Tag: Midnight (cat)

The Lydster, Part 136: Award-winning photography

Stormy.20150530This spring, the local Hannaford supermarket had a contest to determine the best pet photos in a variety of categories. The Daughter decided to submit a couple of our felines, taken on The Wife’s iPad, then emailed to me so that I could print them out.

Frankly, I have no idea how many other participants, if any, there were, but the Daughter won with the picture of Stormy, shown above. She received various pet treats, food, cat litter and the like.

BTW, Stormy, who just turned two, has become much more affectionate to me, sitting on my lap – only when she wants to, because she IS a cat, after all – and rubbing her head on my feet.

midnight.20150530I’ll admit I prefer this photo, if only because it’s SO goofy, rather like Midnight, who’s about a half a year older than Stormy. He has always been affectionate to me, but, for a time, it got to be too much.

Quite often, at 4 a.m., he’d come into our bedroom and start licking my arms, and chewing on the hair on the top of my head and even on my mustache. I would get up and usually write. Then I had to get him down from the file cabinet next to the office desk, lest he jump down on the laptop and accidentally screw up some settings; he’s done it before.

But then he started his routine at 3 a.m., and I can’t function on that little sleep. So I would get up, put him in the basement and go back to bed. This seems to have (mostly) broken him of this annoying habit.

For a time, we thought Midnight was becoming too aggressive towards some strangers – he utterly freaked out at the vet’s office – and wondered how we could even go on vacation for more than a day or two.

We got a new child watcher (FKA babysitter) named Maxine and he was very affectionate towards her. Now, SHE can come in, feed the cats, change the litter box, and give them some love.

Midnight and Stormy

Midnight is my cat. This is not MY determination; it is his.

Midnight
The Wife has an iPad she got from work. But it is the Daughter who has really taken to it, playing music, making short videos, and taking pictures. All the photos in this post are hers.

Since I have the pics and I haven’t written about the beasts recently, here’s the update.

Midnight is my cat. This is not MY determination; it is his. He sleeps in our bed quite often, on my side. If I’m sitting, reading a book or watching TV, he’ll sit next to me, with one paw on my lap. I wonder if it’s the fact that we’re the two males in the household.

He tolerates the others in the family, and a few others, but he is wary of strangers. They certainly ought not to try to pick him up, as he’s clawed

Midnight.eye.

 a couple of people already.

His chief bad habit, though, is resting in inconvenient places: in doorways, on steps. We make sure the stairs are illuminated, lest we step on him in the middle of the night.

We still play this pas de deux, whereby I get up, take a movement towards the stairs, and he runs down. I then go to the office and turn on the computer. He comes in, glares at me, I pick him up, scratch him under his chin, put him down. He mews, and I go downstairs to feed him breakfast.

Stormy comes running too from wherever she’s sleeping, It’s probably somewhere high: on top of my armoire or on top of the office secretary. She has slept in our bed, but usually when Midnight is not.

Even if I don’t see her, she comes running when she hears the can opening. I feed them about six feet apart, always the exact same thing. He goes to it right away, but she has to be prodded. I want her to eat because Midnight would eat hers too if given the opportunity.
Stormy
She does not like it when I hold her, and becomes like a fussy baby, whereas the human females in the house have more success. Indeed, I make her skittish, and I don’t know why.

Midnight and Stormy get along reasonably well. They mix it up a bit, chase each other the length of the house. Midnight was starting to get too heavy, but since they’ve been together, he’s much fitter, And they are both fast.

When they have to go to the vet. HE needs to be tranquilized – really, he does – but she’s fine.

They both like eating the shades – what IS that? We’ve provided them with scratching posts, but carpeting, furniture, and especially cardboard boxes are much more entertaining to them.
Stormy.below

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