Sunday, July 30, 2006

Red Chief the Rascal



Time to introduce the "baby", who is seven years old, weighs 20 lbs and is larger than many dogs. His personality extends several feet into any room he enters. He has a monkey gene which emerges frequently (particularly when he wants attention) in some of the following ways:

1. Leap onto the top of the china hutch, where a row of family portraits sits, without touching a single one. I don't know how he does this without contravening the laws of nature.
2. Rachet up the aforementioned leap by standing on the hutch and vigorously scratching on the ornately-framed mirror which hangs behind it.
3. Leap onto the pantry cupboard in the kitchen, which ends ten inches short of the ceiling, and holds a collection of porcelain teapots.
4. Leap onto the round metal rods which frame a small greenhouse I keep in the kitchen. I don't have the cover on it at the moment so it is essentially a set of wire shelves topped by a set of fluorescent lights. He straddles a corner and hangs on with three feet as it rocks back and forth and I scream blue murder at him.
5. Leap onto the top of the wardrobe adjoining our bed and then bellyflopping onto the bed. We've had to keep boxes up there to keep him off. With purging and packing the boxes are gone, so he jumped up there twice last night. Problem is he often bellyflops onto my head.... go back and read about how much he weighs and think about the effect of his sharp pointy feet on my face.

After the second wardrobe leap last night he was escorted out the bedroom door and banned for the rest of the night. This morning he was all apologies and kisses, and needed a good long snuggle and rocking in the rocking chair before he felt secure in his mother's love. Poor thing. (Me, I'm the poor thing. He woke me up six or eight times last night and I'm gonna skin him and make a pair of fuzzy slippers of him if he isn't good.)

Rocketing from window sill to window sill, bouncing off all the furniture as he goes, is his favorite amusement. Oh, and standing in a doorway and jumping straight up to see how far he can jump. Five feet so far. He won't play with toys, but likes to chase a string drug across the floor. He tires of this within a few days and looks at me like he thinks I'm demented, which I well may be.

I've begun to wonder what he's going to bounce off of in the trailer?? We're installing a floor-to-ceiling scratch and climb pole for him. But I'm sure he'll soon figure out where my buttons are, and what it takes to push them.

3 comments:

Mandy said...

Remind me why I miss him? ;)
Please give Sal a big kiss for me.

Brenda in Toronto said...

Hi Deb -

Mandy sent me to over to visit to see The Rascal because I too have A Rescal, not only in personality, but looks as well! It's unreal how much your guy looks like mine!

Here's a few links from my blog with Chester (The Rascal, although the name I often use is not as polite!) so you can see how unbelievably similar they are. You might have to scroll down on a few of them to see the pix. Have a great day!

http://beachknits.blogspot.com/2005/05/rat-cat-bastard.html

http://beachknits.blogspot.com/2005/12/caught-in-act.html

http://beachknits.blogspot.com/2005/12/cat-psychologist-needed.html

Brenda

Deb said...

Hi Brenda,

Your Chester and our Sal are dopplegangers. I don't knit, so our little red demon is denied the pleasures of chasing yarn, but when he lived with Mandy he certainly indulged that passion. She cuffed him round the ears when he would latch onto her work. If I recall he liked the doo-hickey which Mandy used to make skeins with. I don't recall him taking much interest in yarn which was not being manipulated. He's a "motion" man. If it moves he attacks it. If it's high he jumps on it. He also opens drawers - and not just plastic ones. He is the drawer inspector. He rearranges things and throws stuff on the floor.