Tag: Tito

My mad housekeeping came to a screeching halt this week. I was being careful not to terrorize the pointy eared people too much, but the addition of heavy equipment next door made that impossible.

Missing from the pic are the huge dump trucks. Due to some major water main and sewer main replacement in the area, they have been bringing dirt in and taking it back out. The dirt is full of concrete chunks and makes awfully loud crashing noises when it’s dumped in the truck. Most times, the truck is parked on the street out front for loading. That pretty much puts it under my living room window.

Miss Jenny despises the dump trucks. When they’re parked out front, she growls continually until they go away. Then she runs and hides.

Tito hasn’t gone to hide, but he won’t let me get more than a foot away from him.

Titanescu is unmoved. He just doesn’t care.

It wasn’t quite as musical as this.

The video above is from one of our favorite movies, The Sound of Noise.

Before we show off the pointy eared people, we want to give a shout out to all our friends in the flood zones of Colorado. We are fervently hoping the rains end soon and that there are no more losses, human, or pets. There is a Facebook page where they are posting pets lost or found in the flooding. I’m unable to post a link, but it’s called Colorado Disaster Wildfire / Flood Lost & Found Pets.

Another Caturday has rolled around and the pointy eared people are being lazy as usual. There are times when I really envy a cat’s ability to nap all day. I’m still on a massive cleaning and reorganizing binge, so I’m not around as much these days. I’ll be back eventually.

In the meantime, I’m busily cleaning around the fur people. I’ve managed to do it without bringing out the evil sucking machine. I’ve even made it a point to move furniture in slow motion so that they don’t go deep into hiding for hours, if not days.

Some of my cleaning has resulted in scenes similar to this. 🙂

Kitties always let you know how much force and speed is appropriate while you pet them. That is if you pay the least bit of attention, because distraction might make you bleed. Tito likes a Swedish massage with both hands on, one palm cupping his forehead, the other raking his fur from shoulder to the base of the tail. He prefers to lay in your lap, and it’s best if you happen to sit on the edge of the bathtub, since that’s where he stores his toys… He likes being close to them.

The way he lets you know to slow things down a bit is by digging his claws in your kneecaps. Once he goes from digging to pulling, you went too far… Amazingly, he sometimes enjoys belly rubs and getting his fur ruffled a little bit. Countless times a day he throws himself on our feet and rolls back and forth meowing and purring loudly. I sometimes pick him up so he can rub his face against mine while admiring the paint on the ceiling.

Titanescu enjoys fingers raking the fur between his ears and above his eyes. He also appreciates the occasional scritches at the corners of his mouth and chin, so long as you don’t go too far down his neck. And it’s always best to let him smell your fingers before touching him. And you gotta keep it light, without dragging it out too long. One pinkie for one minute is just about right.

Miss Jenny prefers to start out slow, fingers lightly raking from chin to tail, until she starts purring and stretching. Her favorite spot is the top of the cat tower, where she can push her arched back against the rim. You can then pet her more heavily, at which point it’s guaranteed she will fart. She looks at you as if to say she’s been brewing that methane just for you. Do you like it? Do you? She’s also been known to reach out and grab the glasses off my face, running scared when they clatter on the floor…

Now it’s time for another Shorty and Kodi video. We can relate to this. We just put up new drapes. The sheers are shredded and the drapes are now wearing a fur fringe. Be sure to visit their Youtube page or Facebook page.

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.