between cause and effect.

If that’s not funny enough, the Big Guy must feel pretty good after losing that load, so he then comes out and scampers about on the floor. After stopping to scratch one of the kitty condos, he prances some more, then picks up a toy and dances around making funny little moaning sounds. By then he’s worked his way across to the other side of the room where he drops the toy and scratches on the scratching disc or he chases a ball or two around one of the other toys.

After all that energetic bouncing about, the Emperor lands on the bed and demands that the human hold up the blankets and tent her knees so he has a nice cozy spot to sleep in for 15 or 20 minutes.

 

(c) Copyright 2019, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Photos my own.

The Toll Collector

As the silly human began walking up to the second floor, she saw the Big Guy holding court and keeping watch from the kitty condo at the top of the stairs. (Note how well scratched that sisal rope is?)  She moved slowly because Caesar Tiger Bear still is a bit spooky when the human is walking around — particularly when she’s walking around with her camera. Here he is trying to look nonchalant, as though the human walking by is no big deal.  Of course, because she’s the evil human, she had to stop for a visit, including pets. If the Emperor hadn’t already tucked his feet under him, she’d have tried to touch his big soft paws — a real no no in this house.  (Notice the lack of any visible paws?)<<Just keep looking the other way and maybe she’ll walk by and leave you alone.>> That strategy worked. The human soon walked off to do other things and the Big Guy was left to ponder the meaning of life on his own.

 

(c) Copyright 2019, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Photos my own.

Changing Architectural Styles

In the beginning, when the blanket sculptor struck, he or she left layers of blankets sticking straight up in the air.  The architectural style seems to be evolving, as more recently the pattern has shifted to little domed structures like those shown here.  Do you suppose this represents a different exit strategy from the blanket pile or is it that there is a second architect now at work creating structures?

 

(c) Copyright 2019, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Photos my own.

Feline Architecture

These interesting structures were not created by the human. They are the work of a little red kitty who just loves to sleep under layers of fleece blankets.

 

(c) Copyright 2018, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Photos my own.

Bowl Patrol

It’s the afternoon. The human is cranking away on her keyboard and Bowl Patrol members are on duty.First, they visit the human in ones and twos to encourage her to take a break and give them a snack (or a full-blown meal).  If that doesn’t work, they intensify the pressure on the human by standing up and putting their paws on her desk or sinking their claws into her leg, scratching on items they know they shouldn’t, or jumping up and landing next to the keyboard.  The longer the human ignores them, the more intensely they act out. Finally, the silly human takes a break. There is great rejoicing right outside the office door. Of course, it’s important not to act smug like you think you’ve won the battle, so they quickly look away and participate in a bit of personal gratuitous grooming followed by a bit of community grooming.  It’s important to follow the human and make sure she is guided to the snack container or to the crunchy jar.  She often is distracted and completely forgets what you’ve worked hours to get her to do.  Such a silly human.

 

(c) Copyright 2018, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Photos my own.

Torture Device

What is the most fearsome cat-torture device on the planet?  Just look at the image above!Yes, it was that time of the month when the human had to trim toenails. Mac turned out to be easy this time, but Caesar made the human really work to accomplish her goal. Mind you, both cats have been getting snagged in all kinds of things owing to overly long nails. Nonetheless, the human is in the doghouse today for such heinous behavior.

 

(c) Copyright 2018, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Photos my own.

When All Else Fails…

And the human is taking forever to get out of bed, knock the ball around the track and yowl. It probably won’t get breakfast served any faster, but it does ease a lot of stress and strain.

 

 

(c) Copyright 2018, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Photos my own.

Konfuse-a-Kat

It’s the human’s fault.  She was trying to add variety and hunting opportunities to the kitties’ daily repertoire.  The meows were pestering for snacks, so the 2-legged flipped the much-beloved scratching disc upside down. On the reverse side, there is a maze-like structure with a ball inside — yes, a ball with a bell! — and a series of interesting holes on top that are just the perfect size for kitty paws to explore.To entice the kitties to investigate the holes, the human put a small pile of dried organic catnip on top and then carefully — while the felines were watching — nudged raw freeze-dried meat snacks from the surface of the maze into the holes.  The kitties watched with fascination and even went over and looked inside the structure. The Merkitty hopped up, took a sniff of the ‘nip, and immediately was overcome with paroxysms of delight.  The other cats had to move back or risk getting hit by her flailing limbs and rolling body.  As she thrashed about, she would bat the ball that rolls along the track on the outside of the toy sending it spinning around the track.  Pretty quickly, she cleared the deck of other cats. Over a period of several days, the human added more snacks and more ‘nip to the surface, but she never saw a single kitty paw raised to explore.  Eventually, she fished out the snacks and turned the disc back over so the scratching surface was face up. Some hunters they are!

 

(c) Copyright 2018, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Photos my own.

Exodus

As you can see from the overturned cat scratcher, the blue mice have made an exodus from the center of the structure. However, they didn’t go very far and they stayed lined up fairly nicely.

 

 

(c) Copyright 2018, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Photos my own.

Miss Twinkletoes

Here is the Merkitty engaging in a bit of morning paw dangling. She does enjoy liberating those toes and nails and cooling her feet outside the warmth of the kitty bed and fleece fabrics. As you can see from the length of those claws, she keeps them mighty sharp on cat scratchers, rugs, and any handy piece of furniture — especially when the human is watching. It’s a good thing she uses both legal and illegal scratching devices, as when the human sneaks up on her with the nail trimmers, a good struggle ensues.  The human has to content herself with only trimming 2-3 nails per week, as that’s about how long it takes for the Mer to allow the human to sneak up behind her again — with or without evil metal devices in hand.

 

(c) Copyright 2018, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Photos my own.

Make Your Own Entertainment

Several days in a row the human walked into the other bedroom and found a cardboard cat scratching box (which is shaped like a cube with the center cut out) lying on its side instead of standing on an end.She thought that maybe one of the kitties had used it like a step stool to climb up or down from the bed in that room so, being a well-trained human, she turned it up on its side again. After three mornings in a row of tilting it back up, the 2-legged noticed a toy mouse in the center of the overturned cat scratcher. That made her think the kitties were inventing their own games, so she went around the upstairs and picked up the multitude of toy mice that had been dragged out of the toy boxes on the stairs and strewn around during the night.  She placed all the mice in the center of the scratching box and left it on its side. Each evening she’d return to look at the overturned scratcher and would usually find most of the mice had been removed and taken elsewhere.  She’d go around and collect them again and refill the space, then check to see what was there come morning.  As you can see, the number of toys keeps increasing, and the cats have started scratching on the front face of the box — a surface not meant to be scratched….much like the hand-knotted rug on which it sits. <<Sigh. Within 10 square feet of this rug, there are no less than 5 hanging and standing cat scratchers. I guess they prefer wool to cardboard or sisal.>>

 

(c) Copyright 2018, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Photos my own.

Burrowing Burrito Bears

Fireball has the cutest procedure he follows every time he climbs into a kitty bed or onto a surface covered with a fleece blanket or two. He starts off mixing then starts digging around with both forepaws until he gets at least one corner of the soft blanket lifted, at which point he slides under the blanket so he is partially covered.  When he’s all cuddled up like that, the human can’t help but walk by and tuck him in, thereby creating a burrito bear.  He stays like that for a surprisingly long time as long as the 2-legged doesn’t do anything that looks or sounds scary.

 

(c) Copyright 2018, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Photos my own.