Bustopher had a rough week- he went in for a teeth cleaning and the v-e-t had to pull out two of his canines as they were both nearly dead.

The top left canine has been broken since I got him in 2001- somewhere in his sorrowful past he had the trauma of breaking a tooth, and apparently that trauma damaged the lower on the same side as they both were so bad that the v-e-t said she was surprised that they hadn’t started to fall out. There was little or no root on either one, and pockets of infection in both. The poor guy had been living with the pain for who knows how long.

The good thing is that once the infection heals with antibiotics, he should be in terrific shape, no pain and no issues with eating. We thought he had some odd eating habits, but it never occurred to us that it was due to such a big problem. I had put off having him undergo a dental exam for quite some time due to the expense and now I hope that everyone with a beloved feline will have some inkling to get a good cleaning done and hope that no other kitty has issues like this.

Already, after just a few days, he seems in much better spirits. He does have pain medication and I give him a dose right in his cheek each morning, but he doesn’t really seem to be in a lot of pain, although this has greatly decreased his ‘bitey-ness’ for obvious reasons. Whether that changes permanently remains to be seen. He looks kinda goofy without any canines on one side, but for the end result, I can live with him having a lopsided look.

Weekend Cat Blogging is once again going Down Under to the beee-yoo-ti-ful Puddy and Kate’s place, A Byootaful Life. Stop on by to see the round-up, and look for Kate’s post on whether or not you’re in the Special 40%.

Transformations all around this past week: Spring finally gave way to Summer, and just in time Harmon went in and had his annual shave. The poor guy had looked so miserable that first day the temperature soared to near 90F, and his glee could not be contained two days later when he came home with his new look. He rubbed up against every surface in the house and begged us endlessly for petting. Every year I think he just adores the feel of his bare skin, and we love petting him when he feels as soft as fine suede. He does look a bit funny in this state, as his bare skin reveals his big tummy much better, but it’s just one of his many endearing qualities; He’s chubby. Really chubby.

The funny thing is that he gets quite bashful at first about his new look and doesn’t want to go outside for a few days. When he does, he pokes his head out the door and looks around the yard as if he is determining whether or not anyone will see him. Yesterday he finally got out and the first thing he did was roll around on the patio on his back, waving his big feet in the air. I imagine the surface felt so great on his skin.

Weekend Cat Blogging is being hosted by Stella, Sprinkles and Stifler over at Stellaluna’s Diary. There appears to be some interesting activity involving what appears to be a reluctant hamster and a bored looking cat so head over there and see what’s going on.

Nothing too exciting has been going on with the cats these days, unless you count Bustopher’s ‘Night of Terror’ earlier this week. Since we don’t know what happened to him outside prior to his racing into the house all puffed up, terrified and soaking wet, and because, as his nature he doesn’t like to talk about the bad things that happen to him, we just won’t speculate. Suffice to say, it was a tough one but he seems to have recovered well.

The cats take any opportunity they can these days to enjoy the sunshine as our spring continues to be a cold, wet and often cloudy one. Here, Harmon recharges his solar engine splayed happily on a wide variety of catnip toys, including the poor mousie being rather smushed under Harmon’s expansive belly. Normally by this time of year Harmon has been to the groomers for his annual shave, but I am not willing to bare him to the elements when the temps refuse to reach normal digits and he still favors a cozy blanket for a sleeping spot, so we wait, with fingers crossed. It just can’t stay this cool for long!!!

Can it??

Weekend Cat Blogging is being hosted by mischievous Laura the Catnip Queen at What Did You Eat? Go and see her rather unorthodox way of enjoying the humble weed.

This cat lives for the moment each day when he hears the snap of the peanut butter lid. Now if only we opened that jar just once each day it would be a lot easier to deal with him!

Weekend Cat Blogging is being held over at Chey’s Place. It’s Springtime! What is your feline up to???

And of course, let’s not rule out the fun of the occasional early morning adventure of ‘Bird Chasing’ in the house. I swear I often rue the day Mike made that cat door……

simply because we never anticipated the fact that once Bustopher captured some poor critter who was being forced to become his friend that he would try to bring it inside to play, or share with us. We have chased more mice and poor panicky birds around our kitchen than we care to recall. And let’s not even talk about the ones that require no chasing at all.

But then again, they both have free reign for going in and out without further destroying the screen or making us nuts with the opening and shutting of the screen door.

And there is the new scratching post; this has been a huge source of amusement and mischief.

Bustopher’s favorite game is something we like to call ‘Cat Spinning’. He lays on the base of the post, grabs the center and yanks himself around and around, propelling himself with his back feet. I’m sure it feels great to stimulate his back with the pressure and the pile of the carpet, but if you happen to toss a few toys on the post as he spins, well, the mischief level amps up considerably. Often we see some pretty heated rivalry going on over who gets dominion on the post at any given time. Bustopher, being the Beta, simply acquiesces regularly and Harmon sits proudly by the post, appropriately regal, when he gains the upper hand. It’s not like he wants to use the post, really; he just wants to assert his Alpha.

There are moments of peace and camaraderie too.

Here they contemplate the huge crow that landed outside on the patio. I can imagine their conversation:

“Look at dat huge bird!”
“Are you gonna go get ‘im?”
“No way….YOU go get ‘im!”
“No YOU!”
“Maybe we both stay here and pretend we don’t see ‘im”
“Oh good idea….Dat ok wif me”

I don’t blame them for laying low. The scratching post is way more fun than chasing a huge bird with a sharp pointy beak.

Here is the result:

Harmon is quite tall, and at his stretchiest he can get his toes on the countertops, and that is the standard 30″. He can get his front feet on our table edge, and this post is tall enough that he can stretch out his full length. With a good rubbing of fresh catnip on it to get them interested, it was an all out Fun Fest for them.

Why, even the cute little toy mice got involved!

The catnip seemed to do something rather odd to them, as Harmon is noticing.

Needless to say, with this cool new post, the fun factor has gone a bit higher at our house. There have been lots of shenanigans surrounding the post; some ownership has been attempted but never established, and it’s been great fun for them to stand on the very tips of their toes and scratch endlessly. Great work, guys!!

Cat toys…..how can you resist something so cute? These soft furry mice caught my eye on the recent jaunt for cat food. Given Bustopher’s admiration of all things mouse-like, I thought these would be awesome. He looks thrilled with his new friends, errrr….I mean toys!!

Those mice….they are so stinkin’ cute! Look at ‘em! In this picture, they kind of remind me of the mice in the movie ‘Babe’.

Byootaful Puddy and the lovely aussie Katie are hosting Weekend Cat Blogging- The Down Under version. Head on over and check out all the cats but stay away from the Vegemite!!

Case in point: Mike is eating a leftover homemade veggie burger, made out of brown rice and black beans, and without thinking on HIS part, he leaves the table to answer his phone. Of course, this leaves a wide open chance for our feline food monger to sneak up on his chair and check out what he left behind. I come out of my office just in time to see Harmon’s paw swipe a huge chunk of veggie burger from Mike’s plate, knocking it onto the floor. He leapt off the chair and gobbled the chunk down, almost without chewing (which happens A LOT) in an effort to prevent me from grabbing it away from him. And here I stand watching the whole thing, laughing so hard that I don’t even consider stopping Harmon. He’s eating a veggie burger! This I had to see!

Thankfully, we didn’t need the sign.

There have not been any more mice gifts, but there has been lots of sneaking around on the patio attempting to chase the birds away. He managed to tree a squirrel in our little hawthorn tree, sitting at the base of it watching with amusement as the squirrel sat, stunned, trying to determine his means of escape. For the split second that Bustopher turned his head, the squirrel leapt from the tree, Bustopher in high pursuit. Naturally, the critter got away.

And of course, the strong spring winds have kicked up many a dry leaf, and it’s highly amusing to watch Bustopher chase after them, his tail whipping around in frenzied delight.

Then, when he’s inside and restless, he gets into all sorts of shenanigans.

Climbing the kitchen cabinets is tops on the list. Harmon watches him climb ever higher, maybe with a mixture of jealousy and whimsy…..I just can hear him calling to Bustopher ‘You’re going to get in trouble!!’ and snickering behind his paw, while maybe silently wishing his girth did not prevent him from following.

Both of the cats are extremely happy about the catnip pushing from up from the earth outside. They spend many enthralled moments sniffing it and examining its progress, occasionally chasing each other away in an effort to enforce dominance over the weed. Once in a while Harmon will come inside looking quite fluffed up, with bits of dried leaves in his fur and a somewhat dazed expression on his face and I know he’s been out there rolling around in it. The guy just can’t help himself; he loves the stuff. Then he takes a really long nap. Really long.

We’re preparing for G-man’s 14th birthday this Saturday. It should be a rollicking good time!

Today he was watching at the patio door, waiting to run outside at the first moment to ‘play’ with the birds but among the feeder dwellers was a noisy and obnoxious Grackle (those are the ones with the iridescent blue heads) and as soon as Bustopher ran out the door and down the steps, that Grackle squawked, plain as day  ‘CAT!!!! CAAAAT!!!’ and every bird within five feet of the house, not to mention the two squirrels that were hanging out, scattered like mad, flying to nearby trees or racing away across the lawn.

Poor Bustopher just stood there, his head down and ears flat, staring at the noisy Grackle who insisted upon staying in the hawthorn tree, reminding everyone nearby in a very loud voice that there was a “CAT!!” in the vicinity.

I haven’t a clue who appointed the Grackle the ‘watchbird’ of the yard, but as long as Bustopher stayed outside, that Grackle made sure everyone knew he was there.