It’s Zaturday – Kitty Workers!

It’s Zaturday, the day we (Ziggy and Zorro) take over Mommy’s blog.

Zorro here. Mommy told us an interesting story this week. A long, long time ago, before Ziggy and I were even born (Mommy says 1868), British Post Office cats started getting a weekly salary. They even got a raise later. Their job was to catch mice.

I think paying cats is a great a great idea. Ziggy and I are trying to think of things we can do to make money. There aren’t many mice to catch, but I help Mommy write by laying in her lap. When she gets stuck and has to think about something, she reaches down and pets me. She says that helps get her going again.

Ziggy sometimes helps, too. He walks on Mommy’s computer and adds things to what she’s doing. Mommy doesn’t seem to like it, though, so he must not be doing it right. He would probably need some training before he could get paid.

If Ziggy and I got a paycheck, it would be fun picking out things to buy. We wouldn’t need to spend any of our money on food, like Mommy and Daddy do, because they buy us lots of good kitty food.

Weruva

 

We wouldn’t have to spend it on litter, either, because we always have plenty of that. And Mommy scoops the box several times a day, so it stays pretty clean. We don’t need comfy places to sleep, either, because Mommy and Daddy always let us sleep on the bed.

Maybe toys. Although, we have some pretty fun toys, too. There’s the red one with the scratchy thing in the middle and the ball that goes ‘round and ‘round. And the toy lizard that looks real.

 

 

At Aunt Kim’s house, we have a long fuzzy thing on a stick that Mommy shakes. It’s so much fun to chase.

Cats looking out windowWe even have a kitty condo with perches to lie on, hidey holes to sleep in and posts to scratch on.

Hmm, I can’t think of anything we could buy with our money. Mommy and Daddy already give us everything we want.

So maybe we don’t need to be paid after all.

 

It’s Zaturday – Mighty Hunters!

cat huntingIt’s Zaturday, the day we (Ziggy and Zorro) take over Mommy’s blog.

Zorro here. Ziggy and I love to hunt. It’s what kitties do. But being indoor kitties, we don’t get to do it very often. We have to content ourselves with watching the lizards on the other side of the windows and sliding glass doors.

We have a toy one that we like to bat around. It slides across the floor really nice, so it’s a lot of fun. But it doesn’t move unless we slap at it, so it’s not nearly as much fun as the ones we see outside.

Sometimes we have some excitement, though, when we’re in North Carolina. Every so often, a little field mouse will get into the house. When that happens, Ziggy and I go nuts! Although we’re pretty fast, the mice are usually faster, and they can get into little tiny spaces that we can’t. Once in a while, though, we’ll catch one. A lot of cats kill mice and eat them, but Ziggy and I aren’t interested in that. Mommy feeds us too good. But mice make really great toys, because they move on their own! The only way they would be better is if someone rolled them in catnip.

One time a snake got in. I was the one who found it. He was a pretty good opponent. He kept striking at me, but I didn’t let him get away. I had him trapped in the corner. When Mommy checked to see what I was doing, she got all freaked out. She was afraid the snake bit me. But I’m too fast for that.

Mommy grabbed me and locked me in another room until she and Aunt Kim caught the snake. Aunt Kim got out her snake book and found that it was an Eastern rat snake, which isn’t poisonous, so they took it outside and let it go in the woods.

When Mommy came in, she scolded me and said I should never play with snakes. I always try hard to obey, but I can’t make any promises if one gets inside again. If it moves, it’s way too tempting.

It’s Zaturday – Night Moves!

Ziggy here. Earlier this week, Mommy wanted to know if cats are nocturnal, so she asked The Google. I’m not sure what a Google is. It must be a really smart person who knows everything, because Mommy is always asking him questions. He even knows about kitties. Mommy learned that my mega-kitty cousins are nocturnal. Although housecats like us aren’t truly nocturnal, we are more active at night than in the daytime. I could have told Mommy that, and she wouldn’t have had to disturb Mr. Google.

It makes sense that cats would be nocturnal, because we can see pretty good in the dark. Although we can’t see in total darkness (it’s not like we have our own built-in night vision goggles), we need only one-sixth the amount of light that Mommy and Daddy need to be able to see.

Ziggy and I spend a lot of the day napping. That’s because we’re recharging our batteries. Right at Mommy and Daddy’s bedtime is when they get to full charge. It happens when Mommy goes into the bathroom to brush her teeth. First, Zorro jumps into the bathtub and chases his tail. You can hear him all over the house. Mommy says it sounds like a herd of elephants in there. When I jump in, he pounces on me. Then we both go flying out of there and chase each other around the house for a while.

We like to wrestle on the bed, too. When we do that, Mommy shoos us out of the room. Another fun thing to do is play in the blinds in front of the sliding glass doors. There are sliding glass doors in the living room and the bedrooms, so there are plenty of blinds to choose from. And they make the coolest sound. But Mommy doesn’t think so when she’s trying to go to sleep, and she yells at us. I guess people aren’t nocturnal, because Mommy gets grumpy at bedtime.

Eventually Zorro gets tired out and goes to bed. He likes to get under the covers and curl up against Mommy’s tummy. Then there’s nobody for me to play with. It’s really boring then. Everything’s dark and quiet, so I figure I might as well go curl up somewhere. But eventually everybody gets up and it’s fun again.

Now it’s morning, Zorro and I have enjoyed our yummy breakfast, and it’s time for our first nap. We’ll take five or six more. Then tonight we’ll be fully charged and ready to play!

It’s Zaturday – Kitty Toys, Yay!

It’s Zaturday, the day we (Ziggy and Zorro) take over Mommy’s blog.

Ziggy here. Zorro and I love to play. He’s three and I’m four. According to the Purina Cat Chow chart, that’s 28 and 32 in people years. We’re still young enough to enjoy toys. A lot. And when the toys we have get pushed under the furniture and we can’t reach them anymore, we look for other things to play with.

Zorro is pretty weird. I don’t understand some of the things he likes to play with. Like the paper coming out of the printer. It doesn’t matter where he is in the house. When he hears it start up, I’d better get out of the way, because he’ll just about run me over getting to it.Cat playing

 

The other day, Zorro walked out of the bathroom carrying Mommy’s toothbrush. I just looked at him like he was crazy. I have more discerning tastes than that. Like a piece of paper crumpled into a ball. When Mommy throws that down the hall, I can’t resist. Mommy’s hair is fun, too. It’s long and sometimes falls into my face when she picks me up. For some reason, Mommy scolds me when I swat at it.

But one of my favorite toys is this. When I hit the ball, it goes ‘round and ‘round. What’s even cooler, though, is the cardboard stuff in the middle. It feels so good on my feet. I sharpen my claws on it, and Mommy doesn’t yell at me like she does when I tear up the furniture or the woodwork.

cats with catnipBut what really makes this toy the bomb is when Mommy or Daddy sprinkle catnip into the cardboard stuff. Aaaah, maaannn! Cats are supposed to act proud and independent. Cool and collected. Disinterested. But something about that stuff just makes us lose all dignity. I can’t resist it. Zorro can’t, either.

It’s been a while since our humans added it, so the smell is pretty much gone. We can walk over to the toy, bat the ball around a few times or sharpen our claws on the cardboard and walk away, still keeping our pride and dignity. As it should be.

Wait. Daddy just got a plastic bag out of the drawer. Is it…I think it’s…yes! It is! Outa my way, Zorro!

I-love-it-I-love-it-I-love-it!

Aaaahh… *long relaxed sigh*