Sometimes life is ruff

Sorry for the space in between posts. Bandit has been under the weather and it looks like we'll have to take her into the vet because I can't fix it. But she’s still truckin’ she’s fine. In fact, last night I heard Hawk “meep mew” to her and she jumped down from the window and then all I heard was nails catching on the carpet and Hawk FREAK OUT and run down the hall into the laundry room.  So she’s still got her wits about her to know when he asks her to come play it’s going to end in her getting tackled by him unless she acts first. And we all know how Hawk feels about forward women…

We agreed to dog sit the other weekend which was a trip.  I haven’t had a dog around in years and this wasn’t just any dog. This was a tiny creature created the sonic boom.  He puts the Road Runner to shame.  He is as adorable as a baby unicorn and was born from the waste produced when meth and caffeine are made: Butters.

And oh gosh do we love Butters. He’s a great little dog and he listens well and Abraham fell in love with him and his energy. Hawk on the other hand… Hawk probably knew Butters was in the house, but we kept the dog upstairs and let the cats keep downstairs where we sleep.  Butters is not a fan of solo sleeping apparently, so Jer offered to sleep upstairs on the couch to keep Butters from howling all night long. In a horribly timed decision, Hawk’s curiosity beat his fear into submission and he decided that it would be a good night to venture upstairs and  probably saw something along the lines of this:

Jer said he woke up to Butters flipping out, Hawk tearing down the stairs and a little sleepy eyed Abraham standing in the living room wondering what all the commotion was about.

Hawk didn’t go back upstairs after that. BUT BANDIT DID! Substitute Bandit for Hawk and subtract Abraham and add more frenzy to Butters and that’s the story of that encounter:

Other then the trauma of a dog, Hawk’s been busy enjoying the comforts of beds.  Granted we only have two beds in our house, there is a massive amount of Hawk-hair on both at any given moment.  In fact, there’s so much hair that I brush my bed each night before sleeping in it.  I should name the bed Whiskers.  Or maybe I should just try and brush Hawk… no, you’re right that’s a terrible idea. 

In time, Eve, in time. 

Aside from bed surfing he’s taken to napping and not caring who is in the room or speaking to him.  Jer experienced this the other day: sweet little nappy Hawky-boy who slowly peeked his eyes open to realize THERE’S A HUMAN RIGHT THERE!  And then calmly readjusts and goes back to not really caring.

Oh the indifference of cats :)

the adventures of the home life

Our little Shadow Man remains just that, but there have been some highlights in his days of adventure here at his new forever-home. 

I try to refresh the kids water and food daily, especially since Bandit and Hawk have drinking contests every night- they can drink an entire bowl of water in an evening! I was in the laundry room with the laundry tub running to fill their bowl and I felt Bandit brush against my legs.  I turned around to give her pets and there was Hawk in the hallway, out in the open looking into the room like "Hey, I wanna see!". Per the norm, once he saw me, he turned around and went back to his Hawkcave.  I'm always so surprised (and happy!) when he comes out during the day or when people are up and about. It's like he remembers being a "normal" cat- he remembers being able to travel freely and not have inhibitions, but the fear from his past consumes him and forces him back into hiding.  The good thing is that his memory of a better life is coming through stronger then those fears and he's starting to open up. 


I can see this happening when I see him come out at night.  I had gone to sleep and heard him slink out from under the bed. I half sat up in bed (so he wouldn't catch me!) and saw him walk down the hall and sit down in front of the laundry room door- half way between the laundry room and the stairs leading up.  He sat for a few moments just being out in the open and enjoying it, and then he heard Jer laughing from upstairs.  To my surprise he didn't run. Instead he looked towards the stairs and craned his neck around in that precocious kitty way.  Although he never moved his body, his ears and head told a story of wanting to go upstairs and see what was fun and what was happening. He must have sat there for a good 10 to 15 minutes looking and perking his ears- you could tell he was wanting to go up there, but again, his fears were holding him back.


All in all, Hawk has lead a long and very sad and horrible life.  But with that said, he's at least been given the opportunity to get to a place where he can have the ability and the choice to think about an option.  Hawk no longer has to accept the things that are happening to him, he now has the choice to choose what happens to him.  

And that is exactly the gift I wanted to give to him- the gift of choice.  And I believe in my heart of hearts, Hawk will choose to be very active in this new live he's been given. 

The boldness of the Morning

Since we have moved into the new house, Bandit has taken to getting up on the bed and sleeping by our feet. At least, that's what she does when she's not running around and playing with Hawk in the middle of the night.

But this morning, I woke up late (because it's Saturday and I can) and looked up to see what time it was. On the bed, near my feet was not one but two black and white cats. As soon as he saw me, Hawk perked his ears and jumped back down to his Hawk-cave under the bed. I think that he was surprised and didn't realize I was still in bed. But maybe he did know I was there. Maybe he's just following Bandit's lead and is getting comfortable enough to chill out at our feet.

It's exciting to see him out and about, and relaxed. I think he is becoming more and more comfortable with his surrounding and with us, and that's a good thing.

-jer-

Affections Returned and the Watchful Eye of Hawk

Sorry, no photos with this post, I just wanted to share an adorable little exchange that I saw last night between Bandit and Hawk. Bandit has been the one I have seen acting affectionately towards Hawk, but last night Bandit was under the weather. I thought it might have something to do with the fact that we switched brands of food, but the cellophane wrapper on the basement floor and the semi-eaten caramel roll with no caramel topping I found on the counter lead me to think otherwise. Ahh, she lives up to her name almost daily.

Last night she was lying in the middle of the hallway like a slug, possibly sleeping off a caramel roll hangover. I had just crawled into bed when I heard the pit-pat of Hawk coming out from underneath the bed and walk over to Bandit. I sat up to peek and noticed that she didn’t lift her head from the floor, but she did “pur-meow” at him. Hawk sniffed her and then leaned down and licked the top of her head. It seems to me that the affection goes both ways in our house now.

Naturally this moment was ruined when Hawk picked me up on his radar, whirled around and locked eyes on me. No matter how sneaky or quiet I think I’m being, he spots me EVERY TIME! And just like every other time he’s found me out, he runs towards the bed, stops at the half-way-there point and cranes his neck out to see if I’m still watching (which I always am because I’m too paralyzed with the awkwardness of being ‘caught’). Then he runs over to the side of the bed, stops right next to it and does the meerkat thing where he again cranes his neck up so high that his front feet come off the ground and he sits on his haunches.

I swear, he has radar like the Eye of Sauron. He can be in the next room and come running out to catch me trying to peek. How does he do that!? At any rate, his eye may be ever watchful, but his vision seems questionable. He gets pretty close to see what I’m doing.

Okay fine, you can have a picture:

Of course Hawk's tired!

Of course Hawk's tired!, originally uploaded by emu82.

I came home to a sleepy pair of kittens today. It's no wonder since they were up all night!

I have no proof of this other than what I saw with my own eyes and the incredible amount of noise I heard between midnight and 5am. Last night, around 2am I witnessed Bandit and Hawk PLAYING in the hallway. I didn’t think Hawk knew how to play and maybe he didn’t, but our little Bandit cat taught him the awesomeness of a sock without a mate.

Bandit has always lived up to her name as we have multiple socks that are missing mates thanks to her. In fact we current have 4 or 5 in her cat toy cave that she acquired at the last place we lived that were moved with us. Come to think of it, I should give those back to their owners... Anyhow, she drug one of these stolen treasures out last night and I caught her and Hawk batting it around down the hallway- up and down and back and forth. They were jumping around like little kangaroos! Bandit even tricked Hawk into jumping on the bed (TWICE), but both times he realized that was not something he was ready for and promptly jumped down.

I really do need to start keeping my camera next to my bed so I can snap photos (or if I'm lucky, a video) of them in their midnight prowls, but most of the time it’s just black blurs I see zooming down the hallway and up the stairs.

Hawk apparently wasn’t done playing with the sock around the time I got up around 5am because I was in the bathroom putting on my makeup and in the mirror I see this tiny Pink Panther looking head peeking around the door, eying the sock that was laying in the hall. Naturally I was so shocked that he was out and about while I was around that turned around to look at him and that's when we both panicked. Hawk still is not a fan of being spoken directly to- most times we think it's Bandit and say hello only to realize it's Hawk by the astonishing speed in which he can get from the window to the underside of the bed. My brave little Hawk was probably thinking “Oh shoot I didn’t know she was up," and me, in my panic was thinking “WHY DID YOU TURN AROUND!? YOU'RE STANDING IN FRONT OF A MIRROR! LOOK AWAY! LOOK AWAY!!” So, in a more awkward moment, we sat for a good 30 seconds staring at each other until I whispered “Sorry Hawk, but good morning” and he backed out of the doorway and back under the bed.

There are a few times in my life where I wish I could record and play back for people what my mind's eye saw, and this was one of the times. I haven't been that awkward since high school.

I was telling Jer this morning about the rules of the Hawk/Bandit chase-me chase-me game and it appears that forward women frighten and confuse him. Hawk seems to be old fashioned in the idea of courtship and how “the game” should go. He really seems to enjoy chasing Bandit around, but when she turns the tables and goes to chase him he turns tail and hisses and runs back under the bed. Poor Hawk, Bandit is just too progressive for him. So Jer and I figured out that we have a reverse Pepe Le Pew situation in our house: we have a little girl cat who is very smitten with a little boy cat who is seemingly terrified of her. Unfortunately Hawk is going to have to get over it because Bandit doesn’t seem like she is going to learn how to play hard to get.

So even with Bandit’s scary girl tactics, she’s taught little Hawk to play which is pretty amazing to me since there was that one time that Jer rolled a ball at Hawk and you would’ve thought Jer was throwing daggers at him. I guess Bandit has found her niche in teaching Hawk what he should have learned a long time ago. Fingers crossed her crazy doesn’t wear off on him.