August 09, 2007
Willpower
is not going around and closing every window in my house right now. Rosa, who got a little worked up and started running around the apartment, knocked the screen right out of one of our windows. Luckily, she caught herself and stayed inside. Luckily, it was the window over the rooftop next door, rather than a window that would fall straight down onto Iron Horse patrons on Center Street. Did I mention we live on the fifth floor? And she wasn't even running that fast... nothing compared to the speed with which they usually land on the window sills. I'm taking deep breaths now....
Posted by kelseyfrost at 07:57 PM | Comments (0)
May 11, 2007
Olive and Orly
I would like to say that my sister used to make fun of me for how much I liked my cats and how much I talked about them. I, however, never devoted an entire blog to them. (They just get an occasional post, when they really misbehave.) (She will say it's all Brian's doing.)
Well, they are funny....
Posted by kelseyfrost at 01:31 PM | Comments (0)
January 10, 2007
It's cold out tonight!
Almost like real winter. Clem needed to get a little toastier, so he settled in next to Dave under the blanket.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 09:21 PM | Comments (0)
June 05, 2006
We have a problem.
When Clem was a kitten, he used to knock over the trash in the kitchen on an hourly basis. We locked the trash can in the bathroom at night to prevent it. We tried spraying him with a water bottle, but he'd just look at you as if to say, "Is that the best you can do?" and he'd keep digging through the trash, now slightly wet. We gave up on the water bottle after that and got a more serious trash can.
Not long ago, we reinstated water discipline, when Clem realized that the most effective way to drive us crazy was by going after paintings and lamps. Valuable! Dangerous! Perfect! At first, the water was a shock, and it totally worked. It still tends to make him stop what he's doing and run out of the room. But now we have a new problem:
He likes to drink the water out of the bottle. And, of course, we find that hilarious and always will sit there squirting water into his mouth and laughing at our weirdo cat. However, I'm afraid that now he's starting to misbehave just so he can get water... I think we need to get him one of those perpetual cat water fountain dishes... maybe that would help.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 11:11 AM | Comments (1)
May 24, 2006
Rosa by the warm glow of the Power Book:
Posted by kelseyfrost at 09:58 PM | Comments (1)
May 12, 2006
Different cat, different book, same problem:
(Clem)
Posted by kelseyfrost at 09:39 PM | Comments (0)
May 09, 2006
Why reading can be hard sometimes:
(Rosa)
Posted by kelseyfrost at 08:14 PM | Comments (0)
March 27, 2006
Well, there's still one tiny neighbor...
My neighbor Charlie can't take his cat to his new apartment, so she's squatting by herself next door. I don't know how long this situation can last, but we certainly can't have another cat at my house. If you would like a little, cute, probably bad kitty, send me an email!
Posted by kelseyfrost at 08:33 AM | Comments (0)
March 07, 2006
Even while I write this, they're triangulating.
We're on a new schedule this semester. As it works out, I have big chunks of free time a few days a week, during which I can get lots of work done. This is nice because I get home from my late afternoon classes and am exhausted and can't do much at all. I especially like my Tuesdays and Thursdays, since my first class is Hebrew at 1:00, and I get to spend the morning reading and writing papers. However, the cats are seriously out to get me. They now want to eat dinner at 9:00 AM, instead of their usual 4:00 or 5:00 PM. They won't stop until everything that was once located on a shelf, a table, or hanging on a wall, has been thrown to the floor. They bite me and scratch me and meow at me incessantly. Last week, on a particularly stressful Thursday, I had to lock myself in the bedroom just to finish a presentation I was writing. All because the cats can't tell time. How can I teach them that?
(Rosa, helping us fix a drum yesterday afternoon.)
Posted by kelseyfrost at 09:16 AM | Comments (0)
December 24, 2005
Clem must be feeling better- he's knocking things off the coffee table.
It's been a long week. We think Clem is cured, but have cancelled our Christmas travel plans so we can be sure. He spent all day Thursday at the vet, getting various types of fancier and more expensive x-rays. In the end, all we know is he was really gassy, throwing up, and generally unhappy with life. When we brought him home Thursday night, he was nearly back to his old self- and he wanted to eat, which wasn't the case for the past couple of days. Yesterday, he went back to the vet for one last x-ray and has been normal, happy Clem ever since. This is a very good thing, not just because we want the kitty to be happy and not feel sick, but also because the vet thought we might have to get him emergency surgery. We decided to spend the weekend at home, just me, Dave and the cats, to make sure Clem is still feeling okay, and because we now have *no time* to spend in New Hampshire with my family. We'll make up the visit sometime next week, when all is much calmer.
For today, I'd like to finish writing my paper, so I can take a day off and then look it over and fix what needs to be fixed. Like I said, it's been a long week.
I hope everyone has nice weekends.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 10:09 AM | Comments (1)
December 21, 2005
Cat update
Clem seems to be feeling much better today. He slept all day yesterday and wouldn't eat or drink very much water. Last night we brought the basket he likes to sleep in down from the top of the closet and put it in our bedroom, at the foot of the bed, so he would hang out and spend the night there. At about four this morning he and Rosa woke up and went out into the kitchen, where he drank a lot of water and ate some food. Since then, he's been eating more and walking around a little faster, and looking much happier. I guess, unelss he starts climbing the walls this morning (unlikely, since he's had a rough couple of days), I'll still take him to the vet this morning. I just want to be sure he's okay, since I have to leave the kitties at home by themselves for the long weekend.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 07:59 AM | Comments (2)
December 20, 2005
Distracted
I had a very productive day of reading and thinking, until I got home early this afternoon to find one of the cats -Clem- apparently feeling under the weather. He had been sick last night, which I attributed to his having eaten too much, but today he just slept and slept in the hall closet and hasn't eaten anything all day. Now we've taken him out of the closet and he's sleeping in front of one of the heating vents in the kitchen. He's going to the vet tomorrow, but I'd really just like him to start feeling better. I can't get through a page of reading without going to check in on him. Poor little guy!
Posted by kelseyfrost at 07:23 PM | Comments (0)
November 11, 2005
First winter in the new apartment
I keep finding my cats sitting in odd places that I've never seen them hang out before: in the middle of the bathroom floor (rather than in the window) and on the floor by the water cooler (rather than in the window right above). I ask them: "What are you doing there?" Then I realize that they have placed themselves directly in front of the heating vent for that room. They're not as dumb as they look.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 11:10 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
November 09, 2005
It is scary, seeing Rosa (or worse, Clem) teetering on top of a door, right up near the ceiling, looking for something (preferably fragile) to jump on next.
As Dave said, "And you worry about our cats jumping up on top of closet doors!" I guess I shouldn't, after reading this. (Via The Morning News whose headline/link to this article is priceless.)
Posted by kelseyfrost at 08:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 07, 2005
The hunt is over!
We were just watching an episode of Six Feet Under on DVD when I heard a loud banging sound from the kitchen. Rosa, who had been sleeping on the couch next to us, ran off to investigate; I followed. Clem, of course, was jumping into the depths of the cabinet under the kitchen sink: the mouse was back.
As the episode came to an end, the jumping turned into scurrying and squeaking and, to make a long story short: my cats utterly suck at mouse catching, but I am the best. Clem and Rosa chased the mouse all over the kitchen, under the dishwasher, and out into the TV room, causing me to freak out (I've got a lot of shoes scattered around here; I don't need this!). The mouse was cornered for a while behind the TV until the cats finally managed to chase him back out into the kitchen. He made one more escape under the dishwasher, which rolls, so we moved it one more time and I quickly trapped him under a shoe box. The kitties were very excited and kind of jealous, and threatened to ruin the whole plan by knocking the box over, so we tossed them in the bedroom and slowly, slowly began sliding the box across the floor and toward the kitchen door.
The mouse is gone. I really hope he was the only one, but I somehow doubt it. The cats are now lurking around the kitchen, looking in all the places where he had been hiding in this last chase. Rosa is still fairly convinced he might be behind the trashcan, but she doesn't really want to find out.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 10:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 20, 2005
Of course, I had mouse catching dreams all night.
I knew there was going to be trouble when I walked up the driveway last Tuesday only to find it littered with the bodies of five little dead mice. That same evening, Clem and Rosa began staring intently at one corner of the TV room, occasionally poking their paws in the little crack between the floorboards and the wall.
When I saw this scene, I knew it was true:
We had a mouse. I tried to ignore all the shuffling and jumping and pounding I heard from the kitchen cabinet while I read La numancia in our bedroom. But then I heard: "eek... eek." I went out into the kitchen and found Clem and Rosa looking excited and confused, with a mouse cowering between them.
Here's the thing about my cats: they'll chase a bug all over the house without so much as successfully swatting it once. I always figured they'd have an easier time catching a mouse, what with the no flying thing. But they didn't catch this guy. They stopped him a few times as he was trying to run away: a little tap with the paw to stun him into not moving. But they never actually got him and he escaped under the refrigerator.
I am pretty sure the mouse is still in the house and still alive. Clem keeps checking under the kitchen sink, but there's been no more excitement so far. I just don't want them to kill the mouse on the new couch. Is that too much to ask?
Posted by kelseyfrost at 09:36 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
September 13, 2005
See, now that I'm awake, the cats are sleeping on piles of textbooks. When I'm asleep, they scale the bedroom walls.
Clem just started licking my copy of Beginning Theory. I hope I like it anywhere near that much. Well, there is a cute picture of a cat on it, so maybe he just got confused.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 07:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 17, 2005
What can I even say about this photo? This is just what they do.
Rosa has an exciting morning planned, as you can see. She started it all off by waking me up (with biting) at 5:30 this morning. That led to Clem racing, at full speed, back and forth across the bed several times. It took two tries for me to get them out of the room and close the door and by that time it was 6:00 and I had to get up at 6:30. It could have been worse, I suppose; I could have let her stay in the room.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 08:57 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
August 05, 2005
This goes on the list of things I will never attempt.
Junku's "a bathing cat" photo set on Flickr.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 03:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 04, 2005
The NY Times was so totally right about cats on the internet.
I wanted to put this picture up earlier, but I had taken it with Dave's cell phone. Clem and Rosa with their new couch.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 06:12 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
How old do they have to get before they stop smacking me on the back of the head while I'm watching television?
Dave reminded me this morning that Clem and Rosa turn four years old today! (Yes, we are this lame.) Happy birthday, you bad cats. Even though we just bought them a new couch (they really love it more than anything else we've ever bought- probably because it's beige and the cat hair really shows on it), I think we might need to pick up some kitty birthday gifts. Clem would probably love this. He loves to get in anything: the sweater I'm wearing? Sure, that sounds reasonable! This one would be good for them, too- especially since the cat on the outside of this bed can jump on and attack the one inside. Perfect! ($99? I might have to try and make that one...) Maybe we'll make a visit to the pet presents store this evening and get them something nice.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 10:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 28, 2005
It's not as though they actually deserve any presents.
Popgadget has discovered the Highrise Cat Tower at Postmodern Pets. Dave and I are always looking for something fun for the cats to climb- you know, other that the furniture, walls, and curtains. I like the looks of the stackable blocks and the fact that they'd be easy to move and adjust. However, I can only imagine that a tall tower of little cat cubbies would come crashing down at least six times a day if Clem and Rosa were left in charge of it. We learned that lesson the hard way. We will never, ever put tall CD towers anywhere in the house again- especially next to the bed.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 09:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 21, 2005
Saving his energy for the next big project
Don't be fooled by this pose. He's dreaming about jumping up to the top of the doorframe and hanging on like he did when he was a kitten in Florence. More recently, he jumped from the dining room table to the top of the french doors leading to the living room and sat there for a minute, figuring out what was next. You'd be tired, too.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 02:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 19, 2005
Cats vs. Cabinets, Round Two
Fat Clemenza emerges after putting the fear of god into the pots and pans.
The Trader Joe's rice crackers did not have such a happy ending.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 02:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 11, 2005
Explorers
Just to show how much trouble Clem and Rosa (our cats) can get into, here's how I found the kitchen on Friday evening when I returned home from work:
I'd ask what they could have been trying to find, but I already know the answer. They weren't looking for anything. They were just testing their powers and practicing new techniques to get into everything. When you're on a constant quest to touch the ceiling, you can't just assume that climbing into a drawer won't help you; it might, after all.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 10:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 15, 2005
Winterpills and Rosa
It’s been so wintery all winter that I really feel like I have hardly left the house. Last night the Winterpills played at Harry’s the Elevens. (Okay, is it “the Winterpills” or “Winterpills”?) It was nice to be out at a bar and see our friends and have a couple of beers. Of course, I was really sleepy when I got up this morning, but I think it’s partly because Rosa (the cat) decided that from 6:00 AM on it was time to have all my attention—which can be achieved with a little hair- and face- (!) biting
Posted by kelseyfrost at 04:28 PM | Comments (0)