2009-01-20

The Puddle Pen.

For those who haven't been checking in here lately, you need to know a couple of things before reading any further:

1) There's a metric assload of snow here in Boston.

2) Our cat is batshit crazy.

I'm sure everyone thinks that his or her feline companion is more insane than anyone else's. "Oh, my cat is nuts, too," people will offer by way of commiseration. No...Foot Foot is completely fucking insane. Many cats have I known in my 38 years, and many of these have exhibited some bizarre behavioral tics, but Foot Foot is -- make no mistake -- crazier than a rat in a coffee can.

I've told you about her shower fetish, yes? She's big on getting into the shower after one of us has exited. She rolls around on the floor, and hurls herself against the walls, attacking the rivulets of water that are trickling down.

Her fascination with all things H2O has in recent weeks extended to her own water dish. She used to have a small, aluminum bowl, until she decided it was wicked fun to flip it over at 2 in the morning. So she "graduated" to a heavy earthenware bowl that we figured she wouldn't be able to topple, until she toppled it. We put a rubber mat under the earthenware bowl, to no avail. Every morning we would venture into the kitchen to find an overturned bowl, and water, water everywhere.

So we bought one of these "spill-proof" jobs at PetCo or wherever, but she was STILL getting water everywhere. It turns out that Foot Foot fancies herself a "hydro-artiste" of sorts. I sat at the kitchen table one evening and WATCHED her. She sticks a paw in the water, takes it out, studies it, and then flicks the water off her paw and onto the wall. She repeats this as many times as is necessary until there is water coursing down the wall. She watches this, contemplative, and will occasionally make a languid swipe at the wall if the water is not moving in a way that pleases her.

Freak.

Following the advice of our friend Jess, we put the "spill-proof" dish into an empty litter box, the logic being that at least the run-off would wind up in the box and not all over the floor. By and large, this has worked. We call it her "puddle pen." And she enjoys this addition to her daily hydrotherapy greatly. She will sit in the wet box, studying the wet walls, and look very pleased with herself.

So...the snow thing. She's big on snow. When we come in through the mudroom and stamp the snow off our boots, you'd swear we came in with a kilo of nosecandy. She can barely contain herself.

So, in the wake of the storm this past weekend, we figured we'd give her a little present: a SNOWBALL. We plopped it into the puddle pen and waited for her to do something insane.

Unfortunately, I snapped this right after she gave me her best "What the fuck is this shit?" look. But you get the general idea.

So we just let it melt all over the bottom of the puddle pen, and THEN she got excited about it.

Freak.

lisamcc at 9:22 p.m.

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