Week of Jane Day 6: Tootsie and Company #Caturday

Hi, there! I’m Tipper Allen, and guess what? Momma has been really really sad this week, so I’ve been giving her extra purrs and snuggles. I’ve also been digging up Poppa’s aloe plants to kick up a fuss and distract her.

Momma says her friend, Jane, was a proud “crazy cat lady.” Jane had four or five indoor cats, and tooked care of a bunch of what Momma calls feral cats outside. Momma says Jane worked with Alley Cat Allies (Advocates?) to catch them, give them big-boy and big-girl operations, notch their ears so people would know they had been done, and bring them back home. Jane would feed them and doctor them if they got sick.

She had snug shelter places for them for the winter or when it rained. Momma used to come home from having lunch wif Jane and tell me about who was living in The Princess House (the old playhouse that only the top girl cats could claim a place in).

Jane useded to comment on my Caturday posts and tell about her cats. Here are some of her stories:

My dear buddy Blackjack would not play with new toys I bought him. They were mine, he recognized, not his. Then I acquired a second-hand catnip mouse, pre-dirtied and everything. Blackjack went for it with gusto. Eventually, the catnip mouse became no more than a catnip sock, but it still was that big boy’s only toy.

My boy Blackjack would take direction when posing for me. I’d give him the usual instructions, like, “Hold that right there,” “Look this way a little more,” etc. As a consequence, many of his pictures are perfect portraits except that his ears are often tilted in my direction listening to me direct. Oh, well.

We had to take shelter in the basement once. I dragged both the cats downstairs, and, wouldn’t you know it? Nicholas loved it. The storm sirens wailing. Going down into the nasty basement where he didn’t usually get to go… Next month, when the noon first Tuesday sirens went off (testing only), the big boy raced for the basement door, eager for another adventure. Goofy boy.

… my late friend Tootsie would always pee on something. One time, I had OTHER girls over for the night in OUR apartment, and she peed smack dab in the center of the bed. AND she stood there, going, “Yeah, I did it. How hard are you going to smack me for this one, eh, copper?? Not hard enough to break me. Yeah, I can take it. Yeah. Meow!”

Tootsie would see me packing up the go-bag and go nuts. She’d crouch under the chair growling in a loud and creepy way (just the way she did everything), and if I should come back to get something I forgot, she’d make a big angry charge at me, with more growling, just to remind me how unhappy she was. She finally got to go to the farm and growl at real critters. I hear she enjoyed it.

I came into the living room one day, after hearing some suspicious noises, to discover Tootsie entangled in the curtains, holding on with her front paws and pushing off the window with her back feet. She’d swing out from the window and then swing back, only to push off once again. WHEEE!! (She didn’t actually say, Whee. I’m just adding a little dialogue here.) She looked around suddenly , recognized she’d been caught, and darted off. I examined the curtains and discovered this had not been her first rodeo, as they say. Held up the light, the curtains revealed numerous little claw-pricks up and down their length.

No matter how bad I am, Momma says, “At least you’re not as bad as Tootsie.” Momma says one time, Tootsie snuggled up to her on Jane’s couch, and she figured Tootsie had finally accepted her. Then she stood up to leave, picked up her purse — and the strap fell off. Tootsie had cuddled up there, letting Momma pet her, and all the time she was chewing through that purse strap! Thanks, Tootsie, for setting the bad-cat bar so high for the rest of us!

A WRITING PROMPT FOR ANIMALS: What’s the worsterest fing you ever did?

TA

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One thought on “Week of Jane Day 6: Tootsie and Company #Caturday

  1. Dan Antion

    October 21, 2017 at 7:21am

    MiMi, MuMu and even Maddie appreciate this post, Tipper. They like being good cats and dog by comparison. Thdnks for sharing these stories. Have a grest weekend (but easy on the curtains).

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    • Marian Allen

      October 21, 2017 at 5:55pm

      Tipper plays with the cords to the Venetian blinds, but he’s never (yet) messed with the curtains. Fingers crossed!

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      • Dan Antion

        October 21, 2017 at 6:03pm

        Cords are way too hard to resist.

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  2. joey

    October 21, 2017 at 4:32pm

    WOW! That’s quite a lot of crazy cat tale in that block!
    My bestie had a cat called Kitten, and he was wild like that, too. Indoors, he was a total beast! I mean just chaos with a fluffy tail. We used to tease her that Kitten hated her and all her things. Well, when he was about a year old, she moved out to the country and Kitten became an outdoor cat and he also became the SWEETEST, biggest, furriest lover cat ever. He was so happy! Like a whole different cat. Being an outdoor cat, (with a really nice shelter) he didn’t have a long life, but he sure did have a happy one. Tipper has answered my question about whether I should put my aloe plant in the southern sun for the winter. That’s a no for me. Cletus is the first cat I’ve had who lives to chew plants and he sure does like the southern light! 😛
    Great share, Marian. Made me laugh quite a bit and smile lots 🙂

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    • Marian Allen

      October 21, 2017 at 5:59pm

      I’m glad you laughed and smiled, Joey! You give me so much happiness, I’m delighted to return some of the favor. #2 Daughter has cats that liked to chew on houseplants. I advised her to get some wire cages. She was all, “I wouldn’t keep my kitties in cages!” I said, “Not for the CATS! Put the PLANTS in the cages so the cats can’t get to them!” I think she just got rid of the plants, though.

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      • joey

        October 21, 2017 at 7:01pm

        AH! Well, I’ve got a few hung and a few in impossible places, but otherwise, I’ve got a rectangular plant stand he can’t access. I’ve found ONE plant he doesn’t like to chew on, and it’s on the bottom. I looked at cages, and basically found bird cages. I dunno how I feel about that, since my MIL is very birdcage-y… but it is a valid suggestion. Would Tootsie, I mean, Cletus, tumble it to the floor like a squirrel on a suet feeder? Hmm…

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        • Marian Allen

          October 22, 2017 at 8:38am

          Oh, yeah…. You might have to bolt the cage to the floor. I think you’d better stick to the solutions that already work; this is gettin’ complicated.

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  3. pete laberge

    October 21, 2017 at 7:10pm

    The world needs more bad ass cats!
    They make all the other ones look good.
    And the dogs sit in the corner and watch!

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  4. acflory

    October 21, 2017 at 7:28pm

    My babies have always been indoor/outdoor cats, protected by the indoor/outdoor dogs. Is it possible that pure indoor cats just get very bored?

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    • Marian Allen

      October 22, 2017 at 8:40am

      I think they do. And toys just aren’t as much fun as driving the humans batshit. It’s the interactivity that counts, you know?

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  5. acflory

    October 22, 2017 at 4:48pm

    -giggles- Oh yeah, I know all about batshit! Cats are experts at it. 😀

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