Monday's Question of the Day - December 14, 2015

How do  your cats act when they are frisky-ornery?

I'm sitting here waiting for a project to dry and Noodles is taking laps around the house.  That usually means she just left me a present to clean up in the litter box.  I've got a couple Christmas totes, a few bags and the vacuum in the kitchen.  Well Noodles ran back and forth several times and then I look over and she is sitting upright behind the bags; but in between the vacuum and totes just staring at me.  I asked her what she was doing and she walked off and laid down.   Crazy cat!  I don't think I bought into whatever her plot was! 

Mooch doesn't get silly like that too often anymore.  If she does she usually just brings me a milk ring to flick for her.  When she was younger and feeling the urge to do something crazy; she'd want us to get a flashlight so she could chase the light on the floor.  We had a single wide trailer when they were small and we could get her running from one end of the house to the other just using the flashlight.   

Typical teenage boys! I think Keeker and Kricket have a hidden stash of Energizer batteries somewhere!

They chase each other through the house like their tails are on fire... and I never know when or what sets them off. One minute they are sleeping quietly, then BAM! Two tornadoes whizzing by. Sometimes I hear noises and I just cringe as I go to investigate. Once, in the middle of the night I was awakened by a loud crash, only to find one cat sitting on the bathroom counter and the other in the bathtub; both with "I didn't do anything" expressions on their faces. The shower curtain AND the rod were on the floor. Apparently, during one of their holy terror chases, one or both of them climbed the shower curtain and being 15 pounds each, they tore it down!

Another episode happened while I was doing dishes. After flying through the bedroom, down the hall to the living room and then onto the dining room table, Keeker thought he'd out-wit Kricket by jumping onto the bar around the kitchen counter. He was so excited that he misjudged his own leaping abilities and he slid off the bar and right into a sink full of dishes! Soap suds, water and cat fur flew everywhere! It was hysterical watching him dance around trying to shake the suds off of himself. 

More than once lamps have crashed to the floor and chairs have been turned over. Their most enjoyable feat is running and jumping onto my office chair and holding on while it spins in circles! And at least once a night I am pummeled by eight tiny cat paws as they romp across my bed at about 3:30 A.M. in a frantic stampede! 

Then there are always the 'surprise attacks' when I walk through a room and one or both of them jump up and grab an arm or body slam the middle of my back and yell, "Tag, Mom! You're it!" and run off waiting for me to pursue them in their game. 

Every day it's something new and I never seem to see it coming! Their either gonna keep me young or kill me! LOL

14 year old Burt doesn't get too frisky very often any more, but a few days ago I watched him run across the yard with tail high and 'attack' a tree, ripping it up with his claws. He also bats a toy mouse around once in a while, meowing like he wants us to watch. Casper is the high energy one, he races through the house like something is chasing him, tail big and eyes wild. Unfortunately he often runs into things, like the corner of the counter yesterday, I don't know how he doesn't get hurt. He also takes a few laps around the house every evening before bed like he is trying to tire himself out, and don't get in front of him, he can't stop! Every cat I've had does something similar, I call it the 'cat crazies'!

Mabel acts crazy like a young kitten often. Every night when we go to bed, she runs around knocking things over and going crazy. It's a bit frustrating because the reason we got an adult cat was so we wouldn't have to deal with kitten crazies.

Mollipop and Tabby are our frisky kitties. They play-fight and yell so loudly, you'd think they were killing each other. Then one gives up and goes running back the hallway with the other one hot on her tail. Lots of yelling and growling going on with those two. Mollipop, at five years old, still hasn't completely outgrown her must-get-that-tail thing and will circle herself silly on the kitchen floor til she's dizzy. She just did that last night while we were eating dinner. She's so funny when she's in attack-the-tail mode.

Tabby and Muffin also like to play-fight, but they're not as loud or as feisty as when Mollipop is involved.

Years ago, when our RugCats were RugKittens (Whisper had given birth to five kittens and those little ones were very active!), plus we had a very young Banshee; they would all run around the house, lap after lap after lap, one right after the other. It was hilarious to watch them and I think we enjoyed watching those kids grow up more so than anything that was on television at the time. They were all over the place, getting into everything they could possibly get into and getting into all kinds of trouble. We would get down on the floor and play with the cats; I don't know who had more fun....the cats or us!

Robin hides under my hung up coat and attacks with a leap if he's frisky, or hide behind a door, waiting for me to stuff a mousey into the area between the door and frame. He then bats it out. I then stuff it back in, he bats it out--we can spend half an hour doing this. He doesn't play that much anymore; I miss it.

I don't think of frisky and ornery as being the same as a rule. But will do my best

As far as ornery, I think of my older cats that don't particularly like the younger ones. It's like they are saying, "Get off my lawn!" Lucky was like that more when he got sick toward the end. The kittens would accidentally knock into him, or may have even rubbed up against him in affection, and he'd make this "Meh!" sound that totally sounded like "Ol' Man Lucky" lol.

Frisky, I think of when they go into tornado mode and just run through the house chasing each other. Lucky used to just run through the house without any chasing being involved. He'd get to one end, get into what I always called a "racing pose" and then take off for the other side of the house.

Lilith is the smallest of my cats and the most feisty for sure. She is the queen bee and makes sure everyone, including the dog, knows it. She can be a bit of a bully when she wants to be. She used to pick on Sophie more but Sophie started giving it back to her so she  stopped for the most part. Henry doesn't give it back so he gets it the most. Lily often doesn't eat at the same time the others do. She's usually lounging in the big cat tree and goes to eat when she feels like it. When she does decide to eat when I serve breakfast or dinner, she expects first pick of the dishes. She wants to inspect all of them (all are identical), choose the one she likes best and then the other 2 can choose between the other 2 dishes. They are expected to sit back and wait until she's done. Sophie knows this and almost never breaks that rule. Henry knows it too but sometimes, he'll go for a dish before she's done choosing hers. He never gets away with this transgression. He'll get A) hissed at B) Slapped (often multiple times) or C) both (most often).  He always backs down. The dog (40 lb, 13 year old Border Collie) is not exempt from her sass. Lilith saunters through the living room with her tail fluffed up and held high like a peacock. The house is her queendom and all are her subjects. The dog is old, arthritic and very laid back. She's never given any of the cats one second's trouble. One day, Queen Lilith decided to remind the old, arthritic dog who was boss and while she was sauntering through the living room, stopped where the dog was lying on the floor minding her own business and promptly slapped her across the face. Then Lilith went on her way. The dog's reaction was priceless. She sat up, looked around and then looked at me like, "Did that just happen? Did she really just slap me?" Yes, Bailey. Yes, she did.   Lily is a true diva. She's also the one who stuck to me like glue when I had a horrible stomach virus a little over a week ago. I spent a lot of time in bed for quite a few days and often woke up with her snuggled up next to me stroking my arm with her paw. 

Sophie is Lilith's sister and while she's not the diva Lily is, she's the most mischievous of all my cats. She and Lily love to have their night zooms around the house. They usually start in the living room with one chasing the other into my room at top speed. This ends in a quick wrestling match and then the former chaser becomes the chasee and they zoom out of the room the other direction, wrestle again for a minute and then it's over. Henry never joins in, I think that he thinks they are crazy and finds a safe place to hide until they are done. The dog will sometimes follow them to see what they are doing but she can't keep up with them. I often compare it to Grandma's station wagon trying to keep up with 2 drag racing Ferraris.    Sophie likes to stalk Lily and sometimes Henry and tackle them. Henry less often because he'll just run and hide. Lily will happily wrestle with her. Sophie's claim to fame though is not liking things in her way or in her space. She doesn't like it when I put things on the kitchen table. She will scratch at the offending item until I get sick of the sound and move it. If I don't respond fast enough, she pushes it onto the floor. Smaller things get swatted off with her paw and if it's a larger item like my purse, she'll push it off with her tush. This is the maneuver she used to claim the area on the TV stand in the living room behind the big flat screen. I had the Amazon fire TV box back there and a surge protector/battery backup there too. She pushed both of them off onto the floor and that area is now known as her fortress of solitude. She claimed the top of the stereo cabinet in my room by pushing a lamp off of it down onto the TV stand below where it broke. After I heard the crash, I ran in there and she was lounging on the now empty stereo cabinet top looking at me like, "I didn't do anything. It jumped." She's the one who wakes me up every morning for breakfast and is relentless. She's also very soft cuddly and loving. She's my fluffball of love. 

Henry hasn't found his sass yet. He's very laid back and easy going. He takes a lot from the girls, mostly Lily and he's always the patient gentleman with them. He's still a bit skittish at times but he's getting better all the time. His buddy is the dog. She loves him a lot and they often nap together when he's not sprawled out on the twin bed that's in the cat room. He's not into toys like the girls are. He has his little catnip stuffies that he'll carry around or toss around sometimes but he has no interest in wand toys at all or any other interactive toy. He has yet to start an argument or break anything so I guess I'm lucky there. He's definitely the biggest cat in the house - he's easily twice Lily's size so I'm lucky that he doesn't seem to be bothered by her antics because he's much stronger than she is and he could do serious damage if he were to get mad. I think he knows this and I really think she amuses him and he humors her when she gets her sass up. He's such a good, sweet boy and we love him very much.   

Autumn will just jump up from a content position and start running around like a nutcase.  You would think somebody was chasing her and trying to kill her.  I wish I knew what was going on in her mind at that time.  There is also a lot of howling going on at this time.

After tiring herself out, she gets back in the same content position she was in, go figure.

Chula likes to race around the house and jump in and out of boxes. She also likes to suddenly leap in the air with all fours, land and take off like a maniac.

Paul is more sedate. He only really gets going after Da Bird or the laser.

my little snick would get this wild-eyed look, then take off zooming from the kitchen to the living room and excitedly scratch a sisal post on a cat tree, then take off zooming back to the kitchen, and usually do that a second time. my pretty little girl did this up to one week before she crossed the bridge.

our jaspurr will zoom at top speed through the house, both upstairs and downstairs, then back up the stairs...........and use his litter box. his zooming seems always to precede using the litter box (to poop). jaspurr loves his toys, and he'll play with them even during the night sometimes; i'm lucky that he doesn't feel the need to bring them up on the bed to me while i'm sleeping. 

Hekitty will sometimes act like there's a jet engine stuck up her fanny...she takes off running, first up and down the hallway, then around the living room on the backs of the furniture. 

One funny thing she does, if I'm in bed and she wants me to get up, and I have the unmitigated temerity to ignore Her Ladyship, she gets on the pillow, launches off at a dead run, and mulekicks sidewards, landing a solid blow on my fanny.  This generally results in my getting out of bed and attending to her demands.

 These cats are so funny!  I can just picture them!

I forgot one of Noodles' new things to get into when she's being crazy.  The kid's bathroom is on the side of the house; but lights from passing cars will shine on the wall through the shade.  So Noodles gets on the back of the toilet (which wobbles because we have a toddler seat on a hook on it) and attack the lights on the wall.  Such a racket!!   She' even knocked out a candle holder from a wall decoration I have over the toilet.  It's a wrought iron look and holds 10 or so glass cup candle holders.  The first time I blamed my son; but then the next time I found one on the floor he couldn't have done it!  Oops!    My funny crazy cat!