LOL. It's my life, only, it's yours. Our youngest feline family member, A Boy Named Sue, has been banished to the guest room at bedtime every night. Sue learned that if his yowling outside our bedromm door didn't wae us up, it would wake up my 2 year old son, who would in turn yowl loud enough to wake us up. There's no way to win.

I'll try and speed march up for ya :-)

I've never heard ANYBODY else call it "making biscuits"!!!!!!!!

funny and cute.

You have got to read this. I'm sure you can relate:

http://www.nanceestar.com/CatPill.html

Yeah, dogs..not much easier. Or nicer or less demanding. Trust me.

You need to mellow them cats out a bit with a little kitty weed. The nip man, the nip.

One of my best friends who was once owned by 5 cats calls it making biscuits. I just thought that it was a "Lauraleeism" that was unique to her. Cats and closed doors do not make for a happy campground. I don't currently have a cat, but I remember that they can be vindictive. I had a calico who was so pissed at me one time, she took a big dump in one of my shoes. Of course, I had to throw them away. Hopefully, Roy will never do this.

Laughing at the spraying pink medicine thing...I remember when I was living with my folks, while in grad school, their two cats got some kind of intestinal thing - and they had to take this yellow medicine that smelled like lemons.

*I* know that cats hate the smell of lemon and I'm not a freakin' vet. I don't know what kind of fool devised this medicine, but I still have bad memories of helping my mom by wrapping each cat up in a towel, burrito-style, and holding them as tightly as I could while she forced this stuff down them. Being Siamese, they protested the whole time - cussed us out in cat-language. And sprayed the stuff back at us. And made pretty yellow saliva-bubbles. And then ran off shaking their heads and throwing lemon-scented droplets everywhere.

After I moved out of the house? I don't have pets, thankyouverymuch.

Is it liquid medicine? What's worked for me with my 11 y.o. Butchie, is to wait until he's asleep. (Wait? Ha. He's always asleep!) Then I shove the dropperin the extreme corner of his mouth and *squirt* If there is a tiny bit left in the dropper, I put it on his paw and he HAS to lick it off.

So let's see the pictures of the defrocked flip-flop. Maybe we can knit it something and salvage it.

Making biscuits! Ha!

Also, my cats shimmy up the window screens all the damn time. I'm surprised (and glad!) that none of the places I've lived have noticed the damn CLAW HOLES in the screens and charged me to replace them.

Oh, the laughing! Yes, yes, it's all familiar...though I seem to be the only one missing the biscuit reference. Qu'est-ce que c'est? (See? French! March will be here soon.)

I totally know what you're talking about. I have two, one of which has a brain disorder, giving him very little control over his motor skills - no worries, he's the happiest cat in the world, and almost the cutest (aside from the four you have, of course)! One night, he was in my room, but the other was outside, and apparently he fell into the door and closed it. I woke up the next day to find the carpet on the other side of my door was no longer intact. Instead, it was a mesh of string, which is probably not gonna make the landlord very happy. I now prop my door open with something heavy, so as not to close either of the little darlings out.

A quick tip to bamboozle a furious kitty who is hell-bent on embedding daggers in human skin in the most painful way known to feline-hood is to turn it into a little "kitty-burrito".

Place a large towel on the floor, and place the little terror in the middle of it. Wrap him deftly in this towel, making sure to secure those front feet inside, and let only his head peek out.

Then kneel on the floor, place the now (hopefully) helpless kitty between your legs (don't sit on him, though) and - VOILA - he will be putty in your hands. Laurie 1 - Roy 0. Heck, you can turn this into your own private Olympics. Keep us posted on the final score.

~ Ellen

". . . and then someone knocked over a lamp." !!!! Classic.

Pardon my ignorance, but what is "making biscuits"? I have a labrador that makes "air biscuits" that can clear a room, but they are not uncomfortable. You just cannot breathe for a while.

WAIT! Are you referring to the kneading, nuzzling, and the purring? Not to mention the drooling . . . my Paisley does this in my hair! Fun, fun.

*is glad she put down the coke zero, lest it be sprayed All Over her beautiful work flat-panel monitor*

I always called it "happy feet". It's how baby kitties get the milk to release when they're nursing...when they grow up they translate the motion into any happy moment.

I *wish* I could close my cats out at night, damn things know how to open the door.

Dogs aren't much easier. My parents' oldest dog will sit outside their bedroom and whine, whine, whine at 5am.

The funny thing is -- I spent the weekend with them, and to be nice to my mom, I got up every time she whined so that my mom could sleep. Only after letting them outside to pee, then letting them back in, she stood outside their bedroom door and whined some more.

She didn't want to pee, she just wanted her momma. It was kind of sweet in that annoying dog sort of way.

Ok, I'm surprised at how many people are surprised by the term "making bicsuits". That's all I've ever heard that called. (To Melissa, yes, it's the whole orgasmic kneading of their human's body parts thing. Or sometimes kneading of other stuff. My EDKSky is very into making biscuits with anything made of yarn. Sigh.) So what the heck to other people call that if they don't call it making biscuits??

Laurie, any chance the vet could switch Roy from the Amoxicillin to a pill small enough to hide in a little soft food? Or would that be just as bad?

Poor Roy. Did you see Boston Legal on Tuesday? They had a 20? y/o cat on a ventilator - shared custody after a divorce. I thought of you. :) Hope you make it throught the weekend with a little less drama.

Honey, don't wish for March just yet. Don't you remember the saying, "March comes in like a lion . . . " Looks like you already HAVE one or more of those. In my family, we used to say our calico was "kneading bread, so I knew just what you meant about the biscuits.

One of my fur-babies has to have pills every day. Much to my delight, he LOVES the Pill Pockets (soft treats you squish the pills into), and licks my fingers to be sure he got it all.

In fact, the other cat, who does *not* have to have any pills, also loves the Pill Pockets, and I have to give him some with no pills, or he'd mug his brother and take his medicine!

Why do I feel like you are recalling say, any general night at my house? I've got Frisco the Hairless, who is, well, hairless and generally cold. Which means, constant and chronic digging/headbutting/digging to get under the sheets. And once under, will lay down placing his icecube paws, under your shirt, on say, your boob. Yeah, that's a good warm spot. And then after approximately, um, 3.2 minutes, he jumps out just like Roy. Suprise! It's me inside that cake!

DebR - I've never heard making biscuits, but the meaning was obvious at once. (I've made enough biscuits to know.) I've always just called it "kneading."

Our kitty, Skanky, hates all meds. Is the most artful at avoiding and voiding all meds. I have never ever ever seen such pink drool strings as when he has to have amoxicillin. The funniest is when he can no longer stand the LONG pink drool strings, shakes his head to get them off and winds up with a big pink drool balaklava.

Yep, have similar issues with the feline furbeasts here too. There's no winning. I've given in to smooshing a pillow over my head and night and just filtering out their nonsense.

When throwing cats out, put earplugs in! I have a deaf kitty and don't know how he learned but he screams like a banshee. And who thought that making cat medicine in banana, strawberry and lemon was a good idea?! I have never deen a cat go anywhere near the fruit bowl.

julius boon likes to slip and slide down the hallway every morning at about 4.

then he omes back to bed and chews my hair.

do wel live in the same house?

Hah. I once had to give an obese and crabby Siamese (who already hated me) Pepto-Bismol. You can guess the outcome.

My cat, Max, learnt to open doors by jumping on door handles. Good-bye, any thoughts of sleeping through the night. Max also had a 5.45am wake up routine in this order: first give me kitty kisses, then bat me in the face, then walk on my hair. Yep. Worked every time. *sigh*

I am thankful that my cat sleeps very peacefully with me - but my other cats would run across my head at 5 am, or get up on the dresser and then jump onto my head (why my head?!) and then just stand there. So they never got to sleep with me.

I grew to be quite the master of giving cats meds; sitting on the floor, I had to position the cat between my legs, cat's head facing away, leaning them up against my chest, one hand holding the chin/mouth with the same arm holding the arms down, the other hand inserting the medicine. I basically bear hugged them from behind (ew, sorry) and kept control of them that way. But the best, absolute best, way for me to give meds was by using a "pill shooter" - a plunger of some sort designed for cats. I also used to get liquid meds in salmon and tuna flavor but my cats still hated it.

Good luck!

1 part tuna juice to 1 part toxic medicine.

Just as I was reading this, my little Scout had a nice gagging upchuck on the carpet in solidarity with your guys. I once spent three nights sleeping on the bathroom floor with her because she had some nightmarish catastrophe disease that destroyed her sense of balance and made her fall on all of her single Lutz jumps, let alone her triple Axels. And then there was the puking and the drooling. I tried the kitty burrito trick and the hide it in a treat trick and sometimes thought I had outfoxed her. Never. She has been on Permanent Disability ever since, but she is the most beautiful fraidy cat in all of Tabbydom. Sorry.

Haha! Love the Biscuits comment... it will go into the cat-comment rotation at my 3-cat household!

Don't usually plug my own blog, but I just discovered something very important under my Bill-cat's bed- I think it was supposed to be secret.

Go see! raising frolic at blogspot!

As a dog and cat person I have to say, they're a teensy bit easier but they're a lot like a toddler that never grows up. Which is both good and bad.

During the great Melon health scare last year I would just wrap her up in a towel like a little papoose with only her head sticking out and do my evil deeds of pill-poking, force-feeding, shot-giving, and subcutaneous fluid administering. I also used the dog's big crate so I could monitor her food and be sure she wouldn't go hide in a corner of the house.

I must be extremely lucky because my three cats have never bothered me when the bedroom door is closed. Once in awhile they will wrestle in front of the door when it's time for breakfast and I've slept in a little.

Wow. I recommend earplugs to drown out the whining, but the shoe and lamp destruction - sheesh!

It's strange - I have to shoot my cat Jesse with insulin twice a day, and that doesn't really bother him. The Tylan pills twice a day? Ohmygod, you'd think I was trying to murder him. I wrap him up in a kitty burrito, it's over in three minutes (time needed to shove pill gun in his mouth, deposit pill, and spray some water down his throat to make sure he swallowed said pill), and he still acts like I'm torturing him. So of course the other cat thinks I am torturing Jesse and meows protectively the entire time while sitting on my feet. *sigh*

Keeping these cats alive and healthy is a real pain in the ass sometimes.

Wow. You know, I was thinking about adopting cats but this freaks me the hell out. Do they really drive you folks nuts?

Dogs are not easier. Try putting ointment into a 95lb lab's eye and washing his ears with vinegar and water. The only good thing is that you can give them pills and they think its a treat.

Mmmmm....biscuits....

I have to agree. Dogs are not necessarily much better. I have a miniature rat terrier who MUST be in the presence of humans at all times. She sleeps with us...under the covers. Well, she sleeps and we shove her around to keep from getting clawed to death. She also does the biscuit thing. But only with things that are fleece. Give her a fleece anything and she's got it jammed in her mouth sucking on it and kneading it to death.

Of course...all the neediness is probably our fault.

105 lb lab who is an ANGEL. Truly. But when I try to give her pills, you'd think I was trying to kill her. She eats around ground up medicine in yummy food, so I have to stick my hand down her throat and hold her mouth shut and blow in her nose to make sure she swallows. Since she's nearly as big and twice as strong as me, that aint easy.

Samantha -- my cats do drive me nuts, but the love I get and give makes the nighttime adventures worthwhile. Don't let the stories here scare you from adopting a fur baby.

My second cat has learned that when she's put in the bathroom, its time to shut up and sleep. Works everytime because we started doing it when she was a kitten.

The other cat will brook no other sleeping positions than sleeping under the covers curled up in my side or between my legs (making rolling over in the middle of the night impossible). It's still worth it because it shows he loves me best. When I am out of town, he'd rather sleep on the couch than use Mr. CTK as a substitute.

You just keep your cats away from mine - because mine are mean enough on their own. I assume you've seen the cat manifesto e-mail where the cat keeps a diary of their kidnapping and confinement the observations they have about their captors and all the things they're doing to try and get out - your cats probobly wrote it ;)

We once had a cat who now and then took it into her head that she absolutely MUST go out, NOW, at 3 am. First she would sit by the bed (my side, natch) and run through her entire vocal repertoire, which was quite large. If that didn't work, she would reach one paw up under the covers and under my pajama top (untucking the top from the bottom if necessary) and prick very gently, not enough to break the skin but plenty to drive a human loony, until I got up and let her out. Since the bedroom door didn't close securely enough to bar any self-respecting cat, we learned to put her out before we went to bed.

All that said, no, dogs are not easier. They are large and ungainly, or small and yappy, and will eat any food within reach, not just bacon, and have also been known to invade a houseguest's room, go through her suitcase, extract therefrom a diaphragm and chew the middle out of it, which, as I'm sure you know, rendered it useless. Perhaps he wanted company, down there near the floor, but I still found it uncalled for.

"Making biscuits!" I just call it "tenderizing."

I had to give one of our cats meds a few times a day - a holistic concoction for cancer, with an alcohol base. Cats hate alcohol. It wasn't fun, but he was a damned good patient...with only three legs, so he couldn't climb up to the ceiling if he wanted to.

Roy's still around...so be thankful for getting to chase him around.

The healer in me wants to help Roy. Just what is wrong with him and why has he been on what I can only assume is bubble gum flavored children’s antibiotics for MONTHS? Please feed him a little bit of plain yoghurt every day to get some of those good bacteria back into him. Contact me if you want to.

I still think that "they" sell enough liquid antibiotics to animals to make it worth their while to create a beef flavored variety, or something.

By the way, I’m reading all these people above who don’t have bedroom doors that properly close. Can none of you-all use a screwdriver on the door hardware to straighten out your doors?

Oh my god - the hole in teh diaphragm is so funny! AHHH! And, whY do they do this?!!!

Making biscuits, kneading dough, pawwing; none can top what i came up with when i was 3: "pink pushing." I have no idea where i came up with that, but it stuck & that's what I still call it; even though Rocco's paws are black, not pink.

I know this is gonna sound like a bad idea...but if the burrito towel doesn't work, try the pillowcase trick. Get him into a pillow case, head only sticking out, and give him his meds.
I like the while-he-is-sleeping idea also...of course, if he's a light sleeper like my Milo, he wakes up and gives you the eye the second you walk in the room. Good luck!!

Meh, dogs aren't much better, just needier, and gasier. I actually like the "biscuit-making", it's kinda sweet.

I have a cat and a dog living with me in my small apartment and I can tell that they each have their own charms.

My dog Chloe is sweet and will take any pill that is coated in peanut butter. She thinks the heartworm tablets are a treat- but she also insists that she must sleep with me (really on me- and a 35 lb mutt is a lot of dog when they drape themselves across you) and will chase anyone else out of my bed, teeth bared. This bodes really badly for me if I ever end up with a serious boyfriend or husband...

My cat Milo is hell on four legs. He can be so sweet and purr and drool, but he's also an imp. He will lay with Chloe and groom her, and snuggle her, and when she falls asleep he will sink his sharp little teeth into her floppy ears and send her yowling down the hall. He attacks my spinning wheel when I work on with it- he ambushes me and I get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom- and he will scream bloody murder at me if I ignore him.

So pick your evil, sweet, needy dog who raids the trashcan if you have been gone too long, or impish cat who helps the dog raid the trash can when you are gone.... those two are partners in crime.

Laurie, have you ever thought about how pissed off the cats are going to be when you leave them to go to Paris?

Just make sure you've put anything dearly to you away, out of cats' reaches.

My cat tried to climb up the screen once and the entire thing fell out of the window and before she knew what happened she was outside on the front porch. The look on her face was priceless.

She seems to love sticking her tongue out at me. Is this normal for a cat? I think not.

Cats are WAY easier than dogs in many respects -- still each has its challenges. Giving cats meds is not highlight of pet ownership.

I have five cats and three dogs...and a few other things. I try to do the liquid meds mixed with towel-wrap restraint when needed.

It is tough stuff giving fierce felines unwanted meds early in the morn without coffee and body armour! Suit up, helmet on, ramp up on lots of coffee and hum the theme song to ROCKY.

Woo hoo,
Virginia

Laurie,

This is my first ever comment to you. As a former aviary manager/parrot trainer.....TOWEL that sucker! I used to wrestle with a malice-filled male greenwing macaw that could EASILY have snapped a bone in my forearm .....and he couldn't defeat the towel, or hurt me, when I had to catch him. Find yourself a thick, large towel, drop it over him, and bundle him up quickly like a tight kitty burrito. Only leave his head out, and swaddle him tightly. He will be helpless. Pry his mouth open, force in a syringe, and VOILA! it's done! I promise you he's not tougher or stronger (or more viscious) than that bird! Good luck. I hear you about the vacation, btw. We're big time animal lovers here...and sometimes you just get TIRED! Have fun in Paris, and you'll come home refreshed and ready to love those cats again!

Jennifer

Our cat, Herman, is an orange barn cat my daughter tamed, and I would much rather give him medicine than our Border Collie, Daisy, who is permanently on prednasone (sp?) for something called panniculitis (again sp?). Herman bears us much less ill-will than the dog, who will sulk in her cave (under the computer desk) for days, with only occasional breaks for the necessities. But the dog and cat do seem to balance each other out, especially at night.
Donna

Glad to hear that I'm not the only owner of burrowing cats. Usually what wakes me up is that Natasha has decided to give Boris a beatdown in the middle of the night on top of me.

Help me. Boris is currently sitting between me and the keyboard insisting that I hold him. At least I got his bottom off the space bar.

I know the pain of medicating animals all too well. If you want to know more read this post:

http://sweetbippy.blogspot.com/2005/05/pink-stuffits-not-just-for-humans.html

I guess with a dog on the plus they usually don’t hold the grudge as long as a cat would. But before you go thinking a dog might be easier you might want to read these posts too:

http://sweetbippy.blogspot.com/2005/09/in-dog-house.html

http://sweetbippy.blogspot.com/2004/10/rain-and-dogswho-knew.html

Oh, the joy of cats. When my husband and I first moved in together, I had 2 cats and he had 2 dogs. We would put the cats in the spare bedroom at night to avoid bad cat-dog interactions. Madison cat would wet his front paws in the water dish and rub them on the door mading an insanely annoying squeeky noise. Eventually it would stop and we would think, "Finally, he's done." But NO! He would just be rewetting his paws.

i've always called it making biscuits too (maybe a southern thing).

coltrane's favorite torture at night consists of running, and he is NOT light on his feet, up and down the hallway of my ny apartment at full speed while meowing as if he were dying.

cats are so fun.

We call it "making biscuits," too.

Do you have a compounding pharmacy nearby? I have to give my Roy-esqe (and deaf) kitty thyroid medicine twice a day (for ever and ever), and they've kindly compounded it into a cream which I can easily rub into his ear. No teeth of any kind are involved. We would have similar results as you've experienced if an oral suspension were required... yikes.

Poor mad kitties.

oh thank you for the laughs today!!!

Oh Aunt Purl...I laughed so hard at this because I have endured this with my two screw tail manx's. I can relate to every thing you said here! God bless the pet of all those cats who rule your humble abode.

Haji LOVES cats....

they taste just like chicken....

LOL, you crack me up. Being a cat person who has owned her share of crazy cats know exactly what you are talking about. The next will be he will poop in your shoe or pee in the bathtub. Anything to get you back. I sincerely believe that one day that one of my cats is going to remove the door from its hinges one day and beat me over the head with it. I wish you luck my friend with the cats but I think "us" as cat folk are doomed to be owned by the cats themselves not the other way around.

Carol
www.stitchandprayer.com

Laurie:

I am very good at giving cats medicine. I have six. Yes, SIX. Liquid meds and pills are easy once you get the hang of it. It sounds like Roy is giving you a run for your money.

Shall I describe how I do it with hardly ever a miss?

LOL! thanks for a much needed laugh.. I guess there are some thing that all cats do. I'm also part of team "resistance is futile", who's cats have learned how to open doors. Sophie learned it when I tried to close her in the bathroom - the door was re-opened in like 6 seconds flat, and Sophie came out with the famous cat "you gotta be kidding me, human" look in her eyes.

oh yeah. pets...can't live with 'em, can't....well, you know. :-)

Ah the wonderful joy of being a cat owner. I have two of them myself and by golly there are days that I feel just like you. My cats are no longer allowed to sleep in my room because they are such pills.

HOLY CRAP!!!

You have enough cat advice to fill a book.

I had to break my babies of sleeping with me and trust me, it was a bitch. I have gotten in actual fights (not speaking to each other, saying bad things about each other, a 'la Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie) with my girl when she had to take antibiotics. I would come home and she's all like "Oh, you? Yeah, I remember the pill. Fuck you."

So, good luck. Fight the good fight. And remember, they will be old soon, and really easy to pill. It does happen.

Okay, you need to finish knitting kitty beds for all 4 of them, and sprinkle a little catnip in each one, and put them in another room.

And keep a squirt bottle by your bed.

Cats can be trained, contrary to popular belief. You just have to be ruthless and consistent. Unlike with dogs, with cats *negative* reinforcement works best. Positive reinforcement is useless; they think whatever good stuff you do for them is simply their due. This fact isn't your fault, it's just how God created them.

So squirt without guilt. They'll figure it out! And you'll get your sleep.

As for medicine, well, I never was too good at that...As I recall (been awhile since I had cats), the best bet is to be *fast*. Or get your vet to give you tuna-flavored medicine (my Jack had that stuff once, he loved it).

--K.

Just wanted to stop by and say...you are a trip! This blog is a riot! Whenever I pop in, I laugh out loud. There's always humor behind everything and you have a way of tapping into it with originality and wit...even on the worst of days. Thank you for that. :)

Maybe you could hide the medication in his food....

I feel your pain, the last time I tried to shut my cat out of my room she made my life miserable for a week. It's just not worth it, and I only have 1, I can imagine your pain with three times that many whining outside your door. Hopefully they'll let it go eventually and let you sleep (but with Sobakowa I wouldn't bank on it)

Hi, what a sweet cat! Part Abby?

I did a search for blogs about cats for a reason. I am trying to let people who care about cats know about a commercial that advocates negligence for cat owners. I'm not a political person, I just really thought it was irresponsible of them. If you're interested, I left a short post about it on my blog here:

http://shubertalleyshephard.blogspot.com/2006/02/show-you-care-about-your-pets-expedia.html

If not, that's okay too, and I enjoyed seeing the photo of that beautiful cat!
Best Wishes,
~S

And here I thought my cat Scraps was King Evil in the feline domain!! Sounds like Roy is making his bid for the territory. The evil Scraps backbites me in the soft (fat) flesh of my upper arm when he's displeased with me and, taking a chunk of my flesh with him., RUNS away to hide under the bed. Then when he won't come out to eat, I have to beg him and plead with him to "Come out Lovey, Mommy loves you!!!"

YUCK!! WHY???? Why do I have a cat?

Dear Laurie, has your vet offered a medicine which can posted in the food? Or, as a treat in a ball in the center of (insert favorite treat)? Cats are, arguably, brilliant technicians. They can remember, learn, respond at a much higher rate than most "house-hold" pets. Do NOT forget. They are with us because they have grown accustomed us and their accommodations. And, I think that perhaps they might love us, once in a while.

I once had a cat who didn't like my roomate and left her a "gift" in the middle of her bed. That was the first time I ever realized that cats have a unique way of making their feelings known.

I had another cat who liked to get up on my dresser and put his hands up onto the hanging artwork and rattle it against the wall in order to wake me. Breakfast could not wait.

My current little sh*t sleeps in the bed with me (and is HORRIFIED if he is somehow shut out for the night) and snores, then starts to pester me at around 4:30. His favorite thing is to walk all over my bedside table and knock stuff on the floor (especially my glasses) and then he rattles the window shades.

Jack has now taught the new kitten how to "go to 'the lady'" for food-type attention. Myles never meowed when we got him--now, under Jack's expert guidance, he has started to squeak at me all the time.

We have a third cat who gets pink medicine. You have to sneak up on him, for sure--sleeping time is a good time for this.

Oooh, Laurie, I had an idea! What if you got a couple of cat-bed heating pads (they do exist), and put one in the Kitty Pi and one in another place where they like to sleep? Then they would have a nice warm snuggly place to sleep and YOU might get some peace. Just my $0.02

I said "new" because I know I've seen another Allison on here and do NOT want to be rude.

Laurie, I love this blog--a knitting friend introduced me. We have both decided we will never blog because you write so well it would be pointless of us to try.
I came out of lurking mode because I wanted to second the comment about getting the medicine in something that can be rubbed on the inside of the ear. My husband's poor Delilah was sick a long time with various things before the end, and big strong husband was a big mess when it came to his baby, so I did all the medication. After trying every treat, liquid, pill, someone suggested the ear gel. Delilah never liked it, but she got her medicine with a minimum of stress and fuss for both of us.
We had/have my old kitty to console us(14 this March),and after a year a new kitty followed us home, so we are back to a 2 kitty household. Closing any door is NOT an option.
Oh, and I'm considering learning how to knit just to be able to make a kitty pi!
Good Luck!

dying for a new post CAP, where art thou?

oh my gosh i'm hooked! i was looking for baby beginner hat patterns and landed on your blog and have been reading, reading, reading.... have a question for anyone out there: please help me understand ssk, p2sso! after several scarves and a failed hat (sob!) i jumped into a lovely pattern for a sort of scarf/shoulder wrap combo which used a great (and tres expensive) fluffly (read: forgiving) wool - and the decrease used the dreaded ssk, p2sso and although two people showed me how to do it, i was very insecure about it. i ended up 2 rows short of where i should have been at the end... but it's still nice (wish i had a way to insert a photo) in any case this is by far the greatest blog i've ever read!

ack!
the post above (re the ssk, p2sso) is actually from me. i'm not so used to this blogging thing. sorry to bess, whoever you are! --kathy

Ooh, Aunt Purl, I feel for you. I have never allowed my cats in the bedroom, so usually they're ok with it, but occasionally they decide that they MUST SEE ME NOW. I never know why -- I have not come up with any useful explanation other than that, well, they are cats. It's sort of flattering to know that someone apparently CANNOT LIVE without being in the Presence of Me, but also annoying.

Occasionally when Judy goes nuts I am able to calm her down by getting up and holding her for a while, but I don't do this very often, because I don't want her to think she can train me to come play with her whenever she wants by yowling at the door.

I wish I could use the towel method for pilling mine, but it's kind of like Steve Martin's old routine about "how to make a million dollars and never pay taxes," which begins, "First, get a million dollars." In other words, the part that's supposed to be preliminary is actually at least as hard as the ultimate task. I can't wrap my cats. I tried when they were little, and between that and bathing, they were afraid of towels for years.

I'm starting to think the cats have overtaken Laurie.

Ha! I had the same thing last night!! Tamika was making muffins, kneading bread, and playing the piano on my legs alllll night, but she has low self-esteem and I was afraid I would make her cry her if I shooed her off. So I let her stay.

Then this morning, Robin was playing her morning game of "snag Mommy's bare feet while she moves around the bed", and I accidentally stepped on her little paw (and she went SQUEAAAAK-SQUEAAAAK!). I felt so horrible. It was her fault, but she also has low self-esteem so of course I couldn't tell her that. So I said I was sorry about a thousand times.

Cats. The two who don't have emotional problems of course never bother me at all. Anyone know of a good kitty shrink? Or a summer camp like the one Tyra Banks had for girls to gain self-esteem? Tamika and Robin totally need to go.

My calico once managed to climb inside the overhead lights in my kitchen. I called and called for her. No answer. After about half an hour of searching, I spotted this blob above my head in the kitchen that was my cat. Needless to say, we were in a battle over ear medicine. Good luck.

Cats and medicine.... well that and closed bedroom doors. (the cat my dad and I "found" on my brother's 10th birthday opened doors, except mine since the latch was a little broken. It was a little scary to wake up in the middle of the night and realize your doorknob was moving, until he meowed to ask to be let in)

Anyway, my cats wanted to kill me the other day too- they got worm tablets AND frontline on the same day! horrors!