It’s a Pirate’s Life!

I’d like to introduce you to our beautiful cat Scotty!

Like a cat will be, he’s quite a funny character! Scotty’s joie de vivre has us laughing at his antics and loving him wholeheartedly. We call our yard “Scotland’s Yard”, and believe me he owns it! (BTW: that would make my house “Queen” Victoria’s House; better known as Windsor Castle!). He loves me well enough, but he LOVES Brian more and seeks his lap every time he saunters into the living room. If he’s not on Brian’s lap, he’s laying upside down somewhere – on a chair, on the floor, on the sidewalk… any surface works just fine as Scotty’s bed! When he’s on the floor like in the photo to the right (below), he won’t move an inch when we approach – we have to walk over or around the lug!!

 

One Christmas he was determined to join the family for dinner; he took my seat at his first opportunity (I was off to get more much-needed gravy!) and, except when I took his photo, he stared at the turkey on my plate with relish ~ eyes and nose inches away! MMMMM!!

When ever we’re trudging away in the yard, he’s out there with us “supervising” our work. The moment we stop doing whatever we’re doing, he runs over meowing and flops down at our feet. He gets a few pats and then takes off back to his perch to watch us some more – we take that as our cue to get back to work!

Oh… and how could I almost forget?! He prefers his water from the fridge dispenser with ice in it. It’s hilarious! Every time I go to get a glass of ice water, he’ll come charging into the kitchen (off of Brian’s lap if he must!) and he’ll sit patiently by the fridge door until I pour him some, too. Yes… he wants it in a glass so the ice floats. What a weirdo kitty!! ;-)

Poor Scotty has been through some traumatic times, too.

One time was when we had the vet shave off all of his thick luxurious fur because it was matted with burrs. He WAS NOT impressed! Although he discovered that pets felt soooo much better close to his sensitive skin!! He was so wonderfully funny looking!!

The other bad time in Scotty’s life was NOT as funny. Some nutcase in our neighbourhood (we never discovered who – could have been someone passing by) decided to grab him by his tail and not let go… the result was a broken spine at the base of his tail, and that meant amputation. What a tough time for him!! And as you can imagine, we were extremely upset!

But true to his life-loving and adventurous nature, Scotty just continued to have fun!

So why am I sharing Scotty tales with you (you’ll pardon the pun?)?

Because our silly Scotty is a pirate-hoarder!

Here… take a look at this:

These are Scotty and Shelby’s food bowls… AND Scotty’s stash. He takes twist ties, plastic bread-bag clips, strips of stuff like shoelaces & weather striping, dried twigs and leafs that he drags in from outside (it’s funny to see him at the door with a leaf in his mouth, waiting to be let in so he can add his new-found treasure to his collection!), and he brings them here to his bowls. He really, really likes dropping his treasures IN to a food bowl, like the leather shoelace above right.

Practicing good pirate security, Scotty keeps his treasure in 2 food-bowl locations.

X marks the spots!!

Fortunately for Scotty, Shelby (who has her own individual quirks, like happily pressing my fabric for me when I was making my pillows!) doesn’t mind sharing her food bowl with his junk. Ahem. I mean gold bullion!

Don’t judge us (LOL!!)… but it’s probably safe to say that we’re enablers of Scotty’s hoarding activity (bad us!!); rarely do we intervene by removing items from his stash zone or take any other action to curb his pirate behaviour… like picking up enticing tidbits we “accidently” drop on the floor!! And yes, when I clean the kitchen floor I work around any items lovely left… and when I’m cleaning bowls I generally put twist ties and such back in the bottom before placing the bowls on the floor… or I’ll “drape” a longer string ever so carefully half in and half out of his bowl in an attempt to re-create the treasure-trove scene! See… enabling!! ;-)

In fact, his hoarding activities have become such a common place occurrence that we generally don’t take much notice except to smile when we fill the cats’ bowls.

Last week though (and the whole reason I’m sharing Scotty Tales with you now), when I was making my new dining room drapery, he had me laughing and grabbing my camera! You see, I had cut off some excess lining and left the long piece sitting on the living room floor (my “work table”, if you’ll remember!). Moments later – not even 5 minutes - Scotty came strutting in the front door, walked right up to the enticing bit of treasure and, without any hesitation, picked it up and started to drag it – between his legs, trailing about 2 feet behind him – to his little stash zone! He stopped along the way to flop down beside his find and pose for a photo, possessively keeping his piece of lining close at paw. You know… just in case someone wanted to pull it and wiggle it around for him to snatch and bite!!

What a KOOK!

Of course once he’d deposited the lining-strip into his bowl, he had to have a bite to eat! The life of a pirate takes a lot of energy!!

 

 

 

We LOVE our pets!!

Do you have pets that make you laugh and bring you joy?

 

I’m dedicating this look at Scotty’s pirate, treasure-seeking life to his best friend, Simon. We lost Simon just before Christmas, weeks away from his 12th birthday, and we miss him terribly!!