More Jack

Princess Jack

The-Cat-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named

OD teaches Jack

Flying cat

Are we having fun yet?

Update on our pets…

“Wait!  Did you say pets?!”

Yep.  Pets.  Plural.

But more on that below.  First, lets talk about Jack.  I’ve previously mentioned Jack’s fondness for water that isn’t in his water dish.  Well, look what we found the other day…

I’m just not sure what to make of this.

---

Now about that other pet.  I was at work this week, and Ordinary Spouse breaks the news gently.  “We’ve got a new pet!  His name is Stripe-ilicious!”  Turns out that someone found this on the butterfly weed in the garden:

Well, this morning we got to witness this amazing transformation:

This took place over about five minutes.  Look for another update in two weeks or so.

Random Jack stories

I’m squeezing in a quick blog about recent Jack-related shenanigans:

Climbing

A few nights ago, Ordinary Spouse and I were awakened by a loud crash – at least it sounded loud in the middle of my sleep.  OS must have been more coherent, because she said it sounded like a cat trying to climb (and not succeeding).

I got out of bed and looked around.  Sure enough – I found OS’s glasses on the floor beside our dresser.  And in the morning, she also found her watch and a few other things.  And on the top of the dresser were four perfectly parallel scratches going from the middle to the edge.  Looks like someone didn’t quite make an accurate judgement on height or slipperiness.

OS ventured that he wouldn’t be trying that one again anytime soon.

Drinking

We’ve been wondering for a while: what is Jack drinking?  First, I’ll set everyone’s mind at ease – Jack knows where his water bowl is.  We see him drink there occasionally, but not frequently.  This didn’t exactly trouble us.  OS said that cats aren’t necessarily big drinkers.  On the other hand, output seems to exceed intake, if you know what I mean.

Now we’ve intentionally been leaving the toilets closed, so this story isn’t going to get gross on you.  But it turns out that we were wise to take that precaution…

Oldest Daughter and I have both caught Jack in the bathtub.  In my case, I watched him jump in just after sniffing at the pot.

We’re going to be leaving those lids down.

Kneading

Crazy cat.  Last night I woke up when Jack landed on my back.  From there, he calmly proceeded to the sheet and blanket pile in the middle of the bed (warm and humid night) and started to knead the pile.  I guess this isn’t a surprise to those in the know.  But you can imagine my dumb-founded expression when I was awakened to see our cat doing a happy dance.

Jack, ruler of the kingdom

It would appear that Jack has come into his own…

Here I am!

Love me!

We had a few friends over tonight for a get together.  After they left, Jack deigned to receive affection from his loyal subjects.  (The catnip didn’t hurt.)

Jack, night three

I’m running out of ways to blog about Jack, so he may not get a daily blog after all.  But in the meantime, how about taking some scripture out of context…

(We’ll get to that shortly.)

So Jack is still hesitant to leave his friendly confines, whether they be underneath the downstairs futon or underneath our bed.  However, once the girls are tucked in for bed last night, Jack made tentative treks around the house.  He’s got the litter box and food locations down well, and he made himself available for snuggling.  Then after Ordinary Spouse and I went to bed, he really started exploring.  He woke us up a few times with some quiet calling (we’re wondering if he’s missing his playmates), and a few times he decided to just hop up and join us on the bed.  (Hey – doesn’t Hebrews say something about keeping the marriage bed undefiled?)  When morning came, he retreated again to his hideout underneath.

When we checked his food bowl this morning, we found that he had collected a rubber band and a hair scrunchy there.  I’m not sure what that means, but I’m glad that he didn’t bring us any dead mice.

Ordinary Mommy is sensing some sadness on the part of Middle Daughter, who had been hoping for a more friendly pet.  Hopefully, that will just be a matter of time.  We’re thinking of getting some catnip toys that MD can use to get Jack in a more playful mood.

I think that’s all for today.

Jack’s second night

What – does Jack get a blog entry every day?

Anyway…  Jack spent most of yesterday under the downstairs futon, but was content to be approached there.  Middle Daughter especially took to the task of befriending Jack and climbed right behind the futon with him.  She was singing love songs and putting on puppet shows, and Jack didn’t seem to mind.  He also let everyone reach under and pet him.  However, he still seemed uncertain about the spontaneous, unpredictable, and potentially loud nature of little humans when they’re out in the middle of the room, and so he didn’t seem anxious to leave his kingdom.

However, after the girls were asleep, Ordinary Spouse pulled him out and petted him, and he completely adored that.  She did report that when Jack heard me walking upstairs, he got very tense.  When he could see me, though, things were fine.  Eventually, OS put him down so that she could do some work.  Jack returned to his cozy place, but after a while emerged from there again – the first time he’s done that with humans in the same room.  Then he heard the washing machine start spinning in the other room, and decided that under the futon was safer.

He stayed there until after we were in bed, but sometime in the middle of the night, he went exploring again.  He devoured a bowl of food and eventually went to sleep under our bed.  This morning, he returned to his futon.  The girls said that he started to come out once, but scampered back in when he saw them.  Well – small steps, I guess.

Kitty litter!

Ha, ha!  I’ve never thought about kitty litter before.  And now that Jack has arrived, I’m looking over the kitty litter bag and finding that some of this just strikes me as funny or interesting.  Those of you who are thinking that I’m strange can call me “Crazy Horse” and write about it in your own blog.  Potty humor is alive and well in my house.

So, what’s up with the kitty litter?

I’ve already mentioned how our kitty litter is “flushable”, but that the state of California doesn’t recommend this.  That one makes me laugh.

I also mentioned that our kitty litter is “natural”.  Have you ever wondered what kitty litter is made of?  Not me – I always assumed it was some high tech polymer.  Turns out that it’s really just ground corn.  That’s right, Jack poops in high tech corn meal.  Who knew?

(Apparently, the alternative is some clay-derived substance, which may release silica dust.  Not in my house.)

According to the bag, “cats may paw or even taste any new litter product.”  Well, since it’s natural, we don’t have to worry about that.

And for those of you who are organically-minded people, our particular brand of litter “is not a food product and does not meet ‘organically grown’ certification requirements.  However, it is derived from natural organic matter.”

Beyond all of that, there are the comments on the packaging about how it’s made with a “patented process”, how it’s been tested in “real litter boxes with real cats”, and how we’ll be completely satisfied.  If L.L.Bean made cat litter, this would be it.

Now I’m going to go look at our toilet paper again.

Jack’s first night

Observations from Jack’s first night:

• The three pieces of cat food left right at the top of the stairs were gone, so Jack at least made it that far.
• The litter box was used.  That is a very important point.
• Kitty litter likes to roam.
• Jack’s food has displaced my oatmeal.  I guess I know where I rank.

The girls are now watching him while he hides behind our TV entertainment center.

Jack in his new home

Well, we’ve brought Jack home.  We made the trip to pick him up tonight, and he immediately figured out that something was up.  Half an hour later, we found him.  After his person caught up with him, we did introductions, gave Jack a little time to calm down, and then convinced him to come home with us.  We had  to trade kitty carriers, though, because Jack didn’t care for ours.

So we got home, and Ordinary Spouse gave Jack some TLC to soothe him after the trip.  Then we introduced Jack to his litter box^* – need to take care of the important stuff first!  Then we gave him some space.  After a while, Youngest Daughter squealed that he had taken cover under our futon.  And  now, two hours later, he is still there, defining his new kingdom.

* And what a litter box it is!  It is stocked with “World’s Best Cat Litter” which, according to the package is “safe, natural, clumpable scoopable, and flushable”.  However, the package also notes that “the state of California encourages the disposal of cat feces in trash and discourages flushing cat feces in toilets or disposing of them in drains.”  Who knows – maybe that’s what got California into the shape it’s in now.  Good thing we don’t live there.

I decided to celebrate the occassion with some Trader Joe’s Cat Cookies and some blogging.  Jack wasn’t impressed.