The last month and a half have been crazy busy for me at work and as a result I’ve had little to no time or energy to blog.  In all honesty my typical weekday routine of the last six weeks has been commute home, change into jeans, make dinner, read a bit/crochet, and go to bed.  Exciting stuff, huh?  Well, now I feel as though a weight has been lifted and so I have returned!  I thought I’d start by sharing our recent misadventures with our cat, Pinky.

Three weeks ago I planted seeds for cat grass, herbs, and tomatoes.  The herbs and tomatoes were for me and the cat grass was meant for Pinky.  The cat grass was a desperate attempt to drive Pinky’s attention away from the herbs and tomatoes so they could be given a fighting chance at survival–it’s not going well.  During the past three weeks the cat has all but killed half of my seedlings.  When a sprout emerges she chomps it within a day.  Though she was once conniving and did all this behind my back she now prefers to jump up after I’ve watered the plants and eat them in all their wet glory.  And after she’s done with the plants she’ll drink the water left on the table.  That’s what happened today at least.

I’ve come to the conclusion that indoor planting and cats don’t mix.  James suggested I section off the plants somehow so she can’t get at them–similar I suppose to the way people with outdoor gardens try to keep rabbits and raccoons away from their plants.  Short of setting up an electric grid system like the one in Jurassic Park I’m pretty sure nothing will keep her away from my herbs.  So, I have decided to carry on in the hopes that I can at least snag a few sprigs of basil and rosemary by the end of all this, though I don’t have high hopes.

Do your pets have the same fondness for herbs?  If you have magical powers and are able to keep them at bay while the herbs and veggies take on life, please send your magical vibes my way.

Pinky & the Brain–what a great cartoon.  Pinky the cat is another story.  See this? This is my cat Pinky.  Though she may not be as crazy as the animated mouse Pinky, she does do things like this (–>) on a regular basis.  I know what you’re thinking…I just took this photo and captured her mid-crawl…well you’re wrong because this is how she decides to sit sometimes.  I’ve made reference to my cat enough times in previous posts that I felt I had to dedicate one to her so you could have a true perspective of her personality and allow you the opportunity to see what I deal with everyday.  Away we go!

1. When I first got my cat I decided it would be a good idea to try and “train” her.  I know it’s a feat for most people to train a cat but here’s the thing…I did train her, except now she’s so smart she’ll ignore me when she wants to.  I trained her to come when I whistle…though that behavior is only instilled because I give her a treat afterward.  In true diva fashion she has exceptions to this rule-anytime she feels we might be moving, within 2 hours of feeding, and largely anytime she’s in the way and she knows it.     

2. She’s a repeat offender of lamp murder.  In case you didn’t read my description of lamp murder in a previous blog post I’ll give you the cliff’s notes version of it.  Lamp murder is when an animal (or a person) tries to knock over the bedside lamp each morning in order to get themselves or a third party up and at ‘em. She has successfully murdered my bedside table lamp–so much so that I had to get a new one because it was a little dinged from her knocking it on the floor so many times.

3.  She loves to lick plastic and sit in it.  This is a picture of her sitting in one of my tupperware containers in the kitchen.  It took her approximately 5 seconds from the time I opened the cupboard to when I turned around and found her in there, I swear.  After James moved in we had a number of plastic tubs of his stuff piled up in my bedroom.  On more than one occasion we awoke to Pinky licking the plastic–that’s how loud she was.  Her licking fetish is just plain weird.

4.  She loves kitty toothpaste as much as treats.I believe this quirk started as advice from my vet.  He suggested I use kitty toothpaste and brush her teeth to make sure they stay clean.  As far as brushing goes, she hates it.  Her main perogative is to just lick it out of the tube.  Funny enough she even has a preference in flavor: malt. 

5. She jumps into open cupboards on a routine basis.  See here?  One of them is a kitchen cabinet while the other is a shelf in the closet.  Both times it was a matter of me turning my back for a second only to hear things falling behind me.  Of course when I turn around I see the Pinky sitting there…as if she’s done nothing wrong.

6. She sings.  Correction…she sings at 5:30am every morning.  Her routine is to sing, get fed, eat, go to sleep.  And under no circumstance are we to disturb her when she sleeps–coincidentally during the time we have to be up and at ‘em to get ready for work.  I tell ya, this cat…

7. And lastly (yes I know this isn’t a full top 10 list) no matter how full my linen shelf is, Pinky will find a way to get on it and subsequently push things off.  On average, I can expect to come home 2 times a week and see towels askew on the floor from her kneading them off.  Doesn’t matter if its summer, fall, or winter… if there are towels and blankets to get white fur all over, she’ll be there.

For all her quirks I still love my cat; she’s funny and has a lot of character.  Though I’m not a crazy cat person who has to tell everyone about my animal, I just like to share stories about Pinky because at times it’s as if she’s the most intelligent and manipulative animal you could imagine–and about 83% of the time I find it thoroughly entertaining.  Where’s a cat whisperer when you need one…