Category Archives: Grendel

One man’s garbage

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Look at this photo of Grendel.

Grendel lying on the floor surrounded by several toys (grendel17)

Yes, I realize it’s terrible quality.  Keep in mind it was taken almost 10 years ago with a disposable camera.  Oh, and that roll of film got lost for two years due to a relocation.  So let’s move on.

Do you notice anything odd about what the photo shows?  No, I don’t mean all the toys.  I had just finished vacuuming and dumped the toys back on the floor when Grendel plopped down in the middle of the mess.  I snapped the picture before getting down there with him and putting in some serious fun time.

Seriously, do you notice anything odd?  Like a Starbucks drink carrier lying behind him?

Now look at this photo taken two days ago.

Loki lying atop a drink carrier (176_7693)

Like the one before it, the photo isn’t a very good image.  That’s my fault.  Can we just get over that already?

Notice anything odd in that picture?  Like a Starbucks drink carrier under Loki?

Those who have or have had cats know full well that the best feline toys often are not those purchased as playthings for the cats.  Truth be told, the best feline playthings often wind up being items never considered for the cats.  You know, like straws, bottle caps, and packing straps.

For some reason I’ve yet to fathom, cats are prone to seek out and find enjoyment from what really doesn’t belong to them, including garbage, and they do so with more fun in their hearts and mischief on their minds than is often the case with their own baubles.  These drink carriers represent just such a case.

Shortly after Loki and Grendel were first adopted, I happened to come home from Starbucks with coffee for Derek and me.  I took the coffee from the carrier before placing the recycled paper tray on the bar where I would later retrieve it and put it in the trash.  That was never going to happen.

Loki found it first and knocked it to the ground.  Then both he and Grendel proceeded to shred the tarnation out of it with predatory abandon normally reserved for the biggest kills, which in their cases tend to be palmetto bugs or Daddy.

That was 10 years ago.

They haven’t given up the habit since.

It’s rather odd with the two of them (the other cats neither like nor dislike the trays).  Grendel and Loki can demolish those things in a single sitting the first day it arrives, so I’ve often been forced to bring them home each day to keep a fresh supply rotating through the house.

Both cats like using it as a scratching post, a bed, a toy under which other toys can be hidden before being hunted, a toy to be batted about like the best catnip balls, and generally whatever other games they can come up with for them.  It’s strange.  Very strange.

But honestly, it’s not that bizarre for cats.  It’s in their personality.  One man’s garbage is a feline’s treasure…sometimes.

We’re not done yet

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I’m trying to get some laundry done.  Grendel is trying to get some attention.  That leads to a conflict of interest.

Each time I stop or even momentarily pause, he immediately sets his behind down either on or next to my foot.

Grendel sitting next to my foot (105_0510)

That is one of Grendel’s most useful tools.  He’s smart enough to know that being next to or on top of my foot means he’s more likely to be bumped when I move, although his favorite maneuver is to sneak up and sit behind me since that means I’ll feel really guilty for not knowing he was there.

In any case, the moment I move and bump into him he lets out a squeal that declares he’s been wounded.  He’s not hurt, you know, but playing hurt means he gets attention.  So he yells and acts offended, and I respond by giving him plenty of lovin’.

Me petting Grendel as he prances around the kitchen (105_0511)

But I am trying to get some laundry done.  After a minute or two of petting and scratching, I take my leave of him and return to my chores.  He follows and plants himself next to me again when I start tending the wash.

Grendel sitting and staring at me to let me know we weren't done with the affection thing (113_1386)

And the look on his face?

Simple: “We’re not done yet.”

Less simple: “We’re not done yet, so don’t make me throw myself under your feet again just to get you back down here.”

Being in love

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After posting the old photos of Grendel and Kako when their love affair was first taking shape, I thought it only appropriate to post some photos of their relationship these many years later.  So after seeing them falling in love, here’s a cursory glance at them being in love.

Do pardon the quality of the first photo because it was taken almost ten years ago with a disposable camera.

Grendel and Kako hiding out together under the old futon (grendel_kako_03)

One of their favorite spots is to cuddle together on the back of the couch.  Here are some shots of their various entanglements there.  As you can see, these two can get comfortable in nearly any position, especially when they’re together.

Grendel and Kako sleeping together on the back of the couch (110_1048)
Grendel and Kako sleeping together on the back of the couch (111_1152)
Grendel and Kako intertwined with one another (117_1719)

And finally one of them actually sleeping together on the bed.  You’d think lovers would make that a favorite spot, but apparently these two actually find it a bit too pedestrian for their tastes.

Grendel and Kako sleeping together on the bed (106_0687)

Lap kitty

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During last weekend’s savage wind and dust storm, the power had been knocked out and going outside was simply a bad idea.  So how better to spend that time than to hang out with The Kids.

But they were mostly napping (it was that time of the day).  The only one who really noticed and seemed interested was Grendel.  The moment I sat down on the bedroom floor so I could visit with them while keeping an eye on the goings-on outside, he climbed right up into my lap and made himself comfortable.

A close-up of Grendel peeking over my leg as he gets comfortable on my lap (171_7137)
Grendel snuggling on my lap (171_7131)
Grendel lying on my lap looking up at me (171_7145)

The Loki Dream Home

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I’ve discovered a few more of the old photos I think are worth sharing…

About ten years ago, one of the smaller pieces of feline furniture I owned was what Derek and I called The Loki Dream Home.  It was a simple piece of furniture: mostly plastic with short carpet in all the right places, a canvas cover over the top sleeping platform with another platform below that, and firmly planted on the ground via two sand-filled bases.  It was one of those cheap things that catches your eye while at the cat store, something in a small box that assembles into something that would never fit in the car… like most furniture.

Loki absolutely loved the thing.  Grendel wasn’t as fond of it, but part of that could well have been due to his hip surgery and inability to climb or jump for several months.  He mostly used it as a scratching post but otherwise ignored it.

But oh how Loki loved that thing.  He’d sleep on it, play on it, use it as his own personal watchtower, and generally claim it for his very own.  Well, since no one else was using it…

Loki sleeping on the Loki Dream Home (loki01)

One reason for the dichotomy in their responses to it, at least back in those years, has only recently occurred to me.  Grendel has always loved people and spends his time hanging out with anyone in the house.  Loki, on the other hand, spent his early years treating people with disdain, keeping them at a distance, and pretty much ignoring them.  That included me.  So for him, The Loki Dream Home provided a wonderful place where he could keep an eye on the resident humans without being too close to them… you know, where they might actually touch him or something, an action which usually provoked incessant bathing on his part in an attempt to wipe away the monkey cooties.

But Loki is a rough-and-tumble kind of cat, hard on furniture just as he’s hard on people and the rest of The Kids, so it wasn’t too long after he fell in love with his Dream Home that he began destroying it.  It started with prompt removal of the feather toy attached to the top, something that hung over the side and made for a bit of fun while sharpening claws.  I suppose the toy remained functional for about two weeks—give or take.  Then one day it magically appeared in another room after having been brutally detached from its perch.

And when the toy was removed, what next?  Well, there was that canvas top covering the highest sleeping platform.  It attached to the furniture with six thin plastic rods that held it in a nice tent shape.

To Loki, however, that covering was more than just a roof over his head.  It was obviously meant for play, to be climbed upon, to be pulled and bitten and attacked, and eventually to be destroyed like the feather toy before it.  That’s why you can see part of it sticking out like a broken bone (on the left side of the photo).

Loki sleeping on the Loki Dream Home (loki04)

Once he’d dismembered its pieces and parts in bloody and ongoing battle, I removed it for his safety as well as for aesthetics.

That happened after The Twins were adopted, though.  When those two little ones came home, Kako discovered The Loki Dream Home and tried to stake her claim.  Bad move…

The first time Loki found her on the top perch, he kicked her to the curb like refuse.  She never again challenged him for that spot.  In spite of the cruel treatment at the hands of a mischievous god, she did learn she could use it as long as she didn’t provoke his wrath.  She accomplished this by staying quiet and meek and planting her tiny behind on the bottom platform where she was as inconspicuous as possible.

Loki on the top and Kako on the bottom of the Loki Dream Home (kako_loki_02)

It was never really safe for her there.  Loki would get in one of his moods and drop upon her like a plague of locusts sweeping down from the sky.  She rarely knew what hit her.

And do you think he did it because he wanted her spot?  Nope.  He did it because he didn’t want her on The Loki Dream Home.  It was that simple, that selfish.  He’d return to the top platform as soon as he’d ejected her.

Yet another reason for his name…