Looking at life through a funhouse mirror
I think I caught a glimpse of the owl yesterday afternoon, something big and brown flying out of a trio of trees heading towards the middle of the island. The owl is mostly heard not seen. I hear it hooting and hollering at four in the morning, the hour at which the cats insist on …
It really wasn’t my fault. I did not intend to get on the wrong side of the law. But it happened none-the-less. It all started sometime after the pandemic showed up. In addition to a virus gone viral, COVID-19 also brought people to suburbia. In the “before time,” at approximately 7:12 each morning, the suburbanite …
For the most part, I have dutifully restricted my cat ownership to a maximum of two at a time. Except for a time about twenty years ago, when I lived way downtown in Toronto. My house, in a “transitional” neighbourhood that stubbornly resisted transition, had a tiny backyard consisting of a deck surrounded by a …
It was an innocuous day. Bright, a touch chilly for Arizona in December, but I knew it would warm up as the sun rose over the mountains. The dry Sonoran Desert air was still, but not unpleasantly so. I opened the door to the casita where we were staying, startling a bobcat hanging out near …
I have a cat litter box at the cottage. Or actually, it’s worse than that. I have two cat litter boxes. I have two litter boxes because the best practice is one box per cat, presumably so each cat can have their own private commode. Except in my case, they choose to use one as …
A small plastic ball with a bell inside it makes an excellent alarm clock, especially if your alarm has been set for 4:35 in the morning. Kind of like buying a drum kit for a three-year-old, buying toys for cats that make a noise is ill-advised at best and sleep-depriving at worst. I just got …
I don’t know why I obsess so much about putting my cats’ food in a clean bowl. Anyone who has an up close and personal relationship with cats knows they like to put on a show about being clean, but in fact they are slobs. For example, the first thing Henry does when he is …
I am sorry to report that I am harbouring both a serial killer and a zombie. His name is Dennis. I am not trying to blame the victims here, but I do not know how a fifteen pound, eleven-year-old cat can catch so many chipmunks. Clearly either the message about a feline Jack the Ripper …
I have found my new career: reviewing cat toys. I think it is a very underserved market. Surely I am not the only person who has bought perfectly good toys that languish in the toy basket because they have been found wanting. I’m not sure I will be able to discover the reasons behind why …
Not that I’m complaining about moving. No, these are not complaints, but merely observations of annoyances, the type that could crop up at any time, not just when disrupting your life voluntarily. But they are annoyances none the less, and what better thing to do about an annoyance or two than to share them with …