Richie Is Trouble

When we adopted our two cats from the Manchester animal shelter almost a year ago, I did not know what to expect. It had been a long time since I’d lived with cats.
There was a time of adjustment and at first I lost some sleep while the cats would roam the house all night and scratch at our closed doors, but once they began to go outside and run and play, they were better. Usually I now get a pretty good night’s sleep, but last night Richie had me up most of the night. I blame it on the moon because I don’t know what else to blame it on.

cat face
Richie aka “Trouble”

Fontana goes into the basement and sleeps quietly all night. I never hear from her until I get up and she hears me in the kitchen.
Richie on the other hand sleeps at the end of my bed until he gets antsy and then walks up to my head and sits staring at me while purring loudly… very loudly.

If I ignore him, he will do various things to get my attention such as knock over my water cup, chew on my eyeglasses, jump up on the bureau and chew on whatever he finds. His big trick is to flip upside down underneath my bed and pull himself along using my mattress!
If I refuse to get up and let him outside, he may dig his claws into my feet through the covers or dig at the side of the mattress.

Lets just say that Richie will not be ignored!

So I get up and throw him out and shut my door. That usually stops him for a few hours, but last night he kept on clawing at my door and meowing. Next, I tried the basement. He still spent much time clawing at the door, but I was able to ignore him.
So I am sitting here this morning not quite awake thanks to his antics. Once I get my wood stove going, which is in the basement, I won’t be able to shut the basement door at night and that will be a new problem.

The Chipmunk Fake Out

cats

Some place right in front of the cats in the picture to the right, is a hole in the ground where a chipmunk lives. My cats enjoy sitting close by waiting for it to appear.

Occasionally, Richie – crazy little kitty that he is – will stick both paws down into the hole and try to pry the little critter out. Richie is a male and is quite the hunter. He leaves dead things outside my back porch each morning.

He does catch many chipmunks and I’ve noticed that the chipmunks are really pretty clever. If you have outdoor cats that hunt link mine, you might already know about this, but I was so surprised when I first saw it.

Cat and chipmunk

All of a sudden the “injured” rodent bee-lined it for the woods.
He wasn’t hurt at all
…just pretending until he could make his getaway. And he did get away. We were all fooled, including Richie!

The cat will play with it’s prey. It’s very cruel, but they love the chase so don’t want to give it up right away.
We watched one day as Richie was playing with a chipmunk. As it (the chipmunk) hopped around with it’s back all hunched up, and Richie batted it around, we noticed that the chipmunk was moving towards the woods as he hopped in circles.
Suddenly the chipmunk came to life and bolted for the woods. He was lost in the leaves and rocks and had made his escape successfully. Richie was the loser.

I’ve seen this happen over and over since that day. Some of them don’t get away because Richie is an amazing hunter.

Richie the cat

Funny, Water Loving Cat

One of our new kitties -Richie- seems to be fascinated with water. They told us at the shelter that he would always tip his water bowl over and then lay in the wet newspaper.
We’ve caught him doing some strange things.

cat paws in water
Soaking My Paws - A Favorite Way to Drink

cat in water
Richie in the Water

After a long day of playing in the water, it’s nap time and the Hangman game seemed like a good choice for a bed.

Cat sleeping on Hangman game
Hangman Makes a Nice Pillow

Move over Vincent Price!