Wednesday, May 28, 2008

My cats and their idiosyncrasies

So I have noticed that most people use their blogs to show off pictures of their children and what not. I don't have any kiddos yet, but I will show off my "babies" (even though they are full grown). I have some pics of their idiosyncrasies here.

Bartok
Bartok has always had a slight obsession with the water faucet in the bath tub. When we lived in California he always came running when we would get out of the shower. He would jump in the tub (sometimes before we were able to get out and sometimes almost knocking us over) and play with the drips coming from the faucet. In our bathroom at our house, now, we don't have a bathtub with our shower so he can't play with the water after we get out, but we do have a separate tub in the master bath. Now, he will jump in the tub and stare at the faucet until we turn the water on for him to play with. Here he is staring at the faucet.

It is a strange obsession. Here he is grabbing the water with his paw so he can drink it:

Another bit of trivia about Bartok is his favorite sleeping position. He likes to sleep on his back with his feet in the air. When he gets into a deep sleep his foot starts to drop, bringing him into a side lying position. When this happens it startles him awake and he makes a cooing sound almost like a pigeon, adjusts himself back on his back and the whole cycle starts over again. He also likes to sleep on our shoes in the closet, but I don't have a picture of that. A new favorite of his (that I also don't have a picture of) is sleeping in the dryer in the clean clothes if we don't get them out fast enough or close the door.

Some idiosyncrasies cannot be pictured. One is that he likes to play peek-a-boo. He likes to try to catch the peek-a-booee's face with his paw. This game is not for the faint of heart as there are claws on the end of that paw!
Bartok doesn't meow at the door when he wants to go out. He pigeon coos loudly while racing up and down the stairs and ricocheting off furniture and walls. He only goes out at night, though, because he is afraid of the neighbors and outside daytime noises.
He has also learned how to open cupboard doors. His favorite is the cupboard above the refrigerator. Who knew we would have to baby proof our house before we had babies.
Bartok also likes to attack Milhaud (mee-oh, please). He sits on the edge of the couch and waits for her to come by and then leaps. When she growls at him he cowers, but he still likes the game.

Milhaud (Pronounced mee-oh)

Milhaud has her own little idiosyncrasies. Her favorite sleeping position is with her back against a pillow. It can be any pillow. She likes to be in the same room with me so if I happen to be in the kitchen or living room she sleeps on the couch:

If I am sleeping during the day for work (or if I am not around) she sleeps in the bed. When I am not there she goes directly for the pillow:

If I am there she either snuggles up to me and "chases" me around the bed until sometimes I end up lying crosswise by the time I wake up or I wake up to find myself on the very edge of the pilow or completely off the pillow so that she can sleep next to it. She never does this with Matt's pillow. Just mine. Also, if I lay on my back she has to sit in the middle of my chest. For Matt, she likes to sit in the middle of his back, where he can't see her.
Something I can't take a picture of is her meowing. She is a very loud meower. If she wants out she will not take "no" for an answer. She will meow at the door, literally, until someone lets her out (or in). When we first had her we could not let her inside because we could not afford pet rent at the time. It was a couple of days before we asked our land lady if we could let her inside. Night and day, day and night she meowed at the door. If we woke up in the middle of the night we heard her. When we came home at the end of the day she was still meowing. I hope she took a break to get something to eat and go potty, but we will never know. Finally, the land lady took pity and gave us permission to let her in. When we did finally open the door for her, she came in, sniffed at some furniture, jumped on the couch and went to sleep. Keep in mind that she used to belong to the lady that lived there before and she pretty much came with the house so that was the first time she met us in the house. I think she decided that we were okay. Now, when Milhaud comes inside she meows a couple times (depending on how long it takes us to let her in the meow can be friendly or loud and grumpy) walks in and literally flops onto her side on the floor.
Milhaud does not like to use the cat box. She will in a pinch, but she prefers to go outside. Before we got Bartok the cat box was pretty much just for decoration.

There is so much more I could say about my cats, like Bartok having to have all doors in the house open, and Milhaud demanding to be petted whether you want to or not, but I think I am becoming a bit boring and obsessive so I will stop now.

2 comments:

Becky Frame said...

How supremely adorable!! :)

Jacquelyn said...

Maybe Bartok can give me a few pointers on how to get my little girl to enjoy talking a shower. I think I'll show her your pictures, she really likes cats!