Ramblings from the Marginalized

Pets April 28th, 2009 by HMTKSteve

Today we say goodbye to one of our cats, Byter. She was about 19 and lived a long, full life.

My wife had the Byter before we were married. Originally names Sassafras or Sassy for short she grew into the name Byter by way of her actions. She grew to like that name and responded to it when called.

Byter was quite the cat.

Though she never had any kittens of her own whenever we brought kittens into the house she would cozy up to them and treat them like her own. I have a ton of pictures of the Byter curled up on a bed or chair with a new kitten. I also have some pictures of her fighting with those kittens once they grew into cats. I guess even cats rebel against their parents after a certain age?

Byter was a big eater throughout most of her life. When my wife got her she had to be fed baby food because she was a little on the young side. A few weeks ago my wife had to feed her baby food again due to a sickness she was suffering through.

Even though she was old and walked with a little bit of a limp she seemed to be in good spirits. she had a shelf in the bathroom that she would sleep on and a special tree in the yard where she would laze away the day. It is under that tree where she will rest.

Byter was a good cat, she will be missed.

Pets November 30th, 2007 by HMTKSteve

Catfo Goes lolcat

Some of my long time readers may remember that I launched a site about cats many months ago. The site started well but then it stopped. I was unable to get good content for it so I just sort of let it hang.

A few days ago I decided to go in the lolcat direction and let me tell you right now that people love lolcats! The site is becoming insanely popular and I will be updating it far more often than I have in the past.

Feel free to check it out when you get a chance. Catfo.com.

Pets October 4th, 2007 by HMTKSteve

Super Long Cat?

Super Long Cat?

Originally uploaded by wikked one

Thatâ€™s one super long cat!

My wife took that picture and even though it looks like one real long cat it is two cats in separate windows. If the windows were open at the same exact height the illusion would be more compelling!

You can see more of her photographs on her flickr page.

Pets June 26th, 2007 by HMTKSteve

Kiko and the Fawn

Just the other day I was doing some yard work when I came across a small fawn sleeping at the base of one of my trees.

I get a lot of deer in my backyard as evidenced by their droppings and the crushed vegetation where they bed down for the night. This is the first time I ever found a fawn all by itself. The fawn's mother was no where in sight.

I was curious to see how my Siamese cat Kiko would react to the fawn so I brought him down.

He walked by the fawn several times and did not even look over. This is unusual because my Siamese cats like to investigate every new sight and smell they encounter. Kiko kept walking right by the fawn and never even saw it!

At one point, while he was standing right next to it, he suddenly noticed it. Kiko sprang about three feet in the air and ran off! A little bit later the fawn got up and ran into some denser brush.

We thought that was the end of it but, several hours later two does and a second fawn showed up. Within a few minutes the fawn we saw came back out the dense brush to rejoin the family.

Fawns are cute and all but I also know that they have a bad habit of destroying my wife's garden. They eat all of her favorite flowers and we have not seen a tulip in years.

Internet and Pets June 21st, 2007 by HMTKSteve

My New Pet Project

Hello faithful readers. I am working on a new web project that involves cats.

If you are a (remotely) famous cat owner please send me an email to steve at hmtk dot com and let me know who you are and what kind of cat you have.

I hope to launch in a month or so.

-- HMTKSteve

Movies and Pets March 21st, 2007 by HMTKSteve

Cat Head Theatre

What would Hamlet look like if it were performed by cats?

Pets March 13th, 2007 by HMTKSteve

Kittens grow into cats, part 2: Figaro

Figaro on a chair Figaro was a very interesting kitten. We got him from Animal Welfare but we had to wait a few weeks as his litter had pink eye.

Unlike our little "Kiko Sneak-O", Figaro was never very interested in going outside. He did like to sleep in one particular window but, that was as close to the outdoors as he wanted to go.

He was a very playful kitten and loved to sleep in my daughter's room. for some reason he did not like the Byter (our female calico) one bit and refused to sleep near her. He is probably the only kitten we have had that did not enjoy spending time napping with her.

One day, while I was at work, my daughter came out of her room and asked my wife the strangest question. With a very serious expression she looked at her mom and said,

"Mom, do cat's whiskers grow back?"

My wife was at a bit of a loss over this question but, since my daughter likes to read books about cats she thought nothing of it and told her that they do grow back. A little bit later I got a call at work telling me what had happened.

Seems my daughter decided to take her scissors and cut poor little Fig's whiskers off! He looked so sad without his beutiful white whiskers. He has since decided that my daughter is not worth the trouble and he avoids her at all costs.

Eventually Figaro did decide to go outside. When he goes outside he is very skittish. He darts from one bit of cover to the next and does not spend much time out in the open. He also refuses to go in (or out) of any door except the back door. If he sees anyone in the yard he will run and hide, even if it is me!

When he is in the house he also hides from strangers. Sometimes, when company is over, I have to tell everyone to be quiet while I let Fig in through the back door. Once he gets inside and realizes people are there he bolts for the master bedroom and hides under the bed.

Like all kittens he has since grown into a cat. the one fetish he has carried forward from his kitten days is sleeping in lunchboxes. Even though he no longer fits in these things he still tries to!

Figaro in a lunchbox

Pets February 16th, 2007 by HMTKSteve

Kittens grow into cats, part 1: Koko

Everyone loves kittens. They are soft, cuddly and oh so cute. Some people have the strange idea that they will always be tiny balls of fur. Then one day, you come home and your kitten is gone. You look everywhere but you can't find your cute little kitten. Instead you find a cat.

This is Koko, he was a tiny little kitten. Now he is a cat.

Koko is the most recent of our six cats and he was so small when we got him. In fact he was under weight when we got him and he had to be de-wormed by the vet before he started to gain weight.

He used to eat like crazy as a kitten and never gain any weight. That was our first tip that something was not quite right with Koko. Being good cat servants we had him properly checked out during his first vet visit and took care of the worm problem.

Though he was now worm free he did not slow down his eating.

As soon as food hit the floor he was there to eat it.

Now Koko is one year old and... I call him the chubby cat, a name I have been using for a while that irked my wife when I first started using it.

When I would point at Koko's belly my wife would just points at mine and calls me chubby too!

Koko as a cat Well, here is Koko now, big belly and all. He's laying back in my daughter's Ikea chair and he is quite comfortable.

Sometimes he sleeps in a small cat bed that was originally a cat bed meant for a build-a-bear doll. He hangs out of that cat bed when he sleeps in it. Sometimes he looks like an old man on a recliner watching the Sunday football game.

I expect him to look over and say, "hey, I'm starvin' over here. Someone bring me a snack?"

His older brother Kiko is light and trim. I say older brother as they both came from the same breeder and have the same mother but not the same father.

They get along great with each other and are known for terrorizing the other cats in the house whenever they get the notion.