Friday Cat Blogging

The cats that reside under my roof seem to be in most part in sync with me. We all get up together around the same time and eat breakfast around the same time. I assume that while I am away, they nap during the day. When I come home, they come to greet me at the door. During the time I am having dinner and doing miscellaneous things, they take the opportunity to play. In other words, they are active while I am active. The added bonus is that in the evening, watching them play is quite entertaining. Later in the evening, as I start getting ready to go to bed, they settle down. When I finally nestle myself into my bed, they too are going to sleep as well. They are pretty quiet during the night while I sleep and I assume that they are sleeping or in down mode. This usually works out well for me. Usually.

The problem is that lately I have been keeping rather odd and rather late hours in the lab. I have been coming home at various times. Anywhere from 2am to 8am. Cats, being creatures of habit, do not seem to know what to make of my odd hours it would seem. Their typical schedule seems to have gone out of whack.

So, it would seem that last night I had an attack of what I term the Polter-Kat (or more precisely, the Polter-Katzen).

When I got home last night at 2am, I was way too tired to do anything or even eat dinner. I realize it would have been a simple matter to just pop something in the microwave, but fatigue won over hunger and just fell into bed when I got home. I was looking forward to falling asleep within seconds, but it was not meant to be. The Polter-Katzen decided to strike.

First, the Polter-katzen decided to go into high energy play. I could hear various crashes throughout the house. It sounded like some sort of high speed chase was in effect until they hit some solid obstactle--like the wall. Distracting.

Then one of the Polter-Katz decided to get up on my dresser and start playing with a bouquet of flowers I had in a vase (they are wilted and somewhat dry at this point and make various crinkly noises when played with). I got up, shooed Polter-Kat away. Polter-Kat came back and continued playing with flowers in vase. Got up, scolded cat, and put vase of flowers in dining rooom making mental note of dealing with the dried flowers the next day.

Polter-Kat came back into room, found a small piece of cellophane paper to make new crinkle noises. Got up again. Found small piece of paper and properly disposed of it. Scolded Polter-Kat.

Polter-Kat has decided she is thirsty. Starts slurping water from the water bowl in the bedroom. I did not realize cats could slurp in such a loud and distracting manner. Oh, and who's bright idea was it to put a food and water bowls in the bedroom anyhow?

Moments later, Polter-Kat is on large dresser playing with some dried red roses I saved from a bouquet I received this summer. Shooed Polter-Kat away.

Then again, Polter-Kat is back on same dresser. Now playing with a large key that is sitting in a gift box. Apparently Polter-Kat is trying to remove key out of box. Finally gets key out and drops it on the floor. Starts playing with key on the floor. I get up again, shoo away Polter-Kat, and put key under my pillow so that Polter-Kat cannot easily get to it. Must make mental note to remove key from under pillow at some point so that key does not end up poking my body while I sleep. Plus having a key under a pillow is a weird thing anyhow.

At this point, I have learned from my mistakes and banish all cats from my bedroom (including Rorschach who was quite innocently curled up on my bed purring). I close my door.

Later, I hear what appears to be some type of fur equivelent of a bowling ball at high speed come rumbling down the hall and come crashing through my door (opening it in the process). Apparently, a game of high speed chase was in effect. Rorschach (aka Inkblot) was the chasee. He then finally catapulted himself onto the bed and I was the landing pad. Although quite impressive for a 16 year old cat, it was not appreciated. Milliseconds later, the rest of the Polter-Katzen were leaping on my bed to continue the chase. I was not amused to have various Polter-Katzen landing on me.

But they finally did settle down and go to sleep.

It was 4am now. I had to be up in two hours in order to get to the lab early to go over data with my advisor.

Poltergeist: (from German poltern, meaning to rumble or make noise, and Geist, meaning "ghost", "spirit", or "embodiment") denotes a spirit or ghost that manifests itself by moving and influencing objects.
Katzen: german plural of cats.