Cute Kai

Yesterday, I had a cute story about Kai that I didn't have time to post. Then, last night, I was mad at Kai and wanted to post about that. Then, this morning, he got himself into a spot of trouble and I absolutely *have* to post about that. So this is likely to be long.

Over the weekend, I managed to fool poor ol' Kai. I took a bag of chips and a little can of cheese dip into the bedroom so that I could settle down with a book and eat myself into oblivion. Kai usually doesn't pay much attention to people food because he's never had many opportunities to taste it, but he was fascinated by the dip. I opened the can and he went nuts! He was climbing all over me, trying to get at the can, and it finally dawned on me that he might have thought it was cat food. (He gets canned food once a week, usually on Sunday, and the cans have the pull-tab lids like the dip can had.) Since he was so frantic, I figured I'd let him sniff the stuff so that he'd understand it was "yucky" and leave me alone. Ha! He liked it! If I hadn't pulled him away from the stuff, he probably would have eaten faster it than I did! Little pig. (Of course, he didn't want to have anything to do with it the next day when I tried to show Ron how goofy our little cat is.)

Last night, he was all wound up. I was talking to a friend of mine on the phone, and I didn't notice him flying around the apartment until after we hung up. He kept lunging at my ankles and trying to bite my knees, so I decided to play hide and seek with him. (I duck down behind the couch and he tries to pounce on my head just as I peek over the top. He usually manages to time it just right.) So we played that for a few minutes and he decides it's time to starting wrestling, instead. I'm trying to teach him to stop biting me when he wrestles, but it has been slow going--he doesn't bite or scratch very hard, certainly not hard enough to break the skin, but it still hurts. Plus, we're going to have a baby in January, and I'd rather that Kai not use the baby as a chew toy. Anyway, he attacks my hand and starts chewing away. I "Mrowed!" at him and said "NO!". It took several loud meows before I could even pull my hand out of his grip. And what does he do? He leaps at me and attacks me again! His ears were flat back on his head, his eyes were all dilated, and he just kept leaping at me every time I would pull away. So, I tried saying "no" and (gently) shaking him by the scruff of the neck. No dice. He just started trying to attack my body, rather than focusing on my hands. Meanwhile, Ron is sitting across the room, half-laughing in shock, saying "He never does that with *me*..." No kidding. The cat *likes* him. Hmph. After about five minutes, I managed to calm him down enough that I could pet him without having to dodge his little teeth, and then I left the room. It was kind of scary, even though I was pretty sure that he was only playing. I'm assuming that I would have lost some blood if he'd been serious. I don't know if he's establishing his dominance or if he was just too wound up or what.

During the night, he reverted back to his regular little cuddly self and he spent most of the early morning hours curled up by my side. I spent too much time petting him this morning, so I was running late for work. I finally finished up in the bathroom, and as I walked into the living room, Ron was watching him and laughing again. He asked me, "What is his problem??" as Kai raced around the room as if a demon was chasing him. I hadn't seen him yet, so I watched for a minute. He would spin around, trying to bite at something on his tail or his butt, and then he would leap into the air and race across the room. Then he'd start over again. So, I knew something was wrong. We cornered him and finally managed to grab him (not easy to do when he kept trying to race across the room). Poor thing had "dingleberries" stuck all over his butt. It was like, an entire bowel movement. Disgusting. So, there's Ron, trying to hold him in a good position, and there's me, trying to hold onto the turd with a paper towel and trying to cut the tangled fur with pair of scissors. And of course, there's Kai, trying like hell to get away so that he can go back to the serious business of running away from the intruders on his butt.

It took us nearly ten minutes, during which time, Kai meowed most plaintively. He even resorted to threatening to bite Ron (gently biting Ron's arm) "for real." Poor little guy. He was all discombobulated. After it was all over, though, you could almost see the wondering expression on his face. "Hey, my butt feels normal again. Hey, this is neat!" That's my Kai.

Copyright © Janet M. Schmitt
August 25, 1998