Sleep Softly, Sweet Behemoth

 My furry little buddy has passed away.  Behemoth, how I will miss you.

I know that you haven't been well for awhile, and we did all that we could without going to invasive, painful extremes.  You put up with me shoving that syringe full of medicine down your throat twice a day when you weighed only 4 pounds.  You impressed everyone at the vet's office with your spunk and spirit - no one was willing to count you out or give up on you and they all knew who you were.  We all knew that your body was fragile, but your spirit was huge.  And no one more so than Bogart...

You raised Bogart from puppyhood - made him into a cat-loving (and respecting) dog.  I will always be grateful for your input into his education.  And I will never forget one of the funniest things that I have ever seen in my life - when Bogart was about 3 months old and you were trying to teach him some lesson with your mighty paw, which got stuck in his mighty moustache and then seeing the two of you run at top speed through the apartment.  You meowing like crazy as you were pulled along, claws caught in the 'stache, him barking and running in all directions.  I'm sure you didn't think it was as hilarious as Klaus and I did, but I thank you for that incredible laugh.

And I thank you for your calmness, your kindness, and your willingness to greet any and everyone who entered the door of anyplace we have lived.   The way you would sleep on my hip after Klaus passed away.  Your insistence on a certain brand of indoor dry cat food.  The way you could jump straight up in the air with the greatest of ease.  That incredibly long, soft tail.

It was an agonizing time in your last few days - but I think we are all happy that you were allowed to pass away at home.  You left us while we were asleep, I hope that you just went to sleep too.  Bogart kissed you and tried to nudge you awake after you were gone, and then he wouldn't let me put you into the box to take you to be cremated.  He barked and barked and guarded you.  The other kitties and he all got a chance to kiss you goodbye - and they all knew.

Many people who didn't know you assumed that you must be a giant, fat cat with a name like Behemoth.  But of course, nothing could be further from the truth.  You were not named for your size but more for your attitude, after the character in the novel, The Master and Margarita:

An enormous (said to be as large as a hog) black cat, capable of standing on two legs and talking. He has a penchant for chess, vodka and pistols. In Russian, "Begemot". The word itself means hippopotamus in Russian as well as the Biblical creature. A demon in disguise, able to take human form for short time. (from Wikipedia)

Yes, you were not a black cat, but a grey puss in white boots.  A gutsy street cat, you wandered into our lives as a kitten with teeth like a hillbilly vampire and every type of worm that a cat can have (and probably some that cats really, really shouldn't have).  A tail as long and sinuous as a whip.  And the insistence that an entire slice of pizza is a fitting meal for a cat.

You were Klaus' favorite - he always said, "This is my cat".  And you know he didn't like cats (on the outside).  Many hot afternoons were spent in Los Angeles with Klaus sleeping on the couch on his side and you draped over his hip like a kilt, front paws fully akimbo, both of you snoring.

We will miss you tremendously. Sleep well, sweet boy.

Lulu

Willie Comes Home

It's been a tough week around here after losing Willie.  My long-haired orange tabby pal was not just big in stature, but also big in presence.  All of our other kitties seem a little "off" and have basically been grumpy and needy all week.  I too miss him a lot, even though he didn't like me all that much (he smelled awfully good).

Tonight mama and I went to pick him up and bring him home.

It's hard to believe that this little, wooden box holds the remains of my big, furry friend.

Oh Willie, my pal, I would far prefer your furry butt and amazingly fluffy tail, but this box is darned nice.

You still smell good, and I will never forget you.  Now mama can put you on the little shelf with all of our other kitties and with Klaus (yeah, dad wouldn't be thrilled to know that he's surrounded by cats, but hey, he was surrounded by them before so I'm sure he will appreciate the company).

Love,

Bogart

RIP Sweet Willie

Tonight my kitty brother Willie passed away. He was here in our apartment, purring and whipping around that extra-furry tail of his, and then we think he had a massive heart attack. Mama did her very best to hold him and pet him, but in almost an instant, he left us.

Willie joined our furry family only a few years ago - he originally belonged to one of mama and dad's good friends, and when she passed away he came to live with us. Aside from a few small differences of opinion (which he generally won), I loved my pal Willie. He was a long-haired orange tabby, very light of foot and sweet of disposition (except when he was pissed off at me, or when he wanted to pass me in the hallway). A real handsome devil indeed, expert treat procurer, and from what mama tells me, a warm bed buddy.

A (mostly) gentle giant, Willie even managed to charm this Dale even though he had never lived with dogs before. I will miss his spirited debates, that gigantic tail that could take you out as he ran by, and the way he made mama so happy.

Run wild and free Willie... WE LOVED YOU SO

Love,

Bogart

Sunny Seat As Seen on Kafka

Around Chez Bogart, you know that we test out a lot of doggie products - I always give my honest opinion, and I just LOVE to get packages - but despite sharing my home with 4 kitties I don't often get them involved in the testing.  Today that will change as we've received a Sunny Seat to try.

Now.  We don't normally do the "as seen on TV" stuff no matter how intriguing they may be.  Firstly because Kafka (the short-haired orange tabby) won't let us get the remote, but also because we don't have cable, damnit.  And our antenna is one step above rabbit ears, so basically we never really see the stuff.  And at first look, we didn't have much hope that this would be all that great.

Sure, mama thought, there is no way this can hold even one cat, much less 50 pounds worth.  The pieces looked uninspiring.

But it was indeed really easy to assemble - taking the 5 minutes that the box said it would.  Whew!

After assembly, we attached it to our window with the big suction cups.  Hm.  It's staying.  We were pretty sure this was the moment it would fail, that the suction cups wouldn't do their job, and that it would fall off of the window sadly in a heap of plastic.  But we were wrong.

How best to test?  With our un-shy-est cat, Kafka.

Kafka is a sound 15-pounder.  He's not afraid of much, and once promised some chicken liver treats in exchange for posing for photos, was completely on board with our testing.

This holds!  It does what it says it does!  Thumbs up (is this the part where the chicken liver treats come out?)

Kafka - still waiting for those treats.  But damn, this window seat HOLDS.

A little lovin' for our fine, feline product tester.  Your butt for science, Kafka!

After the initial testing phase, Kafka took over the seat as his own.  We even caught him napping in it.  No sign of it coming off of the window.  As we said earlier, we thought that this wasn't going to work but this window seat really performed!  No tools needed, nothing that has to be screwed into walls, this just sticks on a window.  For us, it's big enough for one kitty, so we can't speak as to the holds-50-pounds-of-kitty claim, but it really does hold and Kafka seems quite content in it.  AWESOME!

Love,

Bogart

Who Wants Whipped Cream?

Bogart, Kafka, and Behemoth have their very first whipped-cream-from-the-can experience. Who likes it? Who hates it? And who hides from it?

Tune in for all the answers…

 

Love,

Bogart

Kafka's Diet Challenge - The Results

Ok, I didn't think this was actually possible.  There, I said it.  There was no way that my tubby tabby was going to lose significant weight in a month.

Kafka, my short-haired orange tabby pal, agreed to try Hill’s Science Diet Adult Cat Light food for a month.  The box arrived with the goodies, and Kafka was thrilled.  Almost ANYTHING can be considered food by Kafka, he is truly a cat of little finicky-ness.  And thusly, his girth increased proportionally to his love of food (and stealing his housemates' food) to about 17 pounds.

We were also going to try helping Willie, our long-haired orange tabby, lose a little.  He came to us about 3 years ago when a very good friend of ours passed away, leaving him in our care.  Willie is AWESOME but he looks huge.  Upon closer inspection (in order to get a true feeling for exactly how much he should probably lose) there wasn't nearly as much cat under all of that long hair as we'd thought.  And he only weighed about 15 pounds with a big frame and giant paws, so we were definitely going to concentrate on Kafka.

Ta-da!

Today Kafka weighs 15 pounds - he lost 2 pounds in a little over a month!  I know he looks a little, um, "intense" in this photo, but for once it's not for want of more food.  He was really satisfied with the Hill's Science Diet food and maybe even puked a little less than usual (so hard to tell - with 5 cats, it's not always easy to figure out just who puked, where, and when).

Never one to miss a meal, Kafka enjoyed the little beige pellets.  I didn't change his other, regular food during the test (he gets a spoonful of wet food each day along with all of the other kitties, along with being allowed to free-feed at the crunch trough).  The only thing that changed was the crunchy food, and damn did it make a difference!

Kafka does kitty aerobics on his back.  Arms swatting in the air is his main form of exercise.  In fact he is named Kafka because of the story The Metamorphosis, where Gregor Samsa turns into a cockroach and cannot right himself.  Just let that mental image sink in for a few minutes.  There.  Now you can picture Kafka my kitty on his back meowing for more chow.  And yeah, he's still not a big exercise buff.

Again, he may not look it in this photo (it's hard to catch the wide array of emotions that Kafka is capable of on film), but he's a happy boy.  Still has some belly, still a mighty mouser, but carrying a bit less stash in the belly bag.

Thanks Hill's for allowing us to participate!  Kafka sends along his love...

Love,

Lulu and Bogart

Tubby Tabby Time!

At Chez Bogart, we love us some tubby tabbies.  I have three - Kafka, the short-haired orange tiger, Willie, the long-haired ginger lion, and Aeon, the brown and white taberina.

 

While we may say they're fat - or big boned, or fluffy, or whatever - they basically don't care about what we think.  That's fine.  But as they are my kitties I want them to be healthy for a very long time, so methinks it's time for them to go on a secret diet.  Feeding them less food (or food they don't like) is out of the question.  With hours and hours of time to plot their revenge, both mama and I agree that this could be dangerous to our apartment and everything in it.  So we have partnered with Hill's Science Diet to give their Science Diet Adult Cat Light food a shot.  A few days ago a very large box arrived with oodles of dry kitty chow inside, kindly provided by Hill's.

This should be interesting.

So for the next few weeks, there will be some feline action on my dog blog.  I will keep you updated as to their progress in losing a pound or two each, and if they stage a feline revolt.

And as an extra-special treat, our friends at Hill's Science Diet are giving us 5 sample kits to give away to my feline friends!  Because I cannot think of a clever way to give these away (I'm sure the cats could, but I don't want to wake them up from their 23.5 hour daily naps, they get all cranky and claw-y), I am going to do this the easy way.  The first 5 cats (or cats' people) who leave me a comment asking for a sample kit will get one.  Please leave your email in your comment so that I can contact you and get your physical address.

Love,

Bogart

Chicken Soup - Thanksgiving Style

NOM NOM NOM


Mama makes my chicken soup a few days at a time now in my handy-dandy crockpot. With thanksgiving coming this week, she's added a few new veggies for my fuzzy pleasure.

I don't really care about the veggies, but don't tell her that. She's excited about it.

Instead of my regular sweet potato, carrot, and beans, I get sweet potato, carrot, okra, rutabaga, and celery - mmmmmmmm

It looks good now - I'd take it as is - but after a few hours of stewin', it's going to be PERFECT

Even the carnivores in the house agree.

Kafka did try to steal a chicken breast out of the pot while mama wasn't looking, but I thwarted his attempt. He comforted himself by taking the chicken container out of the trash, running around with it, and then settling in for some carnivore fun of licking it clean. Go Kafka!


Love,
Bogart

Tabby vs Terrier

I am not at all ashamed to say that I am not brave enough to take on this tabby. You should have seen the ferocity in his eyes, he only caught my attention because he started spitting at me as I walked past. I stopped to see what was spitting at me, and it was him! I tried to let him know that I am a friend of felines, that while I might chase him I wouldn't hurt him, but he wasn't having it. He advanced as I slowly retreated, defending those stairs with all he had. After a minute I lost interest and we walked away, but this guy actually followed us for two more houses, spitting and arching that back of his.

Don't worry my friend, I know who the boss is (based on the sharp claws on those little feline feet)!

Love,

Bogart

Year of the Tiger... Cat

Kafka is particularly excited about today beginning the Year of the Tiger... you can just FEEL the excitement...

It is the Year of the Tiger Cat - Belly

Tiger Cats are the tubbiest sign on the zodiac, methodical in their purrsuit of food (especially from other cats' plates), intelligent deep inside that they choose to hide with a somewhat goofy demeanor. They sleep more than any other astrological sign because they are deep thinkers and imaginative players. They rarely jump and miss, for their internal upward-motion calculator is top-notch. Catnip can be a problem if they overindulge. They can be possessive of items they deem to be their own (if someone else is sitting on or playing with it). But more of a lover than a fighter.

I too am celebrating the Year of the Tiger - Cat with my favorite tiger striped blanket. If I'm not sleeping on mama, I'm sleeping on this.

Happy New Year everyone!

Love,

Bogart

The Feline Purrsuasion

As you know, I share my abode with several felines. This is Sekhmet.

I think she enjoys my company the most - well, at least I don't see her claws that often. Sekhmet is 13 years old, and is the only cat my mama has that came with her from NYC to the west coast. Our "elder stateswoman" as mama says, or "Queen of Sheba" as Sekhmet thinks.

I am really intrigued with her. She has a fantastic talking AND singing voice. Mama says it is because she is part Siamese. She's quite the talker.

She's also a drooler. When mama pets her and she's purring really, really hard, she starts to drool. It's pretty hilarious.

As you know, cats are pretty clean animals and Sekhmet is no exception. Plus she has me around to help out.

I think she's pretty awesome. A mighty purr in a tiny body. Such a pretty girl. One of these days I'll get her to snuggle with me...

Love,

Bogart

My Dirty Little Secret

I have a secret.

While on my evening walkie, I like to swing by a local doggie store because they have KITTENS in the window.

I make sure that we go down this street every night since the kittens arrived. Now you'd think I get enough cat action - having 5 of my own at home - but NOOOOO...

I find them simply irresistible.

So I have to do something to redeem myself, and regain my canine dignity. Hows this?

Love,

Bogart