Caturday and Other Stuff

Cubby's recovered very well from all that trauma on Thursday. I first wrote some of it in my Grace in Small Things for that day. What happened was this:

It was not long after four-legged-friend dinner hour. TB needed to take a nap and Buddy, our pea-brained Lab, had begun barking his fool head off. I've never had a dog before who did not want to be outside in the fresh air. Buddy wants to do his business and come right back in. If he's not let in right away, he starts this incessant barking. Believe me, we've tried everything to break him of that but nothing has worked.

Anyway, I go to let him in and he's not at the door. So I started to call him. Either he's going deaf or he's not bright enough to realize which door I'm calling him from (there are 2 that open to the backyard). I step out into the yard so he can hear/see me. He starts to come and so I turn to step back into the house...and there's Cubby.

Now, Cubby's never shown any interest in going out. He's never even gone to the door when we've opened it. It was a big surprise to not only see him there but have him step out into the yard!

Before I can say anything, Buddy sees Cubby and starts to charge him. Cubby panics and instead of darting back into the house, he circles me and Buddy and runs into the yard. Buddy's delighted and races after him, barking. Great. Cubby makes one attempt to double back and get into the house but Buddy cuts him off. So ... Cubby streaks across the yard to our tall tree and climbs up the trunk by his claws.

The lowest branch is way over my head. Buddy can't reach Cubby but neither can I. I force Buddy back into the house, verbally abusing him with every blue name I can think of. I know I have to go get Ted because we'll need a ladder or the fire department to get Cubby down because ...

I know he's panicked. When I get back to the tree, Cubby is frozen to that branch, looking down at me and meowing piteously. I try coaxing him down and I can tell he wants to come but is too terrified. He's up too high with no other branches to climb down to. Ted can't coax him down and so he goes to get the ladder.

I'm praying and sweating bullets as Ted climbs up. The ground isn't firm and the ladder doesn't feel too steady. Luckily, though, Ted's able to reach Cubby and the poor little guy at least trusts us enough to not climb higher. He even lets TB pick him up.

When TB starts to go down, though, Cubby becomes the Tazmanian devil. He bites and or drives his claws through TB's fingers and also pees all over the both of us. Still, TB hangs on and brings him down. Once inside, Cubby disappears under the bed and TB starts soaking his fingers in peroxide.

Hours later, Cubby came out, went up to TB and meowed thanks. He did some head bumping and rubbing to show TB he was sorry for hurting him and appreciative of being rescued. He came looking for me, too. I was relieved he recovered so quickly.

We were so lucky and so blessed--that the ladder held, that Cubby didn't climb higher and that TB managed to hang on in spite of everything. Buddy was in the dog house all night and the thing is, he probably forgot what happened a minute after it happened. From now on, I won't leave the door open even for a few seconds while I step outside. No way do I want anything like this to happen again!

Want more Caturday? Be sure to check out Blogging Cat Noos!


Fire Psychology

I started reading The Circus Fire by Stewart O'Nan. It's about a tragic fire at the Barnum & Bailey Ringling Brothers circus performance in Hartford, CT back in 1944. I just read a section in which the author discusses research about how people behave in fires. It was fascinating.

When a fire breaks out, people don't react at first and that's normal. People may think oh someone will take care of that or their brains are busy thinking about something else. It takes a while to "get it". I might have had more trouble wrapping my mind around that except for what happened recently at the high school play.

Billy, Kristin and I went to see Beauty and the Beast at the high school in March. One of the teachers had just explained there were special effects in the play that might cause some glitches. The show started and the kids were in the very opening notes of "Belle" when I smelled smoke. I thought it was one of these glitches.

The fire alarm went off and ... we all just sat there. The kids kept singing and we in the audience tried to ignore that very annoying whooping sound. The principal got up and went to the back of the auditorium. I figured they were trying to figure out how to turn the alarm off. The principal came on the loudspeaker and said we had to evacuate the building.

Um, duh.

Anyway, I can now believe why people sat there and watched flames start to go up the wall of the circus tent.







Here's the villain in Thursday's event, Buddy: 

Yeah, I know--he's really cute, lovable and dumb. We aren't mad at him anymore.

 


Photo Hunt 210: Addiction




I was going to use a picture of me drinking coffee but then I came across this one first, taken in 2007. Food addiction! One of the reasons I ended up having weight loss surgery was because I'd gotten to the point that no matter how much I dieted or exercised, the pounds would not come off. That was due to insulin resistance and how do you get that? By eating too much of the wrong stuff! I still have a sweet tooth but what saves me now is that I can't eat what I did before without getting full or sick.