We recently learned that our new grandniece, Reagan, is a CAT person! She's not quite two but has shown to really love kitties even more than puppies. She has 2 dogs of her own but seems to have a preference of cats over dogs. I don't mean to say this with disgust as we have our own wonderful kitty whom we love dearly but to say that we are cat people over dog people I don't think is accurate. We are animal people. And I guess that is how Reagan is too but we know that she certainly gets a big kick out of kitties. So, we made this video for her. It's just a snippet of Cupid "talking" to Reagan. Cupid can be pretty good to have a conversation with. Seeing how she doesn't really argue or back talk you. Ha! Don't get me wrong. Sometimes she has some serious cattitude for sure, but anyone can see her sweetness in just listening to her.
Grammy is a very talented woman. She is a painter and an author. Recently there was a show in Daytona where local artists could show and sell their creations. Gammy set up camp for the day, and Henry took a trip just to see her and say hello. They were both very happy to see the other. And I believe that I may have even seen Grammy's tail curl and wag pug style!
Henry and Grammy even split a hamburger! What a lucky day for Henry! He got lovin's from his Grammy AND extra protein!
Part of Henry's anxiety/dementia routine begins around 7 PM (or when the sun starts to set---depending on the time of year). Each night Henry will stand by the front door as though he needs to go potty. We will take him out and he will either do his business or decide to come right back in the house. About 10-15 minutes later, Henry again stands by the door and trained as we are, we let him out. He pees or poops or does nothing and then makes his way back to the house. When the door opens to go back in, he steps up and immediately begins looking to the "treat gods" for his payment of a small dog treat. 10-15 minutes later in the night, cue Henry to the front door. Outside, potty or no potty, front door opens, eyes to sky, treat. Rinse and repeat until 830-9 PM when finally he then is ready to be placed onto the big boy bed (the people bed) where he then will settle for a good night's sleep.
After each trip outside he looks to the sky for his treat. This routine was the pugs' bedtime routine for many, many years. They'd all go out front for a final pee pee of the night, rush to the front door, get paid in the form of a doggie cookie and then be put up on the big bed. Well, Henry starts this routine and practices it over and over and over again nightly. We know that he is not ready for bed when he begins doing this at 7:00 since we've tried to put him to bed and he will yelp for us to let him down off the bed. (We are very lucky that he does know that he's on the tall bed and does not to attempt to jump down.) And we have considered not rewarding him when he comes in if he has not gone potty, but we are worried that would make a disconnect to going outside to potty at all. It is just part of his OCD type anxiety and cognitive decline.
The funny part is the OBP parents would typically take turns letting Henry out and playing treat god. But each night Cupid will choose an OBP parent lap on which she will firmly plant herself for hours. And once Henry starts the ritual, the parent with the cat on the lap simply looks gazingly at the other as though to indicate, "hey, I can't go, I have a cat on my lap. I don't want to disturb her." While the unlucky one with no cat on lap, has to go up and down and up and down bringing an empty bladdered dog outside to do nothing but turn right back around and get a treat. At least Cupid does take turns when choosing a lap.
We've always known that Cupid is not your ordinary cat. But this sort of took the cake! One of our favorite meals is turkey chili. We like to have add some crumpled tortilla chips to the chili. Recently we discovered that this Cupid likes tortilla chips too! Being that this isn't very healthy, (for Cupid or for us) we cut Cupid off from the chips after filming the video. #CrazyChipLovingCat
17 year old Cupid has struggled a bit with thyroid disease. This has been a problem for a few years now. First we tried the special food then we moved to oral medication. There was a time when we were considering the radiation surgery for her but I think we have officially ruled that option out. Behaviorally we can almost always tell when her thyroid (T4/TCH ) levels are out of whack. Recently, we got that feeling that things were not right and we took her to the vet to get some bloodworm done to check her levels.
We were correct. Her levels were too low, so we upped her meds. But then it seemed that she started having issues again and we considered that her meds were upped too high. So, back we went for more bloodwork. But this time her levels are considered "perfect" which mean her behavior was just her cattitude.
What problem could sweet little Cupey cat be causing, you ask? Well, her main issue, sadly, is Henry.
Cupid KNOWS that Henry is "not right" but she either can't figure out what the problem is OR knows what the problem is and simply does not cut him any slack. The biggest issue is that Henry runs into her. A LOT. In Henry's defense, he's probably very happy to run into something that is soft (Cupid is by far the softest thing he runs into) AND also in Henry's defense, Cupid makes little to no attempts at getting out of his way. Sometimes it is even like she may be daring him to bump into her AGAIN. Most of the time Cupid will just hiss at him and run away but lately she has been getting super annoyed and thus her irritation has created an escalation in her retaliation. Granted, there has been only one really bad day but it was a stinky one. On this day, Cupid was observed (via our canine cam) to have not only hissed at Henry but she added a spit, and a triple bap for good measure. Poor Henry just stood there not knowing what just happened or what to do about it. But since, at the end of her Mike Tyson sequence, Cupid ran away, Henry was then free to continue to roam about the house. The good news is that Henry was no worse for the wear. But Cupid needs to wash the cranky out of her pants! On this day, #CupidWasNotAPug! #CalicoCupid #HenryStrong #PoorHenry #HenryIsAGoodBoy #GoodPug
