Kitty Box Heaven

The folks are coming over for a visit this week, so there was a slightly rushed tidying up to do before they arrived, as much as my busted back allows anyway.

Chief among my tasks was to clear up the area (we'll do the cleaning later) so there's space for people to sit/sleep/walk that's not me and the High Princess. (Okay, I admit it; I'm a slob!)

Anyway, moving on. I had to start moving Maxie's stuff into the store room, which was a huge mess to start off with. The kitty's been forbidden to enter this room most days, so....

Tsk tsk, is THIS why you don't let me in here?

Look at this mess, OMG is that the om nom nom monster?!

 

How could you have hidden so many boxes from me? You've deprived me of kitty heaven!

I grinned at her sheepishly. "Okay, I know, I know. I'll tidy the place up. But those boxes are off limits! I need them to store stuff, Maxie."

If any of you readers have ever kept a cat, you would know that the feline species are highly capable of communicating extreme disbelief at what they perceive is a lie from you. Their facial expressions and meows have the distinct tone of, "Yeah, right!"

I appeased my little mistress by choosing one of the boxes to discard and to store trash in later, and letting her "have" it for awhile.

Peekaboo!

 

Mmmmm, I like this, much better than my tiny shoebox!

While was busy settling into her new playpen, I started rearranging my stuff to make way for things to come in from the outside. Much to Maxie's consternation, her new playpen was soon my new dumpsite.

Hey what's with dropping all these old stuff in my box?

Excuse me, can you find somewhere else to dump your stuff please?

 

She waited patiently for me to stop for another dumping, then she hopped out of the box in disgust.

"What is wrong with you? You had to ruin a perfectly good box, didn't you?!" she complained.

I laughed at her and picked her up for a snuggle before dropping her into her shoe box. "That's your cosy box, Maxie. The big ones are mine."

If I had ever entertained thoughts of controlling my cat, they were demolished when Her Highness promptly left her shoe box and invaded kitty box heaven again.

Hmm, things look different!

Fine, you can keep your boxes, this plastic bag is mine!

I left kitty to her own devices (supervised) while I wrapped up the shifting. Eventually though, she was forcibly removed from the plastic bag. Her latest strategy to avoid being moved is to go limp all the way so I'd be too afraid to carry her, or so she thinks. Limp kitty is fun to lift up ^^ So it backfired on her hahahahaha

~~~

On a separate note, as a follow-up from last week's post on snuggling when the AC is on. I had the AC on a few nights last week too. The first time, I somehow left a  gap in the blanket and Maxie wriggled in, half scaring me to death. She slept between my legs curled up comfortably, albeit a very uncomfortable position for me since I didn't dare to move in case I disturbed her. Heh.

After a few hours my body couldn't take it and I wriggled out of the blanket carefully and slept on the other side of the bed. Kitty was happily comatose under the blanket and didn't care that I was gone. Figures. When morning came and I turned off the AC, it took kitty 10 mins to realise it was getting warmer and you could see a cat-shaped figure standing up and stretching under the covers.

The next night, I tried to invite her to join me but was ignored *cries*. So I went to sleep only to be woken up in the middle of the night by kitty sniffing at the blanket and nudging it, so I lifted it and she slept next to me. If I moved my legs a bit, I could feel claws digging into my flesh, not enough to scratch, but enough to let me know that I was required to continue my statue impersonation. Kitty was gone by morning though. 

Ah well, I shall continue my quest to discover how to make Maxie a cuddle kitty instead of tsundere kitty.

Maxie the Radio Hunter

I ran into some computer trouble last week and had to send it in for reformatting twice (yes, I'm IT challenged). Trying to convince the proprietors to reduce the cost of the reformat, I bought some baubles that I didn't need but the cost of which were cheaper than the reformatting.

One of these was a mini portable radio. Since it is usually quiet at home in the evenings, I surmised I could put some music on anyway, so it was "win-win".

How is this relevant to Her Highness Maxie the Magnificent, you ask? Well, I'm not sure if I've made any reference to this before, but kitty has a certain fascination with water, especially running water. She could sit and stare at flowing water for minutes on end (considering her attention span, anything more than 5 minutes can be considered as hours in relativity).

When I first decided to try my new radio on, I was in the middle of running my laundry and predictably, Maxie was caught admiring the view...  

Running water! Ooooooh!!! It moves, it flows...fascinating!!!

Normally, nothing short of my physically picking her up could distract her from the flow, unless she got bored of course! However, when I turned the radio on, she scampered into the bedroom and made big eyes at me.

What's that noise, daddy?

Tiny radio, Maxie. Why are you so surprised?

I do occasionally play music on my laptop, so kitty isn't completely unexposed to music. Funnily, she seems to find the sound coming from the radio to be infinitely interesting and refused to leave me alone.

It sounds different!

Since she was meowing continuously in her "I want that!" voice, I gave in and let her inspect the radio.

*bat bat bat*

*cheek rub*

*bite*

When she started biting the antenna, I took it away from kitty. I was not yet prepared to have her despoil my latest acquisition. You can imagine Her Kittiness was less than amused. She kept pawing at my leg and demanded her new toy.

When her cruel daddy refused to give in to her again, she started pacing impatiently, and before I knew it, hopped onto my computer table and started hunting for the radio.

WHERE IS IT?

I humored Maxie and let her sniff around. Finding she had trouble navigating through the clutter (Yay! Messy desk 1: Paw of destruction 0), she gave up and hopped off. Woohoo!

Pretending to lose interest in the radio, she wandered off to do what cats do when their owners snatch their toys away. However, when bed time came around and I stored my laptop away, I spotted the sneaky feline back on the hunt.

 

I want that radio!

 

Found you!

Suppressing my laughter, I turned the radio off. Without sound and blinking lights to attract her, the silly kitty lost interest quickly and jumped off the desk in disgust.

I gave Maxie some treats to let her know I'm not annoyed at her, as she had that furtive look about her when she knows (or assumes) she had done something wrong. We made peace and prepared for bed.

No pics of the following bit of story as it was in the middle of the night and I didn't want to get my phone for picture sessions and risk Her Highness's wrath...

My kitty's nickname of Tsundere cat (thanks, Iwashi) was not idly given. She simply abhors public displays of affection to me. If she was on the couch and I joined her, she would leave. If she was on the bed and I laid down near her (the definition of near is arbitrarily decided by Her Highness), she would wake up, shoot an irritated look at me, and go curl up elsewhere, anywhere as long as it's farther from me. If I hugged her, I had a 5-second grace period before she starts wriggling like a snake.

Due to the hot weather and haze, I sometimes sleep with the AC on at nights. I woke up that night (with AC on) to find kitty stretched out luxuriously right next to me. You can imagine my joy and excitement, since this is a very rare occurrence (I can remember when it last happened: never). She usually slept on a corner of the bed, 2-3 feet away from me. I tentatively gave her a few strokes and she stirred but didn't move away. I went back to sleep.

I have sleeping problems and find myself waking up every few hours every night. That night, I woke up repeatedly to see I was slowly backed towards the edge of the bed as kitty pushed me further and further away. Heh.

It finally struck me that maybe she actually wanted to snuggle near me! So instead of falling off the bed, I moved a little closer to my cat. I thought that perhaps this was a breakthrough in our relationship. We were maybe an inch apart when she jolted awake (I was very gentle in my movement, mind you), and stared at me. I whispered silly endearments at her. She yawned mightily, stretched lazily, walked imperiously over me and hopped off the bed in catty disdain.

*sigh*

I guess it was still wishful thinking on my part. I was nothing but a heat radiator for kitty, truly her slave. :(

Home visit to Maxie's new potential slaves!

I had been planning to visit my mate, Keith's, place for some time now. Originally, I had intended to buy dinner and just drop by, but his missus requested for Maxie to grace them with her presence. Of course, being of mere humble menfolk, I obliged.

First I took Maxie out in her designer bag and went to the bazaar to pick up some food. She was very interested in the sights and smells, though I could tell some of the people there were annoyed at "that crazy fella" and shot me dirty looks.

Having collected the foodstuff, we made our way to Keith and Clair's. It was my first visit there myself, so it was an eye-opener or both me and the princess.

Typically, Maxie wasn't too excited about being junked at a random new place, and it took her quite a few minutes to decide it was safe to leave her carrier.

Maxie's first look at the place

Of course, once she deigned to exit the safety of her carrier, she was very nervous and found the perfect hiding spot.

 

Priority #1: Find alternative hiding spot

She spent a good amount of time hiding behind the curtains, and I suspect she even fell asleep behind them at some point, while Keith and I caught up on stuff. Clair wasn't due home yet. We thought we'd give Maxie some time to get used to the place before she was gushed over by the mistress of the house.

Soon, it was time for Keith to take leave of us to pick up the missus. No sooner had he closed the front door when kitty decided to make an appearance and survey her new domain.

Why are all these doors shut? Are they hiding tuna behind them?

What about this cabinet? Tuna inside?

Her humble squire (yours truly!) followed Her Highness during her survey and had to entertain the high-and-mighty one with hurriedly made-up facts of this place with strange new smells.

And here, we have an opened door to welcome you, highness.

That's a trap for lizards and mice so you can catch them at your convenience

"Majestic" pose

Maxie seemed pretty pleased with my commentary, and proceeded to the next area. I wiped the sweat off my brow, glad to have escaped her wrath.

Maxie: I think we should bring this section back to our apartment.

Who's a pretty kitty then?

Okay, I've seen enough

We departed Keith's home office in peace, without leaving it in pieces. I managed to persuade her that the cabinet was not easily detachable, and any attempts to do so would ruin its beauty and render it unworthy of her attention. She consented to leave it behind, very graciously, I might add.

Kitty is starting to like mirrors

I trailed the majestic feline into the living room and tried to keep up with her exploration.

Mmmmm flowers!

What do you mean, they're not real?

This shelf would look good in OUR living room...

This carpet is soooo luxurious! We need to get one!

Her survey complete, Maxie proceeded to make herself completely at home, hopping onto the couch and curling up comfortably. That is, until our hosts returned.

What was that noise?

Denied the curtain, Maxie chose to hide under her favourite TV shelf

I managed to coax Maxie out for awhile and she got ooh'd and aah'd over by my cat-crazed friends. Both of them tried very hard to stroke Maxie, but they could see she was very nervous, almost frightened. Keith, in particular, kept commenting about how beautiful her fur was. Maxie confessed to me later at home that she thought Keith wanted to skin her and wear her coat as a beanie. Don't tell Keith she said that, I think it might upset him.

I set the kitty down after awhile cos she was showing her usual penchant of hating hugs, and she immediately rushed back under the shelf.

However, Keith was brilliant and made an impromptu toy to catch her attention

Here kitty kitty kitty kitty

Dangling...string..must...resist...temptation...to...pounce!

Temptation too strong!

Cat's out of the bag...er..shelf!

When she wasn't busy playing "kill the string monster" with Clair, Maxie spent her time luxuriating on the soft carpet, turning herself over and over.

After hours of fun, dinner, and more games with the cat. It was time to call it a night. Maxie showed how well she knows the place by walking to the front door and saying goodbye!

Bye, new slaves!

When we got home that night, Maxie and I had a good talk. She voiced her doubts about Keith, but admitted he had excellent taste in both decor and choice of wife. I caught a cunning gleam in my kitty's eyes as she no doubt plotted on how to recruit two new human slaves and to steal her favourite bits of furnishing from their abode.

Before we retired to bed for the night though, I asked if she liked the carpet at Keith's plce.

"Oh yes, it was soooo soft, and soooo nice to roll on," she purred.

"Then why don't you ever like the blankets I lay out for you?" I demanded indignantly.

"Oh, those. Pffft. Those belong to me, I can have them any time. Now that carpet, however, isn't mine......yet. Once it is, I can safely put it aside for any new toys," she meowed back at me.

Huh...cat logic. I sure don't get it, do you?

Maxie's Idiosyncracies...

I've been telling people about how weird/adorable my cat can be, so I guess this is the time to provide some evidence as well as some elaboration.

Like most cats, Maxie is attracted by the sound of cans opening. She has also refined this skill to identifying when the cans are actually cat food! Now if you've been following my blog, you'd know that she's a bit of a tsundere cat, which means she doesn't show affection, or shows it via extreme disdain. However, can opening times are one of the rare moments when she shows her affection to me via shin rubs and purrs.

Is that cat food?

Hurry hurry, open the can!

It does seem to me, sometimes, that the highlight of meal times for her is all in the opening of the can. Why do I say this? Read on!

Regular serving, half a can of tuna.

Om nom nom nom! This is so yum!

After eating....

Look at the amount of leftovers! Omg -_-"

She ALWAYS does this! Finish off just a bit of it and leave the rest untouched...It doesn't matter if I trimmed the serving size down, she'll nibble a bit and leave most of it for "later" anyway. Never mind the fact that she's the one who badgered me into opening a can in the first place.

Ah...so nice to be full...

What do you mean there's leftover catfood? I'm full!

I've learnt, through experience, to just ignore her and leave the food where it was. Eventually, the bowl will empty itself when Her Highness says it's time, never before.

Hours later...

Another of Maxie's weird habits which also involves her being affectionate to me is when it's time to wake up. In the mornings, I'm not allowed to sleep in. If I sleep past 9am, or if I snooze my alarm clock too often, she will climb onto the bed and start meowing. If this fails, she starts walking all over me, at the same time yelling loudly for me to wake up. This usually does the trick, cos I'm tempted to pet and snuggle her and once I'm up from the bed, she's done. Tsundere mode back on.

Last week, however, kitty found a new trick. I had wanted to take a nap in the afternoon so I could stay up to watch the Germany-France match in the World Cup. I set my alarm to give me 2 hours of sleep. 30 minutes into the nap...kitty did the full wake up routine. I ignored her and tried to stay asleep. That's when she decided my alarm needed to start ringing. And if it didn't, she will improvise by sitting on the bedside desk where my alarm is and....role-play as my alarm clock:

Wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up!

I couldn't resist actually waking up to snap this pic (pity I couldn't catch her mid-meow). Since I'm up anyway, I asked her what she wanted.

What do you want, kitty?

Just wanted to let you know I'm going to sleep, so don't disturb me, human.

Oooookay. That was, annoying.

And the last tale of her idiosyncracies...People have told me that animals can be jealous too. I firmly believe this, of course. What caught me off-guard is that Maxie is never jealous when I come home smelling of cats. If I were to play with any stray cats along the way and came home, she'd give me a quick sniff and behave normally.

Now, if I were to play with a dog, however...I get a kitty stalker who insisted on sticking her nose to me wherever there's a doggy smell. Since I volunteer at a dog shelter, you can imagine the dance routine we go through everytime I come home from the shelter. Take a step, kitty nose stick. Take another, kitty nose stick.

Dog!

Where've you been seeing dogs behind my back?

Don't you walk away when I'm talking to you!

I can SMELL her perfume!

Right here, a dog peed on you right here!

This continues the whole time I'm home from the shelter. Entry, open door, free kitty...nose stick-step, nose stick-step, while I put the dirty clothes in the laundry, place my mobile and keys where they belong, sweep litter sand, into bedroom to grab a shower. Right after shower though, I'd get one final sniff before she's satisfied there's nothing canine about me, and kitty will go find a place to nap.

Ah, my cat...the salt of my life.