Knock Knock. Who's There? Pinot!!!!

Sometimes I think the Old Guy is losing it. Today, while he was home making lunch for himself he thought he heard someone knocking on the door. He raced down the stairs, opened the door and no one was there. Then he turned around and realized what he was hearing was Pinot doing a major dig in the kitty litter that sounded just like someone knocking at the door. If you ask me, I think the Old Guy needs professional help.

Cleaning O' the Kitty Litter

One of the big events during the week at our house is when the Old Guy decides to clean the Kitty Litters. We are a 4 kitty litter household, 2 in the house and 2 in the garage. I guess the garage kitty litters are holdovers from my early days. We definitely have our preferences. Me? I prefer the garage kitty litters because that is where I began my stay here. It just seems natural. Chow Mein? He also likes the garage ones. Pinot is an in-the-house kindofguy. He cracks me up. When he is in the kitty litter he yowls. Then when he buries his stuff he goes at it like a construction worker digging a deep hole. You can hear his digging and yowling all over the house.

Back to cleaning day. No matter what time of day or night, whether we are sleeping or awake, when the Old Guy starts to clean the kitty litters we surround him and watch. I don't know what the fascination is but there is something about watching him clean the litter. I suppose one of the questions on our mind is, why on earth does he want that stuff? I mean, yuck!!!!! And yet there he is, digging, sifting, gently placing the material in the bag, and then more digging and sifting until it's all gone. Then on to the next one and more digging and sifting. Then he gently ties up the bag and puts it into a storage container. I don't know what happens after that but this seems really wierd to all of us. Of course we always get the last laugh because as soon as he's done, we all take big dumps!!!!! Ha, ha, ha. Poor Old Guy.

A Tree Grows in . . .

Lots of wierd stuff lately. Thanksgiving? Fagetaboutit. The Old Guy and Pretty Lady left for two days. Instead of Turkey we got two days of crunchies and water. Put that on the list of things that suck.

They got back Friday and then were gone from 2:00 on Saturday 'till midnight. Seems there was some kind of football game that provided lots of ammunition for family arguments. I overheard that the Old Guy, the younger Pretty Lady, the Old Guy's brother, the older Pretty Lady's sister and brother went to the school with the wierd red color and gold color and the older Pretty Lady, the Old Guy's son and the daughter who's a cat doctor, and the Old Guys parents went to the school with the pretty blue and gold color. Everybody says that the younger Pretty Lady's husband wanted to go to the wierd red and gold color school but couldn't get in . . . so he went to some school far away called Har . . . something or other, that also has a wierd red color.

Then on Sunday everyone left early to go to another football game in San Diego to see some old guy who stayed at our house for 2 months earlier this year. He is a quarterback for another team with wierd red colors, from Kansas City. Anyway, the bottom line is that we got lots of crunchies and water and not much else for 5 days.

Ok, so the absolute wierdest thing? Tonight the Old Guy comes home with a big green bush and drags it into the living room and sticks it on a table. I mean this thing is huge. While he was trying to position it in a stand he had, Pinot and Chow jumped up on the table to help. Chow tried to climb the bush and Pinot attacked it. Me? I didn't want to have anything to do with the bush. It looked like it was going to fall on everyone and the Old Guy kept yelling at it and Pinot and Chow and using naughty words. I stood back and watched. A pretty good show if you ask me. However, once he got it upright the really good stuff started. He pulled out long strings of wire with little bulbs on them. I immediately attacked and tried to run off with them. The Old Guy was trying to put them around the bush while I was trying to eat through the wire. Finally, the Old Guy got the wire on the bush and all of a sudden everything lit up red and green. Wow, there's that red thing again. Anyway, Chow, Pinot and I are wating for the Old Guy to go to bed so we can investigate further. Looks like I won't get much sleep tonight.

Pinot Did That

In the morning the Old Guy likes to sit at the computer and check stuff out on the web. While he is doing that Chow Mein comes in and likes to sit in front of the computer screen. The Old Guy likens it to a total eclipse of the sun. After a good scratch he usually moves on. Lately I have also started coming into the office when the Old Guy is sitting. I walk around his legs meowing until he picks me up and gives me a good scratch while I lay in his lap. He's getting good at surfing the web one handed.

Today, I decided to check out the office counter where Chow usually roams. Let me tell you, there are a lot of cat toys that I didn't know about. I must have attacked 10 pencils and pens knocking them to the floor, one by one. They are no fun once they fall on the floor, so after I knock one down I move on to another one. After all the pencils and pens were gone I found a really cool eraser which I could throw around. Sometimes it would get stuck under or in a folder. No problem. I just scratch until the folder, or its contents or both, fell on the floor. After 20 minutes of this I moved on. Well, when the Pretty Lady came in she was not amused to see her stuff all over the floor. When asked "who did that?" I answered, "Pinot did that". Unfortunately, the Old Guy was watching me the entire time. Man, that guy is everywhere.

Busted!

I am told that there used to be a cat living in our household named Mon Chella Louisa. It seems that Miss Louisa had to be separated from Chow Mein because when the were together they always fought vicious cat fights. There was a lot of concern that when Pinot entered the household there would be the same result. But, of course, Pinot and Chow get on famously, maybe because there are both males, who knows? Miss Louisa died a few months before I was brought to live in the garage.

Since I have aclimated to household living, there has been the concern that Chow and I would fight like Chow and Louisa. Both Pinot and Chow have told me the history. Anyway, even though I have now lived in the house with Chow and Pinot for 3 months, there is still an overhang of concern about me and Chow. Every now and then, sometimes in the wee hours of the morning, I'll let out the Minet hiss or yowl or screech which indicates Chow is picking on me. Every time I do this, the old guy has yelled at Chow to leave me alone. In fact, when the Pretty Lady and Little Girl were here from New York, Chow and I had a fur-flying-screachathon right in front of the Prettly Lady. She freaked and said Chow was trying to kill me. Ha Ha. Like I'd let him do that.

Anyway, after today I think there will be a change. Chow was laying on a table in the sun. I thought everyone was out of the room, so I walked over and sat under the table. Every time Chow hung his tail or leg over the end, I jumped up and attacked it either with paw or mouth. After I had been doing this for about 10 minutes, Chow got up and chased me. I hissed and screeched. We jumped at each other and then I really screached as I ran across the house with Chow chasing me. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that the Old Guy had been watching us for the whole time. As I screached around the house, I got yelled at. I think the jigg is up because what the Old Guy didn't know, until today, is that I am the one who insitgates the fights with Chow. Chow usually could care less about me. But I like to harass Chow until he chases me. Now the Old Guy knows the truth. Bummer!!!

Royalty

I have just realized that there is a certain medieval structure to the operation of my household. Chow Mein is the King. I, Minette, am the Queen. Pinot is the Court Jester. The Old Guy and the Pretty Lady are the Pawns. By the way, the King and Queen don't sleep in the same bed, much less the same room.

Things to do today

5 a.m. Cat chase with Pinot; attack Halloween decorations and drag them across floor.

6 a.m. Sit with Pinot and Chow staring at the Old Guy until he wakes up.

6:15 a.m. Follow Old Guy around in cat herd until he makes coffee and puts out soft cat food.

6:25 a.m. Turn up nose at soft cat food and walk away.

6:30 a.m. Watch Chow eat my soft cat food. I like crunchies better anyway.

6:45 a.m. Dance around house, run all over the place, puff up and set fur on full fluff. Chow and Pinot sleep.

7:15 a.m. Lay down in universal scratching position. When Old Guy comes over to scratch me, run away.

8:00 through 9:30 a.m. See 7:15 a.m. It's fun to watch him get frustrated.

9:45 a.m. Allow Old Guy to catch me and give me a full cat brushing.

10:00 a.m. Beat up on Barbie's head.

10:15 a.m. Nap time.