and things went downhill from there

Merry has become much more outspoken and clingy now that she is our only cat. Still, she has a markedly different way of communicating than Belladonna did when she was alive. Bella was not shy about making it known when she wanted something. She would loudly announce herself when she entered a room, even if that room was the bedroom and it was three in the morning. She would chirp and meow and make all manner of sounds when she needed to get our attention for something, whether that was because her food dish was empty, or she needed to lead somebody downstairs and show them the unacceptable state of her litter box.

When she needs something, Merry tends to plant herself in one spot and stare at you for as long as it takes to get your attention. This morning she plopped herself in the front hall just outside of the computer room and stared intensely at me for 5-10 minutes. She can sometime sit and zone out for a few minutes at a time because (I assume) she gets somewhere and then forgets why she went there. She seems to spend much of her life in that state.

After about 10 minutes, I figured she was probably trying to get my attention, and a one-way conversation ensued.

Me: Hi Merry. What would you like.

Merry: <staring>

Me: You're allowed to blink, you know.

Merry: <staring>

Me: Am I forgetting something important?

You could almost hear her trying to will me into action.

Merry: <staring> feed the cat
Merry: <staring> feed the cat
Merry: <staring> feed the cat

Me: Is your food dish empty?

Merry: <staring> it is making sounds, but it is making no move to feed me

I fed her when I went out to make my next coffee, but our cat could really learn to be a bit more assertive.

At one time, we used to head out almost every weekend to explore different parts of Manitoba. Initially we would go driving in the Probe, then we would take the Volkswagen after we swapped out the former for the latter.

We had both been lamenting of late how we had fallen out of that habit - our weekends seem to be full of other stuff these days. Since we had no other plans this weekend, we hopped into the car and drove up to the ruins of the Pinawa dam that they retired back in the early 50s. We did not know what to expect, but what we found was pleasant hiking and some surprisingly photogenic scenery.


As I walked past Merry on my way to bed this evening, I had to turn around and come back here to post an entry. She was lying on her back, back legs splayed in all directions in the hopes of procuring some belly rubs. It occurred to me that our fat, lazy, belly-rub loving cat had come a long way from the foster kitten we adopted.


It also occurred to me that if Pippin had survived, we likely would not have adopted this kitten. Part of what drew us to Merry was her tragic back story. She and her brother were orphaned kittens, who the shelter had paired up with a cat who lad lost her own kittens. She took to them right away, and cared for them like they were her own. She was actually a very personable cat, and one of my favourites of the cats we fostered.

When we brought home the fosters, there were two kittens; a larger female one that we named Merry, and her smaller brother who we named Pippin. They were both active and playful when we brought them home, though Pippin had (as atara described it) a poopy butt. That is not entirely unusual in foster cats, as there are often bugs making the rounds at the shelter. Unfortunately it became clear over the next few days that he was not improving, but becoming weak and miserable.

atara took him back to the shelter to see if they could help, but their vet ruled it as "failure to thrive". There was nothing we could have done differently to have changed the outcome. Merry thrived though, and by the time we took her and her adoptive mother back to the shelter, she was a bouncy, healthy kitten.

Two weeks later when nobody had adopted her yet, we went down there and adopted her ourselves. We had promised ourselves that we would not get into the habit of adopting cats that we fostered, but we had grown particularly fond of Merry, and she got along really well with Belladonna while we'd had her. She still does.

And that's how we ended up with this.

Lately there has been a lot of talk about being too sedentary, and how sitting still for too long can lead to everything from obesity to varicose veins, diabetes and cancer. It can also lead people to calling you lazy.

As I have learned, it also attracts cats.

"You may resume petting me now."

One more cat picture because I can.



Merry has built herself a fort, and given the weather we have been experiencing here lately, I don't think anybody out here would blame her. We are rounding out a week of unseasonably cold weather with another fair dump of snow (10cm overnight, with another 5cm expected over the course of the day). Though it started off promising, this has slowly morphed the winter that keeps on giving.

atara managed to find her noise-cancelling headphones while cleaning this weekend, and I made good use of them for the bus ride in. I caught the earlier bus because my usual one was showing as 10-minutes late on the schedule. We were making pretty decent time until a CN train blocked us for fifteen minutes. It was moving forward at a breakneck walking pace. I was half tempted to ask the driver to let me off the bus so that I could walk back, throw the angle cock and pull the pin a few cars back of the crossing. I suppose they would probably have noticed though when their rear end device suddenly stopped talking to them.

These noise-cancelling headphones helped a lot on the bus. While the ambient mechanical noises and conversation do not normally bother me, I was sitting in front of a couple 20-something girls whose idea of conversation was to natter inanely at the same time. Perhaps they have mastered the art of talking and listening at the same time, but it is just as likely that they were not actually talking to each other, and instead had phones pressed to their heads. I did not turn around to check.

The headphones gave me a wonderful sense of isolation, and let me settled down into a Zen-like state where I could stare out the window and watch the antics of the pedestrians. They were picking and slipping their way through the fresh snow, and though I am not a lip-reader, I am sure I saw a few blasphemies uttered. Other than looking cold and uncomfortable, the pedestrians also shared a nigh-universal expression of annoyance. This winter may end any time now, thank you.

Merry loves her blanket.

Yes she does!