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Musings of an orangie

I'm a therapy cat!

Of course, I've always known that, and my human has always known that. I mean, she tells me constantly that she wouldn't have survived this past year without me. And I've always known that I have a large and extended fan club. :)

But now, I've got outside confirmation!

My auntie called my human yesterday, and told my human that she gave a picture of me (7th one from the top on my Catster page) to a woman in my auntie's mother's retirement home, and that I've been making the woman feel much, much happier. Of course, we've never met, but my auntie reports that the woman and her mother talk about me like they know me. :)

Of course, my auntie gave the women pics of Trooper as well, but I think he's just a pinch hitter...my auntie specifically said that they talked about ME, but she didn't mention that they talked about Trooper.

Speaking of Trooper, poor guy. That friend's visit, crashing at our place, really didn't go over too well with him. As it turned out, the human's friend was delayed, so he only needed to crash for one evening, after the human had returned. But Trooper hid under the bed all day, and then when it came to go to sleep, he fled into the closet, whose door the human had fortunately forgotten to close that day. Usually it's the one place that's off-limits to us because of shedding--although I ask you, doesn't cat hair accessorizing make human clothes look sooo much better??. And Trooper then stayed there all night. He didn't come out of hiding until the human's friend left.

We hope he gets somewhat less timid as the years go by. I mean, the human thinks that for at least the medium term she's going to be mostly a homebody who rarely has any visitors who come over for more than a few hours, but it's probably not always going to be like this.

As for myself, I personally don't mind change or any of the human's friends. So long as, of course, everybody understands what an honor and privilege it is that I'm letting them into my domain. :)

New Year

The human has gone to New York for New Year. Something about family tradition and obligations, which didn't apply to Christmas. Which thankfully she spent with us. It's really quiet here without her, unless you count Trooper's occasional crazy bouts of racing up and down the hall or chasing his tail while balancing on the sofa arm. Well, it's always been quiet anyway, as the human has always been something of a homebody who doesn't have friends visiting here very much. But recently it's been quieter since the human's gotten hooked on some sort of online multiplayer game called World of Warcraft. That thing is evil! All the time she spends playing it, she should be playing with US.

She's only been gone less than 24 hours, but I really miss her. She told me how much she would miss us, even though she's only going to be away for a few days. And that she would have so much preferred to stay at home in DC rather than go to NY.

She told us a friend of hers would be crashing in the apartment tomorrow. She won't be back until the day after. Nobody's ever crashed here since we moved. I'm not so happy about someone intruding on my territory. As for Trooper, I'm betting he's going to cower under the bed for most of the time. Although the human says that he's a cat person. I dunno. I guess we'll see.

Oh, and by the way, the vet called some weeks ago with my second blood test results. OF COURSE they were fine. But then the warning, I need to lose weight. The human has since drastically cut down on my kibble! She gives me only ONE QUARTER OF A CUP of kibble! She's trying to make me eat WET FOOD! I'm not happy about that.

I suppose the one good thing about her time away is that for once, she's left a full bowl of kibble for me to munch on...

Happy New Year to all of you in Catster.

Snowfalling

It's the first snow day of winter here in DC. It was snowing at dawn, snowed throughout the morning, and now we're approaching late afternoon. Now it's getting dark, and the snow has carpeted all the roofs and top branches of the trees just outside our building...

You know all those descriptions about indoor cats staring out the window, fascinated by all those white flakes fluttering down? Something to do with our instinct to follow with our eyes anything that moves?

Well, it's not true. I know most of the description about the snow from my HUMAN, who's been more fascinated by the snow than either Trooper or me.

Over the past several months, I'd shifted from hanging out at the very bottom upside down basket of my kitty condo to the very top basket that's about 6 feet from the ground, with the best view of the window. I'd spend much of the day there, first surveying my indoor and outdoor realms, and then curling up to sleep. Or bounding up to the top basket to declare victory after one of my tag games with Trooper, and then surveying the realm before bouncing back down for a snack.

It's been wonderful, watching the slow metamorphosis of the outside, manmade and seasonal. There's a construction site to our left where I've been watching a brand new condo building slowly develop. Over the tops of the line of houses across the street from us, behind the houses' long back alley, the apartment complex on the left side is undergoing renovations, with workers in movable scaffolding-type contraptions going up and down the side, knocking out old stained grey material from underneath the balconies and replacing it with spanking white. On the right side, there's a large office building. When it gets dark I can see the office employees under their fluorescent lights, photocopying, working at computers, making calls or holding conferences.

The line of trees across the street were slow in changing color. And they didn't change all at once, with each tree on its own timetable. The trees on the left side of the row were the first to turn, amber, yellow, different shades of brown. There was a tree on the right that had green leaves for the longest time. And then two days ago, there was a huge windy span of time that lasted the entire evening and night. The next day, there were almost no leaves left on any of the trees.

Yep, there's always something new to watch, and Trooper and I usually find the show to be fascinating.

But not today. Neither Trooper nor I like the snow.

For me, it's just a question of the weather. It's COLD. The apartment is nice and warm, but you can feel that the winds still get through when you stand too close to the window. Not too pleasant a place to snooze by right now.

As for Trooper...safely further back in the apartment, he waits for the human to return from the window so he can get back to sleeping on her lap. Snow does not bring back good memories to Trooper. He remembers having to live outside and walk in the snow. All day. For months. He wants nothing to do with it anymore.