Mosaic Life

Toilet Training Update

October 2, 2008 on 9:16 am | In pets | 2 Comments

So toilet training the cat has been a bit more difficult than we expected. So far we can get him to use the tray on top of the toilet, but not when we remove the middle part. He’s not really into going to the bathroom in water. It’s natural, sure. He probably thinks of the water as a drinking source. So we decided to encourage him a bit more strongly.

We gave him half water, half chicken broth to drink. Of course, he was all about that. Then we locked him in the bathroom overnight, thinking he’d have no choice but to give in. When I walked into the bathroom the next morning, I discovered he’d peed on the rug and pooped on the floor, making sure to swat out some cat litter from the tray on the toilet to bury his poo.

Yeah. He’s pretty stubborn. But so are we. We’ll win this one, eventually.

Perhaps they do spend too much time together

September 26, 2008 on 9:27 am | In pets | 4 Comments

Yesterday I was home at lunch as usual. Monster was riled up, because lunch time is prime time for biting and pouncing since we’re both there and not distracted by work. At any rate, Brandon was holding Monster (against Monster’s will of course) when he threw him to the ground and said “GET HER, MONSTER!” At which point Monster galloped across the room and attached himself to my leg, biting my jeans.

It should be noted that it’s nearly impossible to train a cat, and that Monster was just doing what he loves to do. But still. Crazy.

He’s still around

August 19, 2008 on 7:52 pm | In entertainment, pets | 2 Comments

I realized I haven’t blogged very much about Monster lately, and that my Flickr content has been overwhelmed with pictures of my niece and nephew rather than our gray beast. Rest assured, he’s doing quite well. In fact, we’re thinking about potty training him! (If you click on the link, you’ll find lots of videos of cats using the toilet; you are welcome.) That’s right, if you come over to our place in the next few months, you could very well have to wait your turn at the bathroom door while our cat takes a squat. After that maybe we’ll teach him to eat with a fork and spoon and drive the car to Steak ‘n Shake. The sky is the limit, my friends. The sky is the limit.

Gonna party like it’s your birthday

March 7, 2008 on 10:45 pm | In pets | 1 Comment

Guess who had a birthday today, according to our best calculations? It’s Monster! He’s a whole year old. That means that he’s going to start being very mature now and stop biting and pouncing us. And maybe he’ll let us pet him. Who knows? It’s a whole new cat year.

Happy birthday to Monster!

My, what white teeth you have

January 29, 2008 on 9:49 am | In pets | 4 Comments

This picture always makes me laugh. Monster is such a cool cat. I’m realizing that I kind of like him just the way he is. I’ve been around calmer, sweeter cats since we got him, and it’s just not the same. You can rough-house with Monster. He’s resilient and seems to have endless stores of energy. And there’s some part of me that thinks it’s wickedly funny when he acts especially viscious.

A couple of weeks back, we had some friends over. Stephanie and I were talking, and I picked up Monster during the conversation. He promptly hugged my arm with his claws and bit me with his usual snake-like manner. She was astounded. “What a mean cat!”
I couldn’t help giggling.

I guess it could be cool to have a sweet, loving cat at some point. And maybe we’ll get another cat once we have a bigger place and more time. But for now, I like having our viscious little beast.

Bearskin 1, Monster 0

November 26, 2007 on 1:27 pm | In pets | No Comments

We took Monster with us to my dad’s house over the Thanksgiving break. As I may have mentioned, my dad has a safari of sorts in his living room, which includes the heads/skins of an elk, a zebra, and a wart hog, just to name a few. In the hallway there is a bearskin rug hung on the wall, and as Monster investigated the house, he happened to discover the bearskin, which scared him pretty badly. He reacted as though it were alive, and had snuck up behind him and was preparing to eat him.

Of course, we took pictures and laughed at our poor beast-cat. He arched his back, the fur standing straight up like a razor, forming a sort of cat mohawk. He lowered his ears and started making noises that resembled cat talk, not meowing or growling. And eventually (after taking plenty of pictures) we opened the door behind him so he could hide in the room until we wrapped him up in a sweater and took him somewhere safer, where the dead bear could not threaten him.

All cats are surpisingly similar

November 9, 2007 on 11:13 am | In pets | No Comments

This McSweeney’s open letter made me laugh. Similarities between this Abbie cat and Monster include the attacking of guests and the failure to bury poop in the litter box. Oh, and Monster can be quite the ingrate. But I love little Monster, and honestly I find it far too funny when I think about how vicious he can be.

Update: Found another letter to a cat that highly resembles Monster in action.

Shots, cats, and group work

November 6, 2007 on 2:35 pm | In pets | 7 Comments

I just got a flu shot, what with it being that time of year. It wasn’t so bad. The needle prick was nothing, really. When I was in elementary school, I had terrible allergies and had to get shots weekly, so I’m not really as needle-shy as most. The strains of weakened virus or whatever they pump into your arm with a flu shot did make my arm sore, though. But I got a tweety-bird bandaid, so it’s all good.

Le chat hasn’t been on Brandon’s good side in a few days. Monster gnawed a hole through his favorite cereal (after knocking it off the counter), knocked a full cup of soda onto the carpet, and repeatedly tried to eat his socks while they were still on his feet. I, on the other hand, have not suffered many offenses from Monster since I’m not home as often, which means that Monster’s chance of being drop-kicked off the balcony are lowered.

My Business Communications professor assigned a group project. I loathe group projects. She says that we need to learn to work as a “team” because that’s what it’s like in the real world. If so, that’s very depressing. You people in the real world, is this true? I mean, I thought I was in the real world, I thought that I’d been in the real world since I’ve been working full-time since I was 20, paying my own bills and being responsible since barely escaping my teenage years, but apparently I’m not in the real world yet. I suppose I’ll know when I’m there because I’ll have to do group work.

Anyway, nine out of ten group project experiences that I’ve had have been negative. There’s usually a slacker who doesn’t do anything, a well-meaning person with the writing level of a 9-year-old, a frustrated person who is ready to give up because of the other two, and me, the nerd who is dead-set on getting an A and will bear the burden of the whole group to get it done.

Monster hate junk mail!

October 26, 2007 on 8:04 am | In pets | No Comments

Here’s a recent picture of Monster for comparison with the picture below.

In this picture he is helping us shred junk mail, because it’s way more efficient to have him eat the junk mail than for us to fire up the old shredder.

Isn’t he the cutest?

One of the best things about having a cat

October 25, 2007 on 7:56 am | In pets | 2 Comments

Monster (Clawdius Catullus) made it onto Stuff On My Cat! The picture was taken back in May, but hey, it got on there!

You can tell from the background that this picture was taken in our old, crappy apartment. But that doesn’t make him any less cute. It’s weird to look back and see how small he was, especially in comparison to the (relative) beast he’s become. Just this morning he knocked over some water on my desk to wake me up because he was starving to death. Yes, there was cat food in his bowl, but it wasn’t the canned cat food, and was therefore inedible.

I remember how hard it was to get this picture. We tried to get him to fall asleep on a piece of bread, but he kept moving. So we settled for just the bread on top. It gets the point across that he’d make a fine delicacy, and that’s what’s important.