Hey!
[Editor: Hermit is yelling at nothing which is an appropriate attitude for coats of arms. I won’t be describing all future cats in heraldic terms because Couchant and Dormant would just about cover them.]
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Established: 21 November 2004
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13 comments
i had to look up the cotourne.
also, apparently my cats are consulting your blog when i’m gone from the house – i’ve now got one who perches on the top of one of my bookcases beside a doorway and reaches out to snag me if i walk by without scratching her head. she’s not the brightest bulb in the chandelier though – she’s recently started doing this from the top of a 7ft tall bookcase. she hasn’t quite figured out yet why this worked when she used to perch on the dresser but isn’t working now.
I could have flipped the picture to avoided that, but I had already uploaded it. It definitely isn’t all that common outside of the supporters for a coat of arms.
Fortunately we don’t let cats drive as they are generally far-sighted and rarely wear their glasses.
Fortunately we don’t let cats drive as they are generally far-sighted and rarely wear their glasses.
oh great. I haven’t seen my spare pair of glasses for several days now, and come to think of it, I don’t see the car keys either…..
My first feral vet told me that and demonstrated it. If you dangle something small close to a cat they probably won’t see it. If your cats are playing with something, you’ve seen them back off before they rush in to pounce on it. They do that to focus.
the fluffy black dog was definitely far-sighted. he could spot a motionless (or nearly so) cat or a rabbit from 100 yards (or more) but usually ran right over them when he caught up to them (even when he wasn’t running very fast). he usually never saw them in time to stop when he was scent-trailing them too, even if he was walking slowly.
the neighborhood cats couldn’t win – if they ran, he chased them; if they stopped and crouched down to ambush him, he stepped on them. several of them did eventually figure out that he only wanted to play tag-you’re-it, and i’d sit out on the porch watching them running back and forth across the yard. some of them learned to avoid being stepped on in these games, others not… or maybe those were hoping he’d trippant and fall over their couchant forms. 🙂
I won’t be describing all future cats in heraldic terms because Couchant and Dormant would just about cover them.
mine tend to be Volant. mostly they fly through the air and Velcro themselves to the screen door (yes I’ve had to reinforce it, more than once), but littlest cat always goes for the door jambs. I don’t know if this is because she doesn’t like the screen door, or if she’s just lording it over her big brothers (who don’t seem to be able to do door jambs), or if it just means that every doorway in the house is her playground… gotta maximize your resources when you only weigh 4 pounds!
I could have flipped the picture
no! I’ve enjoyed the vocabulary lesson!
It is amazing how large the vocabulary of heraldry is, and that it remains so precise. None of the heralds would produce the same picture on a shield, but the elements would all be there for other heralds to read and record as a blazon.
If the stupid grey squirrels would just freeze on the oak trunks, the cats would miss them totally when they were close, but the squirrels always move which triggers the cat. Even so, most of the squirrels escape because the cats misjudge when they can catch the squirrel.
The fluffy black dog was expecting a lot from cats, but I’m glad it paid off for him occasionally.
Four pounds is tiny, but door jambs are a specialty. Koshka could do doors, as could Income, but that’s a precision jump.
The fluffy black dog was expecting a lot from cats, but I’m glad it paid off for him occasionally.
he was actually more cat-like than dog-like in some ways, so maybe they all thought of him as a particularly large and funny-shaped cat. certainly all of the 13 kittens he played foster mom to adored him from the start.
Four pounds is tiny
it is indeed. and possibly she’s up to 5ish lbs now. she’s one of the litter of 6, and probably would never have made it had momcat not been living indoors chowing down on unlimited quantities of primo food by that time.
that’s a precision jump.
littlest cat is definitely a precision jumper. it’s fun to watch. I don’t know if it’s that a smaller lightweight frame is more maneuverable, or if maybe she has better-than-average eyesight, or if it’s a skill she deliberately worked on, possibly to be able to get out of the way when the 3am mass catfits break out. 🙂
The skill at jumping is the ability to judge the distance so accurately that the landing is essentially 0G, the point at which all of the momentum is lost. Property is pretty good, as she arrives about a quarter of an inch above the surface and settles.
Excise, like Sox, arrives with so much momentum that if there isn’t something he can dig his claws into, he will slide off the other side if there is a lateral element or hit like a brick if it was almost vertical.
One of my old neighbors had a Cocker Spaniel who acted like all cats were puppies, and a good number of them went along with it. Trying to take the dog for a walk was always a production because her ‘puppies’ would tag along.
You were lucky that the FBD was fond of cats, otherwise, he would have been barking at them outside your windows all the time.
Excise, like Sox, arrives with so much momentum that if there isn’t something he can dig his claws into, he will slide off the other side if there is a lateral element or hit like a brick if it was almost vertical.
one of my cats does this on purpose. the others… http://cheezburger.com/7640846336
the fbd didn’t believe in barking. most of his vocabulary was some variation of grr, with at least one variation that always sounded suspiciously like an attempt at purring.
there was only one situation where he routinely barked – whenever someone came to the door carrying pizza.
Nice to know he reserved barking for the really important things 🙂
😀 you betcha! 😀