Oh Thank GOD!!! I was worrying all night! I think I'm first too, whahooo!!

ps, I'm from Longview, where your Uncle Mouse lived.

I really hate the retaliatory hairball.

Yeah hairball + new sandal = not good. Glad you survived relatively intact.

Again, everything is right with the world...except for your sandals!

Wow! I have never been so close to first!!

That kind of hairball is only slightly better than the "I'm squatting outside the litter box because it isn't clean enough for me to use".

The look they give you as they do it is the same, though. Sympathy!

What a face, what a look. I'm glad mild hairball event was only payback.

That look reminds me of my mother when we'd complain about not being able to find something. She fix us in a gaze, raise an eybrow and say 'If I look for it...I'll find it'. At which point we'd melt away and OMG 'find it'. LOLOL

No offense, but this picture makes the Soba look like Scooby Doo. Not a compliment in her book most likely, but I like Scooby. Something about the shape of her head in this picture, not her personality.

totally off topic- I cannot BELIEVE your book doesn't come out for FIVE MORE MONTHS!!!! dude, my birthday is Tuesday, and I asked for it from the inlaws!!! total suckitude. If I had a hairball I would totally barf it up on your other sandal. ;)

feel lucky that you got away with only a slight sandal maiming...

I just want to pinch those fuzzy little cheeks!

Hey -- hairball on the sandal is minor compared to what an upset cat can do to YARN!

wow you went almost unpunished.
or maybe Soba is storing it up for later??

you are very lucky...my sisters cat would take her socks (from the drawer) and put them in the toilet whenever she was displeased. Glad to hear from you, we were getting a tad worried!

The sounds of relief can be heard across the globe! Thank you, Almighty Sobakowa, for your forgiving and generous soul. We worship you!!

I think 2007 should be the Year of The Sobakowa!!

I love you, Laurie!! Your blog makes me smile even on days when I don't want to. Like today, for example.

Soba, we bow before the perfection of your felinity.

Wow, narrow escape!

Wow...she actually smiles!

Phew! that was a close one! Which reminds me that I am *almost* out of cat food myself...

Just be glad that it was only a hairball. I am always afraid that I will come across another retaliatory turd somewhere.... ugh!

Are cats really that into revenge? I have definitely received nasty looks from our cat but have never been graced with 'revenge of the body functions'.

Should I start sleeping with one eye open?

Hairball on new sandal is better than poop in it. Trust me, I know.

She actually looks quite innocent.

Ugh, hairballs on new sandals is a tragedy. I get the odd "mad at you" pee spot if the litter box doesn't have a high shine.

ew hairball on the shoes. But, in the grand scheme of possible cat retaliation techniques in our house, I would prefer the hairball - I mean, I had total kitty runs sprayed all over the hand knitted cat bed for changing the food once (threw that out), and we've enjoyed real actual vomit projectiled across the only carpeted room in our house, or the worst, pee on the shoes, new shoes, for waiting one day to change the box. Lenora should definitely sleep with one eye open.

Both eyes! And a sign that says: "I'm still breathing." Once I woke up to a heavy weight on my chest -- Percy was lying on me, paws neatly tucked in, and staring at my eyes. That was a shocker! I still don't know what I'd done wrong, but believe me, I haven't done it again.

OMG! phew! glad to hear that the only victim were the new sandals. hope they are doing okay. glad that the soba did not do more to them than the hairball. :o)xoxo to the rest of the furry posse!

I didn't believe it when Soba told me you were easy. Tell her the check is in the mail.

Could definitely be worse. Although it's possible that what I found was actually a "gift" - one I'd like to have exchanged. Nothing like finding half a mouse in your shoe ...

Jo, it's possible your Percy was just making sure you were breathing. You know how you have to check on them sometimes, to make sure? Sometimes they check on us.

Yeah, they check on us because if we aren't breathing, they will start eating us.

Meow.

I always assume my cat is disgusted -- I imagine her saying "dammit, dammit, grumble, grumble". But maybe cats are laid back and easy going. Maybe they really go around saying "hey, that's cool, no worries".

Yeah, right.

Maybe because he was a 4 week old kitten when we found him and his only furry companion was our beagle he thinks he is a dog?

Stubbins is two now and has never yacked up a hairball or gone anywhere other than his litter box. He will sleep in the dogs bed with Hamlet and if we are not willing to participate in the crack of dawn purring session he will go knead and purr on the dog. He chewed one of my flip flops to death. He loves to play fetch and insists on getting a dog treat when Ham and I come back from a walk.

Either he is species confused or I have been blessed with a strange and non vindictive cat.

He's a keeper.
Lenora

lucky you! you're allowed to live one more day!

Nothing like at strategically placed hair ball! Remind me to tell you the projectile kitty up-chuck sometime!

Lenora, I'm with you! I have a six-year-old cat who has never (knock wood) engaged in retaliatory pooping or peeing or vomiting of any sort, and she's a tortie! Believe me, I've done my share of inconsiderate-to-a-cat things, running out of food being one of the lesser offenses. The only thing she does is wake me up rather insistantly by batting at my head (and meowing), sometimes at 4:30am, harder, and harder, and harder... until I wake up (or rather, get up at that point). She isn't even hungry - she wants to playplayplayplayplayplay. I've tried hiding under the sheets - it doesn't work.

Lenora, I'm with you! I have a six-year-old cat who has never (knock wood) engaged in retaliatory pooping or peeing or vomiting of any sort, and she's a tortie! Believe me, I've done my share of inconsiderate-to-a-cat things, running out of food being one of the lesser offenses. The only thing she does is wake me up rather insistantly by batting at my head (and meowing), sometimes at 4:30am, harder, and harder, and harder... until I wake up (or rather, get up at that point). She isn't even hungry - she wants to playplayplayplayplayplay. I've tried hiding under the sheets - it doesn't work.

I hope you found the offending hairball before you put your foot in the sandal!:)

You should try the "Defurr-UM" treats for cats. My cat used to get hairballs all the time before I started giving her these treats. You can get them from Drs. Foster & Smith. My cat absolutely loves them!

Nearly unappeasable tough customer. So glad to see you survived to tell the tale.

LOL! What an expression :)

Hre's a song for you. Sent to me by my sister. I thought you might like it. It's sung by a cat.

http://www.thespinningloft.com/09%20Plea%20from%20a%20Cat%20Named%20Virtue.mp3

Whew! I couldn't check yesterday and was hoping that you'd survived The Wrath That Can be Sobakowa. One little furball isn't bad, Laurie. Either you're doing better overall or Soba's mellowing with age...

Considering that murderous expression on Soba, you got off easy and you should be grateful.

Ya' know, I was thinking later after I'd posted yesterday that maybe you could have diverted her attention by getting her stoned on catnip ....

I swear - I had a cat that looked just like that and she too was evil and vengeful.

My tortie was a terror. Her name was Kahlua, but we called her Koolaid or "Devil". The first time I brought her to the vet for vaccines, she leaped off the table and bit me on the lip. (And I'm a veterinary technician.) And her randomly assigned id number?? 666. No joke. I lost her much much too young, at six, to heart disease. I think that's why Soba is my favorite. (But we all love the Roy.)

I have since then managed to accumulate three more calico cats, plus my original calico. (I've mentioned her before - I lost her this January at 21.) They were all rescues, I swear I did not plan to run the house for homeless calicos. But I looove their over-the top personalities. Plus, all my cats "talk", but that's probably because I talk to them so much.

My middle two (the sisters) were raised with Labrador puppies. My butch kitty, Scuba, runs to the door when the bell rings. I swear one day she is going to bark. We call her a "cog". She comes when called, begs for treats, and plays fetch. She also likes water (and we named her at just a few days old, before there was a personality) and heights.

I need to get some photos of my kittehs. I may be the only crazy cat lady without pictures... Maybe when CAP is in NY she can shoot them for me???

Did you make it through the night??
(Cats prefer dark hours to exact revenge.)

Who else in the world besides your kid or your cat can PUKE on you or your belongings and you still love them in the morning??

Bossy thinks hairballs are all the rage in Paris this season.

I own Soba's clone only in grey. She's been plotting the death of my family for the 16 yrs we've owned her. You'd think after a while they'd at least tolorate you but nope never going to happen. Evil!

Such a shame about the sandals, but I'll take a little cat barf over a Revenge Pee any day. My old cat used to let me know when she was pissed off by, well, pissing on. Everything. Shoes, clothes, chairs, carseats, beds... I'd go on but I'm getting nostalgic for the ungrateful furball.

I am so glad that I now have a wonderful non-peeing kitty, who forgives the occasional empty bowl and overfull litter box (though she does have the guilt-inducing stare down pat...)

Phew. Although it is definitely a shame about the sandals.

Hey - I notice that Bob has been absent from the critter-pics lately. What's up? Some of us really look forward to his handsome blondness!!!Bring back Bob.