If you’re an animal lover, you’ll understand this post. If not, well, I am sorry but this is one I have to tell. I love all animals. Even the ones that scare the crap out of me. I’ve had dogs, cats, fish, rodents, turtles, indoors, outdoors.
As many of you know by now, I’m in a hospice situation with my eldest kitty. It’s only a matter of days. Maybe two weeks at the most. He’s happy. A little irritated with the head collar he has to wear but on the whole, happy. He’s picked out a new happy place in the middle of the floor by my desk. We’ve been doing a whole lot of head scratches.
Right around eleven at night is normally when I give out meds and feed everyone. It used to be 8 p.m. last winter, when I got home from work, but as I’ve changed my sleeping hours, I moved it out to 11 so that I only had to do 2 rounds of the house and not any more than that. I start getting bugged for evening meal around 7:15. Anyone that’s got animals knows what this is like.
I said all that to tell you my story. So you have an idea what a normal evening around here is like.
Someday I will tell the story of how this happened, ’cause it’s actually pretty funny, but for now, I will explain “kitty t.v.”
Most of the windows in my house face another house that sits maybe fifteen feet away. I have only one window that overlooks the backyard that my cats can get to. The other is in the bathroom and there isn’t enough room to put up one of those window seats for them. I know because I tried and let’s just say that getting 22 claws in your bare legs while using the facilities isn’t the best evening a person can have. There are two other windows. One is under the porch roof. One is over.
My cats get bored. Oh, they have plenty of toys on top of me being their favorite plaything and I wouldn’t change that for the world. Right now, though, my hospice kitty gets preference over anything he wants. Like the back window. It isn’t often, so I don’t feel any guilt over kicking another cat out of the way.
I have a fish tank. This is one version of kitty t.v. but they don’t really watch it anymore.
It is the other kitty t.v. The favorite kitty t.v. There are actually three of them. This is the main reason I moved evening chores to 11 p.m. I have mice. How they came to live with me is the story I will tell another time.
Mice are nocturnal. I have no issue with that, since I am normally up all night these days. I have no issue with it for another reason. I can actually get in my bed at night when I want to, now that I have kitty t.v. Any pet owner or caretaker knows the nightly wrestling match that can occur, whether or not pets are allowed on the bed. Mine are.
The mice are now in two wire cages, with exercise wheels that go all night. Fortunately not those squeaky wheels, but a low pitched rumbling. Less noise than an average air conditioner or dryer and I can pretty much just tune it out. Some of the mice, during quarantine, I had been keeping in a huge 55 gallon fish tank. This is kitty t.v. #3. It’s empty now. My cats, however, do not understand this yet, and still watch it for any possible movement.
This cracks me up. Each and every time.
So, it’s 11 p.m. I open a can of cat food for my elderly cats. Scoop litter boxes. Change the water dish. This is received as AWESOME, because it’s well past 7:15 p.m. and apparently I have been completely ignoring their basic needs. I go upstairs, scoop the other litter boxes and check on the mice.
This is a fascinating process for my youngest cat. Because she can’t decide between watching me or watching kitty t.v. #3, which, as I just said, is empty. She knows there’s mice somewhere. She knows that they are making the really fun noises from the shelf she has absolutely no chance of jumping on. Both wire cages are on the same shelf.
Tonight, though, as I went through my water changing and mouse feeding ritual, baby kitty is no where to be seen. All right. Not a problem. She’s probably sacked out on my bed. I’m watching the mice. They still aren’t used to me. This is okay, too. I change their food type every day, so that they get proper nutrition. Some days fruits and veg, some days pellet food. Tonight was chunky peanut butter on banana chips.
Now some people might think this is a lot of effort, work and money to go to for mice. For me, my cats have instant entertainment whenever they want and I no longer have to worry about stampedes going down the stairs. And, as I mentioned, I get my bed at night. Sometimes actually to myself. Kitty t.v. is working!
(The mice are 100% safe, too.)
I’m watching the mice. They are watching me. They know there is peanut butter. One of them actually overcame her rodential paranoia and took at least three bites before taking off down one of the tubes I have attached to the cage. (Part of the other story.) After about five minutes, I decide the mice’ve had enough and I should let them eat. I turned around.
Baby kitty is sitting there. Tall, upright, like a statue. Her ears are laid back. She is squinting at me in that look that all pet parents know. That quiet, hoarsely whispered… “you….”
I couldn’t help it. I burst out laughing. Because she’s jealous that I get to be face to cage with the mice and she has to stay on the floor. “… you….”