Wednesday, June 22, 2005

That dang cat

That's it! Muffer's is grounded! Muffers is one of two house cats residing with us that has recently been given many privileges to explore the world outside of our home to get away from her dull life inside. She hasn't been out since she was a kitten unless it was on a leash or harness with close supervision. Since we've been working on our sprinkler system we have let her out as she enjoys rolling in the dirt and being outside so much. She has always been good to stay in our yard so we have continued to let her out once a day. Recently though, she's started to expect to go out, as if we owe it to her. She runs out at the first chance, well there's going to be some discipline put in place. I can't say as I blame her, but there are reasons she needs to be inside, those she doesn't understand and will never understand.

Last night was a different story, we let her out, but never really made it outside to work on anything and because of that, I think we forgot she was out. Come 10:00 at night we were frantically looking for her. She's been declawed, so we don't want her out where she can't defend herself. There's been times where I've called her not knowing where she was and she always came. Not last night though. Last night she was out painting the town red and either too far away to hear us calling or just ignoring us. So after looking for about 20 minutes, we all went to bed. I told Jacob she'd show up in the morning and wouldn't you know it but come 5:30 this morning she and another cat were outside the back door cat fighting! Maybe that'll teach her.

Let me give you the history of our little kitty, Muffers. Muffers came to us on a warm September evening in Wyoming. It was about a month and a half after Charlie and I had met and was the first trip the boys and I took together to visit him at his apartment. Well we made a whole weekend out of it and decided to make a big family meal that night. We decided to make a real home cooked meal - fried chicken, potatoes & gravy, broccoli...the whole works. Yum. As we were cooking, the kitchen as you know can get quite smokey when frying anything, so we decided to open up the front and back doors to let some cool air in. Next thing I know there is this stupid dog standing in the back doorway. He had this idiotic look on his face, like, "I smell something" After Charlie yelled at him to get outta there, I walked out to the front porch to look at the moon. I found Charlie had followed me to snuggle in the cool summer air and as we were looking up at the sky, low and behold this scraggly black and white kitten came running toward us beaming with affection of meows and leg rubbing.

We thought she was cute of course, and Charlie instantly called her by the name of Muffers because she was such a furry little thing and it's stuck ever since. She circled our legs inviting us us to pet her as if she was starving for attention. She would lay on her back and let us rub her belly covered with long curly fur. We figured she was a stray since she wasn't the cleanest and just a skinny little thing. So we fed her some dinner and scooted her on her way just in case she was someone's pet and also because Charlie wasn't allowed to have pets in the apartment. She didn't act that hungry though, or at least not for fried chicken. Kind of strange I thought for being a stray, but now I know why she wasn't all that interested. Muffers only likes dry cat food. Boring. We have found that out during the last 2 1/2 years we have had her.

After that weekend, Muffers came back and stayed at Charlie's house indefinitely. She didn't want to go anywhere else and was good company to him since we weren't around. So he made her a litter box, bought her some cat food, and gave her a bath. She would sit on his lap while he was at the computer, she would snuggle with him at night, she would wait for him when he got home from work, she would do silly things like burn her whiskers on the burning scented candles to smell them.

It's only obvious to you that she moved down here with him in November and has been with us ever since. When he moved down, she wouldn't associate herself with anything for weeks. She's always been very nervous about new places and so I really thought her being outside she wouldn't go too far but she has become too comfortable and confident in her surroundings I guess. She's always been such a good kitty and last night she gave us such a scare.
On the other hand there is Kittens. Total opposite from Muffers, but that's another story...

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