My little buddy and the plan that backfired(Longish)

Hi folks. After posting this last week concerning my cats problems and
reading your replies, I thought I'd share how this little guy came into our
lives. Not a big deal to anyone else I guess, but thought I'd share it
anyway. First I will say that I have always been a dog person, liked cats,
just never had any real desire to have one.
One cool, drizzly Sunday morning in November about 5 years ago the wife and
I pulled into the driveway, coming home from breakfast. On the drivers side
of the vechicle is the flower bed in front of the mobile home. When I got
out I saw this little ball of fur in the flower bed meowing at me. About 5-6
weeks old at the time. Not really wanting a cat, but hate to see a little
one like this in the cold and damp, a plan started rapidy forming. The wife
hadn't seen or heard it. So I said nothing till we got inside, then
mentioned that I had seen a kitten in the flower bed. Now, the plan was to
let the wife go get it, bring it in, get it warm and fed. This way the cat
would bond with her and pretty much leave me alone, yeh, right. At the time
we had a pretty good sized dog, a sweet dispositioned old dog that wouldn't
hurt anything, so it took a few minutes for the kitty to realize that the
dog meant it no harm. So after having got his belly full and the dog figured
out, it was time for it to turn it's attention to me. I was just sitting at
the computer doing whatever.Now it seems to me that animals, maybe specially
cats, seem to figure out pretty quickly just who it is that has to be won
over before this can become home. I guess I wasn't fighting this as hard as
I thought, cause that cat came over to me and gave it his best shot, and he
won. He has been a PITA ever since. So this is my little buddy that comes
out from under the bed when I come home from work, who comes into the
bathroom and jumps up on the sink while I take a shower and waits for me to
come out of the shower. He has his other little things for the wife so this
didn't end up as one persons cat, he is ours and my little buddy. Thanks for
listening.

--
Paul O.

On Sat, 03 Jul 2004 01:48:35 GMT, "Paul O."
wrote:

Hi folks. After posting this last week concerning my cats problems and
reading your replies, I thought I'd share how this little guy came into our
lives. Not a big deal to anyone else I guess, but thought I'd share it
anyway. First I will say that I have always been a dog person, liked cats,
just never had any real desire to have one.
One cool, drizzly Sunday morning in November about 5 years ago the wife and
I pulled into the driveway, coming home from breakfast. On the drivers side
of the vechicle is the flower bed in front of the mobile home. When I got
out I saw this little ball of fur in the flower bed meowing at me. About 5-6
weeks old at the time. Not really wanting a cat, but hate to see a little
one like this in the cold and damp, a plan started rapidy forming. The wife
hadn't seen or heard it. So I said nothing till we got inside, then
mentioned that I had seen a kitten in the flower bed. Now, the plan was to
let the wife go get it, bring it in, get it warm and fed. This way the cat
would bond with her and pretty much leave me alone, yeh, right. At the time
we had a pretty good sized dog, a sweet dispositioned old dog that wouldn't
hurt anything, so it took a few minutes for the kitty to realize that the
dog meant it no harm. So after having got his belly full and the dog figured
out, it was time for it to turn it's attention to me. I was just sitting at
the computer doing whatever.Now it seems to me that animals, maybe specially
cats, seem to figure out pretty quickly just who it is that has to be won
over before this can become home. I guess I wasn't fighting this as hard as
I thought, cause that cat came over to me and gave it his best shot, and he
won. He has been a PITA ever since. So this is my little buddy that comes
out from under the bed when I come home from work, who comes into the
bathroom and jumps up on the sink while I take a shower and waits for me to
come out of the shower. He has his other little things for the wife so this
didn't end up as one persons cat, he is ours and my little buddy. Thanks for
listening.

On Sat, 03 Jul 2004 01:48:35 GMT, "Paul O."
wrote:

Hi folks. After posting this last week concerning my cats problems and
reading your replies, I thought I'd share how this little guy came into our
lives. Not a big deal to anyone else I guess, but thought I'd share it
anyway. First I will say that I have always been a dog person, liked cats,
just never had any real desire to have one.
One cool, drizzly Sunday morning in November about 5 years ago the wife and
I pulled into the driveway, coming home from breakfast. On the drivers side
of the vechicle is the flower bed in front of the mobile home. When I got
out I saw this little ball of fur in the flower bed meowing at me. About 5-6
weeks old at the time. Not really wanting a cat, but hate to see a little
one like this in the cold and damp, a plan started rapidy forming. The wife
hadn't seen or heard it. So I said nothing till we got inside, then
mentioned that I had seen a kitten in the flower bed. Now, the plan was to
let the wife go get it, bring it in, get it warm and fed. This way the cat
would bond with her and pretty much leave me alone, yeh, right. At the time
we had a pretty good sized dog, a sweet dispositioned old dog that wouldn't
hurt anything, so it took a few minutes for the kitty to realize that the
dog meant it no harm. So after having got his belly full and the dog figured
out, it was time for it to turn it's attention to me. I was just sitting at
the computer doing whatever.Now it seems to me that animals, maybe specially
cats, seem to figure out pretty quickly just who it is that has to be won
over before this can become home. I guess I wasn't fighting this as hard as
I thought, cause that cat came over to me and gave it his best shot, and he
won. He has been a PITA ever since. So this is my little buddy that comes
out from under the bed when I come home from work, who comes into the
bathroom and jumps up on the sink while I take a shower and waits for me to
come out of the shower. He has his other little things for the wife so this
didn't end up as one persons cat, he is ours and my little buddy. Thanks for
listening.

Nice story, Paul! I do love stories with happy endings. :-)

Priscilla

Nice story, Paul! I do love stories with happy endings. :-)

Priscilla

So this is my little buddy that comes
out from under the bed when I come home from work, who comes into the
bathroom and jumps up on the sink while I take a shower and waits for me to
come out of the shower.

Lucky guy...both of you.

Candace
(take the litter out before replying by e-mail)

See my cats:
http://photos.yahoo.com/maccandace

"One does not meet oneself until one catches the reflection from an eye other
than human." (Loren Eisely)

So this is my little buddy that comes
out from under the bed when I come home from work, who comes into the
bathroom and jumps up on the sink while I take a shower and waits for me to
come out of the shower.

Lucky guy...both of you.

Candace
(take the litter out before replying by e-mail)

See my cats:
http://photos.yahoo.com/maccandace

"One does not meet oneself until one catches the reflection from an eye other
than human." (Loren Eisely)

What a nice little story. You know, it reminds me of something I
think otherwise well-meaning "cat people" would do well to consider.

I hated--and I mean HATED--cats until two years ago. I hated that
they made me sneeze (which now to me seems a matter of pheremones that
neutering can eradicate). I hated that they shed fur. I hated that
they jumped up on countertops, tables, etc. I just hated them and any
pet that wasn't avian.

But a great deal of that hatred was *reinforced,* not changed, by
those Yuk-Yuk dog/cat comparisons that pass for jokes and make trinket
and poster manufacturers rich. Yesterday, for example, I saw this on
someone's bumper: "Dogs Come When You Call, Cats Have Answering
Machines." The cheesy effort to give cats an image of being aloof,
stuck-up and basically cold can do a great deal of harm to their
welfare at large; because before I became the owner of my aged former
stray, I relied on that negative PR to reinforce my stereotypes.

I'm so glad you gave your little buddy a chance. How 'bout for a year
everyone names their new kittens Buddy, Rover, King, etc. to show that
cats ARE just as demonstrative, in their special natures, as dogs?

What a nice little story. You know, it reminds me of something I
think otherwise well-meaning "cat people" would do well to consider.

I hated--and I mean HATED--cats until two years ago. I hated that
they made me sneeze (which now to me seems a matter of pheremones that
neutering can eradicate). I hated that they shed fur. I hated that
they jumped up on countertops, tables, etc. I just hated them and any
pet that wasn't avian.

But a great deal of that hatred was *reinforced,* not changed, by
those Yuk-Yuk dog/cat comparisons that pass for jokes and make trinket
and poster manufacturers rich. Yesterday, for example, I saw this on
someone's bumper: "Dogs Come When You Call, Cats Have Answering
Machines." The cheesy effort to give cats an image of being aloof,
stuck-up and basically cold can do a great deal of harm to their
welfare at large; because before I became the owner of my aged former
stray, I relied on that negative PR to reinforce my stereotypes.

I'm so glad you gave your little buddy a chance. How 'bout for a year
everyone names their new kittens Buddy, Rover, King, etc. to show that
cats ARE just as demonstrative, in their special natures, as dogs?

"Cowa Bungie" wrote in message
om...
What a nice little story. You know, it reminds me of something I
think otherwise well-meaning "cat people" would do well to consider.

I hated--and I mean HATED--cats until two years ago. I hated that
they made me sneeze (which now to me seems a matter of pheremones that
neutering can eradicate). I hated that they shed fur. I hated that
they jumped up on countertops, tables, etc. I just hated them and any
pet that wasn't avian.

But a great deal of that hatred was *reinforced,* not changed, by
those Yuk-Yuk dog/cat comparisons that pass for jokes and make trinket
and poster manufacturers rich. Yesterday, for example, I saw this on
someone's bumper: "Dogs Come When You Call, Cats Have Answering
Machines." The cheesy effort to give cats an image of being aloof,
stuck-up and basically cold can do a great deal of harm to their
welfare at large; because before I became the owner of my aged former
stray, I relied on that negative PR to reinforce my stereotypes.

I'm so glad you gave your little buddy a chance. How 'bout for a year
everyone names their new kittens Buddy, Rover, King, etc. to show that
cats ARE just as demonstrative, in their special natures, as dogs?

Our cat is named Dufus because when a kitten he was such a big, well, Dufus.
He is a Maine Coon, male, and I have read that the female of this breed has
most of the dignity and the male is a big goof. Certainly describes our cat.
Cat's have a certain independecy and aloofness that a dog doesn't have and I
think that this is why some people don't like cats. They show their love in
a little different way. As our cat most always comes out from under the bed
when I get home, it's not the tail wagging, jumping around enthusiam that a
dog shows, but kinda sitting in the bedroom doorway, sleepy eyed, and like,
uh, what? Oh you are home look. Then he will start following me around and
if I sit down will beg for attention. I think one reason I never really
wanted a cat is because the ones I have been around are always into stuff,
on counters, tables, whatever. There are very few things in our house the
cat jumps onto, never bothers anything, if it's not his food, he is not
interested. So for various reasons this cat seems very suited to me.You just
have to take a cat on it's terms. These are my opinions and I speak from
very little experience with cats.
--
Paul O.