Blowing & Drifting

Forecast: Significant blowing and drifting, with the possibility of heavy accumulation in rural areas.

Easter Kitties

We had a grand and wonderful Easter weekend, of which much more will be said (and shown) soon. But as I sit here burning the sixteenth hour of the day by grading a stack of papers for my U.S. history class, I have to comment on the weird, urinary symmetry of the weekend.

Julia spent much of Friday's drive up to Nonna and Boppa's house worrying about their old, grouchy cat, Bea, who had bitten Julia last time we were up there. Bea is pretty much blind, and obviously worried about smells and sounds which she can't figure out, like little kids making sudden movements. Sure enough, not five minutes after setting Genevieve down on the floor to play with Julia and her two cousins, Bea came stalking over, interested in but alarmed by the commotion. She was on a direct line to Gigi, so I moved to get between them before Gigi grabbed a handful of tail and lost an eye. Bea snarled at me, flipped over so she could use her rear claws, and then pissed all over the carpet - for at least ten or fifteen seconds. When that was finished, I tried to pick her up and get her down to the basement, but instead had a dozen gashes cut and bitten into my hand - and a lot more stinky cat pee sprayed all over my pants and shirt (and boxers and undershirt...). The broom finally worked to get the poor cat down to the basement, where she resided for the rest of our stay. It wasn't a good scene, and clearly Bea was the worst for it - blind, angry, scared, and now probably scheduled for one-way visit with the vet.

The feline hijinks don't get worse, but they do get stranger. When we arrived back home early this afternoon, Shannon immediately discovered that our cat, Sabine, had pooped on the carpet in our living room - not from incontinence, but because the door to the room which contains her litter box had been shut, presumably for the entire time we were gone. (I think someone reflexively shut it as we were leaving the house on Friday, because the box was untouched.) The crap was desiccated and easy to clean up, but then we went searching for the place where Sabine peed - and we couldn't find it anywhere. Could she have held her pee for four days? If so, when's she going to go again? Right now, about eight hours after we got back, there's still just one smallish litter clump in her box.

Juila put it all in perspective as she ate her snack and listened to Shannon and me wonder about Sabine's situation: "Bea peed on de fwoor and on Daddy, but Sabine didn't pee anywhewe! How stwange!"