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Walkabout

Wednesday
12/17/2014

Four out of five weekdays, we get up early so we can start the day with exercise (running, neighborhood boot camp, stretching). On those days I usually let the dogs out and feed the cats and kittens between 6:30 and 7. Wednesday is sleep-in day, when we skip the workout and lounge in bed until 7:15.

That said, the dogs don’t necessarily respect the Wednesday concept. They can’t come upstairs, but they’re quite willing to vocalize that it’s time to go outside and pee. Since I’d rather let them out than clean pee off the floor, I’ll usually sneak downstairs around 6:30 to let them out. While I’m down there, I’ll generally feed the kittens and bring food upstairs for our staff cats. It takes about five minutes, and Martha often sleeps through it.

That’s what I did today. Back in bed by 6:40, and with the dogs placated we had a quiet half hour of bonus dibby time.

As we got up and started making the bed, we both saw staff cat Mia on the carpet, approaching the bed. But Mia was smaller than normal, and moving a little faster. And her coloring was a little more gray than brown.

It took both of us a second or two to resolve the cognitive dissonance. Meatloaf! What are you doing here?

I guess while I was delivering two bowls to the darkened villa, Meatloaf must have leapt the baby gate and receded toward the front room. When you leave the villa and close the door, it’s possible to trap a kitten between the door and the gate, but I always check for that and it didn’t happen today.

So as I went back upstairs to bed and closed the stairwell door behind me, Meatloaf had no way to get back into the villa. He must have explored the non-canine half of the first floor (luckily the barn door was closed, but I’m sure the dogs knew he was on the other side of it), found his way around a decorative column into the stairwell, climbed onto the edge of a stair and squeezed between the railings, climbed the stairs, slipped past or confronted the staff cats in the upstairs hallway, entered the playground, and found his way to our bed!

He seemed quite happy to be carried back down to the villa!

Else-wise, things are much of a muchness with the Potlucks.

On the issues front, we’re making progress with overzealous play-biting (Meatloaf, Tabouli)…

…stringball skills (Jello, Chili), and poop quality (everyone).

On the alumni front, we received an e-mail (which I seem to have lost) a few days ago from the woman who adopted Hope. She had adopted two medium-haired polydactyl orange-tabby sister kittens (you don’t find those every day!) from Homeward Trails a few months ago, and one of them died a few weeks later of FIP. (We experienced FIP with Thor and hope to never see it again.)

The adopter was understandably wary about adopting another kitten as a playmate for Zelda, the survivor, but eventually grew comfortable with the idea. She stopped by to meet Hope, and Hope closed the deal. Now we hear Hope and Zelda are best friends who hang out together and groom each other. Here’s a photo I saved before losing the e-mail it was attached to.

Turning to the way-back machine, we received an e-mail earlier this week from the woman who adopted our little teflon kitty Sonny in December, 2010.

Hi Ted and Martha,
Since we're coming up on four years since I adopted "Sonny," I thought you might like to see a current picture of Teddy in his fort (too low-resolution for 50K). He is an absolute delight-very cuddly and purry, and non-stop playful. (He drives Little Kitty crazy.) Every morning without fail, before I leave for work, we play ball with the little soft spongy "soccer balls" from Petsmart. I throw them and he chases, tries to catch, bats, and sometimes retrieves them. And after work, he's always waiting to greet me at the front door when he hears my car in the driveway. All in all, he's a very happy, spoiled boy.

filed by: TS

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< – – 50K inmates: tale of the scale – – >

kit

lbs

oz

gain

   

Jello

4

4.7

-0.9

 

sea urchin

Meatloaf

4

8.3

-0.1

 

mussel

Chili

4

9.2

1.7

 

lobster tail

Tabouli

4

14.4

0.7

 

crab claw

 

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