Breaking Cat News by Georgia Dunn for November 22, 2021

Get one cat down, another gets up. The circle of cats.

Oh what fun Turkey day will be this year!

Yeah, good luck with that.

The “cats” were trained?

How about retraining your visitors to accept that all food served must have the “Cat Hair of Approval”

Do I detect approaching doom?

An impossible task!

Samesies, Woman. Samesies.

The boys sure have their paws full, making sure the Woman has enough to stay busy!

Good luck with THAT.

Elvis, very fine form! 10/10

Elvis being a BAD boy!

If the houseguests are relatives, do whatever it takes to prevent what happened when my grandfather’s cat tried to share the kitchen with three human female cousins all trying to cook a holiday meal at the same time.

Let’s just say too many cooks plus metal cabinets equals hemidecaudated blue-point Siamese.

The Woman should be saying, Elvis no!

A Pucky hug…..and a gentle ‘no’…..Which one will Puck respond to??? I wonder…..

This is me this week. Parents arrive today for my first time ever hosting Thanksgiving. And so they can interrogate … er, I mean meet … The Girlfriend, who they were unable to meet in June. The Girl, however, is excited to see The Gigi again.

Pucky toebeans!

Naughty cats!

As the time flies

As a cold and gray Thanksgivin’ mornin’ nears

“No! Go!” a poor little blacky cat hears

From the counters

(From the counters)

And the woman shouts

‘Cause if there’s one thing that she don’t need

It is two more pesky cats to see

On the counters

People, don’t you understand

The woman needs a helping hand

Or she’ll grow to be an angry young human some day

Take a look see left and right

Retraining them will be a fight

Do we simply shake our headsAnd laugh a foolish way

Well, the world turns

And a hungry little cat with reporter clothes

Plays disobedience as the cold wind blows

On the counters

(On the counters)

And his hunger burns

So he starts to jump the sheer high heights

And he learns how to steal

And he learns how to fight

On the counters

(On the counters)

Then one night in desperation

The young cat breakin’ news away

He jumps up there, gives us smiles

Tries to stay, but it’s just a while

And his woman shouts

As a catcrowd gathers ’round an angry young woman

Facing her with lovely grins and no will to be retrained

On the counters

(On the counters)

And as their young cats sit

(On the counters)

On a cold and gray Thanksgivin mourned

Another little pesky cat has soared

At the counters

(At the counters)

And the woman shouts…

Has Goldie experienced cranberry space goo yet?

Reminds me of when we had our Molly Cat (RIP) and my hubs thought he could teach her to stay off the counters by spraying her with the Super Soaker every time she jumped up there. All he taught her was when the SS was in hand, she would stay far away but when it wasn’t, it was all toe beans on ‘deck’. He finally gave up. Loaner Cat is too fat to jump onto the seat of a chair so no counters for her. He thinks she’s the greatest cat since sliced bread ;)

Cats on the counter…I can relate.

I hope everyone is ready for Thanksgiving who lives in the U.S. I have all our stuff bought and I am ready to cook. We are having my brother and his family over and as long as we don’t talk politics, we get along. Marie is running down to pick up Alexandria to bring her home from college, but Mac is too far away to drive, and it is too expensive to fly for such a short stay. He will be home in December from the ballet conservatory.

I made sausage, sauerkraut, and mashed potatoes last night and that silly black kitten ate sauerkraut! I mean, come on, sauerkraut? I haven’t made a meal since Hamilton arrived that he hasn’t come over to inspect or help. Does anyone want to cat-sit a little black kitten on Thanksgiving?

P.S., Georgia, don’t forget to take the grate out of the oven before warming it up!

I love Elvis’s dainty leap up while she’s distracted by Puck.

I had a similar problem on Saturday. In-laws came over for lunch, so I cleared my hobby work off the counter and cleaned and set the table. Yum Yum knows to stay off when the table is set. With Smudge, it was “cat jump off, cat gets taken off, repeat, etc…etc…” Smudge eventually got the message when my father-in-law gave a good loud shout of wrath.

Hi everyone, I am Hamilton A. Cat

This is my first time on my Human’s computer. It’s not so hard. He left for work so, here I am!

I am not sure how often I can be on. He is a good human but gets kind of weird when I do stuff he doesn’t think I should. After all, he needs a helper in the kitchen, and I know food. By the way, if he says anything about sauerkraut, all I was doing was making sure it was good. Geez, you’d think I was eating the whole can. Never mind about the steak, I lost my head.

He won’t read this, will he? He really likes the other humans here, and I want to be your friend, so don’t tell on me.

Your friend Hamilton

The cats must be wondering why it’s okay for the humans to bring a dead bird into the house.

You do know that you can neither herd or rangle cats…right?

Thanksgiving – a time for mega repast

And prep quite busy and filled with drama

Cooking! Cleaning! Company here at last

Pie of pumpkin! Baked bread of banana!

Now, will Elvis just stay off the counter?

Perhaps, with a visit from: The Nana!

Wait you can train them for that? We just gave up. :)

Our cats like the windowbox, and our latest black cat loves sitting on my feet. When I am in the office, she jumps on top of my feet and sleeps there. When I go to the door to leave, she’ll jog over and sit on my foot, with her paws around my calf. We had one other cat that used to do that, long time ago.

None of our cats jump on the tables or the counters, not even to avoid the dogs.

I guess we have been lucky in that department. They rarely go on the sofa, either.

When my oldest daughter comes by, Milly sits on the piano. That’s where she would stay when my “little girl” would practice, and whenever she comes home, this old gal would get the best seat in the house, to listen to her play. So I polished the piano, as she’s coming by for Thanksgiving.

Tonight on the Breaking Cat News Debate, countering the narrative.

Someone might have mentioned this yesterday, I didn’t read many comments from then, but if you check out Garfield’s Sunday strip it looks like he has something in common with Tabitha.

Finding a room to stash Elvis…

Yeah, that last one’s a lost cause—no way she’s going to get that down in their heads before Thanksgiving this Thursday. Especially when food’s involved, seeing cats will totally ignore pre-established rules if there’s good food involved. :P

OT: covid in family

And the cats on the counter

Wanna lick the spoons

No, Pucky, down

We’ll have company soon

Gonna sweep and scrub- Elvis

Get off of there

I don’t have a thing to wear, Man

That isn’t covered in cat hair

.

(With a thousand groveling pardons to Harry Chapin.)

I had a girl friend who had two cats that believed they lived on the counters. She was OK with it, but how is that hygienic, considering what gets on their feet when they’re in the cat box?

Yes, if our occasional guests only knew.

Too channel Robin, I fear that The Woman is doomed.

(We got lucky in that Albert A. Cat does not like to get much higher than his daybed and the occasional sofa.)

This is me next 3 days. The biggest challenge will be cleaning off my workspace aka the kitchen table. I am thankful my kitties don’t get on the countertops, the kitchen table unfortunately is another story.

OT: Cats rescued from BC floods

OT: Refugee cats at TinyKittens

My recently deceased wife had finally “got” her Oriental Shorthair kittens a few months before she died and she was training them to jump off of the counter onto her chest. Recently our son moved back into the house and he “thinks” he can stop them from being on the counter because his cats weren’t allowed at his house. We had always had cats for the entire 35 years we were together even before we had our son and they were always on the counters because we weren’t home to keep them off of them. At some point you had to pick the battles and that wasn’t one we could win if the cats were free to roam the house. If you came to our house to eat you knew you might get a stray animal hair because we had both dogs and cats. We knew it was an acceptable risk for the companionship they offered, sadly we lost most of our animals in 2020 and 2021 and the Oriental cats are all that are left and my loving wife never got the pleasure of enjoying them and I am sorry I turned this into a novel. Enjoy your Thanksgiving it will never be the same for me because it was one of my loving wife’s favorite times of the year and Christmas too.

OT: Gandalf’s surgery

My cats are allowed everywhere except the counters. The tables are fair game too. I am hoping the new guy Ruke will inform His Majesty who has been here 2 years and I got at 8 weeks that the counters are off limits. The NO-NO bottle does not work. HM will stand there and close his eyes and wait for the spray and will finally wait until he is soaked to slowly saunter off the counter. The girls if they get on the counters are at least smart enough to vacate before I get in the kitchen. HM jumps on the counter to see what I am doing even though he has a stool to sit on and watch.

We’ve managed to train our kitten to stay off the counters when we’re in the room. “In the room” is the important part of the sentence.

Akiro seldom gets on the counters while I’m in the kitchen. What he gets up to at other times? That’s anybody’s guess. I am trying to retrain my spouse to replace the cover on the butter dish though.

Got my 2022 BCN calendar today. Yes, I know it’s just last years updated as she’s been too busy to do a new one. Doesn’t matter, I get to see them every day on my wall for another year!

We now return you to excitment!

We feed one cat on the counter to keep the dog away from his food. But he’s never tried to get on the kitchen table. In fact he won’t touch people food, even though the vet would like him to eat eggs.

However, evil cat, we found out, has no qualms getting on the table, since we’ve had to start eating in the dining room while we remodel the kitchen. And she does like people food.

Counters, schmounters. Our little angels (ahem) go where they want. They sleep, play, and crime on the counters – and everywhere else. When I need to cook, I lock them out of the kitchen, sanitize the counters and get on with it. When I’m not cooking – I’d have better luck trying to stop the wind. . .

You’re no match for them, Woman.

Our older cats stay off the counters. New baby Susanna can’t jump up there yet. But hubby and our Thanksgiving guests carry them around everywhere and feel free to deposit them on the table. Oh well, my kids are all cat people too. They won’t mind.

That requires total consistency. It’s too late when company is coming. I have trained my cats to stay off the dining room table. One of my cats sleeps on a bed next to the table. One day I noticed she had stretched out while reclining to put one paw on the table. She noticed me noticing. There was a moment of mutual consideration. She decided not to move the paw. I decided it was only a technical violation. :)

The definition of cat: Can’t Avoid Trouble enough said