Wordless Wednesday: Big Mitch!!

Happy Birthday Mitch!!

So... a cat turns 2 today.

MITCH!!

Mitchell Lamar, Esq., that is.

I got Mitch when he was 6 months old. I really wanted a tuxedo cat, and I saw him asleep in a glass cage at my local Pet Smart. And I thought Here is a calm cat. This will be the ideal companion for Sister Callie Jo.

Because Sister Callie Jo was a bit too much for me. And for some odd reason, she thought I was her playmate, especially after Oscar-Tyrone died.

I am NOT her friend. But I thought Mitch would be a good friend.

Now, Mitch is twice as big as he is in the picture above. He was about 7 or 8 pounds in that picture. He's a whopping 15 pounds now.

And all he does is sleep.

This is in strong contrast to Sister Callie. She's always into something, always busy. And I have NO earthly idea where she sleeps.

Mitch?  He likes to lay it out.

He is such a GREAT mannerable cat.  I am "his person", and he tends to follow me around. (Callie is more attached to my sister. She is STILL wandering around looking for her).

Like I said, Mitch is a very good cat.  He had a tendency to chew up cords around the house, and he destroys cat toys, but that is all good. He rarely chews power cords now. I think he got shocked real good. That's enough to deter that behavior, I suppoose.

Lately though, he's been giving Sister Callie a problem: he's been trying to hold her down and have "relations" with her. This catches me off guard. I am sure it catches Callie off guard even more.

But she's a soldier. She snap on Mitch and let him know to go on somewhere with that tomfoolery.

"That's right, Callie!" I holler, startling them both. "I don't know what you said in meow cat talk, but you let that dude know to get up off you! YEAH!!"

I talk gently to Mitch. "Sir, you can't treat Callie like that. And besides, you don't even have working equipment. No sir. Stop it. No means no."

And it never fails that Callie is laying all over him after all that madness. 

Humph.

But overall... he's a good cat.And that's all I can ask.

Happy Birthday Mitch!!!

Tales of the Beams

My cats love the beams that criss-cross my living room.

Not much time goes by (usually every few days) that I'm trying to leave for work and I'm trying to locate cats that one or both of them are laying up on the beams looking down at me.

They don't care if I'm about to be late to work. There is more of the attitude of...

We gonna lay here and be quiet and watch this fool run back and forth downstairs looking for us.

Humph.

I just be trying to make sure neither one of them is all shut up in my bedroom all day without food, water, or the litter box. 

But something interesting happened the other day: there was a stand off on the beams. And it lasted some 15  minutes, both of them standing erect as statues, chests out and at attention.

I let this go on. It's usually them just trying to get around each other. But this time, Callie Jo was intentionally blocking Mitch's exit from the beams. And he wasn't happy about it. As a matter of fact, Mitch would reach out and take a swipe at Callie.

And she would block his paw with some awesome Karate kid wax-on-wax-off ninja moves.

I was laying on the sofa watching television... and watching them. This was interesting to watch for awhile, but I didn't want either of them to fall the 10 feet to the ground below. I was not interested in spending any amount of money getting any broken bones mended.

So I yelled at them.

"What the hell wrong with ya'll?  Ya'll better stop all that mess!"

They didn't scramble or jump in fear of my booming voice, but the look they gave me was CLASSIC.

That look says... What in the world are you yelling for?

Hilarious.

Soon after my shouts, Callie left the beams, and Mitch followed close behind.

I'm not sure what they got into after that.

I was just glad any potential high-beam fights were thwarted.

Thank goodness for that.

This all makes me wonder what they get into when I'm not home...

Hmm...

A Shady Sister Callie Jo

My male cat Mitch is such a sweet fellow... very laid back, rarely get into things.

Such a sweet, bright eyed-fellow.

He reminds me of Ol' Oscar Tyrone... sigh.

But that doggone Sister Callie Jo...

She is ALWAYS up to something. My sister thinks she is crazy yet gifted. I just think she is crazy.

So...

LadyTee bought me a bamboo plant for my birthday. I cringed, because all of my plants are fake plastic plants. Anything else, and the cats will chew on them.

(What I find amazing is that Mitch and Callie chew on the fake plants. *crickets*. That's another story for another day).

Anyway, I thought about taking the real plant to work. That's what I do with my real plants... get them out the house real quick and take them to work.

But I figured I would put it up on the mantle. There's too much stuff for the up there for the cats to make a go for that plant.

Or so I thought...

In comes Sister Callie, with her, uh, gifted self.

She was sitting on top of a shoe box, which was sitting on top of their kennel. I don't know why I have the kennel in the house. I usually keep it in the garage. I never took it out after their last vet visit.

Anyway, she was sitting on top of the shoe box... and she was staring at me.

This went on for quite awhile. I only noticed because she never stays still for so long.

Hmm...

Then I saw her working out things in her mind: 

I was wondering what she was thinking. She was thinking about that bamboo plant on the mantel up in the upper right hand corner of the picture.

And then it happened...

She made a play for that plant....

I didn't even have to yell at her because that shoe box began wobbling as she tried to balance on the edge of it with her toes. And she stopped short of her goal.

I guess busting her tail on the floor wasn't an option.

Funniest thing ever.

I had a good laugh.

I laughed, but I also made a note to go ahead on and take that plant to work. I also moved the crate and shoe box.

I know she will work out some crazy plan to get a hold of that plant.

With her gifted and crazy self.

The White Patch

I was deleting pics out of my phone when I came across the picture below. Mitchell Lamar got into something a few weeks ago.  For right smack dab in between his shoulder blades was a white patch.

I thought he was growing a patch of white hair on the back of his perfect tuxedo. But I looked closely and he lost some hair.

I had no idea what happened. He didn't look sickly or anything, as he was running around being his usual playful self. There was a little redness, but I swabbed it with some alcohol and dabbed it with some neosporin.

I decided to watch him for a couple of weeks. The hair is growing back.

And he is sleeping well.  Or so I think he is.

I'm not sure how he is comfortable all stretched out like that. But at least the missing patch of hair is not a symptom of sickness.

Thank goodness for that. 

Traffic Jams

Sigh.

I know I need to post.

And I wanted to do some posts about my quick business trip to Philadelphia.  But it  takes awhile to go through pictures.

This morning, Val,  aka Serenity_23, is starting to get all antsy because I haven't posted anything. Well, I think I will appease her. She hates cats, so uh... I will do an update post on Mitchell Lamar and Callie Jo. Just for her.

,

There they are, sleeping peacefully. Callie has gotten the notion lately to go somewhere and hide, as it seems like she likes to get her beauty sleep alone, away from the touchy-feely Mitch.


Callie and Mitch like to roam the beams above the living room, especially when I'm laid out on the sofa or cleaning up the living room. It is most definitely the best vantage point to watch my every move. 

But sometimes, there are problems.  I have noticed that traffic jams occur. And Sister Callie gets an attitude.

She gets all confused because she can't figure out how to get around Mitch and back to the landing.

I have to talk to her.

"Sister Callie, calm down. Don't get your panties all in a bunch!  Just walk all the way around the long way!"

She stares. Confused and annoyed. 

She eventually figures out that she needs to walk the long way around.

And Mitch is left all by his lonesome.

I just don't want any repeats of the fights that use to take place high up on the beams between Kramer and Oscar-Tyrone.

None of that, please.

Mitch isn't all that aggressive. And even though he is 3 months younger than Callie, he is quite solid and heavy pawed, so she doesn't go at him that much.

So there will just be the steady traffic jams.


One of them has fallen before. I don't know which one, but I can tell from the long scratch mark on one of the beams that a cat fell. 

They are both fine. I hear they land on both feet so...

These traffic jams are not much trouble at all.

Headlights Beaming

From time to time, I see headlights beaming around my house.

Not headlights from "Headlights" that occur when light hits Sister Callie's and Mitch's eyes.

Here they are on the beams running above the living room.

I laughed at something on TV, and that's the look they gave me that pretty much says "What's wrong with that chick?"  They haven't gotten into any fights up there, although Callie has been a little miffed that Mitch is blocking her way. It takes her a minute to walk the other way to the staircase.

Man... they gonna catch hell from me if they step out on that ceiling fan. Pure hell. That is all.

Callie likes to chase her tail while up there. I swear it's just to piss me off. No accidents so far.

I was watching a movie and listening to music on laptop, but I'd connected to a set of big speakers and a woofer that sits up on top of my bookcase.  Callie was skittish the whole time, running to and fro, as she thought someone was in the house.

I caught her sitting up on a step ladder.  When I went to take a picture, Mitch was in stun mode too.  He'd climbed on top of Callie's cage carrier.

I'm still laughing at Callie... just the look on her face, lol...

Okay. You had to be there. It was too funny.

It took awhile before I could figure out her problem was. I decided to spare her the shock of it all and turn off my speakers.

I may do it all again... just to amuse myself.

Maybe I won't.

It's still strange to catch those headlights beaming, though.

Oh so strange. 

Mitch... An Annoyed Kitty

It's Mitch... after taking his meds.

He isn't angry... just annoyed. He's a very polite cat, so I don't have to worry about being scratched or bitten. He would consider that... rude, perhaps.

I've had Mitchell Lamar for two weeks now, and he has been a VERY good cat. I finally took him to the vet last Saturday to get checked out. He's all good, and he's a big boy (7.9 pounds and only 6 months old. That makes him a full fledge CAT in my book. Not still a kitten).

But he has had a little diarrhea since I got him. Not explosive. And I wouldn't know much about it if I didn't happen to be in the room and hear the sound of his... bubble guts. And the smell is enough to just about run me out the house.

I thought he was going to have to be an outside cat for minute there, lol.

I told the vet that it's probably my fault because I changed his diet suddenly. II received a whole bag of the food he eats when I adopted him, but I thought he could eat what Sister Callie was eating, and she can eat anything. Sister Callie has a stomach like a rock. Mitch does not. This means they are going to have to both be on his food. And that's alright.

So he has to take some stuff I administer by syringe. It takes us all of 5 seconds to do that. Thank goodness there's no fighting.

He's just annoyed with it all.

I sprinkle a packet of probiotics in his food in the morning to help with his intestinal bacterial. Dude smells like roses now.

I think his diarrhea has cleared up. And that awful smell is gone. GLORY!!

Let's hope it stays that way!

Hello there, Mitch!

There's a new fellow in the house.

Mitchell Lamar! Or Mitchell Tyrone. Not sure what he's going to be named.  I may name him Eugene. That's what my brother's name was suppose to be. Or maybe Samuel Lamar.  Or maybe Mitchell Samuel Eugene Lamar Tyrone. Who knows. He hasn't really told me his name yet.

His name is Mittens, but I like full human names. Just in case I need to get a SSN for him and do some tax stuff. (Just kidding).

Most likely, his name will be Mitchell, after LadyTee's dog that just died. Rest in peace, Mitch. She's always had a dog named Mitch, even since high school.  And you know Tyrone comes from the late Oscar-Tyrone.

He's such a sweet kitten. Very quiet. Very loving. So velvety soft. And he likes to cuddle and head butt me. But he is very quiet.  Maybe he's just getting use to new surroundings.

He's a month younger than Callie Jo, but outweighs her by a pound. 

I love his little white tip tail.

He'd been trying to sleep...

And then he actually got a little shut-eye.

It wasn't a great idea to do that, because there was Sister Callie Jo to consider...

You can tell... she is PISSED.

She is furiously writing in her Diary of an Angry Orange Woman. Writing hard in big bold angry cramped crooked letters.

"Sister Callie," I had to keep saying. "Sister Callie, calm down."

It was funny when I first walked in the house with him. He jumped out the box and saw her and was like "Oh, a cat. I will walk up to her."

Callie's eyes got big and she expanded to twice her size and was walking on tip-toes.

Mitch backed up. I could see it in his eyes.

"This broad is crazy."

So she is all angry and scatting left and right.

He stayed in a cage last night. And he wailed most of the night. No sir, can't play with you. Callie was on alert, circling his cage early on before I went to bed. 

He's in an upstairs bedroom now, his "safe place".  (I didn't get this all together, as I was told that the adoption would be in a week or so). But I did all that this morning.

I have to keep them separated. I will switch their bedding in another couple of days. And as soon as they start playing under the bedroom door, then I will let them get together.

Then they can DUKE it out.

I think Callie will win that one. It's her house. And he is so docile.

I hope he will even her out a little.

Hopefully.