Did I mention how badly I felt last night about shutting my Rex in a drawer? Afterall, that was the second or third time we’ve lost track of him and then started searching only to have him show up, curled up and sleepy, in a drawer that was shut.
Rex never opened drawers in my apartment or in my parents’ house (I had very little furniture in my apartment and my parents furniture was all higher off the floor and had handles that you need an opposable thumb to use) but he very quickly got the knack of hooking his paw underneath the ones here in our bedroom dressers and climbing inside. He’s been doing this for weeks, sometimes waking me up in the middle of the night when he opens one to fast and it slams. It’s not unusual to wake up and see three or four drawers open in the morning where none were open the night before. I have been pretty careful about checking drawers before shutting them since the first time we found Rex curled up in CB’s bottom drawer a week or two ago but lately he keeps ending up inside shut drawers. Every time I find him I feel horrible. I feel like the most irresponsible cat momma EVER (and ask anyone who knows me, I’m a very very overprotective cat momma)….until this evening when I finally figured out what was really going on.
I had a pretty crappy sleep last night. We ended up eating very late but I was starving so I ended up eating waaaay too much couscous, dates and veggies in the Moroccan tent before we headed home. It’s been a furnace in Belgium for almost two weeks now (it finally rained last night but it’s still staying around 28°C* in the third floor here) and the bedroom is not very comfortable and I was also keeping my ears open to make sure there was no Rex v. Luna smackdown going on in the office while we were in bed. Then Luna woke me up early anyway with her crying, so yeah, I was pretty tired today. I ran some errands in the morning (I’ve been trying to keep up on bike riding despite no class this month) and got back a little after noon. Rex, to my knowledge, was sleeping under the bed, as per usual and Luna kept climbing up my pants leg and dozing off in my lap. I had noticed that Rex’s food and water was pretty much untouched but he does that sometimes when his routine is somehow changed so I didn’t find that very odd. Finally around 2:30 I went into the bedroom with Luna for a nap (I fell asleep while typing so I decided I needed to lie down). I noticed one of the higher drawers was open so I checked it and it was empty. I left it open, in case Rex wanted to lie in it later, took Luna, and we both fell asleep. I woke up around 5:30, right before CB usually gets home and I checked the drawer again. No Rex, so I shut it.
Then, and I have no idea what made me do this but, I opened the drawer underneath the one that had been open. And there was Rex, curled up and sleeping. Apparently the master of illusion has been opening a top drawer, climbing back behind it, dropping himself into the next drawer down and then falling asleep. In fact, aside from the first time he got shut into the bottom drawer, it’s very likely that he’s been doing this purposefully all by himself while we aren’t watching the whole time.
And I had felt soooo bad over shutting him up in a drawer all day.
My Rex is certainly a phenomenal cat, but if he ever produces seven kittens out of a hat in this house, it’s off to the Poezenboot with him!
Yesterday I went to work at the Poezenboot for a few hours. They were doing their bi-annual sterilization of the boat, so all the animals had been temporarily moved to the owner’s house boat and the apartment of one of the full time volunteers who lives across the street. I was just finishing feeding the cats that were on the house boat when the full time volunteer remembered to tell me that the kitten CB and I had picked out was ready to go home. The thing is, they vaccinate the kittens at 8 weeks and our kitten has to wait 2 more weeks for vaccinations, so for whatever reason, probably the over crowding that was going on yesterday, they decided to let us take our kitten early. It was a great surprise! In fact, had it not been for that knowledge I don’t think I could’ve done what I did next.
Three cats had been neutered the night before and each one had his own cage in a separate area from the other cats. The first cat, a small tuxedo, was balled up in the back of the cage. He hadn’t touched his food or water or litter, so it was all easy to change. Then I got to changing his blanket and holy shit! I’ve only heard a cat hiss maybe twice in my life but this one layed his ears back and hissed and spit like I was the devil coming to take one of his 9 lives. The third cat, a scrappy looking tricolor, starting meowing plaintively as soon as I opened the door. He’d used his litter and when I fed him, wolfed down his food. I got everything cleaned and changed and then had to chase him through the bowels of the boat when he got out of the cage and took off. The second cat…well, the second cat was the definite low point of the day. He had not reacted well to the anesthetic and had proceeded to vomit and shit all over the cage. Oh it was foul. Normally I would’ve tried to avoid changing and cleaning this cage somehow, as it was obvious everyone was putting it off till last, but the sooner I cleaned the cages the sooner we could take our kitten home, so I held my breath, scraped all the blech off the blanket, put it in a laundry bag, scrubbed other assorted blech off the cage floor and got myself washed up and to the deck of the ship just in time to see CB roll up with Rex’s carrier.
After chatting a bit (well everyone else chatted…I listened and occasionally smiled or nodded at the few words I understood) we went across the street and picked up our little one. She got a flea treatment and then CB and I biked home, CB holding the carrier. She was not happy and had pooped in the carrier, probably from fear, considering that since then she makes sure to poop in the litter box. We took her upstairs to meet Rex only to find that he had been accidentally shut in a drawer for who knows how long, but definitely at least an hour. Needless to say he was pretty pissed when we opened the drawer and found him. We waited to see what he’d do but he didn’t move so we put the kitten in the drawer to see what he’d do. She went up and sniffed him and stepped on him. He didn’t move besides sniffing her a bit. CB took her out of the drawer and I picked up Rex. He let me pet him a few times and then retreated under the bed.
Where he stayed for the next 6 hours or so.
He didn’t eat or drink, just laid under the bed while the kitten mewed her little lungs out and wandered around the room, occasionally hiding under the closet in the office. One of us stayed with the cats at all times for the first three hours or so…until it became quite obvious that, if anything, Rex was scared of the kitten (I had predicted this). We figured they’d be safe to leave alone, as we had plans to go listen to some Morrocan music and have a Morrocan dinner that was hosted by De Vieze Gasten, a left wing “anarchist” group that has a theatre/bar/coffee house right down the street.
When we got back the kitten came right to us and we held her and cuddled her for a while. Then she began playing in the litter box (which I hadn’t cleaned yet). The kitten litter boxes on the Poezenboot are filled with shredded newspaper, so I guess when the kitten saw the regular litter, well, she knew what to do in it (that’s the reason I hadn’t cleaned it, so she knew what was supposed to go in there) but she also seemed to think it doubled out as a fun sandbox. So while she cavorted through the exciting, absorbent, clumping dunes, Rex finally emerged and started watching the show. I think he initially had to use the box but he was so flumoxed by this tiny fuzzy thing playing in his bathroom that all he could do was stare. Every time she turned her back he got closer to try to sniff her. Once he even raised his paw to touch her but then she turned around and he shied away. CB and I Fell asleep after midnight and I got up around 5 to her cries and went and held her for a half hour or so. Then I saw Rex come in. He follows her around curiously but still won’t let her come too close yet. While he’s guarded, he’s not afraid anymore and he doesn’t appear to be snubbing CB and I anymore either. Not once has he had any violent reaction to the kitten and so we’ve decided that it’s definitely safe to keep her. We hadn’t named her yet, but this morning after she jumped into bed with us CB held her gently and said, “How about Luna?”
And I said, “Sure.” (I’d been thinking to call her Angel, but only because David Bowie’s “Golden Years” was playing in my sleepy brain at 5 am when I was cuddling her back to sleep)
