A Tribute to Molly Cat

Two weeks ago, we had to put down our eldest little cat, Molly. Named after Paul Molitor (whose nickname was Molly), one of our favorite all-time Blue Jays baseball players.

She was sweet, but still Queen of her Domain. She put Casey in her place ever since Casey was a puppy, and still years later, if Casey got over-excited about something, Molly would strut right over to her, meow loudly and smack her in the face, as if to tell her "you're being hysterical, calm yourself!". Then Casey would cry, which would confirm that she indeed, was hysterical, and would need another smack - which she received. Queen of her Domain. :)

If I was crying, however, she would come over and meow at me concernedly and quietly. She LOVED lap time -- whenever a lap was available, she'd be on it. She was a very quiet purr-er. She hung out with Baby Boy and Mr. Black as kittens, and Mr. Black followed her around lovesick till the end of his days. She loved to look out the window and watch the birdies, and make that cackling noise cats make when they REALLY want something.

But she never really got over losing her best friends Jessica Ferret and Misty Dog in short succession when she was only a few years old. She slept curled up with Misty at night, and play-stalked and attacked and was stalked and attacked in turn by Jessica - they had such good times together. And as a result of living with a ferret as a kitten, she learned what none of the other cats ever picked up - that burrowing under and sleeping under blankets is warm and comfy. But once Misty and Jessie were gone, she was a little more distant with other animals that came into our lives - it really affected her deeply.

But she's with the girls now, and they can all frolic together again. We'll miss you so much Molly - you were part of our lives for most of our time together as a couple, and we were so glad to have known you. A little barn cat, the only survivor of her litter, went on to live 16 years - a good, long life.

Molly Has A Problem

Heard a noise amongst our collection of empty boxes (kept around in prep for our eventual move). Peeked inside a box tucked inside another box, and found Molly cat.



As has been sadly seen many, many times on CuteOverload.com, Molly definitely needs boxhab.

She's addicted to boxes.

Oh, she thinks she's okay - note the defiant look on her face...but we all can see she has a problem.

Poor Molly...

Mega Storm last night in NS

We had a MASSIVE thunderstorm last night, the likes of which I can't ever remember happening before (and neither can Dave's mom, and she's in her 70s)! It lasted well over an hour, probably closer to two, with the height of it lasting over 40 minutes. They showed on the news today that there were over 1200 lightning strikes in the province (a typical storm has about 200). Insane! We even had actual bolts of lightning, half hidden through layers of clouds, and not just our typical sheet lightning. Although, of course, there was lots of sheet lightning too! I don't know how long the storm went on while I just lay in bed, half asleep, expecting it to go away--but when it kept going on and on, and Peepers let out a questioning little "meooow?", I thought it best to get the rest of the furries together to make sure everyone was okay.

We gathered them all together in the living room upstairs. Baby Boy & Molly took it the best, they weren't worried at all, it seemed. Casey was a little freaky for a bit, but half of that was because it was 3 am and everybody was awake. She did her head-down-wagging-tail whole body wiggle, sticking her head in everybody's face to give kisses. She settled down pretty quickly, though. The worst for wear was Dave's mom's little Jack Russell terrier, Lila. She is scared by just fireworks, so a storm where the rumbling of thunder never stopped had her hyperventilating to where she nearly passed out! Poor little dear, it took her a LONG time to calm down. Once it had settled down and everyone went to bed, Baby decided that he was hungry, and started meowing and clawing under the door. I had to get up and give him some dinner, and he came in to sleep with us for a bit afterwards - a very rare event (so maybe he was affected after all).

This morning, all the birds and squirrels looked a little ragged. They were soaked through, and seemed more squabbly than usual, fighting over position at the feeder. Even saw a nuthatch and a sweet little yellow bird with a pointed bill that I didn't recognize - I guess they must have been blown here by the storm.

Never seen anything like it! Wow!

Noise in the Dark

So, it's 3 am, and I'm awake. Not of my own volition, of course, but because of a cat. Regular readers will perhaps think this has to do with Peepers, our newest addition to the family, but in fact, it has to do with Baby Boy, our "middle" cat. All I saw was the field of battle AFTER it happened, I have NO IDEA how it got to be the way it was.

I awoke to the sounds of large objects crashing to the ground - I got up instantly and ran to our kitchen/living room open-concept area. One of our heavy kitchen chairs was knocked over. On the other side of the double room, a tv tray had also been knocked down. The phone was knocked off the hook, and the answering machine had become unplugged. These things only caught my attention for a second though - what I immediately became concerned with was the retreating back end of Baby Boy, launching himself behind the tv console. I said "Baby!", and could hear him making tearing noises at the carpet, mingled with a gagging sound. I ran over to him, and saw him tearing at the floor or the wall, like he was trying to dig a hole to get further away. When he calmed down enough to see it was me, he just sat there, gagging, which gave way to heavily laboured breathing, as if he had just ran a race. I spoke to him in the soothing, mommy-tone that he associates with good things and comfort. I caught his eye, and gave him the "slow blink", that cats communicate "all's well" with. I tried to peer around the back end, to see if he was all right (the kitchen chair is so heavy, I was really worried if it had caught him in the wrong way as it fell, he could have broken a paw). I started to put things back to normal, while Baby calmed down. Molly, the old girl cat, was sitting in the corner near the tv tray. If she knew what happened, she wasn't letting on. :)

Eventually, Baby made his way out from behind the tv. I saw that underneath him, he had one of the curtain tiebacks. I think he must have run into it as he dashed by the curtains towards the tv. After he came out, he went straight down to the basement. By this time, of course, Casey was wide awake and barking, so I had to let her go outside (being woken early by all that noise makes a puppy need to use the facilities).

I followed Baby downstairs, and spoke again in soothing tones. He looked sufficiently calm that I could touch him now, so I stroked him a little, and he started to purr. I checked his paws - no sign of tenderness, so a-okay there. He's now resting comfortably under the couch in the basement, where it's dark, and nice and cool on a stuffy summer night like tonight. Casey is trying to sleep down here too, with all this noise and light and such. Peepers, thank God, is tucked away safely in the bedroom right now, and missed out on all this mess. And I'm hoping I can sneak off to bed in a little while, once everything seems sufficiently calm.

But the question remains: what exactly happened? Was Baby spooked by something? Did Molly hiss at him, and it sent him over the edge? Was he trying to catch a moth in a precarious position and started a chain reaction of destruction? I guess we'll never know for sure. :)

Early Morning Bunny!

I was up very early this morning (about 4:30 am), and after realizing how stuffy the house was, spent several hours trying to cool the house off (opening all the windows, getting the fans going) before the sun rose. It read 30 deg. C on our back deck by 9 am, so I'm glad I did!. After a very long summer of cool temperatures and cloud, this sudden change in the weather is very strange! As uncomfortable as it is, better relish it while it's here, I guess! At least it's more summery weather than we've been having, so I can't complain. :)

As a result of being up so early, I was able to see the coming of the dawn, the waking of the little songbirds twittering in the trees -- it was really beautiful seeing the world come alive like that.

And taking advantage of the cool before the heat, one of our little local jackrabbits was out and about, snacking on our lawn's various weeds and grasses. He's SO cute, with those tall pink ears, always twitching around, listening for potential dangers.

* * * *

And just so you get a complete picture, this is what it looked like outside:



And this was the view inside:

The Gulf Between

Oh well, at least Molly doesn't growl and hiss at him as much. An uneasy truce is better than nothing! Hopefully, things will continue to improve. Peepers goes in for his neutering tomorrow morning (I'm glad he doesn't know what's coming!), and then we can let him explore the house more freely. He's getting more daring though, he went all the way down to the basement this morning. Very cautiously, though!

Baby Boy won't go near him, he still acts like he's scared of this kitten that's half his size. Good grief. Between that, and Baby's refusing to make eye contact with me anymore, because he's too busy pouting, it's been a tough week. Well, that, and Peepers has had to sleep in our room, and is keeping Dave up all night by sleeping on various parts of his head and neck, and meowing. It'd be really funny if we weren't so tired! :)

"Treachery!" Peepers says - Peepers and the Vet

Monday was time for Peeper's big visit to the vet. We had a plan, and the first part went pretty well. Dave goes outside as usual to pet Peepers, I wait inside by the door. Dave grabs Peepers, I open the door, he rushes inside, I slam the door behind him. He tosses Peepers in the carrier, I slam the carrier door shut behind him. Perfect!

But then, Peepers had a Level 1 FreakOut. He smashed his face and paws repeatedly into the side of the carrier to the point that he cut his nose and started bleeding. I ran off to call the vet and see if they could take him early - they could, so we were off quick as a wink. He was meowing plaintively, and trying to tear apart the carrier. Once we got to the vet's, they took him to the back room to do his blood test. And then we heard the noise. Things crashing and banging, and people yelling. We said, "Oh crap, that's Peepers". After about 10 minutes, during which we heard things being yelled from the back room like "Can you come in here!" (to yet another veterinary assistant - at least 3 people were needed!), we were called in to the exam room, where we found the vet holding a towel-wrapped Peepers. She said she had to sedate him, and was still waiting for it to take affect. Apparently, he had gotten free in the back area, and had tore all around the room, eventually getting to the ceiling, running around the highest shelves, stocked with food and equipment, that he knocked down. *sigh* Eventually, the sedation took affect, blood was taken, vaccinations given, and he was let go. Poor little guy, he was still so very scared and trying to run, but couldn't take a step without falling over on his side. We tucked him away in his carrier, and waited for a while in the office. Because he was so over excited, they needed to keep an eye on him, in case he had a bad reaction with his heart to the sedation.

But, on the plus side, his tests came back negative, so he can come and live with us and the other cats! Hurray! We're so blessed!

But it has been exhausting, though. He spent the whole first night under the bed, and wouldn't come out for love or money (or food or water for that matter). The next morning, he came out for short visits, and finally on Tuesday night, went to the kitty litter box (we were prepared for him to not go for a while because of our previous experience with totally freaked out/feral cats - they don't eat or drink or go to the bathroom for a long time, sometimes for days - I've actually heard that a terrified cat could actually stay in one place long enough to starve to death).

His first meetings with Baby and Molly haven't gone very well - he wanted to be friendly with molly, but she growled and hissed at him - Baby kept his distance, hissed, then pouted the rest of the day like "But I'M THE BABY!! NOT THIS OTHER GUY!"

But Casey...well, Casey is Casey. She was grooming him right away, and he loved it. Adorable.



*sigh*. Looking forward to getting Peepers neutered next week, and finishing the deworming, so he can have the run of the house, and they can work things out amongst themselves.

I think he's a lot younger than we thought at first. Outdoors, he was very affectionate, but seemed very sure of himself, and larger. Now that he's inside, he's reverted to total kitten behaviour, and even acted to Molly like she was a mommy cat (too bad, she grew up with ferrets and dogs, not other cats, so she's scared of cats! We have a house full of dysfunctional cats). :) Now that we've had a better look at his fur, you can see that he has two types of fur on his back, a soft downy part and a more adult, sleek type fur. The vet couldn't tell us how young he was without looking at his teeth (and that wasn't going to happen!!), so she'll check him when he's unconscious for his neutering surgery.

I'll keep everyone posted on his progress. :)

Desire - or "Gimmee!!"

Here's our two cats watching the bird feeder from inside the kitchen. They are strictly indoor cats, so this is the closest they'll ever get to the birdies outside. They spend hours there, making little squeaking noises, saying "Please gimmee!" The nice warm sunshine is another great bonus of this particular spot in the house.

Molly is the elder cat, about 9 years old, and very cranky. Baby Boy is the big ol' cat (about 2 1/2) who's right at the window. He's a big thug, but he was a wee baby at one point! :) He is the most affectionate cat I've ever had, but it wasn't always that way. We rescued him and his brother from the wild, as their mother was a feral stray. Someday I will share their story here, but we lost his brother last year, and I still find it difficult to think about their story since he's gone.

Anywho, its lots of fun to see these cats watch the birds, I enjoy watching them too! :) I've found some inspiration in seeing them in this new spot, I'll be doing several art pieces in the coming months featuring cats and birds. It'll be a lot of fun!

Cast of Characters in the Blog

These are some of the people and animals you'll meet as you read through my blog.


• Ann - me! artist & photographer, living on the Eastern Shore of beautiful Nova Scotia, Canada.


• Dave - my honey since '93



• Molly - our cranky-old-lady cat; she can still be sweet though! Named for Paul Molitor's nickname.



• Baby Boy - our cuddly, but thuggish, cat. Born feral, we caught him in our backyard, tamed him, & have loved him ever since.



• Peepers - our latest furry addition, came to live with us after staring in our back window for endless hours. We fed him, and he never left again (except to hunt a few hours at night). Moved indoors with us in July 2007. Still very kittenish, even though he had been living on his own in the wild for a while.



• Casey - the sweetest, gentlest dog we've ever known; our best girl, our huge German Shepherd Dog.