Category: Cats

We recently celebrated Oliver’s second “birthday” (when he came to live with us) with a very special treat, one that he was more than happy to devour: smoked salmon.

It was impossible to get a good picture of him eating, because his head was firmly planted in that bowl until all of the salmon was eaten.

Mia also got some salmon (in the other bowl in the picture). She only ate a little bit, though, so of course Oliver went and ate the rest of her salmon after he finished with his bowl.

Happy second birthday to my little buddy Oliver!

When she gets up in the morning, my wife is greeted by our cats, Oliver and Mia, who bustle about as Sandy makes her breakfast. Every now and again, the cats will get a treat of wet food, with each cat getting a portion in a separate bowl. Other times, if they don’t get their treat breakfast, Oliver will jump up on the kitchen table and sit patiently while Sandy eats her breakfast and reads a book — he’s her "breakfast buddy." He likes being up there, and every now and then Sandy might give him a tiny morsel of food.

One day, I got an IM from Sandy saying, "Oliver was being a food bully [this morning]." I assumed that Oliver was stealing some of Mia’s special wet food breakfast, as sometimes he will try and assert his authority like that. However, that wasn’t the case at all — Oliver kept putting his paw on Sandy’s book to push it out of the way, so he could perhaps sneak some people food! The way Sandy phrased it, though, made it sound like Oliver was shaking Sandy down for food, in exchange for letting her read her book. "He was like, ‘You wanna read? You give mes your breakfasts.’"

I thought this was hilarious — the thought that Oliver was demanding "protection money" made me imagine him as a very small fedora-wearing gangster, spouting veiled threats like, "You know, it would be a real shame if some kind of wild animal tore up your book, eh?" And so, for the next few days, I called him "Little Gangster."

For the record, he’s behaved himself since then.

We were in Santa Barbara over the weekend, and while we were walking down State St. we saw a guy with three animals: a cat and a rat, who were riding on the back of a dog. Unfortunately I couldn’t snap a picture as my phone’s camera decided to quit working (until I rebooted it…really unforgivable). Thankfully, though, there are numerous YouTube movies of this guy.

There’s a BBC News story up about a contest-fixing scandal at the BBC. One of the contests whose results were changed regarded naming a cat who would be joining the cast of a children’s show. Vox populi demanded Cookie — they got Socks instead. The kids who voted for Cookie got a life lesson in politics, Chicago style.

This caption can currently be found midway through the article.

A little over a year ago, I got an e-mail about a black kitten that a co-worker (Patrick) had found huddled underneath his car as he was leaving for the night. He took the kitten to a local veterinary emergency clinic, and discovered that he had a broken leg, which was then put into a splint. Patrick couldn’t keep the cat, though, as his apartment complex didn’t allow it, so he asked for a volunteer to adopt the cat.

The way Sandy tells it, I told her the kitten’s sad story over the weekend, and then e-mailed her again on Monday about him…which was a clear signal that I wanted to adopt the poor little kitten. Sandy agreed to adopt him, I e-mailed Patrick about wanting to adopt him (apparently just a couple of minutes before someone else did), and the rest is history.

Today is Oliver’s “birthday,” in that it has been one year since we adopted him. (He was thought to be about 4-5 months old when he was found.) His leg has healed, his worms have been eradicated, and he’s now a happy, healthy 13 pound cat (up from 4 when he was found). Happy birthday, little buddy.