Phone Pics

Here are some cute shots of Quincy that I finally pulled off of my phone. Until today, I haven't known how to transfer pictures from my phone to the computer. Turns out, it's fairly simple, but incredibly time consuming as you have to do it 1-by-1 and the phone goes back to the main menu after each item, requiring about 5 different buttons to be pushed, and then every picture in order to be scrolled through. Ridiculous undertaking!

 Dryer Kitty

Here's a new way to get a fluffy kitty!

 Using my food-transporting bag as a resting spot.

Naturally.

 What did I do?

 Rope kitty.

While Kyle was learning all the knots for 

his firefighter class,

Quincy enjoyed playing with it, also known as chewing.

 This is the oldest picture on my phone, so I'm guessing

it's from August. He's so small in this picture!

 Apparently, we're exhausting to be around.

One of my favorites.

He looks so proud and lion-esque. 

He is sitting here, just so you know, 

with his two front arms shoved into 

Kyle's Doc Martens. 

All of his body weight is resting on/in the boot. 

He is a strange being.

The Quest for Sleep, Update

We have clearly figured out that the last method described (2 gates + 1 folded card table on its side) is the very best and most effective at keeping Quincy in his part of the house and letting us sleep peacefully. We have had no other incidents. It's been blissful. I've been sleeping a ton (as in going to bed with Kyle between 9 and 10:30p and waking up at 6:30a), and I'm feeling much better about pretty much everything in life.

We are still insanely busy, just hoping for March to go by quickly while letting us enjoy the few trips back home to see family for birthdays, a Spring Break for me, and hopefully getting together with some friends (maybe...still don't know if that can happen with our weekend schedules).

I have a story I need to recount to you about my day last Thursday, but, in truth, I also have a paper to write by Thursday at 4pm. I think the paper takes precedence, considering the state of mess it's currently in.

Today, Kyle worked 14.5 hours. Yes, he really did. Trying to make up time for his "snow day" last Friday. Bless him. If you think of it, say a prayer for the man. With his 2-nights-per-week class and his 10 hour work days, he's about dead by now. Which is why we want March to pass by quickly. He will be done with the class at the end of March.

Until I can get back to you to regale you with the story of my last Thursday in February, I wish you well and good health.

The Quest for Sleep, parts 5 and 6

Sunday evening, we struck gold.

Kyle realized that almost the only way we could prevent Q. from climbing would be to block off the lower half of the tower o' gates. To do this, we employed the card table. When it is folded up and on its side, it provides an adequate barrier, too high for Quincy to jump above and too smooth for him to climb. We were very much counting on this working.

Monday morning, we awoke to Kyle's 4:45a alarm. I think we both might have smiled sleepily, thanking God and Quincy for an undisturbed night of sleep. I rolled over, attempting a few more hours before I needed to arise.

But, at 6am (a mere 30 minutes prior to my alarm), the scritch-scratching began. Since I'd had an unprecedented night's sleep, I lay awake but still, wondering how long he truly could keep it up. Thirty minutes later, I couldn't stand it anymore, and it was time for me to get ready for the day. During that stint, he paused a few times for a few minutes each, just enough for me to begin to doze, and then he'd start up again, with more vigor. Eventually, it did reach the knocking stage.

When I told Kyle this part, his answer was that he should put the bottom gate up with the card table leaning against it when he leaves in the morning. If that works, we might be able to drop the top, plastic gate altogether.

So, that's what he did this morning, and you know what, Quincy didn't bother me. He was happy to see me from the other side of the gate this morning.

I'm not willing to say we've found a 100% fool-proof way to keep him at bay while we sleep. But I will say that for last night, it worked like a charm. I feel more rested than I could have imagined a few weeks ago. It's awesome.

Evidence

In an effort to demonstrate Quincy's above-average cat-intelligence, I give you the following evidence.

While you will be tempted to think these are set up, I assure you that I have found in the past two months each of these displays. In truth, Quincy has created these on his own and is either leaving them for us to find or is saving these small, perhaps the choicest, pieces for a snack in case we don't feed him.

This is what I found on Thursday after work:

How, exactly, does a cat even do that?

I might suggest that a cat with opposable thumbs

(I've seen 2 of them this winter) could, by who would?

I guess it might be fitting that a cat belonging to Kyle and Myself would have some intensely OCD tendencies. It's apparent Quincy does.

These are ones I have found previously, and are almost as unbelievable as the above, although I really think the 3 in a row on that slim ledge takes the cake. You decide. Is this ridiculous and kind of amazing at the same time?

This one, three in the corner, is the most common one I find.

When he decides to snack on them, he will pull each, individually out with his paw.

I've watched him do that time and again, although I've never seen him arrange them.

Here is a surprising one I found last week. 1 in each corner.

Maybe he's an artist at heart.

The Quest for Sleep, part 3

How is this cat causing so many problems and issues? Look at him? He's beautiful and that face is so sweet. And how peaceful is this picture? He's reclining on my...well, what is that? Oh yes, it's my stretching guide from the physical therapist that he's torn halfway out of the binder. Thanks, Quincy-man.

The saga continues...How Do People Win against the Will of their Pet? (I think I'm very thankful right now that we aren't parents...we would so LOSE if this were a kid who was beating us at the game of life and sleep and will power.)

Night #2 of sleep separation for Quincy began with us, very anxious, but also deliriously tired. Since the stacked gates had worked finally the night before, it seemed only natural to continue that.

Here's what it looks like:

Interestingly enough, Leslie had said something last weekend, as we told the immediate family our intentions of keeping Quincy to himself at night. She thought there would be one way he could get around (or over) this barrier. I scoffed at her. He doesn't have claws...there's no way.

But, in fact, Leslie, you were right.

Saturday morning rolls around and at 8am, I heard a thwumpfff. I was already coming out of sleep (a deep, luxurious, full 8-hour sleep; simply unheard of) when I heard it. I lay still for a moment and whispered to Kyle, he did it again!!

The scratching started shhh....shhh.....shhh....shhhh.

"How did he do it?!" We both, in turn, asked. But we had no answer. Upon our investigation, both gates were securely latched. The only options were that he catapulted himself from the couch over them (which I just cannot imagine--not saying it couldn't happen, I just can't picture it), or, like Leslie foretold, he climbed them.

How did he do this? In my greasy, sleepy state, I was utterly confused.

While this is a very smart cat (more on that later), and a limber cat, he is not small by any stretch of the imagination. He's big-boned, very fluffy, and perhaps getting a bit portly. I don't know how the gates could support all of his weight enough for him to climb up and over. On the other hand, it didn't happen until 8am, so he spent the entire night contemplating how to outsmart the system. You know he did.

It was unbelievable.

So, again, I ask: What are we going to do?!

Here I am, very defeated.

Look at how Proud that Stinkin' Tail is?!

The Quest for Sleep, part 2

We made a decision on how to discipline Quincy, and it was not a light decision. We deliberated for a few days, all the while receiving fewer and fewer hours of sleep because of his...loving nature.

You may mock us (feel free, I do it often) and you may think it's overkill, but when I reveal the outcome, you also may be shocked.

I know a lot of people who think cats are dumb animals, and while they do some stupid things, because of this bundle of furry energy in our midst every day, I now believe cats are quite smart, and cunning when they need to be. Quincy has actually turned out to be a problem solver (more on that later). And he knows things, like the sound of Kyle's car engine as compared to mine or the equally-sporty truck across the street. Whenever he hears Kyle's car, he runs to the door in anticipation of some fun.

Our decision for discipline for him was to purchase a child-proof gate to put up in our hall, so as to afford him some space for nighttime roaming, while keeping him far enough away from us that we wouldn't hear his cries of protest (he hates, like most cats, being confined for any reason). But see, because I know this cat, I know how smart he is, we decided to purchase two gates and to stack them. No matter how tall (even if labeled "TALL" by the manufacturer), Quincy would outsmart the gate. He would use the couch as a springboard and launch himself, however precariously, across the divider.

I bought one "tall" wooden gate and one normal-sized plastic gate. Last night was our first attempt at sound sleep. I was really excited at the prospect because I'm exhausted. I need some respite from the little dude's night roaming and cuddling and playing.

The setup was normal plastic gate on bottom, big wooden gate on top. As we lay in bed, I remember saying to Kyle that I felt as if we'd wake up to the all-too-familiar scratching at the door because I had an inkling Quincy would bust these gates down to get to "his people." We laughed and quickly passed out.

I woke up somewhere around 3:30a (the usual time, these days) and strained my ears for signs of struggle outsider our closed bedroom door. I couldn't make out any distinct sounds (distorted as they were by the fan in our room). All of the sudden I heard a CRASH!!, and my heart pounded ferociously....He didn't. Seconds later, shhh....shhh.....shhh....shhhh. Kyle awakened with a "no he didn't....how did he do that?!"

Investigation revealed that he'd plowed through the lower gate (it's plastic), probably with a running start from the kitchen. Kyle attempted to reset the gates and tossed the cat over them.

It couldn't have been more than an hour and a half when I heard a thump! And the soft scratching followed. We both went out that time, completely incredulous. Kyle had only left the "tall" gate up and Quincy had, indeed, used the couch (which is several feet away) as a launching point for propelling himself clear of the gate and into our sanctuary. Stupid, brilliant cat!

This time we ratcheted up the gates' staying pressure, kept the heftier wooden gate on bottom, and did our best to secure the flimsy plastic gate on top. We went back to bed shaking our heads. Meanwhile, Quincy was furious.

I'm not sure I ever went back to sleep. I could heard muffled cries through the door for a while after the second banishment, and honestly, we both felt badly for doing this. Which is insane. The cat, truly, is ruling the roost here.

Tonight, we will try again. Or, perhaps we will rethink this. Surely, if we locked him in a room, he couldn't open a door, could he?

The Quest for Sleep, part 1

I believe I've alluded to the difficulties our dear little kitty has been giving us with regard to letting us sleep. I can't find a specific blog entry that describes this, but let me just point out that Quincy's most active times seem to be at night. Also, his most loving times are at night, when he simply needs human contact...with your face.

When we first adopted this precious being, we would not allow him in our bedroom in order to prevent it from becoming overrun by errant fur. This cat sheds; he is so fluffy, you know.

That lasted a month or so, until he realized that he could get our attention by scratching his clawless furred paws on the bedroom door.

At first, it starts off slow with one paw, a shhh.......shhh......shh....

If he doesn't receive confirmation that we're wake or if he hears us stir, it becomes more frantic, the pace quickens and both paws get involved: shhh..shhh...shhh...shh..shh.shh.shhshshshshshsh

At which point we groan and either get up to see if he needs food, or simply open the door and fall back into bed.

On nights when it takes a particularly long period of time for us to awake, his furred scratching actually begins to sound like solid knocking. It's absurd, but it is true. Very true. And startling when you wake up to that.

When Quincy enters the bedroom, he bounds with an audible and happy, throaty "prrhhh" onto me. Yes, just me. All of Quincy's affection at night is bestowed on me, not on Kyle. He sits around my face, or inches up, ever so slowly, from my stomach to touch my face with his nose or paw. He drapes himself over parts of my pillow, or pushes me away from the edge of the bed, sleeping sideways in the space that a normal-sized person would.

While these are sweet things, they are not things I ever wanted to incorporate into my nightly routine. I don't like waking up at 3, 4, 5, or 6 am. I don't sleep well to begin with and typically these are my deepest hours of sleeping. More recently, since January maybe, Quincy has started to understand that his bothersome behavior is actually waking me up. And, in turn, he's decided it's play time, or food time, and that he must have these things immediately.

To grab my attention more decisively, he began with loving nips to my brace-covered hands. If I don't respond to that, he proceeds to a full-on grab with his full strength and gnaws very painfully on any part of my hand he can sink his teeth into. After I tossed him off the bed several times for this unacceptable activity, he resorted to talking. Well, you know, in cat words. In the last two weeks he has been meowing loudly and repeatedly next to my ear. If I push him away, his next step is to irritate me. He jumps onto my bedside table, which always has my phone, an open cup of water, and various other things and starts maneuvering his hefty self around. This always gets my attention as I imagine the water spilling on my phone, my head, and any other number of unfortunate places.

When this all began, he was only hungry. I'd fill his food dish with his allotted portion and go back to bed. But he never truly left me alone. He'd come back later to thank me with all sorts of cuddling that I did not want.

Last week, he was not hungry. For three nights in a row, actually, he wanted company and someone to play with at 3:30a, not food. That was the last straw. I believe it came out from Kyle's lips something like this: "The cat isn't hungry. We can't let him control our lives. He's controlling our lives!"

And that's when we began contemplating our next move. What could be done to corral this cat who thinks he owns not only the space of our home, but also the lives of the humans who inhabit it. I'm becoming so sleep deprived that I'm grouchy and stupid pretty much constantly. I need more than 4-hour stints of sleep, and even on my own I can't always get that, let alone when Mr. Furball decides it's play-time.

Unfortunately, no pictures

But I trust you can use your imagination.

Remember the post with pictures of Quincy in hilarious positions, including Burrito Kitty, Video Game Kitty, and Bible-Thumping Kitty?

Well, in the last week he's created two brand new positions that are definitely worth noting.

First is Mailbox Kitty. He sits in a nearly perfect rectangle and his head would act as the mailbox door. No tail visible, as it's tightly wrapped around his elbows (if cats had elbows, but you know what I mean).

Second is Roadkill Kitty, or Shot-on-the-Run Kitty. We walked around the corner of the kitchen yesterday to find him halfway out the computer room door, his head looked like he'd face-planted on the carpet while trying to outrun his friends in a rousing game of Cops & Robbers. His legs were all facing behind him at awkward angles. And he was dead asleep. We laughed for a long time on that one.

We love this animal. Can't believe we haven't been pet owners but for a few months.

Now do you know why we love him?

Look at the Book Thief title behind him.

A perfect explanation for what he is at this very moment.

Usurping my book collection and bookshelves!

But I wouldn't trade him for the world.

Oh, just a few pictures

We think Quincy is great. We really do, and he's lucky he's so precious, too, after this last week of his inadvertent misbehaving (or at least it appears that way to us). I'm sure pet owners deal with these things all the time, but it's just...wow.

We have fun with him, though. He encourages us to do sprints around the house with him during his crazy evening phase, and he will most definitely chase us around, attacking us from behind door jambs, etc. Yesterday, he actually flew at me, from 3 feet in the air, when I walked around the corner. Slammed into my hip, slid down my leg, bit my ankle and ran off. That's how much fun he is. It's awesome.

He got to meet a baby this week. Liz was in town and brought Ada over for a few hours. Quincy wasn't sure about the smells and the noises--boy was she talking up a storm (she's about 5 days older than Jackson, so still very small). She is very precious, though. And, eventually, Quincy got used to her, watching her with a wary eye from across the room.

Just to show you how much personality he has, even when sleeping or relaxing, here are a few of his poses. Soon, I hope to snap a shot of his favorite reclining pose, but every time I see it, I just laugh and forget about photographing it.

He loves to sleep in random spots. A few examples:

Oddly enough, he uses pillows like a person.

Video game kitty.

Look at his bleary eyes from watching too much TV!

(Obviously, I did not train him in this way.)

Burrito kitty. He really is asleep.

Look closely. Yes, that's Quincy holding Kyle's wedding ring,

on a Bible, while sleeping.
Multi-talented kitty.

Very protective of the things that matter.

But you might also call him:

Bible-Thumping Kitty.

Below you can see him using my laptop as an armrest.

He truly does these kind of things on his own.

And this is why we love him.

Currently, his favorite thing in the house is an airplane pillow that I got several years ago. He fights with it -- biting and wrestling it, but also loves sleeping on it, or next to it. It's like a little friend to him, I think.

A true picture of contentment...on his favorite pillow.

Isn't he just beautiful?

Life at Breakneck speed

I had great intentions of posting more pictures of Quincy, since he is the new great diversion in our lives. He has really settled down with us in the last two weeks, and while I was kind of lamenting the fact, early on, that he wasn't a lap cat, he is developing some of those traits.

When I am up reading late at night (more on that later), he will sit on my feet or touching my leg and pass out. He is so very cute when he sleeps. Last night, as Kyle and I huddled around the computer to catch up on Lost, he jumped into my lap and fell asleep in a very strange position, but obviously he felt comfortable enough. He is so very fluffy, and loves to stretch out his arms and legs completely and lay on his back, exposing his very white and fluffy belly. We love having him here and just yesterday I realized that I was over the cat hair on my work clothes. We're still working on Kyle.

Last Tuesday (11th), I began a three-year journey. No, it's not as significant as Leslie's 6 month hike, but this journey is exciting for me nonetheless. Grad school has come upon me once again. And this time, I'm pursuing a degree which brings me great joy, in addition to educating me. I'm hoping to get a Master's in English Literature from the University of Indianapolis in May 2013. That's a long time from now, but I know it will fly past, as I'm still working full-time and taking classes part-time. My first class, of course as I've described it before, is about Jane Austen, and while that puts many people off, I'm loving it. As of today (1 week into this intensive course), I've watched 2 films (1996-Emma, and 2010-BBC, Emma mini-series), read the novel (Emma), and read several chapters in a book about film and literature, as well as several other essays. I've also written two essays. By the end of this week, I will have consumed another film (Clueless--which is an Emma adaptation--I did not know this), written another essay, and digested about four more articles. It's a hairy pace. But I'm coping (barely) and Kyle has been very generous and understanding. I'm looking forward to my summer of no work and only class. That will be fun!

In the midst of my start of classes last week, I also had a couple of vet runs with the cat, an all-day conference at Purdue, an evening out with friends to celebrate an anniversary, and Bible study. Also, we had to give up one car for a few days while it's in the shop, meaning I'm begging rides off of all my obliging friends here in U-town. Rides to work, rides home for lunch, rides back to work, rides to workout and then home from there. It's humbling to have to ask for help, and enlightening to see how quickly and easily people want to help. This week my tune says: I LOVE PEOPLE! Now that's something different, isn't it?

If you don't hear from me much this month, my advance apologies. I'm trying to keep my head above water until the first of June. But, so far, I'm enjoying my new life: one with a cat at home and literature in my everyday diet!

Welcome, Quincy!

Here he is in all his adorable, hairy glory!

Quincy!

Look at that tail!

Our friend, Leslie, said the tail is like Quincy #2--a whole separate being.

We're only now discovering how very true that is.

Naughty or nice? You decide.

Just hanging out.

Irresistably adorable...yet dangerous

All credit goes to Liz

She's the one who showed this to me.

So, when I said nothing exciting was happening...

...I guess it depends on your definition of exciting.

Last week, a neighborhood cat mistook my front door for her own, which is across the street from me. This is how I knew.

Morning #1) pile of cat yak right outside my front door.
Afternoon #1) come home to said cat cleaning up her own vomit.

Morning #2) second pile of cat yak a foot from the one the day before.

Morning #3) once again, a clean front stoop on no account of my own.

Afternoon #4) dead baby bird, half-eaten, in between 2 former piles of vomit.

After catching the cat cleaning up after herself that first afternoon, I tried to befriend her. That way, if she continued with her "presents" outside my front door, I'd also be getting the benefit of a friendship from her. But she was skittish, seemingly terrified of me, and ran back to her home.

I'll give her this: every front stoop in our neighborhood is the same. Maybe she did actually get confused the first time. But after that, after I tried to befriend her, I think it was spite. I haven't seen her around my place since the dead baby bird showed up.

New pics!

Who else would be the focus of the first pictures taken with my digital camera other than the cats and myself? Really, we all know there is no other answer.

Twitch













Midgey (sleeping on my music blanket - aka the cat hair blanket - it's total nast now)














Me













This picture is reminiscent of Emily's animal nose pictures - with the noses all huge and right in the middle or at least the focal point of the picture. Hm...probably not the best one I've ever taken. Oh well. Trying out the camera...it's awesome. I've read 2 1/2 manuals so far on it. Had to take a break from that.