Five-Alarm Cat Fight

July 20, 2024 | cat9984

Hi Everyone. Snoops here. Mom says I should change the title of this post. It’s actually about five cats trying to share space. There wasn’t really any fight. Just a lot of irritation.n

Sgt Stripes: I agree it’s been rather irritating around here recently.

Snoops: What are you talking about. You’re the source of the problem.

Angel: I agree. Things were running pretty smoothly with you, Onyx, and Gypsy upstairs. While Snoops and I got the first floor.

Sgt Stripes: I beg to differ. You two might have been doing okay. But it was getting kind of crowded upstairs.

Gypsy: What do you mean? I thought it was pretty nice. You and I shared two bedrooms and Gypsy shared with Blondie.

Sgt Stripes: You have a weird definition of sharing. Everyone knows that the male human is mine. We like to spend time doing guy stuff. And you kept going into his room and taking the prime spot on his bed. And you would never leave, even when I asked nicely.

Gypsy: Well, you spent a lot of time with Blondie. You don’t get to have two humans

Snoops: Calm down. I think the real problem was with Blondie. She went out of town for a couple of weeks. That left two humans with two small humans and five cats. There definitely weren’t enough humans to go around.

Gypsy: Don’t forget that the male human went away too. It was only one adult human and the rest of us.

Onyx: That was awful. I was really lonely.

Sgt Stripes: All I know is that Gypsy started hogging my human. I needed to find more space. The one thing the little humans are good for is leaving the door between the upstairs and downstairs open. I decided that I was going to go down every time I had the chance.

Snoops: Yeah. It was pretty annoying. For a while, every time I looked at the stairs, you were there. It was rather unpleasant. I had to wait for someone to take you back upstairs several times each day.

Sgt Stripes: Then it finally happened. Mom was the only adult human home. And the two small humans kept leaving the door open. So she decided that it would be easier to just let us sort it out. It was great.

Snoops: Speak for yourself, Sarge. Angel and I tried to set boundaries. We hissed when you got too close. And with all the space, you still wanted to be with us all the time.

Sgt Stripes: That’s true. You two were not really very friendly. My feelings really got hurt. I just want to be buddies.

Angel: I was just getting used to living with Snoops. Then you came along. And Onyx.

Onyx: I agree with Sgt Stripes. It’s great having all this room. And there are so many places to explore. And I thought I might be in the market for a new human.

Angel: Your human came home. It’s time to go back upstairs.

Onyx: I think I like it better having full run of the house. Besides, Gypsy is still upstairs. She’s kind of grumpy.

Gypsy: I’m not grumpy. Sometimes, I just want to be alone.

Sgt Stripes: You should try coming downstairs. There’s all kinds of stuff to explore.

Gypsy: You just want me to get out of “your” human’s room. I am perfectly happy upstairs by myself.

Sgt Stripes: He is my human and you’re mean to not let me spend time in there anymore.

Gypsy: What are you talking about? Snoops even came into his room.

Snoops: That’s right. There is excellent Cat TV in that room.

Sgt Stripes: Now that all of the humans are back, maybe we can each start getting the attention we deserve.

Snoops: I think it’s going to take some time to get used to you hanging around all the time. I’m spending time on the enclosed porch to get away from you.

Sgt Stripes: Yeah. I’m not allowed out there. Mom says you need “alone” time. I don’t really get it, but she’s pretty definite about it. Hope you get over it soon.

Onyx: You know. If we can all get along, I bet we could get more from the humans.

Sgt Stripes: I like the way you think, Onyx

Snoops and Angel: Peace in Our Time

June 22, 2024 | cat9984

Angel Katt here. I wanted to tell you some very exciting news. Cat and Blondie decided that it was time to let me out of the Sun Room to explore the rest of the first floor. (Actually I can go in the basement too, but it has some kind of leak so no one wants to go down there until that is fixed.) And you know what that means: I’m sharing space with Snoops, head cat around here.

Snoops: Yes, it’s true. I’m sharing the blog with Sgt Stripes, but I’m sharing the first floor with Angel. And I have been very gracious, if I do say so myself.

Angel: I’ve really wanted to get out for a while, but I was a little nervous. Every time Sgt Stripes tries to come downstairs, Snoops hisses at him and chases him away.

Snoops: He made a huge mistake when he first got here. He chased Kommando Kitty and scared her half to death. I had to jump on him to let her escape. I raised Kommando from a tiny kitten. That will not be forgotten.

Angel: They finally let me out two weeks ago. It happened over the weekend. Mom wanted to make sure Snoops wasn’t going to try to eat me or anything.

Snoops: Eat you? You are a LOT bigger than me. They were probably afraid you were going to sit on me. Everyone in the house knows that the reason Gypsy got to stay upstairs was because you were starving her.

Angel: I was not starving her. I can’t help it that I ate faster than her.

Snoops: You ate her food after you finished your own. You were intimidating her so you could eat her food.

Angel: I wasn’t intimidating her. I was just watching her food carefully so it didn’t go to waste. Anyway, that’s beside the point. She’s upstairs and happy. And I’m downstairs and happy.

Snoops: You’ll notice that Mom is making sure you don’t try to steal my food. Not that I couldn’t take care of you myself.

Angel: No one is trying to eat your food. Sometimes, Blondie forgot to feed us. It’s no wonder it turned into cat-eat-cat in the sunroom.

Snoops (appalled): You tried to eat her? That’s horrible!

Angel: It’s just a figure of speech. I wouldn’t have eaten her. She got too bony. And it’s against house rules.

Snoops is not amused.

Snoops: Anyway, once they let her out, I was very gracious to her. I didn’t hiss or growl. At least until she tried to take my favorite sun puddle.

Angel: How was I supposed to know it was taken?

Snoops: I was lying in it!

Angel: Okay. You’re right. But we’re getting along pretty well.

Snoops: Much better than expected. We haven’t fought at all. And we hang out together in the dining room at the same time.

Angel: Yeah. It’s just a matter of time before we start cuddling.

Snoops: Don’t push your luck. I am tolerating you.

Angel: What’s up with that anyway? How come you haven’t been territorial with me?

Snoops: I’m not really sure. I think it has something to do with you crying in the sunroom before they let you out. I kinda felt sorry for you. And when you got out, you pretty much ignored me. I like that in a housemate. I’m still kinda lonely without Kommando.

Angel: You didn’t really take it seriously when I hissed at you a couple of times.

Snoops: I figured you wouldn’t be dumb enough to attack me in front of the humans. I’ve got seniority.

Angel: Yeah. You even ignored me when I batted your tail.

Snoops: I am the empress around here. It works best when I ignore small things.

Angel: But I’m allowed to stay, right?

Snoops: I suppose.

Don’t forget to vote November 7th

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Snoops: Update from the Home Front

June 1, 2024 | cat9984

Greetings fellow felines (and your humans). Snoops here. It’s hard to believe that it’s been over eight months since the intruders arrived. They seem to have made themselves comfortable in my house. My human sister is okay, but those little humans need a volume control. Last night, the littlest one had a bad dream or something. At first he was upstairs, but then he came downstairs with his mom. Totally ruined my sleep.

He can be cute when he tries to feed me. I just wish he understood what cats like to eat. We really don’t like Mandarin oranges or fruit snacks. I think he might be trainable. His brother isn’t as loud, but he doesn’t really share. I think they could use some training to make them really useful.

The original arrangement for us cats was to have two of the visitors in our sun room with me and Kommando getting full run of the first floor. Then they would be gradually introduced to us. Unfortunately, Kommando went over the Rainbow Bridge. Angel and Gypsy were not a good combination in the sun room. As near as we can tell, Angel was eating almost all of the food. Gypsy got really skinny before Mom said she should go upstairs. You’d never know she was so thin to look at her now.

That left me and Angel on the first floor. They decided to wait a little bit for the introductions because I was a little stressed out over Kommando, and the stupid fleas came back. Angel gets to come out once in a while now. I don’t really mind her. She doesn’t try to get in my face or sit with my humans the way some cats do. We pretty much ignore each other. And she is very attached to the littlest human so that’s a bonus.

I wish I could say the same thing about the cats upstairs. Onyx is my human sister’s therapy cat. So she’s been upstairs since the beginning. Of course, Sgt Stripes lives up there. And Gypsy has settled in up there too. No one is eating her food up there, so she’s filled out nicely. (Mom had been afraid that she might not make it because she had lost so much weight. But she looks good – for a dilute calico.)

Here’s the problem. Mom wants to open up the house so that we can go wherever we want. That’s supposed to be the step after Angel and I get used to each other. There are doors at the top of the stairs. They’ve been closed since Sgt Stripes arrived. It was a pretty good arrangement. Except the little humans know how to open the doors. (And apparently have not been taught how to close them.)

Gypsy’s been really good about staying up there. It’s the first time she’s actually had a specific human to care for, and she seems to be happy with the situation. On the other hand, Sgt Stripes and Onyx have been coming down pretty regularly. And they are not good at keeping to themselves. Onyx is the smallest cat on the household, but hisses at all the rest of us cats every time she sees us. It’s rather annoying.

Sgt Stripes is the biggest of all of us. He doesn’t hiss, but he wants to be friends with everyone. He’s always ready for a game of pounce. I do not want to be pounced on. He seems to be a little intimidated by me. I don’t think he has forgotten about how I jumped on him after he first got here. He had gotten loose and ran after Kommando. I had raised her from a kitten and wasn’t about to let him hurt her. He was probably trying to play, but he frightened her. That’s why we were segregated by floor.

I’m over the fleas and have gotten used to the boys. (I even let them pet me if I’m in a good mood.) Mom says all of us cats have to start getting along. I’m fine with that as long as they don’t try to interrupt my cuddle time or eat all my food. Or get in my space. They should probably have their own toys. And their own human. And I get first dibs on the best sun puddles. I’ll keep you posted.