An amazing and miraculous event occurred. Grumpy Butt (aka Titanescu) forgot to be grumpy for a bit. It only lasted for about 5 minutes, but it was a major breakthrough. It has taken 6 mos. to get him to this point.
The picture isn’t the best, but since Miss Jenny runs from the camera, I had to use my phone. 🙂
Life in JBoD’s Zooniverse looks like one big feline slumber party. All our cats have at some point learned to cuddle and sleep with one another, and we have the cute photos to prove it. Nurse Jenny loves to sleep on Tito for instance. A couple of licks on his head and she flops on top of him. Even though their occasional sessions of mutual grooming degenerate into a Klingon ritual with tufts of fur flying, none of them has ever been that much upset or worse from wear.
Tito and Miss Jenny wrestle and peck at each other until only one remains in the basket to sleep, but there are no hard feelings, even after some pretty brutal bouts.
Which brings us to Titanus Grumpicus, that old gulag heavyweight…
Against her better judgment, which was sadly never that great to begin with, Miss Jenny continues her efforts in R&D, Rapprochement and Détente. She even managed to rest her head against Titanescu’s rump while he dozed off the other day, until he turned to glare at her. We suspect he has tattoos of onion-domed towers on his back, hidden under his fur, along with Russian iconography all done in black ink.
Titanescu doesn’t really know how to play, although there are signs he might like to: he will stretch at the bottom of the cat tower and sharpen his claws on it, prompting either Tito or Jenny to go into stalking mode. But when he’s at rest is not the time to come goad him. While not ferocious, he’ll swiftly throw the younger cat down and maybe swallow a tuft of fur for good measure. As the expression goes, Titanescu is not violent, he is competent. He doesn’t go overboard: a quick toss, maybe a push of the teeth, enough to have Jenny cry “uncle”.
Until her next social experiment in R&D…
Now, for a musical interlude with Shorty and Kodi. Be sure to visit their Youtube page or Facebook page.
My brain is lazy today. The kitties are lazy today. It’s a lazy day.
Now for a funny video about a little wet dog by Klaatu42 over at Youtube.
Even sitting by the window, he gazes inward. He pays no attention to traffic or birds in flight, he just appears absorbed in thought.
Maybe about his new life, maybe about the younger cats still trying to figure him out… Like kids throwing rocks through the windows of a dilapidated house, they pursue him to shove their nose under his nub.
“It is the nature of youth to play, with their foolish lack of purpose, but to suffer their nose up my tuchus? If two swats do not suffice, a quick bite on the neck shall have them running to their mother’s lap with a yowl.”
Of course, Jenny yelps more from surprise than pain: Titanescu doesn’t bite so much as push on you with his teeth. No, the real protest comes from catching a whiff of halitosis from Grumps. Irony for you, coming from the blue eyed little ball of gas.
But even if he knew his fetid breath for what it actually is, there’s no sign this mild indignity would bother the old hero. He lives each day, each hour as a separate life, spending many hours in contemplation.
He’s a cat who’ll go round and round (slowly) over a spot like a dog before settling down, resting his head against an arm or a leg. We’ve not heard him growl or purr, although he’s inflicted the occasional breathy hiss. We’ve learned his ears tell the story: it is time to stop messing him about when they start twitching. Next will be either a push of the teeth or a punch. I’ll take the teeth thing over the paws, at least they don’t bruise, and I can wipe off the excess spit…
Titanescu is I think the only cat I’ve ever known who would not recoil after hissing or hitting a human. He sits very calmly with a stoic look, not even a hint of feeling, ready to hit again if pushed. No sign of fear whatsoever.
In our defense, I think we’re getting trained faster than either Tito or Jenny, although the giddy temptation to “throw rocks” remains.
ALL cats have quirks. Many seem to have the same quirks. We don’t mind. It’s a part of what makes them fascinating and endearing. For example, Tito’s favorite toys are crumpled bits of paper. The crisper, the better. He not only plays fetch like a dog, he will take them and store them in the bathtub for safekeeping. If he can’t find a paper ball, he’ll grab a receipt, jump on papa, drop it on his chest and wait. He has other quirks too. 🙂
Miss Jenny and Titanescu have their quirks as well. Jenny imitates the Predator (movie monster) while watching birds. This is common to many of the pointy eared people.
Titanescu prefers to play King of the Mountain. That is my hip. It’s also where he perches and sleeps. He manages to stay on when I roll over too. Logrolling competition? Weird
For those who want to know, the dvds next to Tito are:
The Red Balloon (1956)
The Ladykillers (1955)
The Count of Monte Cristo (1998) This French TV series is the only film version worth watching.
Amélie (2001)
The Campaign (2012)
The Exorcist (1973)
It’s a well known fact that the pointy eared people are plotting world domination. Training us humans is their first mission. May the Flying Spaghetti Monster take pity on you if you miss feeding time by more than 10 minutes because kitty sure won’t. That’s only one example of the training they enforce. We also learn the danger of leaving the litterbox cleaning for a few minutes too long. I think you get my point. Failure is not an option.
This is what they want us to see.
This is what is really coming.
Today is Miss Nightshade Jenny’s birthday. She is two. She also behaves like a typical two year old, but she has done that since she came to live with us.
She came to us as a timid youngster. She spent her first three days hiding under the dresser in the safe room, only emerging to eat and dart back under. I lived in the safe room with her and she finally got brave and emerged. She and I get along quite well, but she’s daddy’s girl and has been from the beginning. 🙂
She managed to fit in quickly. Tito adores her and grooms her at every opportunity.
Kitsy adored her. She turned into nurse Jenny when he was sick. She wouldn’t let him sleep alone…ever. She stayed with him and kept him warm. She missed him a lot when he crossed the bridge.
As for behaving like a two year old? She’s a pen thief. She steals lots of things, but her favorite is pens. She likes to bring some to bed and the rest she hides somewhere. I figure they’re behind the futon where I can’t get to them. I wrote about her thieving ways here. She also loves to steal taters. She rolls them around the floor and even brings them to bed. Cats are strange and she’s no exception to the rule.
Of course, she’s still a nervous kitty and will hide from strangers, new lamps, new drapes, etc. She’s even hiding from her mousie birthday present.
She’ll be playing with it soon. It just might take a day or two. She’s probably still recovering from her fear of the lamp monster.
She was named Nightshade by the shelter. We added Jenny after Pirate Jenny in the Threepenny Opera. Jenny was played by Lotte Lenya in the original movie. She is a prostitute who was mistreated by Mackie (Mack the Knife) and she’s our favorite character. This song is her dream of revenge for the abuse she has endured. This version, by Marianne Faithfull, is a more accurate translation (from the German) than most. I hope you like it as much as we do.
Warning: this song contains a bad word or two and may be NSFW.
You can see the original by Lenya here.
Most of our friends living with nervous pointy eared people will be familiar with the sentiment above. Change (ANY change) is met with fear and loathing. In our case it was a new lamp. Yep, we brought home a simple torchier style floor lamp and the world almost ended…for Tito and Jenny (mostly Tito) at any rate.
I decided to assemble the lamp in the kitchen. Tito and Jenny took one look at what appeared to be a headless tentacled monster and scrambled into their bolt-hole (kitchen cupboard). I could see their eyes glow, but that was all.
I had it put together in no time and tucked into place on Lastech’s side of the bed. We turned it on and then ignored it. It took a while. Miss Jenny emerged first. She glared at it for a while. Once she figured out that it wasn’t going to attack or fall on her, she hopped in the basket for a nap.
Tito was a different story. He crept in on his belly. He glared. He paced a bit like the cavemen around the monolith in “2001: a space odissey“, then bolted back to the cupboard. After about three rounds of this, he finally decided that it wouldn’t kill him. He went off to nap. It will take a while before he gets brave enough to approach the bed. If not for the fact that the monster loomed over him, he would have slapped the crap out of it a few times and gotten over it faster.
Where was Titanescu through all this? Did he care? Was he upset?
On the serious side… Yes, we can laugh at Tito and Jenny and their nervousness. However, we do try to make changes as easy on them as possible. Once they went into hiding, we left them alone to come out when they were ready. After all, it may only be a lamp to us, but to them it’s like their entire world was rearranged. We wouldn’t react well to that either.
Back to the funny side and more scaredy cats for you to enjoy.
Titanescu has continued to settle in. He rarely yells at the other two to get off his lawn. However he still has a most powerful stink eye and a lightning fast paw strike. He still plays with Miss Jenny every day and plays a bit with Tito. This week brought us this.
It looked so sweet. Titanescu was quite contented. Peace at last. Then he noticed and … Что за черт? Он трогает меня! followed by slappity slappity. Tito was unfazed.
Here is Miss Jenny trying to disguise herself as a prissy little kitty. It’s a fake out. She’s anything but a girly girl. She’s rough and tough and all girl, but she refuses to conform to anyone’s notion of what’s proper.
My Facebook friend Henry shared this LOL with me. I thought it might be one of Titanescu’s followers. Thank you Henry!
Pandemonium reigns supreme in the JBoD household. Tito, Jenny and Titanescu go ballistic for a while. Once done, it’s naptime. The manic moments are a wonder though.
Martial acrobatics meet Jenny’s Petomania under Tito’s benevolent gaze. If you remember, Miss Jenny runs on poot poot power. Most people can blame the dog. We blame Miss Jenny. These martial acrobatics bring out the best in her. Hmmmm, maybe that’s the worst.
As for Titanescu, he looks forward to playtime. He’s still a grumpy butt , but he’s a happy grumpy butt. Here’s a little slideshow movie I made of his acrobatics with Jenny. She does most of the acrobatics (and poots), but they have fun. Oh, and please forgive the music’s abrupt ending on the video.
