Minor adventures in cat-sitting

[mousme]

So I've been going twice a day to feed Saash and Grimshackle while ai731 and baronscartop are away celebrating their one-year wedding anniversary (has it been a year already? Holy cow!).

The cats' greeting style has evolved subtly over the past year and a half to two years that I've been feeding them in the absence of their regular humans. It's still fundamentally the same, but the details have changed. Saash is no longer actively hateful, and Grimmy has been increasingly less fearful.

Friday night, however, took the cake.

I walked through the front door, and the usual scene ensued:

Grimmy: "OHMYGOD! Fire! Foes! Fear! Flee! Aieeeeeee!" *flees in terror and stops on the first step leading to the basement*

Saash: "Hey, a human!... Oh God, it's you." *long-suffering sigh* "Fine, I guess you'll do. Now feed me!"

Grimmy: *from the top step* "Hey, I know you! You're cool." *comes back up the stairs to demand pats*


I began by serving Grimmy his kibble, since I seemed to recall this was the order in which to do things. Saash has been eating Grimmy's kibble (which is far preferable to her own designer wet food), so Grimmy gets served in the bathroom.

Saash: "What are you doing? You're not feeding me! Look, look over here, stupid human! Do you not see the glaring lack of food in my dish? Hello? Why are you feeding him first? There. Is. No. Food. In. My. Bowl."

Grimmy: "Whatcha doin'? Is that for me? Is it? Hey, there's something shiny over there! No, wait I'm back. Is that food? Do I get food? Do I? Neato-keen!"


So I put Grimmy's kibble in the bathroom and went back to prepare Saash's wet stuff. In the blink of an eye Saash had rousted Grimmy from his dish and was happily munching down his kibble. I seemed to recall there being a technique of shutting the door for a few minutes so Grimmy could eat, so that's what I did. Then I went back and served Saash her wet food.


Saash: "Words cannot express how much I loathe you, but I will tolerate your presence long enough to eat the food you took *forever* to prepare, because I am clearly starving. No thanks to you."


In the time it took me to do that, I heard mad scrabbling coming from the bathroom. So I went back and opened the door. Out came a fuzzy black lightning bolt.

Grimmy: "OHMYGOD the kibble tried to KILL ME!" *flees in terror all the way to the basement*


By then Saash was back in the bathroom, eating Grimmy's kibble again. I chased her back to her own dish, shut the bathroom door, and determined that Grimmy was at the very least going to eat the first day I was feeding him. I had the time on Friday night and probably wouldn't on the other days. So I went into the basement, scritched and petted him for a while, then bodily carried him upstairs and plunked him in front of his food dish. Then I stood in the doorway of the bathroom (closing the door caused him to try to run away immediately) and watched until he ate all his kibble.


So the cats were fed and reasonably happy by the time I left. I have no doubt that Saash got entirely too much kibble in her system this weekend, but Grimmy doesn't appear malnourished, and I think I'll have to be content with that.

Comments

[joenotcharles.livejournal.com]

Grimmy: "OHMYGOD! Fire! Foes! Fear! Flee! Aieeeeeee!" *flees in terror and stops on the first step leading to the basement*

Grimmy: *from the top step* "Hey, I know you! You're cool." *comes back up the stairs to demand pats*

Wow, baronscartop's right - I do have a Grimshackle.

[conscioussoul.livejournal.com]

I love how you describe the cats thoughts. This is not only hilarious, but I can totally see how good of a writer and a storyteller you are.
I am glad you are writing, this is clearly a talent you have :)

[walkerofrohan.livejournal.com]

That was hilarious! Thanks for posting it. :)
(Hey, do... do you remember when you wrote... uhh... "oh.ohmygod the kibble tried to kill me!"? ... That was awesome!)

...

(just realised that last part would be weird if you don't know who Chris Farley is... was. you get the idea.)

[swestrup]

That was great! I'm still chuckling at:

Grimmy: "OHMYGOD the kibble tried to KILL ME!"

[rehenazelreyhan.livejournal.com]

Oh my...a year ago. *reflects on what I was doing last year, shakes head in astonishment at how much life changes*

This is a great story. I love how you gave voice to the kitties.

You managed to CARRY him UPSTAIRS???

[baronscartop.livejournal.com]

This is my life.

I laughed.

I cried.

I did both again.

t!

Re: You managed to CARRY him UPSTAIRS???

[mousme.livejournal.com]

So long as there are scritches and pats involved, Grimmy seems to be okay with being picked up. He's not especially cuddly (I don't think he would put up with being held for a long time, for instance), but he definitely enjoys scritches and pats when they're made available, as I'm sure you well know.

He's really improved a lot in the three years I've known him.