Monthly Archive

The Oak Court Cats are not happy these days.  We’re experiencing our regular winter now (lots of cold days and plenty of rain).  This curtails the outside activity somewhat as the cats are not too fond of walking through cold, wet grass.

Normally the Big Guy heads out at 5:30 for an hour.  He patrols the neighborhood, checking to see if anything has changed overnight. Normally the neighborhood is unchanged and he’s back by 6:30. On Tuesday’s, however, he is quite busy examining the trash cans that are out at the curb; he makes it back around 7:30.

The others start to go out around 8:30 and spend the rest of the daylight hours either in the house (sleeping) or out in the yard, patrolling.

With the rain, there are changes. The Big Guy doesn’t head out at 5:30; he sits on the back steps and stares, forlornly, at the back yard.  No reason to go out there as the grass is wet and very cold.  He’ll come back in the house, have a bite to eat and occasionally drift out the back to see if the rain has stopped.

The others go out to the back step and settle down for a while, occasionally taking short walks down the sidewalk and quickly returning when they realize they’re getting wet. They then go in and find a quiet, warm spot, bathe and take a nap.

After a week of this tempers flare and they’ll occasionally swat each other.  The predator will sit on top of a cabinet or dresser and hiss at anyone who comes near.  Missey stalks through the house hissing at everyone else.  The cats, normally used to sleeping through the night are awake at all hours.  They start digging into the flower pots, pushing papers off the desk and, when they’ve run through the list of annoying practices one of them will toss a hairball.

They all slink off into different parts of the house at this point.  I’ll stand there and ask who the guilty party is.  I really think they understand me, or at least understand that after I see the mess they hear the loud voice then they get a dab of the petromalt on their paws. (Petromalt helps them pass the hairball normally). Needless to say they are not fans of the treatment.

Today, however, the Oak Court Cats were happy as we had sunshine.  It was still cold (the high was 56) but they were out in the yard all day.  There were squirrels to chase, bugs to swat at and birds to stalk.  The cats came in for meals then went right back out. They didn’t take time out for naps but were busy all day.

They came in around sunset,  had dinner followed by a good bath.  Right now I hear the Big Guy’s gentle snoring as he sleeps under the desk.  The predator  slipped under the blankets earlier and hasn’t stirred for a few hours.   The others are all sleeping in different places, exhausted by the day’s activities.

Tomorrow’s another day on the court and, hopefully, it will be sunny.  Big Guy will be out at 5:30  and by noon all the cats should be out in the yard sleeping in t he sun.  Hope the weather holds for a few days; nothing worse than depressed cats in the winter time.

Nite.