Monday, October 06, 2008

The Good and the Bad

I love my cats. I know it'll be different when Caleb comes, but Bonnie & Clyde are my babies. In lots of ways they act like children: They love keys, they pull hair and jewelry, they barge into the bathroom unwanted, they whine at the door when it's closed, and they make me laugh. They really are the best.

Sometimes I wish I were more like Bonnie. She sleeps all the time. Occasionally, I can't resist the urge to pet her while she sleeps. Which of course wakes her up, but she never seems to mind. Unlike my crabby self when awakened, she just stretches a bit, lets out a little purr, and drifts right back to sleep. Sometimes she wakes up as if reminded of the possibilities, and moves to my lap for better petting. She's never upset, but accepts the unasked-for gesture for what it is: a gesture of love. Sometimes she's fast asleep and Clyde pounces on her. She leaves (understandably), and he steals her spot. What a punk Clyde is. But Bonnie just wanders to another favorite spot and goes right back to sleep. Yep, I should be more like my kitty.
1: Bonnie Girl sleeping

2. The Clydester attacks!

3. Now who's got the nice warm spot?

I really think cats are the greatest. As I've listened to the stories of other cats, or of dogs and puppies, I've been a little smug about the fact that I have cats who are so great and adjust to things so well.

All of that came to a screeching halt Friday morning.

Jon was cleaning out the litter box. He moved it from the storage closet where it resides out into the room for better cleaning. Clyde promptly went back into the storage closet and started peeing where the box should be. Not just a little pee. A LOT of pee. I hear yelling from the back room, and Clyde comes flying out. Jon's asking for the old towels, which we'd conveniently put away in the garage when we were organizing. Convenient only when not needed. (Our garage doesn't have a door connecting from the house, so you have to go outside and go through the large door on the front.) So Jon does his best with paper towels, but eventually we have to go get the towels from the garage. As we are moving back and forth around the house, I notice that Clyde is very busily cleaning himself. Poor guy was probably still peeing when Jon shooed him out, and made a mess all over himself (though I didn't find any in the rest of the house).

As Jon was spending this extra bit of time on the floor of the storage closet, he came across a discovery. We had put an open box full of kitchen towels on the bottom shelf of the closet. I don't go through towels that often; I usually just wash the ones I have out and put them back in rotation. So we hadn't accessed this box since Labor Day. What Jon found was towels soaked in ammonia-heavy pee...with piles of poop scattered on top. PILES of poop.

GROSS!! Nasty!! Disgusting!

The whole box went straight into the trash can outside, and all the rest of the towels (all the normal bath towels are on that same shelf) were given a nice long run through the washer! The litter box was moved out into the living area, and the storage closet door firmly shut forever to the cats.

The only thing I think could have happened is that one of the cats got picky about the state of the litter box one day, and decided to try somewhere else. Since we didn't notice it, the scent remained there, and it became a permanent litter box from that point forward.

Moral of the story: rotate dish towels out more often, clean litter box more often, and don't feel smug about other people's pet woes.

Lesson learned!

Clyde was in the dog house for a couple of days. Bonnie probably should have been, too, but Clyde started the incident with the pee on the floor, so he had to take the brunt of the blame. But then, how can we stay mad at such a handsome kitty??

17 comments:

  1. Haahaaaaa! That's a great story! And I'm glad the smugness has ceased!

    Pride goeth before,during and after the fall...or restroom break in this case!

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  2. lol @Leanna! indeed!

    Sorry you had such a mess to clean up. I hope the smell is out of the closet before you put Caleb's clothes in there!

    Aren't hubbies great to clean up such gross things? :)

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  3. Ha! And, aren't you lucky that you don't have to clean the litter box while you're pregnant!!

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  4. @Tricia: Oh, yes. I took my prego self well away from the crime scene, and praised my hubby for all that he did!

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  5. Oh no!! Bad kitties! But at least they are cute bad kitties....

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  6. I've often said that our cat is lucky he's cute and cuddly, or I'd have strangled him already. He keeps bringing field mice in the house. Live field mice. Live field mice that he hasn't incapacitated, so usually, I run for the BB gun while John corners it before it can get lost in the house. Goofy cat!

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  7. HAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh my. I started this day off kind of down but I must admit Lydia, you sure know how to cheer a person up! I feel so much better knowing I'm not the only one! Hahahahaha.

    Side note: Reg. Vinegar takes the smell away faster (and better) than Apple Cider Vinegar. :)

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  8. I am sorry to hear about your tragedy but it is kind of funny too. Only from one cat lover to another. You can use a blacklight to see if you got up all the pee but then again you might not want to know what is already there. We have a blacklight if you want to borrow it sometimes. Cats are goofy little critters but we love them to death anyways. Good luck. Oh and yes thank God for husbands.

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  9. I agree about the blacklight...you just might be better off not knowing how many other spots they used, or previous owners used! One time, I thought I would be clever and take a blacklight into our bathroom to see how well I had cleaned it, since I live with 3 boys. Some images you just never get out of your head.

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  10. @Super Mom: I've got a blacklight. Turned it on once, and spent the next hour scrubbing the bathroom. That was nasty. But, Nana Beth, that is a good idea...maybe I'll get up the guts to do it!

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  11. yikes. that's so gross...that's even China gross. sorry about that...
    cute pic of your cat though...
    how are you doing? feeling otherwise?

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  12. Sorry about the mess but they are cuties (and I am not really a cat person).

    Try neutralizing the odor with a spray bottle filled with half vinegar and half water. It works with dogs.

    Cats peeing in the laundry room is nothing. I had a son who almost peed in the refrigerator when he was little and sleepwalking during a nap.
    Mary

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  13. @Mary: Hm...and I wonder which son that was??!! Man, that story needs to be told while I'm in labor. That would make me laugh, I know. My brother was a sleepwalker, too, so if Caleb is, too, he'll come by it rightly!

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  14. Dave, can you help me out here? I'm being slandered! Can you tell that story about Lydia and the pipes being fixed in the house in KC?

    PS - Karen Norvell, please get your husband to post!

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  15. Oh no, not THAT story!! Hahaha! Man, was that humiliating....

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  16. So Clyde is your typical kid. Pees where he's not supposed to and bullies around the other siblings. Plus...he sucks his thumb. He's a great way to prepare you for parenthood. And if he's going to pee---of course he should pee like a champ because that's what you've instilled in your kiddos...to do things as well as possible. But as they get older, to help them learn the right ways and the very so wrong wayssss NOT to go.

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  17. Hmm, that blacklight idea is a good one. I don't think I'll try it, though, myself. Our bathroom is carpeted. Whoever decided to put carpet in a bathroom was crazy.

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