Been a while since I have given you all an update on Maxwell, and he is basically just part of the pack now. He likes to go outside and he likes to sleep on the bed on the third floor looking out onto the yard, and he basically thinks he owns the house now. He also can get places that I am not used to having to think about protecting, like, for example, the kitchen countertops:
His favorite thing is to be held like a baby, though. He will sit in my arms for an hour while I am working, just being a good boy.
War for Ukraine Day 437: More Azovstal Defenders Have Been Returned Home
Alison Rose
I briefly had a cat a long time ago who liked the baby-carry, too. Have not been able to replicate it with my last two, which is sad, because it’s so cute.
Jerzy Russian
Our cats never go on the kitchen counters, probably because of all of the clutter there (there is no where to land).
Maxwell is looking sharp with that collar and pendant.
Jackie
Spray bottles are great for countertops training. Also covering with scrunched up aluminum foil. Cats HATE foil!
Maxwell loving to be baby cuddled is sweet!😻
Odie Hugh Manatee
It sounds like Maxwell is living the good life. Our orange guy doesn’t have the brain cell today. He just came dashing into the dining room and ran head first into a table leg, did the Scooby Doo on the linoleum floor until he got enough traction to launch himself through the living room and down the hall.
He sounds like a bowling ball bouncing down the stairs…lol
Gvg
Every cat gets on counters. Never had any success training them not to. Some luck making other areas a better view. Currently have cat trees in front of most windows which seems to help.
I have one hyperactive cat. I have been thinking of making her a carpeted climbing wall to run up to the top of the wall and down. Maybe she can run off her energy. Her siblings are normal. At three years they are active but also calm down after a little while….she just keeps going. Much skinnier, and a sleek black panther, while they are getting rounder.
Redshift
Just curious – what kind of work can you do with a cat in your arms? Because I may be in the wrong line of work.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Maxwell is adorable and I’m glad he’s adjusting so well
Nukular Biskits
John Cole still exists?
Nukular Biskits
@Redshift:
Answer: None.
Sister Golden Bear
Cats are like toddlers who can reach the ceiling. It’s a good thing they’re so adorable.
And Maxwell is looking quite dapper.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
So did my cat Bilbo when he was alive. He was a large cat (not fat, just a big cat), so you’d hear him thumping down the stairs whenever food was being poured into his food dish. I miss the little dude
Andrya
@Nukular Biskits: I have trained myself to type on my computer with a cat on my arm. Not easy, but not impossible.
Ken
I’ve had one cat that liked cuddling. At the opposite end of the spectrum*, I had one that would purr and rub against you when it wanted the food bowl filled, but didn’t want to be touched otherwise.
* Didn’t one of our commenters write a book with some sort of psychological spectrum for cats?
Another Scott
@Ken: Yup.
The Way of Cats.
Cheers,
Scott.
Ken
@Another Scott: Thank you.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
OT: since Odie Hugh Manatee mentioned Scooby-Doo above, thought I’d pose this question to BJ
The Scooby-Doo franchise has spanned many decades, and has occasionally updated the character’s designs with each new series/reboot. Nowadays, in the direct-to-video movies, they use the original/iconic Where Are You? designs. It wasn’t until the 80s, when HB updated the characters’ fashions, but only for Shaggy and Daphne, who were the only human characters left for a few series (13 Ghosts and a few others I can’t remember off the top of my head). I can very well imagine their styles looking very dated by the 80s. Particularly for those Jackals who were around in the 70s, what’s the earliest point their 1969 designs/fashion styles would have begun to look out of style?
My guess would probably have been by the mid-70s. Admittedly, Shaggy’s look is pretty simple, so I think it would hold up fairly well
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Another Scott:
@Ken:
Werebear. That’s a commenter I haven’t seen for awhile
Mike in NC
Nine dead in a shooting at a mall in Texas. A day ending in “y”.
Yutsano
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I’m pretty sure Fred’s look outdated pretty fast. Velma is pretty timeless as she’s a typical nerdy look for females. Daphne definitely was out by the mid 70s. Shaggy I think made the uniform for stoners almost standard save the corduroy pants would definitely need updating.
Scooby-Doo is a talking Great Dane with a collar lol.
S Cerevisiae
Love them every minute John, and thank you for keeping this beautiful asylum open for 20 years. Love to my Bella in the light now…😭
rikyrah
Maxwell🤗🤗🤗🤗
rikyrah
Big Red’s Triple Crown.
Still legendary 50 years later👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
vm.tiktok.com/ZTRwTrGGc/
CaseyL
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
She’s very active on Mastodon.
Strangely, I’ve never had a cat that liked to get up on the counter, possibly because they can’t see where they’re going and don’t trust jumping where they’re not sure of the landing. They have jumped up onto sofas, beds, tables, and their cat trees… but not the kitchen counters. Which is good – because mine are cluttered, my kitchen being tiny, and it would be a disaster.
Even Copper (RIP), who loved to find high places, never jumped up on the counter.
How do Steve and Maxwell get along?
The Pale Scot
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
He sounds like a bowling ball bouncing down the stairs…
“At my signal, unleash hell”
Paul Bronks
prostratedragon
@rikyrah: i remember that season. What a Belmont! What a horse!
Unfortunately, there was <much tragedy at Churchill Downs this week. I wonder if more horses are breaking down now than then.
OT: Noir Alley is back!
Mike in Oly
@Jackie: Spray bottles work great for most cats but not all. I am reminded of my sweet long-haired ornj boy June bug who, as a kitten, got onto counters. Spray bottle handy I started his training. He just stood there every time looking around trying to figure out where that water was coming from. It didn’t bother him in the least! Only cat I ever saw that simply did not mind getting wet. I resorted to sticky pads where he jumped up. He stopped very quickly after. Miss that boy.
BeautifulPlumage
@Gvg: I’ve seen videos of cats on exercise wheels, might take up less space.
Jackie
@Mike in NC: Nine including the shooter. I watched the “official briefing” and was appalled by the dispassionate tone by the group. No information outside of the death toll. Nothing about type of weapon. Nothing about the shooter. Nothing about age range of the victims. The local politicians assembled were all GQP and only offered “prayers.” They refused to take questions. It was disgusting. Very Texan.
AJ of the Mustard Search and Rescue Team
That’s beautiful news. Thanks for the update and hope you’re good Cole.
Frankie T.
Max is a handsome beast, and he sounds like he’s as affectionate and charming as my black cat was. Which means that you’re a lucky guy, Cole.
JWR
@Jackie:
I noticed that. They they seem to have dropped the “thoughts” bit and are simply going with “prayers”.
sab
Our cats eat at their own little place on the kitchen counter because we have always had huge dogs roaming the floor, hoping for cat food.
Yutsano
On topic:
MAXKITTEH!!!
BigJimSlade
We had a cat when I was growing up that would jump up onto the kitchen counter because there was a window above the sink. She would sit in the window.
TriassicSands
@rikyrah: @prostratedragon:
Since the day in June 1973 when it took place, I’ve considered Secretariat’s Belmont victory to be the single greatest athletic feat I’ve ever seen. However, seeing Barbaro go down in the Preakness made me realize that the beauty of watching thoroughbreds run is not worth the toll it takes. Seven horses dead at Churchill Downs in the last week.
The sport is cruel and corrupt and should be banned. (They won’t even ban Bob Baffert for life.)
TriassicSands
Um, I’m not sure that has ever stopped most cats. That’s where the idea of “nine lives” comes in. They just cross their claws and leap… .
sab
Now that I think about it, we have had a lot less feline counter activity since StarScream died. He was always in my business wherever I was. He loved to observe dishwashing and meal prep.
Meg and Mouf eat on the table behind the sofa under the front window. Shadow eats on the kitchen counter where StarScream used to eat. Dobby eats in the basement on the floor beside my desk. Ponyo the pitmix dog is terrified of the basement. In her former life she spent most of her time in the basement locked in her cage. She has never once been in our basement.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@The Pale Scot:
I saw that when it was released. I saw right where it was going before it happened and wasn’t disappointed.
Cat nuclear reaction…lol
sab
@Odie Hugh Manatee: StarScream, the feline love of my life, managed to break all of my great-grandmother’s limoge cups while he was exploring a cupboard in our basement. Thirty years I had hauled those cups all over the world, and in one afternoon he demolished them, wandering through a cupboard that couldn’t handle his chunky cat weight.
Gemina13
@TriassicSands:
My mother once told me the greatest race she ever saw was Secretariat winning the Belmont. Having seen the footage, I have to agree. He was the acme of racehorses, so incredibly fast for his size and build. When he died of laminitis in 1989, Mom actually cried.
I’ve seen several beautiful horses break down – Go For Wand, Barbaro (which broke my heart), and Charismatic – but after seeing Eight Belles go down in the Derby in 2008, I quit watching altogether. The sport is in dire need of reform and has been for decades, and the poor horses are so inbred their bloodlines make the Habsburgs look like total strangers.
sab
Cole: Too late now, but I wish you wouldn’t let that guy outside. All my outdoor cats died young: cars, dogs, coyotes. My indoor cats are eldetly and happy.
Gemina13
Maxwell is one gorgeous cat. I love black cats; Lucky, my tuxie boy, was the closest I came to owning one, and was a handsome chunk of curious, lively, attention-hogging feline. If he wasn’t up on my desk, he was either at my feet or squeezed next to me on my chair.
My bestie came to see me after my mom died of Alzheimer’s in 2008. She’d heard me talk about Lucky, but hadn’t met him before then. While I was at work, she took pictures of Lucky lounging on our dining table (where my mom had always let him lie). When I returned, she showed me a picture she’d taken of Lucky lying odalisque-style on the table, with a grape she’d placed in front of him. The look on his face clearly said, “What is this? This is not food. It isn’t giving me pets. Why is it here?”
Lucky didn’t climb on counters or cabinets, but my current cat, Penny, can leap like a champ up on top of our kitchen cabinets. She likes to do it and then meow at me to come play with her, batting at my head while she sprawls near the edge. One of her names is now Miss Springheel.
sab
Odie Hugh Manatee
@sab:
Sacrificed at the altar of the Cat…lol! All those years of hauling them around and…
cat happened! ;)
TriassicSands
@Gemina13:
Maxwell’s OK, but he’s no Secretariat. (Just kidding.)
satby
The last cat I rescued is a beautiful, sweet, cuddly black panther who has been staying in the “kitty room” since his neuter because my big orange boy Simba hates him. My last hope is Feliway Optima, or I’ll have to put him into our adoption queue. I really worry about that, black cats (black animals generally) linger much longer waiting for adoption.
It’s so sad how a lot of people treat animals around here. I have a probable sibling to Bitchleen coming to be fed on my porch every day now. Someone’s cat has been having litter after litter and the kittens are left to fend for themselves outside. Another tuxie, I’ve taken five total off the streets since I moved here, two pregnant. The first pregnant one in 2018 had 8 kittens that would have been born on the streets. But it’s like mopping up the ocean with a paper towel.
pluky
@JWR: They don’t want people to think. Might cause problems (for the “Group”).
pluky
@prostratedragon: Throughbreds have been bred to the tolerance limit of the equine form. Breakdowns are a feature at this point, not a bug. See problems with exophthalmia, sinus infections, and need for caesarian delivery in bulldogs.
J.
Just don’t give him a silver hammer.
Greg Ferguson
He is very handsome, and he has grace. Lucky boy!
tokyokie
@Odie Hugh Manatee: The fat-ass meezer we had while I was growing up would frequently get the zooms and tear-ass down the hallway. Except his eyesight wasn’t very good, and he’d run full-speed head-first into the wall at the end of the hall. After a couple or three weeks, he learned where the wall was and managed to avoid smacking his head against the wall. But then my mother put a large trunk at the end of the hall, and WHAM! He ran head-first into the trunk and picked himself up and had a puzzled look on his face. But he quickly learned where the trunk was.
WaterGirl
@Redshift: Reading!
karen marie
@Jackie: Everyone knows if you don’t talk about it, the problem goes away.
Joelle
I had the pleasure of singing Happy Birthday to my melanistic panther step son Maxwell via FT while he inhaled tuna and Steve screamed along in two part harmony and my future as a Cole could not possibly be brighter.