Like a walk through the country side living on a small farm is full of daily surprises, sometimes wonderful and amazing, and other times puzzling and sad. I hope you will walk with me as I live out my dream of living on this tiny farm. You will come to know the dogs, cats, Shetland sheep and chickens that make up this farm and what goes into keeping them happy and healthy. Come and join the journey with me.

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Cat Tails






The boys in the house are still adjusting to life as 'brothers'. Well, Meshach is adjusting , Sage just goes on his merry tormenting way. Actually he is doing pretty good, although once in awhile still getting a terrible ornery spell. I'm sure they are growing pains. I weighed them both the other day, and Meshach is 10.5 lbs while Sage is already a little over 8 lbs (okay, he is up to 9 lbs--I re-weighed him!) I'm pretty sure I did catch Meshach playing with Sage the other night. Although it appeared on the surface as if he was running for his life, with Sage hot on his tail, a closer look revealed a certain look of excitement about his eyes, and a jauntily held tail. He would deny it of course.

For Sage, walking through a room is so...so...common... especially when you can leap from perch to perch, run and almost fly! Unfortunately with his bulk he lands rather hard, causing things to get knocked about and making an incrediable amount of noise.

Now, to the title of this blog. Sage seems to have a 'proportion' problem. His tail is too long for his body! It just keeps growing and growing.. a very pretty tail, all fluffy...and long. Finally I measured his tail just to make sure I wasn't imagining things---sure enough his tail is 14 inches long, while his body length measures in somewhere around 12.5 inches. I measured Meshach's tail too, just for comparison and his was at about 11 inches. (See first picture) As you can imagine, 'the tail' is always getting stepped on, rolled over (with the chair) or caught. So far, no damage done, just lots of meewy squawks about it. My biggest fear is that Sage will grow to fit his tail! I think he might be part Mountain Lion!

Some of Sage's newest favorite things to do this week (besides pounce on Mesh) are running full tilt and crashing into the glass door to try and scare the outside cats---he then tries to beat them up through the glass---bang, bang, smack. The oustide girls are not impressed. He also loves boxes, and papers to rip up as he hides in the boxes. Climbing ladders. Playing with a hard piece of dog food...for hours... Having the covers thrown over him while I'm making the bed. Oh, and I mustn't forget the feet biting. He loves to bite his hind feet. Well, attack would be a better word. He attacks them, bites them, and rolls around 'killing' his own hindfeet. (See last picture)

Meshach's favorite things are to chase five seperately thrown bits of dry cat food for him to chase and 'kill' in the morning, getting two tiny teaspoons of canned cat food--once in the morning, once at night. Laying in front of the woodstove, getting on the keyboard when I'm typing, and sleeping under the covers when its cold. (Don't all beds have big lumps in the middle of them?)

Another thing about cats...I thought they 'hated' water? Nobody ever explained that to my cats, I guess. It all started around here with Shadrach--a huge lynx point siamese mix cat. He was quite a character, and quite ornery (the stories I could tell about him!!). He loved getting up in the bathroom sink and drinking out of the faucet. When he was about a year old I got a kitten for him to keep him company. So teeny tiny not quite weaned (I didn't know this at the time) Meshach joined us. Shad towered over him, but they had a special relationship from the first, they were buds, and Shad "raised Meshach up in the way he should go". Everything Shad did, Meshach had to do, only take it to new heights. Drinking out of the faucet became a competition---and now included the bathroom tub faucet as well. Shad tragically died when he was only 4 years old, and Mesh was devestated, as was I. Fast forward 6 years.....Sage enters the picture. By now, Meshach has fine tuned his water addiction. He now drinks out of the bathroom and tub faucet, any buckets that are filled and sat on the floor, my water bottles (he actually drinks from a little trickle I pour out--kitty lips don't touch the bottle), or any unattended beverage he can find on the nightstand. He gets pretty mouthy about it all too, if I don't move fast enough to turn on faucets, or spend too long getting myself a drink! So here comes Sage...unaware of the lure and attraction of water. That lasted about two weeks, until he suddenly realized something big was up with the bathroom sink....so he jumped up to see what Meshach was doing....and well the rest is history. Another water obsessed cat. He has had a bit of learning to do though---like don't get IN the shower.....

At least its never dull around the house with those two little rats...er I mean cats.

2 comments:

Michelle said...

Fun to catch up on your blog, Tammy. Interestingly enough, Oreo's tail is disproportionately short for her little body, although definitely not missing any vertebrae. Your post made me want to go measure the bodies and tails of Oreo and Ozzie to see how they compare.... Where do you start the body measurement? Base of neck?

Tammy said...

Hi Michelle,
Well, it wasn't an exact science as I didn't get much cooperation from the cats! But I tried to measure from nose to base of tail and then the tail from the base. Meshach who has a perfectly fine tail, suddenly looks odd next to this elaborate Sage tail.....Ah..the mysteries of life! :-0