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#11
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Kitten Converts Reluctant Owner
John Kasupski wrote:
We did have a dog. My wife inherited him when her grandfather passed away. He was too big and mean to allow it to run loose with the kids around, so we built a doghouse in the front yard and left him chained to a stake in the dirt next to it when the kids were outside. Goldie knew down to the last inch exactly how far the dog could reach on that chain because the grass was mostly gone in the dog's area...and he'd sit just outside the dog's reach calmly grooming himself. He never batted the dog in the snoot or did anything else to further antagonize the dog. He just sat there showing absolutely no fear with the dog's mouth about two inches away snarling and snapping his teeth the whole time. It was enough. That dog couldn't have been any more enraged and humiliated if Goldie had sat there waving an upraised middle finger in his face. Haha, that sounds like a cartoon of a dog and cat! Sort of like Tom and Jerry, but with a dog and a much-smarter cat. It also reminds me of a cat belonging to someone who used to post here several years ago, when the newsgroup was much more active. His name was Ollie and his human's name was Bev. I don't think she's here anymore, but I do see her posts on Facebook occasionally. She used to tell us tales of Ollie's famous nonchalance. She had a relative who was afraid of cats (afraid of animals, period). He would try to shoo Ollie away by stamping his feet, waving his arms wildly and yelling. Ollie would just sit there quietly grooming. That cat could not be intimidated. The despicable person who deliberately swerved off the road and onto the shoulder to hit and kill Goldie and thereby took him away from us...well, as far as I'm concerned, there's no place in Hades hot enough for that person, and that's all there is to it. Is it possible that someone moved Goldie over to the side of the road after he was killed? People sometimes do that with a dead animal - I did it myself a few years ago. If someone did this, they might not have known whose cat it was, so couldn't notify you. Maybe it really was an accident. Of course, the person who hit him should have stopped, but they might not have meant to hit him. This is something I would want to believe, if it happened to my cat. Since you don't know exactly what happened, there's no harm in thinking of it that way. Usually the smartest ones seem to figure out how to get themselves out of trouble too if they get into it, but - as with all things - there sometimes are exceptions. Tell me about it! I used to have a cat, Smudge, who was pretty smart. She would become easily bored with games, once she figured out what the drill was. She had a mandate to be outside, which was a struggle between us for a long time - I live in an urban area which is not ideal for outdoor cats. At least my neighborhood is residential and has a lot of winding streets that don't get much traffic. She was savvy about cars, too, unlike some of the neighborhood cats who would go to sleep in the middle of the road! I guess the asphalt got nice and warm in the summer. Anyway, Smudge got herself into various scrapes because she was very curious and always had to investigate things. One time she got locked in a neighbor's garage for a week. I despaired of ever seeing her again, until one day when I went outside, I heard this loud, unholy cat meowing. It didn't sound like Smudge, so I thought some other poor cat was in trouble and I went to investigate. I followed the sound to a garage, which luckily had a window on the side. I looked in, and there was Smudge! I think she must have seen me when I first came out, so she howled to get my attention. It worked! Even if your cat is dumber than a stump, he or she is still your cat, which is in itself enough to make them special. :-) My favorite cat ever, Roxy (who passed away last year), was not a genius cat. She wasn't dumb, just average, but I had her and Smudge at the same time, and Smudge could make any cat look like a not-so-sharp knife by comparison. I also have a cat named Licorice (mostly known as "Licky"), who is somewhere in between those two, intelligence-wise. I like smart cats, but affection matters a lot more to me. Roxy really was a very contented, ultra-domesticated animal who was happy to hang out in the house and cuddle. You could really see the difference in their play. Smudge took her predation games very seriously. She'd hunker down, her pupils would get huge, and she'd slink toward the string (or whatever I was dangling) as though it was really alive, and dive at it with jaws clamping on it and claws digging in. Licky is pretty much the same way. Roxy, on the other hand, would roll over onto her back and wave her arms and legs around trying to catch the dangling object. She looked completely adorable, but I'm sure if there had been any prey animals around, they would've been snickering to themselves. Now it's just me and Licky, but one of these days I'm going to adopt a friend for him. I can tell that he gets lonely when I'm not home, because he's really needy for attention at night, which wasn't the case when Roxy was around. I just have to get myself to the shelter before they close, and the hours I keep aren't conducive to that. That's a different story. Joyce - really an owl -- "Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy." -- A. Einstein |
#12
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Kitten Converts Reluctant Owner
On Wed, 18 Jan 2017 01:36:18 -0000 (UTC), Bastette
wrote: Is it possible that someone moved Goldie over to the side of the road after he was killed? No. I won't go into too many gory details in case someone is eating while they're reading this, but let's just say that the condition of the remains and other clues present on the ground near the body made it quite evident that he was hit right there on the shoulder where I found him and had not been moved. You could really see the difference in their play. Smudge took her predation games very seriously. She'd hunker down, her pupils would get huge, and she'd slink toward the string (or whatever I was dangling) as though it was really alive, and dive at it with jaws clamping on it and claws digging in. Licky is pretty much the same way. Roxy, on the other hand, would roll over onto her back and wave her arms and legs around trying to catch the dangling object. She looked completely adorable, but I'm sure if there had been any prey animals around, they would've been snickering to themselves. Yeah, right up until the moment she caught them! Goldie was the same way when you were playing with him. Then when you thought he was plum tuckered out he'd walk away and return shortly with a dead mouse or bird to drop at your feet. The personality he presented to us humans was the polar opposite of what his prey saw from the business end of what we viewed as his ridiculously cute front paws. John D. Kasupski Niagara Falls, NY |
#13
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Kitten Converts Reluctant Owner
On Tue, 17 Jan 2017 23:39:43 -0000 (UTC), Bastette
wrote: With creamed corn, or any other processed food that has more than just the vegetable in it, it's a good idea to read the ingredients list to make sure there's no onion. Onion is bad for cats and can cause serious health problems, maybe even death. The same is true for garlic, although that's less likely to be found in creamed corn. This fact IS a problem, because Minnie likes spaghetti and I haven't seen a jar of spaghetti sauce yet that doesn't have onion and dried or dehydrated garlic on the list of ingredients. Luckily, she'll accept pasta without sauce, especially if I melt a little butter on it for her first. I only had cream corn because it was given to me, and I've used it up. When I buy it, it's kernal corn, and again I melt butter on it when I heat it up, which gives her another reason to like it. Then again, I also melt butter on my peas and green beans, and she couldn't be any less interested in them. John D. Kasupski Niagara Falls, NY |
#14
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Kitten Converts Reluctant Owner
John Kasupski wrote:
On Wed, 18 Jan 2017 01:36:18 -0000 (UTC), Bastette wrote: Is it possible that someone moved Goldie over to the side of the road after he was killed? No. I won't go into too many gory details in case someone is eating while they're reading this, but let's just say that the condition of the remains and other clues present on the ground near the body made it quite evident that he was hit right there on the shoulder where I found him and had not been moved. I'm so sorry to hear this. The very idea that anyone would do something like that deliberately is so upsetting. Sometimes it feels like the world is too harsh for the kind of love we feel for our furry friends. Roxy, on the other hand, would roll over onto her back and wave her arms and legs around trying to catch the dangling object. She looked completely adorable, but I'm sure if there had been any prey animals around, they would've been snickering to themselves. Yeah, right up until the moment she caught them! Goldie was the same way when you were playing with him. Then when you thought he was plum tuckered out he'd walk away and return shortly with a dead mouse or bird to drop at your feet. The personality he presented to us humans was the polar opposite of what his prey saw from the business end of what we viewed as his ridiculously cute front paws. Ha - good point. Kind of how I might feel seeing a mountain lion coming toward me. Joyce -- Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarassed millionaires. --John Steinbeck |
#15
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Kitten Converts Reluctant Owner
On Wed, 18 Jan 2017 04:50:53 -0000 (UTC), Bastette
wrote: John Kasupski wrote: On Wed, 18 Jan 2017 01:36:18 -0000 (UTC), Bastette wrote: Is it possible that someone moved Goldie over to the side of the road after he was killed? No. I won't go into too many gory details in case someone is eating while they're reading this, but let's just say that the condition of the remains and other clues present on the ground near the body made it quite evident that he was hit right there on the shoulder where I found him and had not been moved. I'm so sorry to hear this. The very idea that anyone would do something like that deliberately is so upsetting. Sometimes it feels like the world is too harsh for the kind of love we feel for our furry friends. In a perfect , Goldie jumps into the ditch at the last instant and survives unharmed. The driver loses control of the vehicle, which veers into the ditch, flips upside down, and goes airborne fifty feet into a utility pole, The driver is decapitated on impact. The body remains in the vehicle. The head rolls on another twenty feet, coming to rest at the feet of a whitetail deer grazing nearby - who, having witnessed the entire incident, unhesitatingly kicks it into the ditch and walks away satisfied that justice has been served. Roxy, on the other hand, would roll over onto her back and wave her arms and legs around trying to catch the dangling object. She looked completely adorable, but I'm sure if there had been any prey animals around, they would've been snickering to themselves. Yeah, right up until the moment she caught them! Goldie was the same way when you were playing with him. Then when you thought he was plum tuckered out he'd walk away and return shortly with a dead mouse or bird to drop at your feet. The personality he presented to us humans was the polar opposite of what his prey saw from the business end of what we viewed as his ridiculously cute front paws. Ha - good point. Kind of how I might feel seeing a mountain lion coming toward me. Don't get me wrong, I've seen plenty of cats who wouldn't hurt a fly. A mouse could walk out into the middle of the room, unfold a lawn chair, and sit there in it calmly sipping a glass of iced tea while watching soap operas on TV all afternoon, and those cats probably wouldn't move a muscle. But you can rest assured that another cat in the neighborhood recently slaughtered a mouse in cold blood, and the word's gotten out in the mouse community about the brutal murder up the block, so they're not likely to tempt fate in such a manner. :-) John D. Kasupski Niagara Falls, NY |
#16
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Kitten Converts Reluctant Owner
On Wed, 18 Jan 2017 02:03:28 -0500, John Kasupski wrote:
In a perfect , Goldie jumps into the ditch at the last instant and survives unharmed. The driver loses control of the vehicle, which veers into the ditch, flips upside down, and goes airborne fifty feet into a utility pole, The driver is decapitated on impact. The body remains in the vehicle. The head rolls on another twenty feet, coming to rest at the feet of a whitetail deer grazing nearby - who, having witnessed the entire incident, unhesitatingly kicks it into the ditch and walks away satisfied that justice has been served. Oops - sorry! I guess that's what I get for posting at two o'clock in the morning. That should read, "In a perfect world..." John D. Kasupski Niagara Falls, NY |
#17
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Kitten Converts Reluctant Owner
On 1/17/2017 11:03 PM, John Kasupski wrote:
On Wed, 18 Jan 2017 04:50:53 -0000 (UTC), Bastette wrote: John Kasupski wrote: On Wed, 18 Jan 2017 01:36:18 -0000 (UTC), Bastette wrote: Is it possible that someone moved Goldie over to the side of the road after he was killed? No. I won't go into too many gory details in case someone is eating while they're reading this, but let's just say that the condition of the remains and other clues present on the ground near the body made it quite evident that he was hit right there on the shoulder where I found him and had not been moved. I'm so sorry to hear this. The very idea that anyone would do something like that deliberately is so upsetting. Sometimes it feels like the world is too harsh for the kind of love we feel for our furry friends. In a perfect , Goldie jumps into the ditch at the last instant and survives unharmed. The driver loses control of the vehicle, which veers into the ditch, flips upside down, and goes airborne fifty feet into a utility pole, The driver is decapitated on impact. The body remains in the vehicle. The head rolls on another twenty feet, coming to rest at the feet of a whitetail deer grazing nearby - who, having witnessed the entire incident, unhesitatingly kicks it into the ditch and walks away satisfied that justice has been served. Roxy, on the other hand, would roll over onto her back and wave her arms and legs around trying to catch the dangling object. She looked completely adorable, but I'm sure if there had been any prey animals around, they would've been snickering to themselves. Yeah, right up until the moment she caught them! Goldie was the same way when you were playing with him. Then when you thought he was plum tuckered out he'd walk away and return shortly with a dead mouse or bird to drop at your feet. The personality he presented to us humans was the polar opposite of what his prey saw from the business end of what we viewed as his ridiculously cute front paws. Ha - good point. Kind of how I might feel seeing a mountain lion coming toward me. Don't get me wrong, I've seen plenty of cats who wouldn't hurt a fly. A mouse could walk out into the middle of the room, unfold a lawn chair, and sit there in it calmly sipping a glass of iced tea while watching soap operas on TV all afternoon, and those cats probably wouldn't move a muscle. But you can rest assured that another cat in the neighborhood recently slaughtered a mouse in cold blood, and the word's gotten out in the mouse community about the brutal murder up the block, so they're not likely to tempt fate in such a manner. :-) John D. Kasupski Niagara Falls, NY Many years ago the very first cat I ever had was in the house when I saw a mouse in the kitchen. I got the cat and set him down where he could see the mouse. The cat took one look, then turned around and ran out of the room. In contrast, I've had a couple of indoor/outdoor cats who were real hunters, and who liked to bring their prey in the house to play with it. |
#18
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Kitten Converts Reluctant Owner
On Tue, 17 Jan 2017 23:24:07 -0800, Joy wrote:
Many years ago the very first cat I ever had was in the house when I saw a mouse in the kitchen. I got the cat and set him down where he could see the mouse. The cat took one look, then turned around and ran out of the room. LOL! Well, cat, there goes YOUR reputation around here...thanks for nothing! John D. Kasupski Niagara Falls, NY' |
#19
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Kitten Converts Reluctant Owner
On 1/18/2017 2:03 AM, John Kasupski wrote:
Don't get me wrong, I've seen plenty of cats who wouldn't hurt a fly. A mouse could walk out into the middle of the room, unfold a lawn chair, and sit there in it calmly sipping a glass of iced tea while watching soap operas on TV all afternoon, and those cats probably wouldn't move a muscle. But you can rest assured that another cat in the neighborhood recently slaughtered a mouse in cold blood, and the word's gotten out in the mouse community about the brutal murder up the block, so they're not likely to tempt fate in such a manner.:-) John D. Kasupski Niagara Falls, NY Shortly after Persia (RB) decided to live with me I found her standing outside the entrance to the kitchen off the hallway. She meowed at me but absolutely would *not* go into the kitchen. I flipped on the light. There was a dead mouse in the middle of the kitchen floor. It hadn't been killed by her; there wasn't a mark on it. (For all I knew it keeled over from a heart attack when it saw Persia.) She refused to go into the kitchen until I had disposed of the mouse and mopped the floor! Guess she was afraid of mice. She was great at catching the nasty palmetto bugs that sometimes got inside, though. I'm not afraid of mice but palmetto bugs absolutely creep me out. Jill |
#20
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Kitten Converts Reluctant Owner
On 1/18/2017 2:05 AM, John Kasupski wrote:
On Wed, 18 Jan 2017 02:03:28 -0500, John Kasupski wrote: In a perfect , Goldie jumps into the ditch at the last instant and survives unharmed. The driver loses control of the vehicle, which veers into the ditch, flips upside down, and goes airborne fifty feet into a utility pole, The driver is decapitated on impact. The body remains in the vehicle. The head rolls on another twenty feet, coming to rest at the feet of a whitetail deer grazing nearby - who, having witnessed the entire incident, unhesitatingly kicks it into the ditch and walks away satisfied that justice has been served. Oops - sorry! I guess that's what I get for posting at two o'clock in the morning. That should read, "In a perfect world..." John D. Kasupski Niagara Falls, NY I knew what you meant. We all do it from time to time, regardless of what time it is. If you know what I mean. Jill |
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