For cat people only :-) Or, when kittens take selfies …
(Brunette, again.)
We’re blessed with a bunch of cool and creative cats. They’re a primary source of laughter around here, especially the kittens (well, they’re six months old now, but they’re still pretty entertaining.)
Strider, our gray male kitten (see above) loves to lounge around and help Vin at his computer. So does Sandy (see Vin’s author photo … give it a minute to load) a big cream and orange tomcat that adopted us — he previously belonged to a neighbor, though I suspect he’d furiously deny belonging to anyone. He’s ours to the extent that we let him in when he wants in, and out when he wants out (usually around 4:30 a.m.) and he obviously enjoys our premium food (plus occasional table scraps) so he always arrives with a good appetite. Sandy’s a great hunter and sometimes leaves choice tidbits on our doormat. Well, that’s preferable to the gifts of live mice he’s been known to bring into the house once or twice. ๐
The female cats/kittens seem to prefer to hang out with me in the “hers” office. More on that some other time, perhaps.
But I digress, back to Strider …
Vin has an oversized scanner he uses for putting our used books and records online. To Strider, it’s yet another surface to sleep and play on. Just the other day, Strider decided to press the scan button and then sat on the scanner for an “unauthorized” self portrait … Vin and I had a good laugh over the resulting portrait, so we hope you will too. ๐ Yes, Strider took this one all by himself, with no help from us. Seriously!
And no, Strider doesn’t have six legs … not sure what happened there, but this is what happens when kittens decide to take selfies … a different point of view, to say the least. ๐
Then, later, Strider curled up on the scanner for a nap. This time, it was Vin who pressed the “scan” button … Strider just obligingly stayed put for this one.
We suspect Strider and his sisters are part Abyssinian. Strider especially has unusual features. Very short two tone gray/silver coat, improbably long legs and tail, odd bronze eyes, and an overall “sci-fi cat from Mars” appearance. World, meet Strider … Strider, meet world. ๐
February 17th, 2015 at 6:14 am
Wonderful story, really made us laugh. On the six legs, most likely Strider decided to move his front feet forward after they had been scanned so they’d be scanned again. I can almost see him watch the light-strip passing underneath them…
To us (SO and me), cats are the loveliest creatures you can have around. Not as intrusive as dogs (well, dogs usually don’t come to be cuddled while standing on your keyboard), and much more independent. But they like to be loved and really love you back if you care for them, even if they’re not as cuddly.
Thanks for sharing, and for the great scans.
February 17th, 2015 at 11:44 am
Do you actually just leave the scanner uncovered a lot, or ?? Mine is covered all the time when not in use. And there are so many buttons on the machine (multi purpose) that I doubt a cat could activate it. But then, I don’t have cats, so what do I know? LOL
I like dogs much better. Cats make me itch.
Funny story and pictures anyway. ๐
February 17th, 2015 at 3:06 pm
Mama, it’s not like cats do it consciously. I have a stereo set (one of those out-of-date microsets) which one of my cats (only one out of six) sometimes switches on by hitting the power button while jumping on top of it.
But indeed it’s best to keep expensive gear like that covered. I left a notebook open and found two keys detached the day after… Luckily I could click ‘m back on without damage.
Cats are great, but they’re still cats.
February 17th, 2015 at 5:57 pm
Normally Vin keeps the cover down on the scanner. Apparently he was between scans when Strider came along. Now, whether Strider has watched Vin at work enough to know which button to press, I don’t know, but I gather it’s pretty easy to operate and that any one of several buttons would have activated this scanner.
Once I had an answering machine that my cats (at the time; this was nearly 20 years ago) liked to sit on … I guess it was warm. A few times I got home to find they’d left me unintelligible messages, and I think at least once they deleted a message (I’m sure the friend whose message was erased was none too happy with me. She seemed a bit huffy that I’d never called her back. Oops.)
Yeah, just by stepping on various buttons. I finally wised up and stuck that machine safely in a drawer. ๐
Anyway, thanks R. and Mama for your comments. Nothing against dogs, but we’d be lost without our cats. But yes, they will be cats. ๐