I wanted to write something about part of our cable television programming but am not sure how to phrase it.
We have what is billed as the Comcast Triple Play. This is Television, Telephone, and high speed Internet. One of the many features of the television service is called On Demand. This has thousands of hours of programming we can watch anytime, with few to no commercial breaks. My confusion is, do I write we were watching something On Demand, or, we were watching something on On Demand? If they billed this as just plain Demand then it may be on Demand. But, it's billed as On Demand. I guess it would be, I was watching something on On Demand.
Now I have completely lost the point of my beginning. Oh, never mind......it's back.
The other day I was watching something on On Demand and saw a promo for a program called "Must Love Cats" on Animal Planet. There are currently two hour long segments, we have watched them both. The host is a fellow who drives around the country interviewing cats and their owners. So far we have seen a number of very, very committed cat lovers and their unusual house mates. Some of the things these cats and their friends do is just amazing. It was nice to see so many other "cat people." If you have a chance, check out "Must love Cats."
Prior to meeting Wanda I think I was a closet cat person. I would have said I did not "Love Cats." In fact, I didn't think I even liked them much. I was a true blue "dog person." Cats were for girls. When I first met Wanda I don't remember her asking me about animals, thank goodness. If she had, we might never have had a second date. She and Jennifer were born cat lovers. They lived with a grey and white fellow with the name, Shorty. He was a very, very friendly kitty that would sidle up to anyone (friend or stranger) at anytime, look them in the eyes and meow, "Hey, you've got two hands, use one and pet me"
Then there was Maynard. This guy was a rather large tabby that lived on Wanda's bed. He would come out of the room to eat, use the cat box, and hiss at whoever happened to be in his path. He lived with the girls (and later, me) for years. I don't think anyone, ever, pet Maynard. If by some chance someone foolishly tried he would look them in the eyes and meow, "Hey, you've got two hands, if you want to keep them injury free, get out of my space, now.
When I was a "dog person" I never had reason to spend any time around cats. I had no idea they had such diverse and distinct personalities. Now, after almost twenty five years of sharing my life with them I have fallen in love with, cats.
My friend Harriet has a guy maned Noodles who steals, drags, and drops clothing of theirs all over the house. When I was staying there last November I had to keep the bedroom door closed just to insure I would have underpants (i love that word) to wear every day. Socks, underpants, sweaters or jeans he wasn't picky.
Yesterday I mentioned Casper, our maybe 16 year old cat. Most cat people agree they (the cats not the people) have different ways of letting us know when something is bothering them. When Casper and her sister, a calico cat named, of course, Callie, came to live with us all of our roommates here at home, we spayed and neutered. The two new girls needed to make a trip to the vets. Callie we were able to take in but not Casper. As soon as she got a whiff, or caught a glimpse of the carrier she would take off. Claws out, hackles up, she would practically hang upside down from the garage rafters. Casper was not a people person.The first seven or eight years here I don't think we touched her, once, and like Maynard, she would let you know not to try.
Twice a year the cat would go into heat and we would look for the ear plugs. She would roam the darkened halls half the night caterwauling, sending out signals to every tom cat in the neighborhood. Stray (and stupid peoples) males from miles away would line up on our side fence wondering if they would get a shot at this little but very noisy cat. Every six months for years we would try to capture the cat, take her in and have her spayed.
I am getting ahead of myself by telling you that we finally did get her to the vets. She fought so hard she lost a couple of teeth. I'm sure the doc would have used a tranquilizer gun if he had one .In the exam room she jumped off the table and half way up the wall. Claws out, we practically had to peel her off. We knew we would not be able to give her any post visit medication. We also knew that would be her first and last trip to the vets.
You can imagine my surprise the evening I saw Casper curled up on the foot of our bed. I think that was the first time she had even been in the room. Over the course of the next week or so she spent more and more time in the bedroom. Finally, I figured after all these years she realized we were not mean, angry, cat ogres. She was in a safe place, we were not going to trap and eat her. That is exactly what I figured, up until she jumped on my chest and peed on me.
This kitty lived in our home for close to eight years and the first physical contact I had with her was getting peed on! Wow, how lucky can a guy get? At least it was a warm greeting but one I would not care to repeat. A couple of days later she started to do it again. Now that she had our attention I started to look for some answers. I don't know if you are aware of this but there are around 275,000 hits if you Google "why did my cat pee on me?" Damn, ain't the Internet great! So, I did some reading, changed a couple of things around the house and more importantly, decided come Hell or High Water, Casper was going to the vets.
This is the part where we peeled her off the wall at the animal hospital. Now that she was spayed, if she continued the "pee on me" stuff, we would put her outside. After all, I can only sleep in rubber pj's so long. I am happy to report after her trip to the vets she not only stopped the peeing thing she also became a happy, loving and affectionate lap cat. Over the past seven or eight years I am rarely sitting down without Casper sleeping on my lap. Often I wish she would find someplace else to roost but it is a lot nicer than getting peed on.
The doc told us her uterus was "twisted" and probably painful when she did the pee thing. To this day I think it was her way of telling us she had a problem. I just wish she had peed on Wanda.
I got a real nice picture of three of the cats together, Jill is missing, hope she doesn't mind. Also, a picture of the speaker stands.
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