Felix is so Good, He's Getting Hired Out

You all know the stories of Felix earning his keep here with our family. I've talked about them here, and here.

Well, we have a favorite little haunt around the corner from the children's school. It's a very European "corner store" that sells a little bit of everything. Coffee, sodas, snacks, candy, baked goods, produce, boxed food items, beer, wine, milk, etc, etc. They even make the best crepes you have ever had. I had never had a savory crepe before eating theirs, but you can serve me one of theirs with goat cheese, ham, spinach and dill sauce any time. And that's just one of them that I'd take any time. I've slowly eaten my way around their crepe menu and haven't found one that I wouldn't get again.

So anyway, back to Felix. The other day I decided to stop and let the children get an after-school snack since I had some "Uncle Ken Money" (that's what the children are calling the money Mom gave us for Christmas because she said Uncle Ken always used to say you needed "walking around" money), and there was plenty of parking on the street.

Well, with all of the very unusual cold weather we're having, the rats have apparently decided to move in to the little store (very old, historic building with plenty of drafty holes) and Legare and I happened to see one. Well....we made light of seeing this furry creature when we went to the register and they were lamenting the recent "move in" that had taken place and that they needed a cat. Well....

....I shared with them the stories of Felix's prowess and they seriously asked if they could borrow him. So after I dropped Julia off at her play practice last night, Legare and I took Felix to the corner store.

With Litter box, food and a toy in tow. As we got there I took him straight to the back room (the room with the fancy beers and milk coolers). He got a scent and right away went around sniffing out the place. He was doing this all the while letting out the saddest cat cry you ever did hear. I think he thought we were going to leave him and never pick him back up. He finally went under a beer cooler and stayed.

Legare and I said good bye and good night, we left the girl my phone numbers in case she needed us, went on our way. Needless to say I thought about Felix all night. You could also tell that the other cat and the dog were kind of acting odd. We all wondered if we imagined it or if they were wondering where the heck Felix was.

Anyway, I picked him back up this morning after dropping the children off for school. I got there right before the store opened and we saw no signs of a dead rat. We did see signs of two TWIX bars being eaten. I don't know if they were there before or after we left Felix. At any rate, we can see no evidence of Felix being up to his normal stunts.

I offered to let them try it again. I also offered to help them pick out a cat at the Charleston Pet Helpers. We'll see what happens.

Was Mickey Mouse really a Mickey Rat?

Mickey Mouse made everyone love him. He had big, cute ears, big, dark eyes, and a super long tail.

He was a rodent. And his pointy nose and long tail really point to rat-type rodent, wouldn't you say? But we all loved him; because he was so cute!

I don't mind rodents. I've had hamsters and hosted the school Guinea Pig at our house this summer. I even enjoy looking (and occasionally oohing and aahhing) at rodents in pet stores. But I draw the line when they move into my house not in a cage. You know...just move in because they like my digs. I can't, and don't, tolerate it.

You may remember me mentioning some of the times we had run ins with mice when we lived under the red tin roof. These little mice were very cute, but very irritating. Always in the food cabinets. We trapped some, sticky trapped one (never again), and then trapped some more. We even let Felix have a run at getting one out of the cabinet in the kitchen. It took him about 10 seconds. I am not exaggerating. It may not have even taken that long.

So here I am at the new house (not that it's really new anymore since we've been here three years, it's just not the Red Tin Roof) and several weeks ago I walked the family to the car as Bryan took them to school and a motion caught my eye. It was a mouse in the dog's water bucket. So, I took it outside and poured it out. The poor little guy had been treading water for quite some time and just laid their catching his breath (ie: panting hard) when I dumped him out. I then realized that this mouse was pretty big for a cute gray mouse. Then it dawned on me that his nose was a bit pointy and his tail was twice as long as his body. OK...I had a rat. And I had just let him go.

What to do??? Get Felix. So I went and got Felix and introduced him to the still panting and out of breath rat and went back inside. I peered out of the window a few times and could see Felix up to something with the rat. After an inspection later I found no rat, but Felix seemed awfully content.

So a few days later, Bryan and I noticed a rat (or two) scurrying away in the mechanical/furnace room. There are a few places where you can access the bowels of the house if you're the size of a cat, so what did we do? We went and got Felix and put him in the mechanical room.

We then went next door to visit our neighbors and have a cocktail. About 10 minutes later we got a call from Julia that there was a dead rat in the floor of the playroom. NICELY DONE, FELIX!

So for a few days, we just let Felix come and go as he pleased in the furnace room. I thought we were done. I was also wrong.

We then began noticing rats in the garage. Up on the shelf where we store the pool umbrella, on the tool table, running up the vacuum cleaner line, and even simply scaling the drywall at face level scaring poor 11 year old girls.

So...Felix got to stay outside for several nights. But I never saw a dead rat. I also didn't really see them much after several days. Then they were back. I went and bought a BEAR TRAP of a rat trap as well as a conventional snap trap for rats. A few bags of poison were also thrown around some of their favorite haunts (away from my pets). All of this before Thanksgiving, and still no dead rats.

Until yesterday.

Driving in after getting the children from school there was a rat in the process of dying from poison in Bryan's spot in the garage. So he got scooped up and slung into the marsh behind the house. Then, this morning, the bear trap rat trap had done it's job and caught one too. Get that...nothing for weeks and then two in one day.

And let me tell you, even though they are in the bowels of my house and garage (luckily no evidence of them anywhere else), and even though I don't, let me repeat, DON"T want them in my house, I still feel awful when I see them dead or dying. Why...because I love animals. And because they are so danged cute. Seriously...see....

That's One Wrong Step for Annekind

What am I doing, you ask?
Nothing. Everything. Getting back into routine.
School started yesterday and today is the first full day. The children have been very excited and have rushed out of bed each morning (we'll see how long that lasts - it's only day 2).

I am in charge of the school's store. Part of what we do is coordinate the purchase and delivery of school supply kits for the children whose parents have ordered them. Not a hard thing, but the week before last I was at school overseeing their delivery to the school and then I labeled and got them to the classrooms. Lucky for me there are not quite 200 people in the school and not everyone ordered.

After that we went to stay at the renovated Holiday Inn on Folly Beach for two nights. We had a ball! Bryan does some work for them out there and a lot of them knew him. They were always asking if they could get us anything. We felt pretty special. We enjoyed adjoining rooms, great food, good weather, fun and fruity drinks, the pool, the beach, and the kids enjoyed the fitness room and a room service meal while we went downstairs to dinner by ourselves on the second night (the children insisted - it was great). We played cards in the very relaxing lobby area that looks right out onto the beach, and overall enjoyed just sitting still for a while.

This past Sunday we attended the end of the year awards party for the swim team the children were on. Julia was awarded the "Coach's Award" for the female swimmer. And yes, I fought back very proud tears. The things they said about her were very rewarding as a parent.

I have spent the last few days (and will finish out this week) putting the finishing touches on the school store and its volunteer schedule and making sure any glitches with school supplies were ironed out. I also culled out 4 bags of clothes from the children's closets (that didn't fit them anymore) and have already dropped them off at Goodwill.

I've been busy. I'm tired. And I"m also sore. But the "sore" is because I took a good tumble next door on Sunday night. The same next door where the dog pulled me down and forced my hand at buying new jeans last year. This time I was out looking for the cat due to the fact that there was some serious "cat screaming" going on outside. It was about 9:00pm.

As I got outside I realized that it was very dark. The neighbors had all of their lights on so I head up their tall flight of very pretty, brick stairs to ask them if they would mind turning on their back light to see if we could round up Felix (the Trouble cat). We live on a cul-de-sac so their yard is quite a distance from mine and is also where the awful screaming was coming from.

As I near the top of the stairs (did I mention it is REALLY dark?) I could tell that a planter was right in the middle of the last step before you reach the landing. So I adjust my path, move to the right, grab the hand rail and continue to the landing(aka the front porch). As I do this, my left foot steps on something metal that feels like a grate (yes, I was barefooted - it's summertime. I'm in the south. I'm always barefooted. Even when it's not summertime) and I instantly started taking a quick ride sideways and backwards down the stairs, on one foot, while on top of this grate.

As I land (or you could say "as I fall") - it was a full-on splat on the entire left side of my body - I landed partly on the stairs, partly on the porch. My forearms caught my upper body and I found myself wondering what in the world my neighbors were thinking - cleaning their grill grate on the front porch!? My head couldn't get around that they had done this. Their grill is usually on their back deck, but this sure felt like grill grease I spatted in.

I picked myself up, still frightened for my cat, and headed to the door to let them know I was the loud "thump" they had just heard in the night. I was going to explain about the screams and the cat and ask them if they could turn on their back lights so we could see what was tangling with the neighborhood cats. On the way to the door my left and then my right foot did a "squish and slide" as I took my steps. It dawned on me that this "grill grease" I thought I landed in was probably not "grill grease" at all. Instead, I think it's PAINT. And I had just immediately prior to these steps landed fully in it from the hip up. Yay, me!

So I freeze (so as not to get paint on any part of their white and brick house - it's on the market I might add - or any more of me). So there I was frozen in mid stride with the left leg in the air. I stopped. I thought. And then I knocked on the door with the back of my hand.

After they opened and I apologized for it being so late and explained why I was coming over at 9:00 pm, I reminded them that their porch was wet and that I had been successful in splatting myself right in the middle of it. I found out that the paint was in fact stain and sealer, not paint. Yay me, again! This was not as bad as I thought it was. And though I felt like I had done the equivalent of a snow angel in it, it didn't seem to look horrible or be as all over me as I thought initially. (My clothes ended up being fine...I'm still waiting on a return phone call to see what the mess looked like Monday morning.)

Back to the story...we went to the back deck and looked for the cat. Julia then let us know the cat had come home and my neighbor lovingly led me with a flashlight through the dark to home (I'm sure he was hoping I wouldn't fall again). Once inside, I told Bryan what I had done, and as I looked down I realized that I had "knocked the bark" off of my ankle, knee and hip. And the ankle was bleeding a bit. And everything was a bit swollen. And I was feeling it all pretty good at this point. I wiped off and laid down and Bryan brought me some Advil. I awoke Monday morning and didn't hurt as bad as I thought I might and began picking all the flaking skin from each of the areas. (I told you the bark got knocked off...more like scraped up and I chose to pick it to get it to come all the way off).

Today - well, today my ankle still stings a bit and the hip still has an egg sized lump. Not the goose egg that it was, more along the lines of chicken egg today. I can see the beginning of a bruise on my hip, but most of the other swelling in the ankle and all of the swelling in my knee is gone. Bryan and I decided we need to demand some free dental work (or teeth whitening paraphernalia) since this is the second time I have come home with skinned up legs from their house. Did I mention the neighbor is a dentist? But we aren't really the suing kind. And I like these particular neighbors a lot. So instead, we'll just laugh about it.

Seriously though, I did call yesterday to see how badly I messed up the porch and I still have not heard from them yet.

So....in a nutshell, that's what I've been up to lately - what about you?

Fleas

Yep. Fleas. All of my animals have them.
So, I do what any self respecting mother does and hop on PetMeds to order more flea medicine.
I did this Monday or Tuesday....it's already here today - can you believe that!?

I'm so excited. So I dose everyone up with the stuff you squeeze on them and give them each a Capstar. That's the pill that begins killing the live fleas within 20 minutes so that the topical stuff can start working it's 4 week magic more effectively.

I've always kind of felt sorry for, but also giggled a bit, at how funny it is to watch the animals scratch to death while the Capstar works its magic. It's a few minutes of misery until the fleas are all dead. Then - relief.

Except that I'm feeling awful for Felix (aka Trouble Cat). As the fleas began to start dieing this time he began running all over the house trying to find the perfect perch to get away from what ever it was that was making him itch. He was literally going mad. He jumped on the counter and tried to hide, he jumped on me and tried to hide, he RAN as I opened the door to go outside. He went under bushes, around the tree, up and over the fence...just like someone was chasing him. All the while letting out the most mournful cat sound you ever did hear.

He scaled the fence to get away and ended up hiding under the trailer in the driveway next door. Still with this awful moan. And panting. I am not laughing anymore. I am feeling horrible for my cat and hope he can make it through the next few hours of flea death. However, he has white fur and I was seeing a gracious amount of black spots surfacing in his fur, so hopefully it wont' take too long. Poor Guy! And per the Capstar product insert - this whole scenario is something, though rare, that can happen to cats.

And you wonder why we call him "Trouble"? If he's not into it, it follows him around.

Who's Your Alpha Dog?

I really did get a picture posted - hooray for me keeping my promise to you!

I keep writing in my head, trying to come up with a cute and witty way to relay this story, but I'm tired, and have just decided to go for it - leaving cuteness alone.

Everyone knows how much my cat and dog love each other. Felix (the 12 pound cat) and Willis (the 100 pound dog) are often found laying in the floor, licking and nuzzling one another. This always gets a laugh from friends who haven't witnessed this before. And it always makes me smile.

Willis loves the cat. And the cat uses Willis. Oh, I think he likes Willis a lot. I would even say he knows that Willis loves him. And Felix uses Willis' love for grooming and petting wants, and of late, for keeping warm. He (the cat) snuggles against her (the dog) everywhere - the yard, the house, and now - her bed.

Willis doesn't seem to like this so much.

At first I thought it was so cute to see a little cat all curled up and snug in Willis' big 'ol bed. Then, two nights ago, I realized that the dog is no longer getting in her bed for naps or to sleep at night. Even when the cat is not in the bed, Willis will not, and I mean WILL NOT, lay in it. (lie in it? you know what I mean).

I have invited Willis over to it and even kicked the cat out when necessary. And all Willis does is stand on it, sniff around and quickly retreat. She acts like Felix has marked it somehow (Felix is fixed). I've gone so far as to smell it, but the bed just smells like dog to me. I don't know what her nose is picking up on, but Willis will not enter the bed.

Because of this I have begun feeling sorry for the dog. I've always said this cat was Willis' Alpha Dog but this is ridiculous. Last night I decided to cover the bed with an old sheet. Finally, Willis decided to lay down and relax in her bed.

About 2 minutes later she was joined by Felix (a week ago I would have thought this was really cute and sweet). Willis quickly leaned down to nuzzle her cat then she shot a pleading glance at me from across the room. Felix continued snuggling in to Willis and even offered a few scratchy cat licks of appreciation. This was to no no avail, as Willis waited just long enough to be considered polite and then vacated.

Damn cat! I've told you over and over that he was trouble. I think I may get a shoebox or something and move Felix into that...he's shown a great love for boxes in the past.

If this doesn't work, do you have any suggestions?

25 Rubber Bands Today

That's right = 25!
He decided to forgo the individual bands and picked out her whole "spring ring" that's full of them.
All his favorite colors - including the yellow and black ones.

Crazy cat!

Trouble Cat's Getting Kids in Trouble

My cat, Felix, is a true original.
I call him Trouble Cat. And sometimes he is - for instance he has gotten my sweet daughter in trouble.

Some time ago I was finding rubber hair bands ALL OVER the house. I kept thinking Julia and her friends had been doing American Girl hair and were leaving them everywhere. I then thought that I was finding them in the pantry and closets because the cats were finding these left behind hairbands and turning them into their toys.

One day - downstairs in the playroom - I think I found 7 or more. And I blew it. When Julia got home I crawled her about how tired I was at finding and picking up these hairbands and I made her pick them up right then and there. She swore she didn't do it. To which I think I answered that I didn't think it was her brother and his friends.

Then one day, when I was tidying her room, Trouble Cat was sitting on her table watching me. I then saw him stand up and gaze into her little "hair basket" that was on her desk. He took his paws, shuffled them around until he found the one he wanted (yellow) and sauntered away with it to go play. I shared this with Julia and we had a good laugh.

Since then we have caught him opening the drawer in the bathroom where they are now kept (it's down low near the floor). But before we actually saw him do this we kept finding piles in the bathroom floor. Seriously usually 5 or more. Some plain bands and some with ribbons. We just thought he was finding them in forgotten places.

Then we saw him actually choosing his poison.
And he'll do it on demand. If you're around in the bathroom, he'll come check you out to see if you are going to create easy access. If not, he politely uses his paw to open the drawer and help himself. It's almost on demand.

I told you he was Trouble.

Not my Trouble Cat!

Cute picture.

And I promise it's not Felix... even though I'm sure my "Mr. Trouble" could find a "warming bidet" somewhere. This and other funny cat pictures can be found at www.icanhascheezburger.com

Enjoy!

Standard Operating Procedure

Anytime I'm on the laptop, so is Felix. Here's a picture from back in the summer showing what his standard operating mode is when anyone is on the laptop. He saves this behavior for me and the kids. Bryan wouldn't be so accommodating. As I'm typing currently, I'm slightly contorted to the right to give him room. I did manage to get him onto my thigh this morning instead of the keyboard.

I always try to claim my space, but he never seems to care. He just readjusts. The only thing that would persuade him to leave would be to physically remove him. But he's too warm and purr-y to do that. What you call the true Warm Fuzzy. Deep down I really don't mind. And the kids don't either.

Oh, the Places We Nap

Felix: the children's dirty, dark clothes hamper that's left in the hall on laundry day
Oscar: making a nest on the fabric that may be eventually be hung in the master bath

Felix: catching some z's in the master closet under and on top of Bryan's clothes

Oscar: under the warmth of the vanity lights

Oscar: cuddled up on the pillows on my bed. He does this frequently on Julia's as well

Musings from the Cat

"b b bnnb..;;.;m, k bnjjnccd

de4ededxchvhy v huu yvuvuvu7v7y7y7vbv vbb n88u8uoi989"

Things the cat could write if he thought to push down where his paws were resting. Instead, I pushed them down for him.

He will lots of times stretch out under and across me while I'm on the computer. But tonight I thought it quite appropriate that he stretched out his front legs when I had the picture of Farm Girl's cute, newly hatched chicks on screen. So I thought I would come back here to let him type out a message.

I think translated, his note must say something about wanting chicken for dinner.

My short bout of typing here has aggravated him enough that he decided to leave.

Tree Trouble

What a pretty tree.
Wait...what is it that I see?
No, it couldn't be...

I'm not talking about Legare -
It's the little cat - that I see.I know you are all thinking to yourselves, "Now, Anne...cats don't get stuck in trees. Surely you're not going to say you were afraid Felix was stuck."

Well, sure I am. Seriously...you all saw the cat (from Charleston) recently on the national news that was stuck in a tree for about 6 days because she got so high that there were no branches below her to use to help her get out. Well, I was a bit worried for "Trouble" here for the same reason.

It actually didn't take too long for us to coax him out by standing and calling for him from the directions we wanted him to travel. He was very leery, but he likes attention so much that he couldn't resist us calling him.

Meowing all the way, once he got to the lowest fork, he had to kind of cross his fingers, hold on tight to his 9 lives and hope for the best.

(here he's at the fork, having just made it down from the big trunk that you see behind him to the right)

He managed to cling to the trunk, coming down backwards, for about 1/3 of the way down. He kind of jumped/fell the rest of the way. He landed on his feet, but ripped one of his back claws in the process of grabbing hold of the tree so hard.

This is not the first time we have had to help him get out of a tree. This one was a bit harder than the first.

I tell you, he's "Trouble".

Felix - Just Pondering the Morning

Felix really enjoys looking out of the windows. He also enjoys venturing outside.

You can tell he was used to life on the street because he does things like:
-pull trash out of the can
-drag trash bags across the floor
-nibble holes in the bottoms of trash bags not yet removed from the house
-and steal things off of plates when you're not looking (like whole pieces of pizza, waffles, chicken bones - just to name a few).

I call him "Trouble" more than I call him Felix.

He is very sweet though - loves to snuggle, sit in your lap, get licked by Willis (when she's not so hyper), and loves to play with all the cat toys we've purchased. This is an activity he enjoys even in the middle of the night.

This morning in an effort to see out of the window - purched on top of the head board - not leaning on it as above, he was "clumsy cat" and fell. He landed on my face scratching my nose... making it bleed. Yes - I popped him for that one!

He is currently nestled under my left arm, between it and my body as I sit here typing (in bed on the laptop) with paws stretched out resting on my thumb, and head resting on my hand. This makes it a bit difficult to type, but I don't mind.

Just when you think he's been more "Trouble" than you can bear, he totally turns on the charm.

Felix's New Friends

Felix Makes Some Unlikely Friends

Felix has been busy charming everyone around here. Of course he started out having won me and the kids over. But take a look at some of his other friends.

Felix's new friend Willis
(only unlikely because Felix doesn't mind her - Willis loves cats.
Seems Felix may love dogs.)

Felix's New Friend Bryan
(if you know Bryan - you know this is very unlikely)

Felix's new friends Cosmo and Mehlman
(the terrified fish in the background - need I say more?
I think Felix dipped his paws in a time or two before he decided to grab a few winks)

A Cute Pic of Felix

Can You Find the
"Hidden Mickey" ?

New Member of our Family

Meet Felix!

I happened upon Felix when I was being the dutiful mother of Ella. You know, going to the
SPCA to fill out a missing dog report and to see if she was there. Of course I had to stop and visit the cat room while I was there. Very cute cats. But this one caught my eye because of the breed resemblence to Cahli. She was one of those rare cats that wants to be touched or patted all of the time - not just when she decided, but when you decided too. We used to call her a "slut for the rub" because she would literally do whatever it took for you to pet her. Including putting herself in the way of children; because, hey, children and babies will pay attention to you too.

And since I really wanted another cat with an attitude like that, this guy really caught my eye.


(this is the only picture I could find of Cahli at this point. This was taken after she spent some time stuck in the pluff mud. But I think you can get the feeling for the resemblance.)

So, seeing this "breed" again, I stopped to pet "Martin" (that was the name the pound gave him upon arrival). He instantly insisted I continue petting him. I was hooked. But I left anyway.

So on the way home I called Bryan and jokingly told him that I had adopted a new cat. I couldn't wait to hear the level of frustration in his voice and then get the fun of convincing him that I really hadn't.

To my surprise, there was no frustration. He even said to me, "woman, if you want to get the cat, get it.".

Well that was all I needed to hear!

Only thing was - this was Thursday, I wouldn't be able to get back until Saturday - after Legare's soccer game. There would be no way he would still be there. I told myself that if he wasn't there I was NOT to look at any others for consideration - this would just be my sign that I was not supposed to have a kitten.

But I really wanted the kids to have fun having a baby animal around the house - even though I knew he would really secretly be mine, not theirs (but we'll have to wait and see what Felix has to say about that. So far, so good for me).

So - Monday, I took the children and we went and picked up Felix. Note how he looks like a cow. I kept trying to come up with a name like Holstein, Bo (short for Bovine), or Angus. None of those seemed to work. I even thought it would be funny to dub him Meyer (you know - we already had Oscar here - Meyer would complete the duo). But I didn't really like Meyer for a name.

After talking to Mom, she suggested Felix. Completing the Felix Unger and Oscar Madison pair from the TV show, "The Odd Couple" (Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau). I even remember seeing some of these shows as a child. Felix was perfect.

And Felix is living up to the "breed standard" set by Cahli - lots of loving, all the time. Oscar was only upset for about 24 hours. Though I wouldn't call them friends quite yet, Oscar has stopped hissing, even at me, and has gone back to allowing me to pet his tummy. He and Felix are currently even in the same room together.