Genghis Khat - in fond memory

Unless you are a cat lover, or lover of any pets for that matter, you probably won't be able to identify with this.  I don't know that this post can be classed as a present good time, but it is an acknowledgement of past good times that will be remembered with fondness.  Last Tuesday morning, May 7th, was the last time we saw our Genghis Khat.  It was a rushed morning and I asked Paul to bring him up from his chosen place to sleep in the garage, missing our usual good morning pets and purrs and the over the shoulder ride up the stairs.  He was in a hurry to get outside and get on with his business, so I didn't get to greet him before he headed out the door.  I remember thinking at the time that I missed saying hello, but would catch him on his next pass. Looking at this logically I realize that he was with us for longer than most cats I've had.  He joined the family in the fall of 2007 when he was about 3 months old. For nearly 6 years he added his personality quirks to the house and brought a lot of laughs, peace, expenses, worries and love to us.  We will miss him and will wonder how he left us, but we will remember him as the crazy, grand cat that he was.  Good hunting Genghis. I hope there are plenty of people around to turn on the water in the sink for you to get a drink. 

Genghis Unleashed!

Genghis has spent his life harnessed to a line in our back yard. He has some serious pulling muscles from always going to the very end of his line. Well, he got too smart and just started going to the end...and then backing out of his harness by turning it wrong side out. We decided it was time for him to have a life unleashed. Now every night when Paul and I go for a walk we feel like fools calling the cat, but we usually find him yowling at the door to come in by the time we get home. Dumb cat. Why can't he just come without making fools of us? Anyway, we hope he is smart enough to stay out of trouble. For us nearly empty nesters, it's like sending our kid out into the big world!  Update - he is getting to where I can just call him loudly from the front and back doors and after a bit he shows up.  I'm sure the neighbors love this nightly howling and yowling ritual.  I do think he is totally enjoying being a free cat.  Paul saw him out back yesterday snacking on a bird he had successfully downed.  The mighty hunter free at last!

He gets pretty worn out with all of his running around, and has to take a chance to relax now and then.  

Genghis on peach patrol

In the bottom left picture he's licking his chops just thinking about the birds he might snag!

Genghis is doing a pretty good job of keeping watch over our peaches this year.  If he could just be out all the time I don't think the birds would get much of any chance at them.  He has a little spot just barely big enough where he lays in wait for any feathered snack that might come his way.

A visit from a cat burglar

The other night when Paul and I went on a walk I saw this ball of hair cat.  I gave it a little bit of petting.  It followed us for a little bit more, and then a little bit more, and then it just decided to follow us all of the way home...several blocks.  It wasn't about to give up and tried to come in the house with us.  It's fat and someone must be feeding it, but it acted like it was planning on moving in.  It yowled at the door and Genghis went crazy trying to get out there and see who was in his territory.  Finally we put Genghis to bed and just forgot about the other cat.  We have been sleeping with our window open and after we got to bed we hear that cat yowling up on our windowsill.  We just ignored it.  Later in the night we hear it yowling and then suddenly, it's in our room!  Don't know how it did it, but the screen was part way off - it didn't tear a hole in it or anything.  Paul jumped out of bed, threw it back out of the window and shut the window.  So, I guess you could say we had a cat burglar trying to steel some of Genghis' exclusive territory.  Crazy cat.  It was still here the next morning and had a hissing and growling duel with Genghis.  They just sort of hung out eyeballing each other all morning.  Thought it was gone later in the day, but this morning it was back, so I took this mugshot of it.  That was one weird experience.  Hope we never have a real live cat burglar. 

Genghis loads up to go to the vet

Today was the day for Genghis to go to the vet for his annual check up and to get his shots. When I got out his little travel house, he got right in and got comfortable...until we got in the car. He does not like riding for some reason and howls the whole time until the car stops. He was pretty nervous at the vet, but sat quietly, shedding lots of hair, and didn't growl at the vet like he does sometimes. He was pronounced healthy and very handsome, 13.7 lbs....and then howled all the way home again. We love you Genghis - and wish you a late happy birthday #3 on July 5th!

Genghis and his Christmas mouse

The first one to open a present this year was Genghis. He got a new catnip mouse. He got one just like it last year and loved it to death for quite a while and then lost it. He was so happy to get this replacement as you can see. If licking it to death means he likes it, then he does. Merry Christmas Genghis!

The Cat with the Christmas tree spirit

Every year since we got him, three Christmases now, Genghis has gotten very excited about the Christmas tree. Last night when we started putting it up, he couldn't even wait until it was all the way up to start climbing in it. Here he is wondering where the rest of his favorite seasonal toy is. We had thought about giving him a new experience, a real tree, by going out into the Kaibab and cutting down one, but decided that budget wise that would not be the best option this year. He'll just have to wait for another year to have the live experience. When we got up this morning the floor under the tree was strewn with ornaments and many limbs had the sagging look from being slid down. We are in for his usual undecorating antics it looks like!

Poor Genghis...a night on the town is pretty hard on a cat

Last Monday Genghis decided to sneak out the door and have a night on the town. We tried and tried to call him back, but he was determined. We finally had to go to bed and leave him to it. I went out in the middle of the night to see if he was interested in coming back in and he came trotting over to me ready to come back to the house cat life. In the morning we found him to be very sore on his right shoulder and found a little puncture wound. We cleaned him up and he seemed to feel better in a couple of days. Then the infection set in and on Monday next he had to make a visit to the vet and get fixed up. He had an abscess and has to wear the "cone of silence" for the next 10 days so he won't mess with his wound while it's healing. It has some stuff hanging out of it to keep it open while it drains. The "cone of silence" is doing part of the job, but not the silence part. He also has a hard time navigating around things and is always banging into stuff while he walks around. He loves to have you scratch his head and neck since he can't do any self scratching. He's getting a little used to it, but he looks quite dejected. We are hoping for a speedy recovery and no repeats of the night on the town activities in the future.

Genghis has a made a new friend next door.

Last week at church the neighbors informed us that Genghis has made friends with their puppy, Gunner. He's kind of a big,clumsy,slobbering,type friend, so he has to be kept in line. Genghis likes to lay on the wall between our house and theirs and when Gunner comes over to say hi they touch noses and do the sniffing thing, but all the while Genghis keeps one paw up in the air and has to occasionally give Gunner a little tap if he gets a little bit too fresh in his sniffing or nose touching activities. I have yet to see this take place for myself. Genghis seems to look forward to getting out to that area of the yard a bit more now. The neighbors gave me this picture that they snapped.

Bean and Genghis moved downstairs.

I sure wanted to get out into the hills on Saturday, but instead pop and I did a job that needed to be done...we moved Bean and Genghis in downstairs. It's a much more comfortable room as far as staying warm or cool goes so they were all for it, but not here to help. That's not all bad. Too many opinions about how to get that dang bed out the door can be irritating. This job also included moving all of Supe's boxes up to Bean's old room...a very heavy task with all of his books. Why, I ask myself every time I move them, did I work so hard to instill a love of reading into my kids. Books are soooo heavy to move. Then we got Bean's old room set up so Paul can have a place to paint and leave things out until he has time to get back to them. It's also an extra sleeping place for company. It was a hard day's work, but we got it done by noon and then Paul went over to his mom's to watch BYU cream that other team and do home repairs for her. I was happy to have a catch up day to clean the house after being out of town so much. Bean had "the best date of his life" on Saturday afternoon (he worked all morning). A girl took him clothes shopping and he insisted she shop too so it was great because they just spent all afternoon trying things on and "checking each other out". She's one of his friend's sisters and volunteered to drive him and help him pick out some new, non grease stained clothes. What an angel! So, even though we didn't get to hike or camp, we had a great Saturday! (The room looks rather bland, but we didn't get any pictures hung. Bean will have to finish the decorating himself.)