Bring your kitty to work to day

This guy really wanted to come to work with me today. He was hanging out by the door, giving me cuddles while I was trying to leave. He even escaped into the garage when I went to put my purse in the car.  He was being so sweet, begging me to stay home or bring him along for the ride. But Gunnar + offices probably don't mix given that I have coworkers that aren't cat people and that his favorite past time is knocking things off ledges.  Yes, he'd be an office terror, but it is an interesting idea. Wonder what the boss thinks about a bring your kitty to work day? 

On Bulldogs

I'm a big fan on Uga. Today the New York Times ran an interesting piece on the bulldogs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/magazine/can-the-bulldog-be-saved.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hpw

Happy Saturday

This is how I started my Saturday:

Gunnar flipped over his litter box. That blue thing in the front is the lid of the litterbox. It's upside down. The base of litter box is upended and is sitting vertically on what should be the front. Most of the litter poured out. Gunnar probably played in it.

I don't really know why Gunnar decided he needed to flip it, but I got to clean it up. Thanks, buddy.

Mojo's Thanksgiving

TURKEY COMA: Mojo ate a little bit too much turkey at Thanksgiving.

Mojo likes people food. Any day of the week he'll happily take some turkey from your sandwich, leftover eggs, a potato chip, a carrot. He'll even beg....and steal if necessary. 

Going over to his grandparents' house is a treat because 1) he'll usually eat all of their dog's food as soon as he gets there and 2) he gets LOTS of table scraps. 

Of course Thanksgiving is this dog's favorite holiday (besides the dogpark playdate holiday we have for his birthday). He loves the turkey, the ham, the mashed potatoes....really anything you'll feed him.  While we were eating Thanksgiving dinner, he was panting loudly, begging for food. Matt gave him plenty of turkey, but it still wasn't enough for this dog. So when we weren't looking.....Mojo found his way over to the table where all the food was set up buffet style. The table was waist high. And I looked up just in time to see Mojo, front paws on the table, licking the carved turkey on the platter. I raced out of my chair and got him off the table before he had time to steal that turkey leg he was eyeing, but not before the entire family turned to see our dog slobbering on their turkey.

At least it was funny. And Mojo got a little extra turkey to take with him for later.

iPod kitty

Katie loves a good cord. I took the iPod off for a second and she decided to claim it for her own. Requests?

Cat v Humidifier

We've set up a humidifier in the bedroom. It makes the air nice and balmy and easy to breathe. We got it for my asthma, but it helps Matt breathe better too. 

The one things I was worried about was the pets. Would they leave it alone? Would Mojo obsess over it and burn his snout on the steam? That's what I was most worried about, so of course that's not what happened.

Mojo ignores the device completely. Katie occasionally walks around it to see what all the fuss is about, but Gunnar.....he is a kitty possessed. 

He watches it all day. He'll sit there and stare at it for hours. (I've been home sick a few days so I've watched him). If he's in a feisty mood, he'll fight with it: bat his paws at it, try to wrestle it, punch it, paw at it, try to scratch it open.

At first it was cute. Ahh, the cute is fighting the humidifier. But he's kept it up for two weeks. And now it's just annoying when I'm trying to sleep and he's engaged in a 10-minute epic battle with an inanimate object. One time he did manage to turn it off, so I guess he won that round. 

He's not interested in the steam. He watched the tank. I thought he just liked watching the bubbles, that like a fish tank it was entertainment. But really, it's more devious than him watching the bubbles and the gurgles. He'd scratch at the water part of the tank, and then end up licking his paws. I thought it was because he hurt his paws punching the thing. No.

He punches, wrestles and even stands on top of the water tank in order to jiggle it, to change the pressure in the tank because when that happens the valve in the bottom of the tank lets water flow from the tank to the base. And when he does this when the base is full, the base will over flow and spill out water for him to play in. Punch the tank = play in water.

Why he doesn't just play in the dog's water bowl, I don't know. I guess it's not as fun. 

Who knew a humidifier doubled as a cat toy?

Katie: Just Because

I stayed home sick the other day and Katie kept me company. She stayed in the same room as I did...and wanted cuddles as often as possible. Here she is curling up next to me asking for a belly rub. (I think this is before she started attacking the strings on my pants and generally biting me.)

For the love of socks

Mojo has the best smile. But what makes Mojo smile?

Socks.

He loves socks, the stinkier the better. He plays with them every day. Our house is a playground full of socks Mojo has procured. 

He's not above nosing through the dirty clothes basket to get socks or if he's really feisty he'll try to pull them off your feet. We even had a basket of mismatched socks in the hall (I didn't have time to match them). Every night it seemed like there were more socks in the bedroom and I couldn't figure out where he was getting them (I wasn't giving them to him), but I finally figured out that every night he was grabbing one sock out of the basket as he passed it in the hallway. Sneaky!

The sock in the picture, I actually watched him take out of a ball. He'll tug on the, grasp them between his paws and pull with his mouth and the ball comes undone. Then he just plays with the socks. He runs around, shakes the sock, wants you to play tugs when the sock and when all the craziness is done he'll just sit down and cherish his stinky sock. 

Photo Shoot With Scarves

I was home sick the other day. So, what did I do? Dress the dog up in scarves.

I had a blast. Mojo? Dejected. He had this pathetic look on his face, like "Mom, why are you doing this to me? Ugh."

I actually think he looked best in this scarf. Not sure he's crazy about the pink though.

Hands down, this is my favorite photo. This is the first scarf I put on him. He wasn't amused. But somehow I managed to capture this snarl that I think really sums up his feelings for the whole painful ordeal. It is a chic wrap though.

We got an almost smile here. Don't worry, he wasn't happy for long.

This was his general sad expression.

I thought it was the pink so I tried another color scarf and a different wrap.

Still sad.

Grumpy even.

Mr. Sensitive

As fun-loving as Mojo is, he's also extremely sensitive. It's why we can't board him (even at his favorite daycare) IF we go out of town. (He'll be depressed for the next month and have abandonment issues). One weekend, Matt worked a lot and Mojo didn't see him. Mojo refused to eat until he saw Matt. He looks depressed every morning when we leave for work and even the smallest change in his routine makes him uneasy. So we try to keep this in mind. He's just a sensitive dog, who loves and relies on his people. 

Last night, we went to a new neighbor's football party. We said our usual goodbyes and went across the street. We meant to stay about 20 minutes, that turned into an hour, then two. But still, if the dog tried hard enough he could probably hear us talking. We weren't that far away. We came back and Mojo was shaking. He had his head down and the most freaked-out look on his face. He practically rushed us when we came in the door. He was SO HAPPY to see us. He kept trying to lick me, then Matt, and back and forth because he couldn't make up his mind. Even Gunnar rushed us and instantly wanted cuddles.

"What happened?" Matt and I both looked at each other. The pets were both seriously freaked out. Even aloof Katie even came and gave me a kiss and said "I missed you" (even though she'd been ignoring me all day).

Nothing was broken or out of place at the house. I thought maybe they broke something and then were upset. No, Matt thinks it was because we left and they're used to us leaving in cars. We walked across the street, hence they didn't hear a car and maybe Mojo thought something happened to us and we weren't coming back. Matt and I do occasionally walk places, usually with Mojo, which is why the oldest cat wasn't really freaked out. But Mojo was because we usually take him when we walk to the park next door.

Poor guy. I guess next time we'll bring him to the football party.  

Writing help

I spend a lot of my evenings and weekends writing fiction. Last weekend I was doing final edits and rewrites to a chapter and the gang assembled to help me. Though if I'm being honest Gunnar hates everything I write, Mojo is a little too enthusiastic and Katie thinks I need to write more scenes with cats in them.

Thanks guys!

The Other Side

The other night I was really tired and went to bed early. I started dreaming almost immediately. Only to be woken up by Gunnar scratching on the door. I figured he was just doing his usual let-me-in-the-bathroom scratch and was annoyed. (His favorite hobby is knocking things off counters so we don't let him in the master bath). But when I peeked my eyes open, I didn't see a grey and black cat scratching at the door, all I saw were black paws coming from the other side of the bathroom....He must have silently snuck in when I was taking medicine because I sure don't remember letting him in. So I let him out, glad that he got my attention. SIlly cat. 

Not Fetch

While most dogs love playing fetch, Mojo's game of choice is keep-away. He won't fetch a ball and bring it back to you. He'll run around and make you chase him and tug the ball out of his jaws if you want to throw it again. It doesn't really maximize the number of throws he gets, but apparently he likes it.

This is him with his favorite orange ball. I think I actually got bit taking this picture.

In the bathtub

When I say this cat gets into everything I mean it. I open the bathroom door for one minute and he's playing in the bathtub, on the counter knocking something glass off a ledge, finding those packing peanuts he's obsessed with....you get the picture....He's very interested in the bathtub. (He took a dive once. So now I'm careful about leaving the door open when there's water in the tub.)

Sunny Spot

The cats love to find a good sunny spot. This weekend Katie found a particularly good one in Mojo's dog bed. So that's where she spent the afternoon napping. Thanks Mojo.