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Catshots

by Pam Shirk, North Carolina, USA

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This weekend, we're watching the Andy Griffith marathon on TV Land. One of the interesting features of TV Land is the old commercials that they show. They had on the Purina Cat Chow Commercial where this woman calls out at the beginning of the commercial "Hey Kitties." Tanada heard her call and the cat's ears stood at attention, her head shot up and she stared at the TV with the intensity of a starving man watching the preparation of his first meal in a couple of weeks. For the whole commercial she stared at the TV and I swear little kitty drool was pouring out of her mouth. Right then Mandy called "Hey Kitties! Food's ready!" Tanada gave me a satisfied look and shot off towards the kitchen where the food she'd thought into being was being served.

Merlin has decided that the cat that plays with the most toys wins. Buddy used to get embarrassed if the other cats treated him funny because he played with any of the kitty toys we have. QC never was bothered by censure, and Merlin is even more interested in getting the most from his opportunities. He was playing with this toy that has three bars joined in the center with two balls that can be moved around among them by an enterprising young cat. Tanada and Berfert glared at him as if to tell him that proper cats show disdain for cat toys, but QC watched with interest for a while, then joined in the game. Tanada and Berfert glared for a few minutes then Berfert tried to play too. Tanada couldn't stand it. She ran over and slapped Berfert, then QC and last of all, Merlin. They couldn't resist the urge to take in a bout of kitty wrestling and a large ball of multi-colored fur rolled around on the living room floor for a few minutes. Merlin was happy, he'd rather play with the rest of the kids anyway.

Berfert is working on his next idea for wierding out the humans. He has escorted us to the bathroom, watched every bite we eat, jumped up on the bed and bayed in our faces, chased all the other cats off of the furniture, and slept on our feet wherever our feet may be. I thought he was running out of ideas, but last night he showed me that he was still coming up with the good stuff. I was checking my email messages, when Berfert sidles in as though he's hiding from someone, looks around then slips under the bed. A minute or so later, Merlin walks into the room looks around, then turns around to leave. Berfert shoots out from under the bed and slaps Merlin on the butt, then shoots back under the bed. Merlin whips around and glares at me. I'm laughing and that may be the reason Merlin is glaring at me. He turns around again and takes two steps towards the door when Berfert shoots out from under the bed and slaps him on the butt again. He slips under the bed just as Merlin turns around and glares at me again. I'm still laughing as Merlin walks calmly over and nips me on the ankle, then walks out of the room. I think he was telling me to stop it. Berfert staggers out from under the bed and slips under the computer desk waiting for his next victim.

Tanada thinks that the nest on the window sill is her personal space. It used to belong to QC, but Tanada seems to have decided that QC wasn't utilizing it properly. I was sitting down at the computer when Tanada shot off of the window nest, ran across my shoulder, over my head and across the hard drive, knocking over one of the speakers at the same time. She stopped on top of the sewing machine and glared at my feet, where QC was sitting looking up at me with wide open eyes as if to ask what had gotten into Tanada. QC then calmly leaped into my lap then onto the window nest where she curled up itno a ball and watched my hands typing out a reply to an email. If I didn't know better, I'd think she was memorizing touch typing for future reference.

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Editor's note:

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