Cats

Hey again! Been a while since I've posted, hasn't it?

Today I'm gonna be posting about my two cats, Pumpkin and Splashes.

Well, okay, I'll actually start by saying - they aren't really my cats. They're my dad's. But I've been taking care of them for a few months now, and I'm going to be basically continuing that for the foreseeable future, so I've started to think of them as mine.

They were first found as kittens by one of my sisters in China (I wasn't there at the time, but I did live in China for a little under two years). They were just abandoned in a box in some locker at the end of the school year (my dad was a teacher, so we were at the school a lot). Anyway, she wanted to take them home, and promised my dad she would be taking care of them.

In the end, she wound up going back to Canada before my dad did, so he kinda became the kitty papa for a good long while. He kept them for a few years, and then when he came back to Canada, they came, too. Anyway, complicated things happened and he went back - but since animals can't really go on planes that much, they wound up staying with us!

... By us, I mean my roommate, sister (not the one who found these boys) and myself. We all share an apartment.

Anyway. Pumpkin is by far the most mischievous. In China, he would always be watching the door for a chance to get out - once, when dad was cooking in the summer, and it was too hot to keep the door closed (our region of China would sometimes reach 40 degrees Celsius, seriously), I played a little game with him. I had recently got some water guns from the store, and so I sat in the doorway, spraying him when he started going for the door. Even his brother, Splashes, started trying to play to get out. Thinking back, it wasn't the best way to make them stop going for the door, but it can't have been too bad, since they've never tried in this apartment.

I think the craziest thing Pumpkin's ever accomplished is with my bedroom door. See, he has this habit - when he wants into a room, he'll jump right up onto the handle, and let his weight hang off it until it opens. Then, he lets himself fall. Sometimes, the door doesn't click back shut right away, and he can let himself into a room. He's very persistent about it.

... So persistent, in fact, that when I had my bedroom door locked in China, he managed to break it. The door didn't actually unlock after that, and I had to take it completely apart (I'm telling you, he's a tiny little goblin wrapped in a bundle of cuteness).

Then there's his brother, Splashes. He's... usually very lazy, and doesn't jump or climb as much (Pumpkin will go onto stools and counters and desks just to swat things off sometimes. We have to be very careful with that one). The only exception for Splashes being lazy is when it comes to food. He's a very frustrating kitty with that.

See, he's kind of a glutton. We used to have problems with him eating Pumpkin's food (which, oddly enough, were resolved on their own), and so we tried to limit the amount of food they would get. I think at first we separated them, but our work schedules didn't always make feeding at the right times possible, so we started to think about some kind of timed feeder.

We actually got our feeder from my second sister (this is the one that did find the cats but is no longer taking care of them), because it wasn't working for her with the dogs. (... can you tell yet that our family likes taking care of pets?) It was pretty fancy, and had this whole conveyor belt thing going on where you could set times for it to feed them, and even feed slower for those kitties who ate too fast (cue a guilty look from Splashes..).

But he found a way to get the food before it was at the end, and so when it would actually try to give them food, we would all be flabbergasted when no food at all came out!

So I watched... and I found... That Splashes was sticking his paw up, onto the conveyor belt! He would nab the food down before it was time to eat it, the little bugger!

But! I had a plan. I got one of those big soup can things, and I taped over any sharp bits, and I made it so that he couldn't reach the belt anymore.

... It worked..? At least, until he started literally headbutting the feeder.

This cat. Was impossible. We couldn't use this feeder anymore. The next thing I tried was just putting some empty toilet paper rolls, cut to various lengths, onto like, a pizza box or whatever. They'd be hot glued to the top, and I would put food inside. The idea is that the cats are actually meant to use their paws to get food, by sticking them in and pulling niblets out.

... But the box started getting kind of gross.

Finally, when I was thrift shopping about two months ago, I found a very simple timer-based feeder. It wasn't fancy. It didn't have a conveyor belt, or a tube, or anything like that. It's just two boxes and timers, and when the time is up, a spring opens the lid.

Believe it or not, it's the best thing that's worked. One time the battery fell out, and I woke up to find Splashes doing his best to paw at the thing - but he couldn't get at it! I fed the poor boy right away, of course. But it worked!

I feel like I got a little carried away about the mischief these boys cause. Really, they're absolute angels... most of the time ;)

Here. I'll put a cute picture of them that'll hopefully show you how cuddle-able they are. I love these guys so much <3