Tag Archive for pets routine

The Animal Dance

Right now we are in the middle of a huge living room / dining room remodel project.  Our house is slightly askew with some of the living room and dining room furniture squished into our family room.  So we’re a little crowded, and some days claustrophobic.  We like doing the work ourselves (I’m a DIY-er at heart) so it’s taking awhile.  I’m ok with that.  I can put up with the disarray and the out of place-ness knowing that the end result will be amazing.  However, the animals in our house do not like their  routines and normal sleeping and lounging spots being disrupted.  They are all a little out of sorts.  

Let me introduce the cast of characters;

Tiger- The queen of the roost.  She is the oldest of all of the animals, turning 14 this month.  She has not been a happy camper with the living room disruption at all.  Her favorite window perch has been torn apart so she prefers to lay anywhere on the floors where she is in a “traffic” path.  You know where we have to step over her constantly.

tiger

Clyde – Our resident doggie.  He’s 11 years old this year, and is still wary of Tiger after all this time.  He has taken up sleeping in my office which is down the hallway from the remodeling noise and mess.  He likes to have his quiet space, and it is not in the family room right now. Poor guy.  He has been a trooper letting Lucy follow him everywhere too!

2015-04-17 13.49.04

Storm- He’s the teenager in the crowd.  He’s three and likes to be a pest to Tiger.  He tries to challenge her authority all of the time.  Wouldn’t you think he’d get tired of that?  He’s a great mouser cat though, and he’s even caught a few gophers in the back yard.  He earns his keep.

storminator

Photo by B.Juedes

 

Lucy- She is the baby in the crowd.  She’s just a year old, and is staying with us temporarily while her house gets fixed.  She’s been here for a few weeks, and is finally getting to know our routine, and learning how to live around the cats!  She loves to tease and chase Storm and vice versa. They are really funny together after dinner chasing each other around the back yard.

lucy

Photo by E.Bettencourt

Now here is where this cast of characters gets interesting, and sometimes annoying. I call this the dance.  The dance in this case is the morning and evening routine we go through when the animals are fed.  Here’s my take on it, and it somewhat reminds me of having a small working farm!  When I get up in the morning I head straight for the coffee pot, and get it started.  While I’m doing this Tiger is meowing at me to be fed and she does this incessantly.  Clyde is outside with Storm, and Lucy. Clyde loves to stand at the patio door and stare in at me while I’m enjoying my first cup of coffee.  I imagine he wants to say, “Hey remember me, you left me outside, with the cat!”  We call his glaring at us his Snoopy pose.  Lucy is so humorous, she is Clyde’s shadow right now.  She follows him everywhere.  She jumps at the patio door to get my attention.  I imagine she’s saying, “Look at me, look at me.”

Tiger gets fed inside, and I don’t let any of the other animals in while she’s eating.  Tiger gets her quiet time all to herself, her “alone” time.  Once I have my first cup of coffee in hand, and have had a few wake me up gulps I head out onto the patio to feed the rest of the cast of characters.

I have discovered through trial and error that it’s best to feed Lucy first, then Clyde, and last but not least Storm.  Storm is late for every meal.  I’m pretty sure he mooches from one of the neighbors, but I’m not sure which one.  I feed the animals in the morning around 7, and then again at 5pm.  The menagerie of course always has water available, although Tiger thinks she needs to drink out of the toilet.  Ugh!

Here’s what happens in the afternoon; I’ll be working in my office for a while and then stroll out to the kitchen around 3 or so.  Miss Tiger thinks it’s time for dinner already!  She is always pushing the dinnertime button and trying to get fed earlier than usual.  At this point I remind her that she is not the boss of me, and dinner is always at 5pm and not a minute sooner!  She is quite relentless though and meows at me every time I walk into the kitchen between 3 & 5.  

This group has had a tough time with their normal sleeping places disrupted.  But have no fear, the living room remodel will be coming to an end soon, and then some of these things will be getting back to normal.  I’m sure Clyde will be relieved, he’s had the toughest time of all.   Once the living room is back together it will be nice to have the pet patrol back to “normal”.  Everyone will have their favorite “spots” back where they like to slumber.  The slumbering spots are always in the path of the foot traffic through the house.  Does anyone else have this problem?

This post linked to the GRAND Social  and the #MidLifeLuv Linky Party.

 

Our Pets and Their Hierarchy

It’s a new day for the animals at The Party House.  If you have animals like we do, and you have both cats and dogs like we do,  you will understand what I am talking about here.  The animals have a pecking order, a hierarchy about them.  They have a certain way of treating each other, or in our case, ignoring each other, and a certain way they interact.  It can be incredibly entertaining.

Let me introduce our cast of characters.  First, and foremost is Tiger, the cat.  The Queen.  She is the queen of the roost, and always, always lets everyone know she is the Boss!  No question about her place in the mix.

tiger pic

Then we have Clyde, our terrier mix doggie.  Clyde is, how shall I say this, an introvert, a follower.  He does not like his routine disrupted, or messed with.  It makes him very nervous.  His legs get shaky when he’s nervous or in an uncomfortable situation.  When we’re having a Party Day he’s a Nervous Nellie the entire time the crowd is in the house.  He likes lots of love and hugs, or belly scratching.  Clyde is a good guard dog though.  He takes good care of me when I am home by myself, and protects his domain.

clydee boy

Next is our new arrival.  We adopted our daughter’s cat, Storm.  He’s a raucous and rambling guy, and likes to stir up the routine of the other animal residents in the house.  He’s the teenager in the house.  He’s a big guy, and is like the annoying little brother for Tiger.  He’s also the most mellow cat I have ever known.  Nothing really phases him, unless he’s super hungry.  Storm and Clyde have some kind of bonding thing going on too.  Maybe it’s a guy thing?  They like to pal around the yard together, and go on little hunting expeditions together.

storminator

Photo credit: B.Juedes

The most entertaining part of the day is when the animals get fed their dinner.  If you have animals you know they like a routine.  They like things to happen on a schedule.  At our house, I don’t feed everyone until 5pm.  They start milling around me in the house at about 4pm, just to see if I will give into Tiger’s meowing demands.  Tiger is the spokesperson for the group.  The other two just follow in her footsteps where food is concerned.  I usually stick to my guns and don’t feed the animals a minute before 5pm, because you know they are not the boss of me.  Once they are all fed they go on their merry ways for the evening.  That usually involves little drinks of water, and lots of napping.  Oh the life of a domesticated animal.

The 5pm Standoff!!

The 5pm Standoff!!

Storm also loves to annoy Tiger when she least expects it. He will jump up on a chair while Tiger is laying on the floor, and peer down at her, very intently,  until she hisses and scowls at him.  Once Storm gets a rise out of Tiger, he jumps off of the chair and very nonchalantly walks right past Tiger.  She can’t stand this of course, and hisses at Storm until he leaves the room.

The other entertaining thing about the animals is I have them all trained to know what the phrase, “Go to Bed” means.  I close the animals off in one part of the house at night so they cannot roam all over.  And actually now that it’s warmer Clyde and Storm sleep outside at night.  Tiger stays in and gets mad at me when I tell her it’s time to “go to bed”.  She hisses and scowls at me, and gives me her dirty looks, but she is still not the boss of me.  Travel Man cracked up at this,  the first time he saw me sending Tiger to bed at night.  He could not believe she actually listened, and went out to her little corner in the game room.

Oh what a tangled web we weave.  First it’s keeping the kids from arguing, and terrorizing each other, and now it’s the animals.  We are glad to have Storm as an addition to our little family of pets.  He has brought some new life into the mix of things, and keeps us quite entertained.  Welcome to the family Storm!

This post has been linked to the Grand Social linky at Grandma’s Briefs.

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