Kako loves “The Refrigerator Game.” That is, she leaps atop the frig and asks for—mostly demands—attention. The game usually—mostly—winds up with her jumping on my back and continuing the demanding/getting attention from there.
I’ve discussed this before. In fact, you can see photos of it here, here, here, and here (the last one showing her taking the game to new heights when she could get on top of the cabinets over the refrigerator), and you can read about it here and here.
To prove I’m not insane…
Ha! Who am I kidding? Of course I’m insane. But that’s not the point.
To prove I’m not lying about this aspect of her personality (a trait only she has), here’s a video of her on the refrigerator doing her thing: asking—demanding—attention.
Note that she did wind up on my back. I have photos to prove it, but I’ll share those at a later date and time.
For now, enjoy Miss Thing playing The Refrigerator Game. And take special note that there’s an undercurrent of purring in her meows. She might be a bitch and she might order others around and brutalize them to get her way, but she definitely loves me and can show it. Besides, she knows what buttons to press.
Both Kako and Kazon had terrible infestations of ear mites when I first adopted them (among several other problems). The damage to their ears was so extensive at an early age that they now have sensitive ears. But Kako’s are more sensitive than Kazon’s. In fact, she often cries out in pain when she scratches her own ears, and watching her try to address an itch in either of them is akin to watching the torture of a defenseless animal. It just hurts.
The most I can do to alleviate that suffering is to keep them as clean as possible through regular douses with OtiCalm, an ear cleaning solution that gently breaks up buildup. This, as you can guess, is not a popular activity, but I know it’s best for them and helps circumvent unnecessary pain and discomfort.
One of the interesting things about their delicate ears is Kako’s eargasms. Although sticking her hind foot in them to scratch an itch is a sure way to elicit painful cries, the same is not true when it comes time to bathe. It feels sickly voyeuristic to watch her hit that just right position that rubs an ear in heavenly ways.
This is never more true than when she lies on the ground and starts bathing with her front paws. If you’ve ever seen a cat cleaning in this manner, you know they lick their paw before using it to clean their face, ears, and other body parts. With Kako, however, the truest joy comes from her head resting on the ground against one of her ears. Each time she licks her paw, she moves her head, and that in turn rubs her ear into the floor. That, poppets, is obviously one of the greater joys she can experience.
The funny thing is this: very little bathing takes place except for the paw she’s trying to use to clean herself. You see, she becomes so entranced with the eargasm that she ends up licking the paw ad infinitum without accomplishing much with it. Instead, she just keeps moving her head back and forth to work her ear against the ground.
I suppose she has the cleanest paws in town because of this. They get a good working over no matter what pieces and parts are skipped in favor of the eargasm.
And when she finally gets that paw working against an ear? Well, bliss ensues. Usually, her entire body gets into the writhing caused by her ecstasy.
That is what you will see in this video. I caught her lying in front of the fireplace as she began to take a bath. I simply turned the camera on and let it record what actually happened. I did stop it right at the end when she stood up to scratch the ear she’d been grinding into the ground. Knowing what that would cause, I saw no reason to record it.
Note that Loki makes a brief drive-by in the background near the beginning of the video as he makes his way to the cat castle off-screen to the left.
When Kako first was introduced to the fireplace, she ran like a wild woman. It scared her for reasons I couldn’t possibly understand. She’d never been around fire, never been hurt by it, yet she was the epitome of pyrophobia. If the fireplace was active, she made a point of going around it by whatever means would take her the furthest from its reach. She’d climb over furniture, she’d slink around the perimeter of the room, and she’d dash by it as if pursued by the devil himself. In one way, it was funny; in another, it wasn’t funny at all.
But time took its toll and she eventually came to enjoy it. Most important, I’m sure, was the heat. She’s the smallest cat in the house and has fine hair as a coat, so she tends to get cold easier than the others. Once she realized the fireplace would not reach out and grab her in paws of fiery fury, she began investigating it. She grew comfortable around it and, before long, fell in love with it. The transition provided a wonderful process to behold.
When she overcame her phobia and reversed it into mania, she then became obsessive about being near the fireplace when it was active. This video shows just such a time. What you’ll notice is that she sits there—just sits there and stares at the flames. Ah, but things are not always as they seem. Kako loves her reflection. She thinks—no, she knows she’s the hottest momma on the planet, the purtiest feline ever to set foot on Mother Earth. Nothing will convince me she wasn’t sitting in front of the glass looking at her reflection while simultaneously bathing in the warmth it offered. You can almost hear her bestowing all manner of praise on that fine-ass feline she saw in the reflection.
A few notes: I had to lighten the video, so keep that in mind as to its somewhat washed-out quality. Loki makes a very brief appearance as he walks by and slips through the bottom-left corner of the frame; he’s almost unrecognizable because it’s so quick and you see so little of him. That is an episode of Stargate SG-1 playing in the background. Finally, the video is three minutes long for those who want to see the full thing; for everyone else, you can watch the first minute or so and understand what’s in the last two minutes. I already said she’d just sit there and stare at herself. What were you expecting, a song and dance routine?
How about a brief video of Kako playing in the living room? Sound acceptable? Good.
There are no decapitated bodies, no bloodshed, no wailing or gnashing of teeth. Surprisingly, she’s just entertaining herself with a toy—until the end when she hears someone else playing in the kitchen. Since she stood and ran away at that point, the video is short and sweet.
Almost two years ago, I posted a video demonstrating Kazon‘s door-opening skills, not to mention Kako‘s proclivity to sit on the sidelines while her brother gets into trouble only to rush in once he provides an opportunity for mischief. He’s much bigger and stronger, after all, and is more likely to gain access to things she couldn’t otherwise get to/into without his help. At the end of that video, once Kazon had the door open and had entered the room, Kako zoomed in from behind me and rushed through the open door behind him. This video picks up immediately following that video.
I was shooting video to see if they would come out once they realized what was behind the door was nothing new (it was only the small laundry room and both had been inside it many times). When they didn’t exit, I tapped my foot. That spurred Kako to decide no fun was to be had and boring closets with laundry machinery had nothing to offer her. Kazon, on the other hand, is not so easily persuaded that the same room over and over again will still offer the same mundane attractions it always has. One can never be too certain that something new hasn’t been introduced that will need thorough investigating… or to be played with. Also, he knows if he waits long enough, Daddy will be forced to come look for him.
[I did have to lighten this a bit, so bear that in mind when considering the grainy and slightly washed-out quality]