"Get these mutts away from me!""

[lizblackdog]

Cat polishing: I made Cassie a Catster page.

Opened the bedroom door and the dogs and I trooped in. Spike was tight as a coiled spring, the tips of his ears vibrating with cat-love, and Squish kept wanting to yap in happy excitement, but they lay on the bed with me and behaved. Cassie hissed when we came in the room, and sat on the windowsill making her indescribable growly/grumbly/whiny/complaint noise at the dogs. I've never heard a noise remotely like that come out of any feline. I'll have to get her to do it near the computer for you before she gets too used to the dogs and gives it up.

We lay there for a while, the dogs being good, although Spike's bright-eyed fixed stare never left her, and I talked in random soothing sentences, making a point of using her name, stroked her, stroked the dogs and yawned a lot. Cassiopeia fell silent and I saw her silhouette behind the curtains relax and her ears come forward, though she showed no sign of leaving the windowsill.

Stayed like that for a while and then trooped out with the dogs. Will leave her in peace for the night.

Comments

[ex-ramona222.livejournal.com]

I have had multiple cats all my life, and to this day I never cease to be amazed at some of the vocal inventions that those furry machines come up with!

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

She strikes me as a pretty talky cat so far, although I only have Mum's Maisie to compare with.

This is all very scary and new! I mean, I lived with Maisie for two years but Mum looked after her, all I did was exist in the same house. I keep worrying I'll get something horribly wrong.

[ohdeve.livejournal.com]

Poor kitty. She'll get used to it, eventually. Just as long as everyone knows that she's in charge, things will be just fine.

Very cute cat.

[grimprime.livejournal.com]

indescribable growly/grumbly/whiny/complaint noise

I know that noise well - kind of a not quite a combination of a growl and hiss but defies any other sort of logical description? I hear it every time Lolly's nemesis, the evil fat pigeon, lands in our garden.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

fat pigeons! mum's Maisie growls and gnashes her teeth at them, Spike used to love dashing outside to make them fly and Squish points them!

I'm looking forward to learning all this stuff about Cassie, watching her watch birds and seeing how she reacts to all the other cats we can see from the windows and stuff.

it almost a pity that she's going to stay an indoor-only cat. They do love being outside. But I couldn't cope with having a pet and not knowing where it was at all times, I'd lose my mind - and in any case, we're on the first floor and there's no physical way she could get in and out, so the question's academic.

[grimprime.livejournal.com]

Hehe, Lolly's been after this one fat pigeon for at least a year now, and it manages to get away from her every single time. (Well, I think it's the same pigeon - she certainly seems to, given that it's the only one she'll chase, oddly enough :s)

[mandrakescreams.livejournal.com]

The noise you describe sounds kind of like the one my cat used to make when she was out hunting,although i might have interpreted it wrong! Hope that puss has had a good night and is settling down well:)
x

[jim-gamma.livejournal.com]

Well she certainly appears to be having a calming influence on Squish and Spike. ;)

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

Oh my. I've heard that noise before. Two old cats of mine made it just before they attacked my sisters dog (poor old girl, she wasn't doing anything at all). :)

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

she's been pretty good about not actually attacking them so far. I think she's just making it very very clear she won't take any crap from them.

she did claw me quite a bit when she first saw them, but I can hardly blame her for that. poor darling.

I am wondering what to do next? Should I keep the door shut and take the dogs to visit every few hours or should I just open the door and let them work it out for themselves?

At the moment she seems very disinclined to be anywhere but the bedroom windowsill.

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

I've had good luck with making nighttime kitty time (keeping the door to the bedroom shut so the cat can move around unmolested). Is that an option for you?

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

Oh, shutting yourself and dogs IN? That'd be doable, except I don't generally sleep there. I sleep on my futon in the living room and only use the bedroom for sex... this is because I like to fall asleep listening to audiobooks and the 'puter's the only thing I can play them on.

but I could shut me and dogs in the living room/kitchen and let Cassie mooch round the bedroom/hallway/bathroom/utility room, I guess.

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

Yup. I've been doing that for years now - though it's suspended currently since Alex is here and the dogs wander back and forth between beds.

[kyra-neko-rei.livejournal.com]

Calico once thouroughly trounced the next door neighbors' dog, when they had one. Daisy was a tiny little terrier, about twice Calico's size (Calico was a very small cat), and whenever they were out together Daisy would bark at Calico and chase her up a tree. One day Calico had enough, and jumped down from the tree onto Daisy's back and latched on with all four sets of claws. Daisy went running across our yard and Neighbors' with Calico hanging on, before Calico jumped off. Daisy never bothered her again.

She also once made a noise like a duck quacking, when they were drawing blood at the vet's.

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a cat after my own heart. :) Most dogs are just bluff and bluster anyway - they're good at being loud, though.

[wychwood]

Yay cat! :)

Also, your DVD just arrived, thank you.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

Excellent!

I put quite a lot of very random stuff on it because I didn't actually have a lot of stuff on my hard drive - at the minute it's very full of incomplete files which won't be any use to anyone for another day or so.

so I was just sticking a lot of stuff on there to fill the space. and then I had to cancel half of it because it didn't have Joliet names and Nero didn't like it. i dn't even know what a Joliet name is. *sigh*

[wychwood]

Joliet names

Yes, I was just looking through the stuff! *g* It all looks cool, though I expect it will take me months to get through properly...

[christinuviel.livejournal.com]

*squeeees some more* It's just too cool that you (and Spike and Squish) have a cat now too! ^_^

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

I know!!! *bounce bounce bounce*

make Tonks a Catster page!

[beebarf.livejournal.com]

How's she doing now? I'm sure the hierarchy will soon sort itself out - Cassie will be happy as soon as she realises she's going to be top dog, as it were!

John would love to have a cat, but I'm not of the same mind :o)

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

She still makes a noise whenever she sees a dog, and she hisses if they get too close or make sudden moves. The dogs are ecstatic and fawning. They ask nothing more than to be her lifelong slaves, but she doesn't trust them yet.

Squish keeps singing to her. I just spent half an hour sitting with her in the bedroom, and she and Squish were both keeping up this constant chorus of growly moany whiny noise, it cracked me up!