TV Birthday Pic & The Cats

Yesterday we submitted a picture to channel 6 in Omaha, WOWT, for airing on their "First Birthdays" segment. We've got people set to record it whichever day the segment airs, or we can pay some company $40 for the video. Ummm, with me not working at the moment, we'll hope for the family recordings. :) The station asks you to describe your child's favorite things. We told them to say that Zac "loves to laugh, chase the cats and see just how many cowlicks he can get to show at once", or something along those lines. It's funny to me how which cowlick or cowlicks choose to show on any one day change and there is no rhyme or reason.

On a completely different note, for some time now Katy and I have wondered, often aloud, as to the relative lack of "cat-like" qualities are cats seem afflicted with. I've had cats ever since I was young, and I don't know if there is a difference between male and female cats or not, but all my previous cats were males. These two, The Ocho and Millie, are both females. So, possibly, there is some scientific evidence that might back up the following observations.

For one, let's start with The Ocho, or "Ocho" as we call her for short. Seemingly brilliant at the start, able to catch a mini football in her paws at good speeds and at good distance, we thought we'd found a genius cat. Aside from her initial issues at jumping face first into the arm of the couch when trying to cover the distance between that and the chair, she's shown no penchant for stupidity overall. But she has her peculiarities. For one, I know all cats prefer running water, but the whining and complaining I hear when I don't leave some water running for her is really something. She has a completely full water bowl right next to the sink of the mini bar where their food is kept, and she'll still complain if I don't turn on the faucet. She has also never quite overcome her clumsy ways. About 6 weeks ago, Katy and I were awakened in the middle of the night by the cats chasing each other. I looked up long enough to see Ocho trying to traverse the railing of our loft, drop off and then hear her crash into something in the living room. I mean, it's only about 16 feet down, but still, cats are supposed to be nimble, aren't they?

What about Millie? Well, poor Millie. Seemingly lacking even the miniscule amount of intelligence Ocho has, Millie moves through the days seemingly content to meow at absolutely nothing, chase Ocho around, run into things occasionally and, when called, ignore us completely. While Ocho definitely knows her name, Millie either has absolutely no concept of the idea or is just really good at not listening. Equally as clumsy as Ocho, maybe more so, Millie has also fallen off the loft railing at least once that we know of, crashing into the sewing machine below the spot she fell. This is the same cat who jumped off a shelf about 8 feet up in our basement in Omaha only to end up with what can only be described as a club foot, which cost us a pretty penny at the vet's office to get her fixed up.

Millie also has a real issue with what I call "spatial awareness". Now, every cat I've ever had liked to walk along with you or sometimes sit right behind you and be seemingly under foot. However, not a one of them would walk directly in front of you completely oblivious to the fact you were there. Millie has an uncanny ability to find a way to be 100% in the way at all times. I've stepped on both the cats, but Millie much more often. The other day, she decided that as I was headed upstairs, she had to race me up there. She was two steps past me when she slammed, head first, into one of the steps, shook her head, wobbled a bit, then raced on up. Sheesh.