Dulce Mae is my hero

Mark Edwards wrote:
Time for the sometimes annual vacuuming of the carpet (grin).

I started unwinding the cord of the Dyson (which vacuum I highly
recommend, btw), and Buster starts giving me worried looks. Little
Feet prepares to run. Little Boy gives me an odd "What are you doing?"
look.

I start up the vacuum, and Little Feet runs from the living room into
the bedroom. Buster hightails it to the top of the chest freezer down
the hall. Little Boy tries to get traction in mid air, doing his best
Bugs Bunny imitation (head two feet ahead of his hindquarters, and a
cloud of dust). I don't see Dulce Mae.

On into the bedroom. Little Feet feels safe on the bed, and just
watches me. Until I pick up the vacuum to get to the obstructed side
of the room. He joins Buster on the freezer. Little Boy's head pokes
briefly around the corner at the end of the hallway. I still don't see
Dulce Mae.

Down the hall, and near the freezer I go. Cats on the freezer are
panicking and trying to find a way off the freezer without being eaten
by the vacuum.

Finally, I see Dulce Mae. She comes charging down the hall, pushes me
back from the vacuum, and runs up to the vacuum. She administers three
sharp slaps to the machine, cusses at it for a moment, then comes back
and rubs against my legs, looking very smug. I believe she gave sharp
looks to the three boy cats while she was at it.

When I picked her up and thanked her for protecting me, she started
purring.

She may be terrified of cars, but she takes no guff from uppity
household appliances (big grin).


Hugs and Purrs,
Mark


Our little guy, Tippy, loves the dustbuster. Whenever we get that out he comes
running so he can be vacuumed. He will roll around on the floor as we're
vacuuming him. If we stop before he's finished, he jumps up and grabs it trying
to pull it back down on himself. The other three run, although Teddy is
slightly curious, if Tippy likes it she must too!

Randy - Humble servent to Smokey, Sweetpea, Tippy and Teddy

On 30 May 2006 15:42:52 GMT, Randy wrote:


Our little guy, Tippy, loves the dustbuster. Whenever we get that out he comes
running so he can be vacuumed. He will roll around on the floor as we're
vacuuming him. If we stop before he's finished, he jumps up and grabs it trying
to pull it back down on himself. The other three run, although Teddy is
slightly curious, if Tippy likes it she must too!


Tinkerbelle, a cat whom my parents kept for 15 years, loved to be
"dustbusted". If my father got out the large vacuum cleaner, she
would run for the far end of the house, but if he got out the
hand-held vacuum cleaner, she would come to him and stand in place
while he ran it over her back and sides. Apparently, she liked the
sensation.

Another newsgroup where I regularly hang out is
rec.arts.sf.composition. It is about writing science fiction and
fantasy, and most of the participants are writers. I myself am not a
writer, but like the discussions and getting to know the writers as
individuals. At any rate, an idiom in that group is "cat-vacuuming",
meaning unlikely chores that you do in order to procrastinate doing
something else. "Before I write that next chapter, I have to vacuum
the cat first." The other folks were amused when a few of us,
including me, spoke up about having had cats that liked to be
vacuumed.

--
John F. Eldredge --
PGP key available from http://pgp.mit.edu
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better
than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria

John F. Eldredge wrote:

Another newsgroup where I regularly hang out is
rec.arts.sf.composition. It is about writing science fiction and
fantasy, and most of the participants are writers. I myself am not a
writer, but like the discussions and getting to know the writers as
individuals. At any rate, an idiom in that group is "cat-vacuuming",
meaning unlikely chores that you do in order to procrastinate doing
something else. "Before I write that next chapter, I have to vacuum
the cat first."

LOL - a friend of mine is on that newsgroup. He told me that you guys
tried to come up with a logo, and that people were creating simple,
symbolic line drawings of a cat being vacuumed. Once one was chosen
from the submissions, it was going to be printed on t-shirts or something.
I remember being asked my opinion, not that it counted for much.

Apparently you really had to be in on it to have any idea what that
image was referring to. Imagine an outsider coming up to a person
wearing the t-shirt and trying to make sense of it. Why is this person
wearing a drawing of someone vacuuming a cat, if that's even what it is??

Joyce - off to dig up the email exchange I had with said friend...

On 31 May 2006 23:48:16 GMT, wrote:

John F. Eldredge wrote:

Another newsgroup where I regularly hang out is
rec.arts.sf.composition. It is about writing science fiction and
fantasy, and most of the participants are writers. I myself am not a
writer, but like the discussions and getting to know the writers as
individuals. At any rate, an idiom in that group is "cat-vacuuming",
meaning unlikely chores that you do in order to procrastinate doing
something else. "Before I write that next chapter, I have to vacuum
the cat first."

LOL - a friend of mine is on that newsgroup. He told me that you guys
tried to come up with a logo, and that people were creating simple,
symbolic line drawings of a cat being vacuumed. Once one was chosen
from the submissions, it was going to be printed on t-shirts or something.
I remember being asked my opinion, not that it counted for much.

Apparently you really had to be in on it to have any idea what that
image was referring to. Imagine an outsider coming up to a person
wearing the t-shirt and trying to make sense of it. Why is this person
wearing a drawing of someone vacuuming a cat, if that's even what it is??

Joyce - off to dig up the email exchange I had with said friend...

We ended up having small metal pins made, about 1/2 inch across. You
see a cartoon cat with a "not again..." look on its face, a vacuum
cleaner nozzle, and a human hand holding the nozzle.

At one time, the lady coordinating the pin purchase had the image
on-line, but I don't think that it is on her web site any more.

I wear my vacuumed-cat pin as a hat decoration, and get the occasional
comment on it. Mostly, people just notice the cat and don't pay
attention to the vacuum cleaner, although I did have one lady ask me
if I worked as a pet groomer.

--
John F. Eldredge --
PGP key available from http://pgp.mit.edu
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better
than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria

John F. Eldredge wrote:
Another newsgroup where I regularly hang out is
rec.arts.sf.composition. It is about writing science fiction and
fantasy, and most of the participants are writers. I myself am not a
writer, but like the discussions and getting to know the writers as
individuals. At any rate, an idiom in that group is "cat-vacuuming",
meaning unlikely chores that you do in order to procrastinate doing
something else. "Before I write that next chapter, I have to vacuum
the cat first." The other folks were amused when a few of us,
including me, spoke up about having had cats that liked to be
vacuumed.


ROFL! This isn't quite the same, but if you ever hear a Finnish person
talking about a 'cat christening,' they mean some insignificant event or
get-together, a small informal party or such.

--
Marina, Miranda and Caliban. In loving memory of Frank and Nikki.
Stories and pics at http://koti.welho.com/mkurten/
Pics at http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/frankiennikki/
and http://community.webshots.com/user/frankiennikki