Felines, meet The Toddler

When we were in Ohio, Elle was in heaven - every where she went, there were cats. She warmed up to each place by crooning "Kittykittykitty" as she chased cats from room to room in her new environments.

Some of the cats were more patient than others. Really, I'm shocked that any feline doesn't bolt the minute the Toddler Tornado excitedly approaches. She's well-intentioned, but I'd imagine her enthusiasm and disregard for personal space would be a little much for any animal.

Elle was giddy in Ohio as she tried to track down my sister's shy cat, Ginger,
and instead found Millie, who is full of attitude and disdain for small people.

Elle inflicts her reign of terror on our two cats on a daily basis. Mario and Sidney were our first babies - I adopted them in 2005. They moved from Pittsburgh to Florida with me, and frankly, I think Mario prefers Tim over me, while Sidney doesn't care who loves on him as long as someone is loving on him. They had quite a bit of adjusting to do as we reorganized the condo in preparation for Elle's arrival, including all of the new furniture that entered our home, but they had no idea what was coming.

When we brought Elle home from the hospital, the cats discussed their options.

For the first few months of Elle's life, the cats seemed OK with her presence. Sure, she sounded like some sort of tortured farm animal when she cried, but aside from raised ears, they were fine.

But then she got mobile, and it was a game changer. They watched her pull herself across the floor, roll, reach and scoot in new ways with alarming speed. When she started to walk, they could do nothing but watch her toddle and wobble toward them. As she became increasingly interactive with them, I noticed their black and white coats became heavily speckled with gray hairs.

Life has changed a lot for these cats - two animals that Elle absolutely adores. Mario, our slightly older cat, has responded pretty much the way we would have expected: He tries to avoid Elle, and if she's too overeager or overly affectionate, he'll tense up and sometimes swat at her. We try to redirect her when she's headed toward Mario, because he's definitely our more aggressive cat.

Fortunately for us, Mario usually tries to keep his distance from her:

Sidney is our shy guy. While Mario has always been the dominant cat and has reacted as expected,  Sidney has completely surprised us with his interactions with Elle. He lets her pet and poke him, sits patiently (although with a slightly terrified look in his eyes) as she tries to cuddle up with him, and he doesn't bolt when she tries to follow him from room to room. I figured Sid would be the one to hide under furniture the minute Elle walked in to a room, but he's great with her, and she absolutely loves him. Luckily, the attempts at tail-pulling have been pretty minimal, because I think that would be Sidney's last straw.

In the last few months, Elle has started up conversations with the cats or made funny comments to them. The chats crack me up, but she and the cats remain unfazed.

* Coming home after being at the sitter's house: "Hi Mario, what's up?"

Attempting to bond with Mario.

* Announcing Sidney's migration down the hall: "Here he comes!"

* Elle tried to push a popsicle on Sidney. She also tried to blow his nose with a tissue. She's tried to give him "a bottle" by offering him some Afrin.

Loving on Sid.

* Elle and I took Mario to the vet, and Elle was extremely concerned about Mario, so she started doing sympathy meows in the car.

* General battle cry: "I'm going to getchoo!"

* Talking to Sid as he moves from room to room: "Oh Sid, come here."

* Trying to give Sidney treats:

* Petting Sidney (who always seems to be desperately craving attention): "Sidney booooyyyyy ... Sidney Sidney Sidney."

* In the last week or two, poor Sidney has been renamed "Cindy." Elle now goes around looking for "Cindy" and saying "Cindy, those are MY toys!" She also put Sid in time out yesterday for not listening (this from the girl who has been in time out twice in her life). I fear Sid will experience an identity crisis if Elle continues the "Cindy boy!" calls.

Poooooor Cindy.

Random randomness, 7.7.11

A wild time: We're taking some vacation time soon and going to Ohio to see all of our family and a lot of our friends. It's always fun to see everyone, and this trip has a wedding, a baby shower and a Reds game among lots of letting the grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins play with the baby. But these trips are also exhausting - so much hanging out to cram in to a limited amount of time, and the packing/unpacking, the travel ... BUT! Here's the big thing about this trip: There's a mountain lion on the loose. And it's been sighted near my parents' house, which is situated in a fairly rural, wooded area. Tim has already ordered that the baby not be allowed to play outside as long as the mountain lion is on the lamb. (You know, because if there were no wild animals running around we'd let her play outside ALL. DAY. LONG. Right?)

Clearly, Mario is ready to hit the road.

Other cats that vex me: Mario and Sidney are seriously driving me bananas. Our sitter is mildly allergic to cats, so we have to keep them in our bedroom for the 30ish hours a week that she's there. But since we started that a few months ago, they've acted like we pen them up in solitary confinement for weeks on end. They have a large room, large closet, food, water and litter box. Yet they scratch at the bedroom door and yeowl when we put them in there (usually, of course, during Elle's afternoon nap - DON'T WAKE HER UP!) and then when we let them out at night, they yeowl and scratch at *her* door (again, DON'T WAKE HER UP!). I've actually proposed taking the cats to Ohio. Tim asked if I wanted them to play with my mom's cat. I said no, I wanted them to "play" with the mountain lion. (And I'm joking. They won't be coming to Ohio with us. And therefore I won't feed them to a playful mountain lion. Cat lovers can be at peace again.)

I'm sorry, I think you have the wrong number: Among the search terms that people have used recently to find the blog are "sea cow milk" and "old wives tale 'itchy armpits.'"

Longest meal-prep EVER: I made pizza for our dinner a few weeks ago. On the bag for the dough, it said "Remove from refrigerator. Rest one hour." I would never claim to be in the best shape of my life, but I certainly doubt I'd need 60 minutes of recovery time just because I took a bag of dough out of the fridge. The rest of the instructions were pretty basic, but I fear that the rest of the night could have gone on like this: "Spread sauce. Take a nap. Distribute desired toppings. Meditate for two hours. Sprinkle cheese on top. Go to bed. Have a cup of coffee before resuming. Bake for 20-30 minutes. Lie down for half an hour. Eat pizza. Take a siesta."

Ummmm: Most weeks, I pack a salad for lunch four days a week. Luckily, the bagged lettuce is on sale pretty much every week, and lately, I've been able to nom on my favorite, the Spring Mix from Fresh Express. But when I was making my lunch this week, I read the bag: A "Seasonal blend of mixed greens." I don't understand how I can get the same seasonal mixed greens year-round. But I'm not going to ask how that works, because I heart my salad.

"... and I said, 'Compared to what?'": Tim and I have been quoting this video for more than a year now:

We even got my sister in on the action. It is hilarious. Tim read about it in Entertainment Weekly (it's the brain child of former SNL cast member Jenny Slate), and we've pretty much memorized it. Hilarious.

Delish: My new favorite thing is two low-fat whole grain waffles with a bit of Nutella (OMGsogood) and raspberries. It tastes like a dessert, has a lot of fiber and protein and is pretty much amazeballs.

Bad math: Tim has three days off this week. I have one. NOT. FAIR.

Wordless Wednesday: Juxtaposition

Mario takes a stand - literally - on Elle's favorite book.

Wordless Wednesday: The aftermath

Mario gave me the cold shoulder for most of the day
after the morning included a trip to a new vet,
where they welcomed him with pokes, prods and shots.

Mario = not a duck

I took this video last week, just moments after Mario STOPPED quacking. He seriously sounded like a duck, and the funniest part was the way he responded to Tim's requests for him to quack. Since he wasn't actually quacking much in this video, I ask that you watch the cute interaction between father (Tim) and son (duck), Tim's enthusiasm for the baseball game, and Mario's affection when he's hungry.

Or you can skip the video. It's not all that special. But here it is!

More Mario

From the producers who brought you Mario's Trickery comes the sequel: "Mario's Trickery II: Hanging on a Doorknob."



Apologies for poor video quality and pathetic meowing.

Rapid and random recap

Things have been relatively quiet lately. I worked six very long days this week and Tim worked seven days in a row. Between work, regular errands and getting ready for my friend Julia's Signing Day, we didn't have much down time.

It's starting to warm up with humidity down here. Sigh. It will likely stay oppressively hot for the next 6-7 months. Tim loves this kind of weather; I hate it. I believe I have run for the last time outside until September or October. The treadmill and I are going to be close buddies for a while, but now that I've run 5Ks and trained outside, it's really, really boring. I'm going to have to figure out a way to beat my workout boredom in general - I had a really fun, challenging routine of classes and strength and cardio workouts when I lived in St. Pete, but the Y here just isn't even close to offering what my old gym had. There's another Y about 20 minutes away, but even then, the classes offered are early in the morning and the equipment is older. Even the Zumba class I've attended at the Bradenton Y is aimed at senior citizens - I'm usually 20-30 years younger than anyone else in the class, and understandably, the instructor doesn't really offer many challenges, just fun and a decent workout.

This week Tim and I arranged to get Wednesday off from work - it'll be my first requested day off since the wedding! - and we're going to Disney to celebrate *someone's* birthday. Disney has a cool promotion this year that we're taking advantage of, and we get a 10% discount on Disney admission because we're Florida residents, so we really got a good deal. Free ticket+discounted ticket=we're going to go. Tim has never been to Disney, and I've only been there once in 1999 for a band trip. We're going to spend the day in the Magic Kingdom, and I'm really excited that it shouldn't be too hot or crowded. I think it'll be a long, tiring day and wish we could have Thursday off, too, to recover, but I think it will be a lot of fun.

In other news, apparently Mario got an extra bit of protein in his diet on Saturday. Tim was off for the day and had ordered a pizza to eat while watching the draft. While he was busy keeping Mario in the condo, it seems a lizard snuck in while the delivery guy was here. And Mario decided that the lizard was his dinner. I am so disgusted. Every time I look at Mario I think he's fatter than he was yesterday. I don't like having his head near mine, so he's been sleeping on Tim's side of the bed or at the bottom of the bed. I don't know why Tim didn't stop him from killing and eating the lizard, but I guess the only thing I can hope is that Mario truly did kill and eat the lizard, because I don't want to know there's a live or dead lizard in the condo right now. And I think we'd know because Mario would stalk the crap out of him.

Since Sidney never seems to get any blog love, I'll share one recent story (and hopefully update with pics later). Sid is dumb. Doesn't answer to his name. Doesn't respond to any normal stimulus. Freaks out if you open the freezer door. But the one smart thing he does is try to give us offerings at night. At first he used to just do it with a stuffed moon he has - he loves the thing and always carries it around when we go to bed, wailing/meowing as he brings it (it's a hilarious sound - his mouth is stuffed with a toy and he makes this pitiful, extremely loud wailing noise). I'll always find the moon at the end of the bed or on the bed. But lately he's been doing it with other toys, too, over the course of the night. Yesterday we had the moon and three little toy mice at the end of the bed. Today, it's the moon and two little toy mice. I'll have to take a picture sometime of the pile of offerings.

Other than working and such, I've also been busy posting at the baking blog Meghan and I started. If you haven't seen it, check it out!

Mario's trickery

I am pretty sure I blogged about this before. And I have PLENTY of photos of this.

But Tim taught Mario how to open our front door. This has been a very, very bad thing. In short, Mario is an indoor kitty. Tim thinks he belongs outside. Since I adopted Mario and have essentially been responsible for all of his costs and care for the last four years, I feel MY cat should stay INSIDE. But I have to admit, Mario is really clever. He's opened this door probably half a dozen times - in this video, Mario nearly got out, but since I was taping it (sorry for the poor quality and the fact that it's sideways!) I didn't let him actually open it in case I couldn't follow him fast enough.

(And if we lock it, he meows much like he does in the video - only much more emphatically. He's a whiner.)

Mario's birthdayversary!

Oh my, so many posts today!

So I don't know when Mario's birthday is exactly. But I know he was estimated at 3 years old when I adopted him.

And I know that I adopted him from the Animal Rescue League on March 10, 2005. So today is the four-year anniversary of his adoption. And we will celebrate with tuna.

Although he was rather psychotic for the first few months, he calmed down quickly after I adopted Sidney in September 2005. Mario is now considered a senior by the vet. He's got a bit of a belly and an attitude. He knows how to open the front door, likes to sleep near our heads and is really above playing with most toys. He responds to his name and likes to be near someone at all times. He has sensitive skin, kitty acne and has recently gotten ear infections. We call him "The Smart One," "The Expensive One," "Nipper One," "Purrbucket" and "Most Handsomest Man."

Happy birthdayversary, Mario!

Mario, the most handsomest man

In post-honeymoon news, we also have had a health issue with Mario. I've found this intriguing because I never would have imagined how things would unfold.

Right before the wedding, Tim noticed a raw, hairless patch on Mario's front left paw. I didn't know how serious it was, but I knew we weren't really going to have time to address it before we left for the honeymoon, and Mario seemed to feel fine otherwise, so we decided to wait and see how he was when we got back. The patch didn't bother him, and I hoped it was just a reaction to the stress of moving and us being gone a lot.

When we got back from the honeymoon, I made an appointment with the vet. He was NOT happy to make the drive to St. Pete. When we got there, though, he was in HEAVEN. The vet tech LOVES him. She says he's her favorite kitty, marvels at his affectionate nature and demands head butts from him. She calls him "her most handsomest man." He melts with the attention he gets there. We've been seeing a new vet there, too, and she equally adores him. Basically, this is the best place Mario has ever been.

The vet noticed an infection in his right ear. He's always had sensitive skin issues, but she saw no explanation for his paw's raw patch. Thheeeennn, she explained that he might be obsessively licking the paw because he can't reach the real source of his discomfort - the ear. She said sometimes animals transpose their ailments or refocus them, and although it might *not* be the reason, she wanted to see how the paw was after we treated the ear infection. If it wasn't improved, we might have to place Mario in an e-collar (basically, a cone over his head to prevent him from licking at the paw). Anyone who knows Mario knows that would NOT go well. They gave his ear a thorough bath and gave me medicine to squirt in his ears twice a day. (He does not love that, either.)

Tim's been helping with the medication - he sits in the "Medicine Chair" (the living room recliner) and holds Mario while I squirt the medicine in the ear. It's quite a production. At first Mario thought it was great to get so much personal attention from Mom and Dad. He caught on quickly, though. Tomorrow he goes back to see if the infection cleared up.

Side note: The vet said we caught the infection early and that was good. She said if the yeast in Mario's ear had budded, we could have been dealing with an abscess behind Mario's ear - I guess cats shake their heads so violently to try to relieve the intense itching that they rupture blood vessels and end up with serious clots. I'm glad we caught it! And I hope after tomorrow, the most handsomest man doesn't have to go back to the vet for quite some time.

An open letter

Dear Anole,

I'm sure your day started as innocently as mine. I woke up, had my coffee, went for a run at the park with Tim and then settled in to do some stuff in preparation for tomorrow's road trip. As I was getting ready for work, you entered my day.

I had been in the living room earlier. I had noticed the blinds to the sliding doors were open, but I appreciated the natural light and didn't think twice about it. Then Tim told me that the nippers (that's what we call the cats) were outside. I looked outside, and sure enough, they were in the screened-in porch. I spotted you then. I mentioned you to Tim. I wasn't convinced the best place for the nippers to be was outside. But they seemed happy, and Tim was watching them, so I went back to getting ready.

I walked out of the bathroom 3 minutes later to Tim's cheerful call of "Mario brought you a lizard!" Yes, unsuspecting anole, it was you. I am so, so sorry I yelled so much and was so loud. However, imagine my shock. (And remember, I don't have the best track record with your kind. I had a clear view of Mario down the hallway, and I'm afraid you and I weren't properly introduced - all I saw was a tail and two legs hanging out of his mouth.

Tim kept laughing. He kept telling Mario to put you down. Mario didn't understand why I wasn't impressed. He didn't grasp that I was horrified and wanted a) you out and b) him out, but not in the same place. He just stood there, looking proud and defensive, with you dangling from his mouth.

You fell from Mario's mouth and scurried toward our bookshelf, but Mario nearly caught you again. Finally, Tim picked up a white gift bag and told me you were in it. Sadly, it was the gift bag that my engagement ring had been in before Tim gave it to me. Tim wants to keep it. I told him that it was no longer a keepsake, it's a lizard receptacle (sorry - nothing personal).

Mario never quite figured out that you weren't still in the bookshelf. He didn't realize Tim took you outside and shut the door. He sat there and meowed loudly and pathetically for a good 30 minutes, trying to draw you out. Tim said you sat in shock on the porch for quite some time. Again, my deepest apologies - I can only imagine how bad Mario's breath smells, and I would venture to guess that it's not exactly comfortable to be halfway down a cat's throat while he trots you around like a prize.

I can only hope it won't happen again. I've asked Tim to not let the cats out on the porch again. Aside from the obvious mess, Mario isn't supposed to have extra protein in his diet - he's on prescription food that eliminates the need for snacking on toads and anoles.

I've also asked that Tim brush Mario's teeth, because I really don't want to be head butted or nuzzled by a mouth that has been partaking in lizard delicacies. So far, he has protested on that point. But we'll see.

I hope you live a long, fruitful life ... far away from cats, and frankly, me.

Best wishes,
Kristin (and Tim and Mario and Sidney)

Packing update ...

I'm slowly but surely moving out of my apartment and dumping stuff at Tim's/packing stuff for storage. I've been frequenting the Bradenton Goodwill, too. The cats (photo below is of Mario) have enjoyed sleeping in the Goodwill box, which will prove detrimental for them if I take the box of stuff to donate and one of them is still in it ...