I’d patched it for a south wind. Lucky us, the prevailing flavor is north. It broke the corner again.
So I went looking for a patch: nail/screw a board so the boards from the front-of-you fence can’t slide past the beside-you fence or [patch #2] fall backward.
Found it in that luxury of home ownership, the bits of construction pieces pile in the garage corner. I get the drill, choose a couple of long screws (thank GOD for no-cord drills!) to get Jane, tripped over the extended foot of the exercise equipment, and took a fall—hit one knee, both hands and rolled. [Old skater’s maxim: if you’re going down, don’t fight it, just fall smart, and the only unsmart part of that fall was the knee, but, hey, it was padded carpet, and I had the telly cabinet on one side and furniture on the left.
And apparently Shu…but more on that later.
So Jane and I got the pieces and went out in the alley and patched it. It’s screwed—the fence, that is: the holding braces are bent and trashed, the paint is peeling, and we are due a new fence…this spring.
I go back in and Shu attacks me. I mean a flailing, squalling all out swatting attack about knee high, which proves that he can fly. It took some soft words, several more hiss-slap fits, and some kitty treats to get him calmed down. I don’t feel at any point that I actually hit him as I fell, though we’re watching him for any sign of injury. I think he was in front of me when I came down like the biggest meanest cave bear ever to attack a kitty, and he was spooked. I shook the floor right solidly when I hit (boards under carpet) and I think I just scared the whey out of him.
He is still suspicious I’ll become a were-bear again but he let me give him treats and pet him. He may remember this sporadically and have more hiss-fits, but we think he’s ok.
Meanwhile we’re going to have a bill on that fence, no question; but we can do it, thanks to no-interest on that car: we still have the car fund. And I’m ok. I think even the knee is. The wind, she still blows, but the fence, he stands.
Oh, poor cattus! They just have to understand that the two-leggers aren’t as agile as they are, and our eyesight ain’t all that in the dark — I’ve had to explain that to Zorro a couple of times. That, and food only happens at certain times.
Poor boy! And poor you for being confronted by demon cat. Never had one of mine that freaked, but hopefully he’ll settle down soon. Treats and brushings are mighty powerful inducements.
He calmed down for treats, took them nicely from my fingers, then two hours later when I had occasion to go into the kitchen where the first freakout had happened, he followed me in and did a second freakout, which I ignored: I had my jeans on, and his slaps (he doesn’t, as a rule, bite or seek to bite in these episodes) don’t penetrate the jeans. So I talked to him gently, and he calmed down. I found some treats in the pantry, gave him a few, and the spooky-kitteh moment was over. Cats are very ‘situational’ in memory, as I’ve observed. They store places and moments; and in a place they haven’t been in years, suddenly realize where they are and where things are; or in this case, revisiting the scene of the first freakout, he freaked again, until I found a way to defuse it and ‘finish’ the memory in a good way. Now I think he’ll be fine. He’s a very smart kitteh, too smart in some ways: an Einstein of catdom who thinks more about things than most kittehs do, and it can make him a little odd—makes him hard to entertain, because you have to keep varying the game: he wants to play against a human intellect, thank you, not a ‘bot. And not a repetition. And he has his notions. You can pick him up and he’ll tolerate it for a few moments, or be very happy and purring if you’re carrying him where he wants to go and putting him on eye level with what Jane’s doing; but if he growls and wants down, it’ his way of saying We are No Longer Amused. Next comes a hiss. After that a play bite. And you had really better set him down, because Mr Grenade is No Longer Your Friend.
“Mr Grenade is No Longer Your Friend.” I thought certain ex-military of my acquaintance were the only people who used that phrase 😀
Fancy the coincidence of that! Last night at the West Side Wine Club’s annual holiday Gala, I took a header too! 🙁 I deny being drunk, I was tripped!!!
I was chatting with a group of four including Marilyn Brown. I decided to head to the bar and pivoted her way, and at the same time she decided to move. My foot hit hers, and I went sprawling. Shattered my glass, but I only got a miniscule laceration on my palm from that. Red wine on me confused that issue. But the epoxied non-skid coating on the floor ground a hole in the knee of my pants, and skinned up the knee considerably.
Lol—I steal from whoever’s got the colorful expression. And nothing better describes Shu when he hits one of his ‘let me down!’ moments. 😉
Paul, maybe it was in the air. Oweee! I’m not near as sore as I thought I’d be. Just a little stiff here and there. BUT THE FENCE HELD through the windstorm!
We’d call and have it done, but it’s freezing, not the time to pour concrete, as they have to in order to set the fence posts.
I’m partial to: Lose not thy airspeed, lest the ground rise up and smite thee!”
Mal (during in-flight emergency): “Just get us on the ground!”
Wash: “Oh, that part’ll happen most definitely…”
Geez, what a day! Not sure who needs commiseration more, you or Shu. Very glad you’re both OK. At least I suppose we don’t have to worry about the writer-human going into a hiss-spit-kablam attack. Um… maybe I should duck? 😀 Poor Shu. — Aside from an episode in Smokey’s nascent adolescence, he’s only had one time he’s forgotten himself like that. He’d been scared by something, possibly stung, and swatted at me. Thankfully, I knew he didn’t really mean it, so even though I let him know it was not a good idea to mess with the human, I wasn’t going to be seriously upset with him. Oddly enough, it seems to have helped.
Here’s hoping it will all be back to normal soon.
<—-this one came in furious and scared about being kidnapped and forced to live in a house with another cat… I kept her in the bathroom for a few days, then she claimed it as her only safe zone for another couple of weeks. She was attacking anything that moved with hiss-spit-slap-BITE howling maniac behavior, including me any time I had to use the facilities. As I have exactly one bathroom and no other room in the house to secure her (its all open plan with loft bedrooms) I had to resort to a squirt bottle. Thank goodness she decided she hates getting squirted worse than she hated the kidnapper! She finally calmed down after a week or so, although it took a lot longer before she reached happy! But she couldn't stay where she was, her owner was in long term care after a fall and unable to take care of her and I knew her tricks because I'd house-sat for her before.
She still thinks slappy-face is the best game to play with her four-legged housemate, although she will condescend to play race-n-chase with her if invited nicely (a proper invitation consists of thundering herd of cat streaking by.)
Upset kitties are no fun!
If Christmas decor had left us a free plug for the Feliway plugin, I’d have used it. I think it needs a refill anyway. I think I’m going to get one…now Sei is eyeing boxes (his peculiar perversion) as if they’re going to explode: he’ll sit and watch one for half an hour…[did I mention the Scottish Folds are descended from a Scottish barn cat/mouser?] At any rate—after Shu’s explosion, I think Sei’s upset in his unique way. Feliway may be called for.
Good stuff, Feliway. Really helped this one adjust! I picked it up day 2, after bandaging my legs… I ran it til it was empty, and by then she was on the way back to being happycat.