Monday, December 19, 2011

the Cathouse

With the building of our new house, I got permission to build a cathouse.  I got all excited... until I realized it was actually a house... for cats.

Oddly enough, it's a problem I've been considering for quite some time.  Consider the following:

A. Cat poo is the stink of death
B. Dogs love cat poo
C. Dogs are affectionate, kissy animals

QED: I'm about to hurl

Which led me to believe it might be possible to make an awesome hideaway for the cats, complete with snacking doggy avoidance features.

Michalangelo had his Sistine Chapel, Van Gogh had his Starry Night, Da Vinci had his Mona Lisa.... and now I present to you, with no further ado: Spork's Cat Closet.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Let me tell you a story.  There isn't a snarky punchline.  There isn't a lesson to be learned.  It's just a story.

There was once a computer geek that worked in a big city.  His office had a huge plate glass window in it... probably 60 feet long from floor to ceiling.  One day while working he noticed a momma cat outside, nursing a tiny kitten.  This was not in a residential area and she was struggling to catch enough food to produce the milk for the kitten.  So the geek put out cat food for her.

Momma was wild.  Very wild.  And the kitten, orange with swirly stripes, became wild too.  No amount of coaxing or talking would draw her out.  Time went by... the only way the kitten would allow the geek to approach was through the plate glass window -- where if he dangled a string (or a frayed bit of CAT5 cable) she would play with it through the window.

As momma cats do...  Momma got pregnant again... and had another litter of kittens, leaving the kitten alone.  She did not know how to hunt.  She was helpless.  And Momma had to send her away to raise the next batch.

So the geek trapped her.  She was probably about 9 months old by now and extremely wild.  And every said you just can't tame a feral cat.  Once they are wild... it's over.

Like I said, there is no moral here... no punchline... no snark.  That scrawny scared feral kitten passed away today at the too-young age of almost 12.  She spent 9 months living on the hard streets, became an indoor cat and never looked back.  Bye Lucy.