Tiki: Desperate Housecat

Tagged!

Thanks so much to everyone who tagged me – Pen, Todd, Samba, Jake, Spring Jones – sorry for the delay. I haven’t had much blogging time lately – gotta do that when no one else is around so that they don’t know I can type. Good thing mom doesn’t see what else I’m looking at on the internet while she’s at work!

The rules: Each player starts with seven random facts about themselves. Cats who are tagged need to write on their own blog about the seven things and the rules. You need to choose seven cats to tag and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment that they have been tagged and to read your blog.

My Seven Random Facts:

1. I love to play with toys, and especially like playing fetch. I’ll come up to my mom while she’s on the computer, and meow once or twice to get her attention. She’ll look down and I’m staring at her with my biggest, sweetest eyes and with a toy that I’ve chosen propped in front of mom’s feet. Works every time. What a sucker!

2. When I am hungry and there is no food in my bowl, I’ll drop a toy in it to signal that I’m ready for more food.

3. I know that Pen truly wishes his human would dress him up, like my mom does me.

4. I greet my mom at the door every day. When she takes too long fidgeting with her keys, I begin meowing, “GET IN HERE!”

5. I divide my litter pan up into two areas -- #1 in the front, #2 in the back. I’m organized like that.

6. I run to the window to see what’s going on every time a neighbor takes out their trash or when there is any noise around my house. I think it’s a combination of being territorial and nosy.

7. I do not realize that I am a cat and not a human.

Now I tag these 7 kitties:
China Rose
Big Bad Baby Twinkle
Hartley
Hazel Lucy
♥Rue Rue♥
Jordan Elisabeth Jones
Toni

Windy City!

It's been so windy here in Los Angeles lately. A huge pine tree branch landed on the roof! It was so scary. I was alone and mom was at work. When she came in that evening, I kept meowing and pacing in a circle trying to tell her about the branch and the power lines. Then, a few days later, the winds started up again and knocked out all the power! That was scary too. The fish didn't know what to do so they just hung out in their tank and it was up to me to try to fix things. I ran around in a circle in the living room again but that didn't change anything. So I went and got on mom's pillow and fell asleep until she finally got home. We sat around some candles until it was time for bed. The wind sounded so scary all night that I snuggled up in my mom's armpit for protection. When I woke up the next morning, the lights magically came back on. Whew!

High Maintenance

Wow, what a fun week! I've gotten so many nice messages and new friends -- very exciting!

I've got to be honest with ya'll, my recent naming as COTW has started going to my head. My mom has been accusing me of "diva-like behavior." I am meowing at her until she'll play with me. If that doesn't work, I just sit and stare at her, using mind control to make her open the blinds by my window, go get my favorite suede rattle mouse, etc. I am also swatting at her as she walks by and trying to ride on her calves as she walks by. When she sleeps I'm pawing at her arm so that she'll turn over and I can snuggle next to her. Hey, I'm a COTW, she owes me.

It Was an Honor Just Being Nominated...

WOW! Cat of the Week?! I am giddy with excitement, thanks so much! My mom is out of town on a business trip so I had to call her and dictate this entry to her over the phone in a series of meows, purrs and chirps. I am so honored. And boy am I excited for St. Patty's Day, as you can see in this photo. I knew patiently allowing my mom to dress me up would pay off some day! Poor mom, she's staying in Texas for a business trip (but lucky me, that means I stay with dad and we share sardines! Mom won't let him eat them around her -- c'mon who doesn't like SARDINES!?) Anyway mom says the motel she's staying in is a "roach motel" and that my making COTW has totally made a crappy night fantastic! What perfect timing! Don't know about you, but a "roach motel" sounds wonderful to me ... I love chasing bugs!

So thanks again everybody!

Wet Stuff From the Sky

Well, that thing that happens very occasionally happened today. Water started coming down from the sky! I have heard the term "raining" thrown around by my mother so that must be what is going on. It starts bouncing off the palm leaves and makes a strange thumping noise ... which really gets to me! I get so excited that I start running around the house like a crazy cat (or hellcat, if you prefer) running back and forth from the window ledge, to the window by the bed, around the sofa again and again, to my food bowl and back, up to the top of my cat tree ... mommy's not sure why it excites me so much when it rains. Perhaps because it hardly ever does here. Probably because it reminds me of when I follow mommy into the bathroom and she turns on the shower -- god, I hate that! I have to haul ass around the house then too. Water droplets freak me out -- no Turkish Van blood here!

Teekmas Time is Here Again

Well, it's that time of year again ... the time of year where my mom leaves me and goes back to the south for Christmas. It's cool though, I hang with my dad and we do special things together like share a can of sardines, eat steak together, drool on the pillows together. Mom calls every other day or so and talks to me and asks me if I've been a good girl (well duh, of course!). Usually I just start purring and rub against the phone, but last night I got really excited when I heard her voice and ran around the living room in a circle. Then I looked for her in the apartment -- I mean, I *just* heard her voice! -- but she wasn't there. So I got my dad to hand the phone to me so I could hear mom again. I still am not sure how she fits into the phone. I guess all that matters is that when she comes back, she usually has lots of presents for me.

On Being a Scaredy-Cat Badass

I know I talked about how HOT it was the last time I talked to ya’ll, but oh my Kitty it’s been hot in SoCal! And the place I live doesn’t have a/c, and it’s been triple digits! Dang! I’ve been hiding behind the stove, or under the bathtub to keep cool. Mom’s been wiping me down with a washcloth several times a day to cool me off. I think the heat bothers her more than me, though. Luckily this past weekend was a little better.

I’ve had to stay with my dad at his apartment several times lately, because they are doing repairs in my mom’s apartment. My dad lives in an old hotel in Koreatown that has been converted into little studio apartments. It freaks me out going over there, and that has my mom concerned. I got so upset when she and I went over there on Saturday that I was panting – and it wasn’t even hot! She thinks that since I am an indoor-only kitty, with just two adults that I regularly see, that it’s made me become sort of anxious. When she got me, I was from a big ol’ family with kids from Echo Park. I lived inside/outside – at mere two months of age! I’d never go outside today, but back then I was just a rebel. When my dad “won” me in a poker game, my dad’s friend yelled for his kid to bring out “the cat” (that was me) and the five year old came out, holding me in his little outstretched hand, and I was as relaxed as a beanbag. I purred as this stranger took me to meet my new mama. I wasn’t scared. Back then, I rolled with the punches. But no more. I think I have adapted some of my mom’s neuroses or something. It’s worrying her and she doesn’t know how to make me not so afraid of things. Perhaps she should start blaring gangsta rap or something in the apartment to condition me. Or set up kitty playdates? (Hey, it's not that farfetched -- she is in her 30s and dresses me up -- you've seen the photos.) But I haven’t seen another kitty since my mom got me a year and a half ago, so that’d probably freak me out too.

I think the problem is that I think I am a human. Hence me typing in my journal here on Catster. You know, it's really hard to reach the "P" and "Q" keys when you have paws.

Feelin' HOT HOT HOT!

Well, I got one word for you: HOT. Was it this hot last summer?! I was just a wee kitten, so I can’t remember. What is up with this heat? Don’t give me any of this “it’s a dry heat” stuff either, that doesn’t cut it when mama doesn’t have an a/c. She was telling me about these things that they have where she comes from called air conditioners, and every place you go has them, and it makes the air magically cool. So even though the South is hot as hell, you just run for air conditioned place to air conditioned place so its much more manageable than sweating your tail off when LA hits the high 90s and you have nothing but a 25 year old ceiling fan. Sounds good to me.

So to beat the heat I’m sleeping a lot. I have two preferred spots: One is in the windowsill in front of the computer monitor. That way, I can both be by mama and watch birds on the telephone wire in front of the house at the same time. My second spot is on the bed; I’ll curl up right where she sleeps after she's gone to work, resting my head on her pillow. Mom can’t figure out why I sleep right there when there is a whole queen-sized bed (not to mention an whole apartment) at my perusal. I sleep there until she gets home from work. Now that it’s hotter, I’m sleeping under the bathtub sometimes – it’s nice and cool there. When it gets really hot, mom keeps the fans on for me so it’s not really that bad. She worries about it though, puts ice in my water and wipes me down with a cool washcloth – which I HATE – and all this other stuff to make sure that I’m not too hot. It’s nice of her but I think she goes a little overboard, as usual.

Sorry, what was I saying? ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Year of the Tiki

Happy Chinese New Year! I won’t even comment on it being Year of the Dog. The past five have been Year of the Jackass (and will be until 2008) so I guess it can’t be much worse.

Wow, long time no update. Mom’s been hogging the computer lately and I haven’t really had the chance to post my holiday update. Let’s see. My mom went “home” for Christmas for a while and my dad took care of me. It was cool. We shared a can of sardines, he sat around in his boxers drinking beer and yelling at the TV; I slept. Mom accused him of being someone called “Al Bundy” while she was gone. Not sure what that meant. The good news is, mom came home finally and brought a litterload of gifts for me. Apparently I have a lot of family back in the South, wherever that is, and they all sent gifts! You might notice in my new profile photo that I’m relaxing in a new wrought iron, leopard-print daybed. Also got plenty of suede rattle mice, feather toys, this awful thing called a sweater, among other things. Mom said the baggage checking guys at the airport must have thought she was insane when she checked her luggage by the amount of cat propaganda she was brining back to California. What can I say, I’m one lucky kitty.

In other news, it’s winter, and I’ve been enjoying napping in front of the fireplace. At first I was a little freaked out by it, but now I lay almost too close to it, and my fur gets so hot to the touch that mom moves me until I start snapping at her, telling her to LEAVE ME ALONE, I WANT TO STAY IN FRONT OF THE FIRE, WOMAN! Hey, that headboard in the bed in the photo says “spoiled.” I have a reputation to live up to.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Teekmas

Today Mommy sat me down and had a little talk with me. She told me that soon she’ll be “going to work for a long time,” but that she’ll be back soon, and that my Daddy would be taking care of me, and to be a good girl. I’m not really sure why when she leaves town for a while she tells me that she’s “going to work.” I mean, how stupid does she think I am? C’mon, I’m part Siamese. I know things. Anyway, I do get very sad when she leaves, and usually wait at the front window for her or in her desk chair, but at least I get tons of presents when she returns. She also calls me a lot on the phone and makes Daddy put it to my ear. When I hear her talking to me, I start sniffing the phone receiver and purring. I don’t know how she gets inside the phone, but I know it’s her in there!

I think her leaving has something to do with this Christmas thing. Daddy’s asked her several times if she’s excited to be going “home” for Christmas. What the heck does that mean? She IS home. Here in MY home, here with me. Parents can be so weird sometimes.

Back to Christmas. I barely remember it last year, I was pretty young. But I do remember I got a two-story cat condo out of it, so that has to be good. I overheard something about “Panic Mouse” so I’m keeping my paws crossed. Although honestly a paper bag from the grocery store is just as fun for me. And actually I did already get a little furry hamster toy that was wearing a Santa hat from Mommy.

The only downsides, then, that I have found to this Christmas thing, is that Mommy has already forced me to wear these dumb hats for photos (boy was I pissed!) and that Mommy will leave for a little while. Sigh. I better snuggle up extra close under the covers to her tonight.

Purr.
Tiki

Tiki's Winter Nighty-Night Tips

Brrrrr. It’s getting wintry here in Southern California. It’s 12:30 a.m and it’s gone down to 59 degrees already! BRRR! In light of such cold weather, I thought I’d share my cold weather tips for cats, because I’ve been acting differently since it’s been colder. Actually a week ago it was almost 15 degrees colder, which is strange, but typical, of this desert SoCal weather.

The key is to sleep between your mommy’s knees. If you’re lucky enough to have a mommy like me who tends to sleep on her back naturally, you can wait until she fall asleep like I do, then sneak up from your place at the foot of the bed to the warmer place between her knees and calves and make a little nest there on top of the comforter. Trust me, she’ll think it’s so cute she will do everything she can to not turn over or move around if she can. If she moves too much, I let her know I don't like it by a quick meow. For some reason she thinks it's funny when I'm being "fussy." We’re lucky, being cats, our good looks get us a long way with our mommys (and daddys).

Later on in the night, like around 2 a.m., I like to move closer to mommy’s pillow and snuggle up to her there. It’s really warm there. I also, if I can, like to get up under all the covers. It's pretty neat under there, like a cave.

Fellow kitties, I hope you, too, can use my tips to keep yourself warm these winter months if you are lucky enough to be an inside cat.

Until next time, Tiki

Silver Lake Squirrel: Public Enemy No. 1

There is something that happens every day when mommy goes to work. The Silver Lake Squirrel appears.

I hate that darned squirrel.

He taunts me every weekday. Oddly enough, on the weekends he doesn’t bother me. Mom has only found out about him recently, on the days she is not at work. But it is like clockwork on the weekdays. “Teeeeekkkkkkkkeeeeeiiiii ... Come Out To Plllaayyy.”

He’s pretty big for a nasty rodent. I’d estimate he’s a good 6-7 lbs. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not a rodentist – some of my best friends are rodents – but this squirrel is just so … squirrelly. He just chirp-chirp-chirps at my windowsill until I go so crazy that I have to rise up on my back legs and body-slam into the glass so hard that, when mommy saw it for the first time, she worried that I was gonna break right on through. We do live in a 80 year old creaky bungalow that has not been maintained (yet it has a lot of “character”!) so it’s not out of the question that a 10 lb girl like me could crash through the glass like a big furry cat bullet.

Silver Lake Squirrel knows that I am an indoor cat. He knows that I can’t get to his sorry ass. He gets thisclose to my window perch and chirps “nah nah nah nah nah” because he knows I can’t get him. He loves it especially when he gets me so riled up that I try to crawl up the window screen when mom is here and she pulls me off and shuts the window to where I can’t get near him. When that happens, EVERY TIME he jumps to a nearby branch and just chitters and laughs at me.

Silver Lake Squirrel, you are no hipster like your neighbors. Your bushy tail is mine.