CAT TALES &#8211; My catitude runs hot and cold

I want to be a good cat mom and treat my cats fairly. I want to be a calming and stabilizing influence in their lives. I want all of the pets to feel safe and secure in a happy home. There are times when I pull this off. Unfortunately, there are just as many times when I fail on all the above.

Momau is the ringleader in all the mischief they get into, but Beebe is happy to join in. Beebe also has a more subtle way of causing trouble. Therefore, trouble is constantly going on either overtly or covertly.

Let me explain.

I have told you how Beebe is always sneaking into the little dog’s playpen and curling up in his bed when he is out. This infuriates him and he runs around using his high-pitched alarm bark until I evict Beebe.

Beebe does not need to sleep there. He has a bed of his own which he rejects. He has every chair, sofa, bed, or cushion to sleep on, which are out of reach of the little dog. He chooses the dog’s hangout just to cause trouble. This aggravates me and I read Beebe the riot act at a voice pitch which is even more annoying than the constant barking. It does no good and Beebe just yawns, wanders over and curls up on my bare feet, and begins purring away. My heart melts. He is a very lovable guy. I start petting him.

As I said. I can’t seem to remain mad.

It was Momau who climbed up on the bar stool and began pulling my sorted tax papers off the kitchen island. She was the ringleader, but Beebe couldn’t resist the fun and soon the kitchen floor was littered with all my hard work, and some were wet from landing in the sink. I had worked for hours on trying to sort those papers and I was angry. I stomped around picking them up, screaming at the animals the whole time. I continued giving the two culprits the cold shoulder all the rest of the evening.

When I went to bed that night, Beebe hopped in to join me as he often does. I ignored him. Next came Momau, curling up beside Beebe under my arm. Momau does not ever sleep with me. The only other time she did was on Mother’s Day. She grew up in the wild and does not trust herself to be defenseless in sleep with a human, but here she was. It must be her way of apologizing for the huge debacle she had caused. Again. my heart melted. My left arm was numb from the weight of the 2 of them but I didn’t move it all night.

Next morning I gave them an extra helping of salmon and a lot of loving. They really are the sweetest kitties.

It didn’t take long before Momau bounced back into action. It took me a while to catch on. The dog was running around barking his shrill alarm bark. I kept trying to let him out, thinking he had to go to the bathroom, but he refused to go. Next, I noticed Momau sneaking into his house and carrying out his toys. She dropped them into her toy box and then returned for more. (In a way I didn’t blame her.

The dog confiscates her toys every chance he gets and adds them to his stockpile). Half-blind, the dog knew they were missing but had no idea where they were. He was grabbing any that were still in his house and carrying them around looking for a place to hide them from the thief.

Beebe lay on the floor watching all this hullabaloo with a self-satisfied Cheshire grin as if to say, ’Look at me. I’m the good kitty.’ I had to smile back. They were all such cute animals.

As I kept waffling between mad and glad, I decided I needed a little Nurse Judy wisdom (what an oxymoron!). “Nurse Judy,” I asked. “What am I doing wrong?”

She gazed at me. “I can tell you in 1 word,” she said.

“What is it?” I asked eagerly, feeling the answer to all my pet problems was about to be given.

“Everything!” she said.

I was completely deflated. “What do you mean?” I asked.

“You show no consistency. They break the rules. You start to punish but end up rewarding bad behavior. You run around yelling, making home life chaotic and blame it on them. You don’t know who’s right or wrong- the cats or the dog- so you absolve them all. You are a total mess. You are a bad pet mother.

I am depressed. The little dog jumps up on my lap and licks my face (yuck- he has bad breath).

Beebe kneads my feet with his claws unsheathed. It hurts a little. Momau brings one dog toy back and drops it at the dog’s house door. It has been clawed and shredded until it is almost unrecognizable. She looks at me and purrs, I am no longer depressed. I may very well be a bad pet mother, but my pets don’t think so, so who cares?

More later, - Judy and the cats and the little dog

CAT TALES – My catitude runs hot and cold

Gadsden County Times – Legals – 1/25

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Gadsden County Times – Legals – 1/25

Hometown headlines: Trust in Florida local media among the highest in America, study reveals

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