Wow – I’m overwhelmed. Thank you all so much for your kind words about my Hourglass Sweater!
Not much going on here today – I’m working on a knitting project that’s a gift for someone who may or may not read my blog, so I’m erring on the side of caution and waiting a while to post about it.
Yesterday Mama Tulip posted her list of 100 things, which reminded me that I love those lists and that I want to do one for myself, too. But it’s going to take me a bit of time to work on that, so instead I shall give you 25 Things About the Cat Chaotic.
1. Chaos and his brother Diablo were born on September 28, 2003, to an unwed teenage mother (Riley).
2. Although I instantly named him Chaos, my brother named him “Hoho” and calls him that to this day.
3. Because Diablo was so evidently a boy and Chaos didn’t look like that at all, we thought he was a girl for the first ten weeks of his life. This doesn’t appear to have left scars on his psyshe.
4. Chaos weighs about 15 pounds. Even the vet agrees that this is a good weight for him.
5. He has a “jungle pouch” that he was born with, but is not a fat cat – he’s a muscley house panther sort of creature.
6. Chaos was diagnosed with Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disorder (FLUTD) in August 2005. This is controlled with a special diet.
7. He loves to play fetch.
8. The only acceptable fetch toys are sparkly mice (most famously SRM, who is still missing) and the little plastic pull tabs from the top of Silk Soymilk cartons.
9. Chaos forms attachments to blankets and articles of clothing, most memorably my green sweatpants. Just a few days ago I had to rescue a wool blanket that he was dragging around before it got too many fang holes in it. (Do you know how heavy a wool blanket is?!)
10. Of his kittenhood stages, the messiest was his Jackson Pollock Phase. This consisted of him finding my mug of mocha everytime I left the room, sticking his paw into it, becoming disgusted at the goop on his paw and shaking off said goop onto all surrounding surfaces, then repeating until I returned to the room. Remember that monstrous mirror in my living room? Very hard to remove mocha from. Also hard to remove mocha from my laptop, the carpet, the cupboards…
11. The second messiest stage was his Raccoon Phase. All toys and “found” objects were dropped into his water dish to see what happened, then fished out with much splashing.
12. Additionally, when he had a self-waterer, he would put his little kitty arms around it and flip it over to watch the water run out onto the floor. He no longer has a self-waterer.
13. Chaos is a binge eater. Whatever amount of food he gets, he will eat it all in just a few minutes. If it’s too much food, he’ll hork it back up.
14. Because of this, he gets fed three small meals everyday.
15. He starts to whine and become very pesky about 1.5 hours before feeding time. In an attempt to get him to quit bothering me, I tried an automatic feeder. In less than a week, he had figured the feeder out and could extricate the entire day’s worth of food. He no longer has an automatic feeder.
16. Chaos likes to hop back and forth over the head of anyone sitting on the floor. I have needed more glasses adjustments due to Chaos colliding with the side of my head than for any other reason in my life.
17. He is able to open my folding closet doors. Said closet doors are all secured with bungee cords, since he has not developed anti-bungee technology yet.
18. In the morning, prior to being fed, Chaos purrs louder than any other cat I have ever heard. I can hear him through my bedroom door.
19. Chaos likes to hang out in several places you wouldn’t catch most cats dead in: on top of his litter box and in his cat carrier.
20. He does not approve of crazy living room dancing and will jump around trying to nip my hands should I start dancing.
21. One of his periodic interests is trying to eat the couch. He bites it and tries to rip holes in it with his teeth.
22. Chaos never uses his claws on the furniture – just on his scratching post and cardboard scratcher.
23. He likes having his claws trimmed because he knows he’ll get a treat.
24. His “treat” is Fish Flavored PetroMalt, which he would get anyway to prevent hairballs.
25. Chaos loves tuna, but does not get to have it very often. He loves tuna so much that he will start whining and begging when I get out any sort of can or the can opener or even open the drawer in which I store the can opener.
Is it strange that I am a big fan of your cat? My whole family is allergic to cats so I only get my “cat fix” through reading about Chaos on your blog. 🙂
Wow, what a great list. I loved learning all about Chaos. He’s so cute! Hope he finds SRM.
Chaos is a character. I love that list.
Chaos is my kind of cat. 😉
Chaos sounds like a monster. I have a couple of monsters who sound very similar! Merlin has a very loud purr and any can opened in this house will have him and others running for the kitchen. He also has to eat small portions!
Yep, when we put food down for the cats, it’s a feeding frenzy. We feed them twice a day, or they’d be enormous.
Chaos certainly sounds like an interesting housemate! Beezel worked out how to open the folding doors into the room I used as a library once. We didn’t realise he could do that until I found out that he spent his time in the library spraying the one and only shelf of books that held my hardcover first edition signed scifi and fantasy books. I’m still trying to replace some of them!
ROFL – I had heard of some of this, but all in one list had me laughing too hard ;o) Thanks for explaining the Jackson Pollock thing again, that was great. I can just see my girls doing that!
What a great way to let us get to know Chaos better! He is such a great character!!
Our cat Max has FLUTD too. He had to have surgery & it cost us $1600.00 but it was worth every penny to save my schmoo!
how lucky and unfortunate you are to have such a smart kitty! he certainly keeps you on your toes! I dunno if Danger had lower urinary tract infection, but any kind of urinary tract infection is scary! (and expensive to treat)
*sniffle* i almost adopted a kitty today. I think I could have convinced C it was a good idea if our lease didn’t specify “No Pets”. There was a beautiful friendly Siamese there who looked almost exactly like his childhood cat Crystal. I still am fighting the urge to go back to PetSmart and adopt the kitty anyway.
Chaos your such a doll, your lucky you live far away or i’d have you home with me!
My mom used to feed my cats sardines. She’d open up a can and they’d go apeshit. You could hear the drool falling from their mouths. They got like that with tuna too.
One day Chaos will find the SRM, where he least expects it.
Chaos is my kind of cat! I laughed and laughed.
the can thing?! totally the same with my cats. they get all excited when i pull out any can of any sort. i have to let them sniff after i’ve opened it to get some peace.
I enjoyed the “Top 25”. Chaos has quite a personality and you are lucky to have him in your life.
My cats loved playing fetch too. A crumpled up ball of paper was their preferred toy. I find it amazing how animals get conditioned. Java drools in anticipation whenever she sees a pizza box. (Pizza bones are her favorite treat.)
I LOVE that list. Viva tries to eat the couch too. I had no idea it wasn’t just an isolated incident!
Thanks for the sweet comment. Chaos never ceases to amaze me. All the interesting things he does. Sorry about the SRM. Maybe we need to do a missing SRM report?
I am laughing so hard about this list – thanks!
And you think bunnies might be naughtier than kitties!!!!! Uh oh, no way, not after reading that list 😉
You’d never know Chaos was such a big cat, he’s totally in proportion and never looks fat in pics – or is that because he only makes sure he looks his absolute best whilst on photo shoot…..:)
He really is such a special cat.
I loved reading about how Chaos came to be. He is huge! I had no idea . . . I thought he was a petite little thing.
Ohhhhh . . .poor little dim Diablo! LOL!
i think our cats are the same cat in parallel universes. my cat’s name is chaos, and he’s the same black kitty…
same details too..loves to hang out in litter..purrs like and engine and barfs up all food that he too much of eats way too fast…who knew i don’t have the only chaos.
wonderful intro to Chaos….he no longer has a self-waterer
jungle pouch? Is that what that’s called? Frisky has on. weird.
Okay, I had to comment after reading about your black cat.
Mine has crystal issues, so he is on a special diet (and has been on it most of his life).
He weighed close to 20 lbs most of his life (at 12-years-old, he is now close to 12 lbs). He never really looked fat, though, because of how long he was.
The water dish/raccoon phase? Been there. He is done with that, now.
The horking issue? Yes, my cat gets two small wet meals a day, plus his dry food is put into cat treat balls and distributed, slowly, throughout the day.
He doesn’t drag around blankets, but does drag around his stuffed tiger. And bags of hamburger/hotdog buns, if accidentally left anywhere he can get to them.
And number 25? Yes, the can opener or any can is liable to cause complete chaos until it is determined if the source of food contains tuna. He drinks the water from the tuna cans whenever we make tuna fish sandwiches.
What a great list. Thank you for sharing about Chaos and what a cool name. My 12-year-old son got to name our first two kitties, who adopted us after being abandoned in the park. Saske and Itachi are both very healthy and have been with my family since 5-17-07 when they were about 5 weeks old. They are the coolest and most laid back. One is a binge eater and tends to bring back up what he gulps down too so we’ve taken to smaller meals as well and that really helped. We are totally a cat family – how can you not love ’em?!
loving that chaos. my cat H has a habit of opening the front door and letting her self out at night if i forget to lock the door. I just wish she would just close it after her. lol
love the site
DAVE W
Your list put a big smile on my face this morning. I love your list and have 5 cats that I could probably devote a few list to myself!
It’s so fun to read about other cat lover experiences because there is definitely a current of similarity running through them. I have lived with at least one cat since I was just a baby and have seen my share of frolic and mayhem!
Two of mine are binger/purgers as well so I also have to ration out food three times a day…makes for a well-paid petsitter!
One of them is Grace the 7-lb matriarch of the bunch and the other is Fletcher, aka “Spawn of Satan” who weighs in at a svelte 20 lbs. And yes, for him, that’s svelte…he used to weigh more!
Out of my 40 years of being loved by cats, I have learned things that they all have in common:
1. They are always on the wrong side of a door.
2. They are always hungry.
3. Because of #2, they always recognize the sound of an electric can opener…even if you have never owned one or used one in front of them before EVER.
4. They appreciate it when the toilet paper is in the “over the top” position because it makes for easier shredding.
5. They love it when you leave the electric blanket on all day.
6. They can sense when you’re guests are arriving and will always leave a steamy housewarming gift in their litter box.
7. This is for multiple cat people – No matter how many cats you may have on your lap, the odd one out always seems to find a way to wiggle in.
8. If there is a piece of paper on the floor, no matter how small, they will sit on it.
9. Similarly to #8, if there is a box siting anywhere within reach, no matter how small, they will sleep in it…even if it defies the laws of nature.
10. Similarly to #9, if there is a paper bag anywhere within reach, they will get in it.
These are just a few of the things I know for sure in life…maybe not much else but these I can carve in stone!
What a beautiful cat. Chaos looks just like my own black cat, Lili.
My cat Max has me trained to tell the kids to get him food or water. He just comes up to me and starts yelling at me until a kid does the chore. He also yells at my husband everyday when he comes home from work and doesnt stop until he has recieved the appropriate amount of love, which of course he decides not us.
I love this blog post! I have two kitties and they do so many things similar to the things you’ve written in this blog!
Our cat Jasper (pure white) loves to play fetch, but he only understands the chase part. He doesn’t bother bringing the ball of paper back. Instead he comes back, sits down in front of you and waits for you to throw another one! Then he leaves us to clear up. Hey ho.
Ok so…Chaos apparently has a long lost brother, Apocalypso…who lives in my home. He is banned from self-waterers for the same reason…and I have the same folding closet door issue. And he sleeps in his carrier if I get it out.
Paco prefers bread ties to soy milk tops though….
LOL!!!!! Chaos reminds me of my cat Lily – she could be a twin!