IS THERE A CAT

IS THERE A CAT PSYCHOLOGIST IN THE HOUSE?


The other night, past both Socks' and my bedtime, Socks was here in the office with me. She wandered around for a while, then settled down between my keyboard and monitor and started going after my typing fingers with her extended claws, which stuck into my skin. I tried to get her to stop and she started biting me. I had time to end the e-mail I was writing to a friend with the comment, "Socks is being a monster," after which I picked her up as she continued to claw and bite. I set her on the office bed, turned off the light, went out and shut the door.

The next day, I mentioned the above episode to several of my online friends. This isn't the first time I had complained about her biting, I might add. An online friend suggested in response that since Socks continued to bite, it might be a good idea to take her to a cat psychologist or animal behaviorist of some kind.

I thought about it but I had to conclude that Socks has in general gotten better and it is rare that she attacks my hands like that. Also, living out in the country, there aren't cat psychologists in the area, and in fact my even broaching the subject with my vet might easily bring a reaction of amusement.

I think I can figure out on my own why she reacts like she does, and it very likely could go back to her being abandoned by her mother when she was so tiny, and having to adjust to my household with two established cats in it, especially Stevie, who acts like she's queen of the roost and started off disliking and showing her displeasure towards Socks from the very beginning. These are just my ideas, though -- if anyone has any other good ones or any solutions, please let me know.

I have thought about trying to give Socks away but I am attached to her and I have seen great improvement in her, and especially, I wouldn't want to inflict her biting episodes on anyone else.

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There is a great deal of significance to me in the cross graphic above, as I have been thinking a lot about today being Good Friday and what that means in the Christian world. There are various ways of marking it in different churches, especially with a service. My church, Zion Mennonite, will be having a communion and foot washing service. I attended this service once many years ago, and although I understand the meaning behind the foot washing (as Jesus washed his disciples' feet), I found that I wasn't real comfortable having someone wash my feet. I guess that was my own particular quirk -- it just felt too personal to me. Also, it seemed like most of the women had arranged in advance to do the foot washing with a friend, which hadn't occurred to me, so I wound up with a lady who I thought was nice but who I didn't know at all well. Being a rather shy person, I would have felt better if I could have done the ceremony with a person that I knew and considered a friend. I had a Catholic friend tell me this morning that Catholics also do foot washing, which I had never known. It's all very interesting and meaningful, but I prefer to observe it from a distance.

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The following picture was sent to me by my son Jeff and is the original of a copy that he sent to Shutterfly to have thank you notes made up for gifts from granddaughter Emily's 2nd birthday party on February 23rd. I had scanned in the shot from the thank you as I thought it was so cute and sent it to a myriad of friends, thinking that I wouldn't be able to blog it since it was a Shutterfly-produced card. I mentioned this to Jeff via e-mail and that's when he sent me this original, which he said would work fine on my blog, so for those of you who didn't see it, here is the picture of Emily with her thank you sign:
























I was happy to receive a lot of responses to my mailing it out last night, with e-mails coming in from family and friends I haven't heard from in a while. Answering them will keep me busy for a while!

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Sen. Barack Obama was in Portland for a rally this morning. I watched a little bit of his speech during times when I was taking brief breaks from being on the computer. I like him a lot. He is the only political figure I can think of in recent years who I would have even considered attending a rally to see and hear. However, I do get bored with political subjects quite easily, so at least -- here at home -- I can turn the channel if I find my interest waning quickly. LOL!