Category: Piper

It’s been a tough week for our kittie. Along with being traumatized by the dogs last week she’s been dealing with a bite on her side, probably from a fight with another cat. We’ve been putting peroxide on it but there was swelling under her skin and this morning she went to the Vet.

They shaved the area around the wound (that’s a four inch haircut) and drained it. It was infected and she’s on antibiotics now.

Steph also got an infected tooth extracted today so the two of them are hunkered down on the couch, watching Netflix. Now where are my rubber gloves…

Evening update: Piper is doing great! I’m thinking that what I perceived as depression this last week was just that she was sick from an infection. Oh yea, Steph is also doing better, she just ran to town for ice cream. :-)

Last Friday two punk dogs came on our property and chased Piper up a tree. One of them growled at Steph and as I came out of the house yelling loudly they headed to the back field, and I chased after them. At one point the bigger dog stopped and I thought he was going to confront me.

I’m way too old to be intimidated by a dog and I was very pissed off. Sad to say that there is no headline in the local paper this week about “Man kills dog with bare hands” because they kept on going.

Then we had to get Piper down. She was way up one of our thinner leafless trees, about 15 feet. I climbed up to her and Steph got the ladder. It’s a tribute to how much she trusts us when she allowed me to pluck her from a branch and hand her off to Steph.

The really sad thing about this is that Piper is very traumatized now. She used to sit in the field for hours waiting for a vole to pop it’s head up. Now she knows the field is not safe. If she was there when the dogs came she wouldn’t have had an escape route.

As a result she doesn’t go outside much now and stays close to the house when she does. I know this girl very well and this event has definitely affected her.

This is Steph’s old jewelry box located in the furthest part of the house, up against the corner of our bedroom. There’s nothing behind her but wall here, on both sides…

I posted recently about Piper being at risk from large predator birds that hang out in the trees at the edge of our back forty. I spotted her out there again yesterday and took this shot to establish some relativity to the issue of her vulnerability.

She’s a good sized cat but she looks so small here…

Steph called me over to our front door yesterday and as I walked out on the porch I saw a surreal sight. There were two large objects out in the field. One was on the ground, motionless. That would be Piper hunting voles. The other object was directly above her at the top of a tree. It was a very large bird, hunting Piper.

I’m assuming it was sizing up it’s options. Stories abound about small dogs being snatched but Piper weighs more than ten pounds. The bird would also have to take her out quickly or feel the wrath of some really bad ass claws (trust me, I know about those). I gave Piper my special come here kitty call and she just rolled over on her back in the dirt. Did I mention surreal? I don’t think she knew it was up there, watching her.

The predator spotted me and lifted itself gracefully into the air and split. I love birds like this unless their hunting my cat. This one was very big, eagle sized at least. I didn’t have my glasses on so I don’t honestly know the species.

So, besides wolves, coyotes and mountain lions, I need to add attacks from the air to my Piper worry list…

I swear, it’s all about the cat around here and these two recent Walmart purchases are very telling. Let’s start with the shampoo: Piper needs a bath but dunking her in a tub of water and scrubbing her down would be a death wish for my hands and possibly my face. I’ve never tried to bathe her, but I just know it would be a disaster. This shampoo looks good, spray it on and then rub it off with a towel. We’ll see…

The canned food is another comical oddity. You see, she really doesn’t eat that stuff. She eats nothing but hard crunchy cat food. So why do we buy it you ask? She likes to lick the gravy. We throw the cat food away after she’s done licking on it.

Now that you’re done laughing, Steph’s sister Sandy was right. This is one spoiled cat!

Update: Get your hot new random CB handle here…

Ok, I have to admit that this is the third post regarding Piper’s obsession with paper. As soon as the fax cover lifts and the paper begins to shuffle, she assumes the position. It’s a game we began two winters ago when we were hunkered down alone.

It’s like her job to balance the paperwork on her back as each individually fed sheet comes off the fax. She holds perfectly still and then gives me this look, are we done?

The bigger Piper gets the more she flattens out, blending into our hardwood floors and the intense heat from the Rinnai heater seems to melt her down to the wood.

This cat needs Spring to warm above the thirties and some long Summer days to hunt the yard and lose a lot of that kitty blubber! (It is a pretty belly though :-)

SlideShow (Soaking Heat)

As everyone who follows this blog even slightly knows, our cat’s name is Piper. We kept her name after the original owner Megan, who bottle fed her from an abandoned kitten, graciously gave her to us almost two years ago. I’m a numerologist that firmly believes in original bestowed names and never thought for a moment to change her name.

The name Piper is definitely female and has been growing in popularity over the years:

• Piper Laurie, actress (born Rosetta Jacobs).
• Piper Maru, daughter of actress Gillian Anderson.
• Piper Palin, daughter of GOP VP candidate Sarah Palin.
• Piper Perabo, actress (Coyote Ugly, Cheaper by the Dozen, Imagine Me & You etc).
• Piper Gilles, American ice dancer.

Just recently my friend Tori’s daughter Piper began riding my bus from the Community School. (story here). We joked about having the only Pipers in the Valley.

Well now there are three. I’ve recently began picking up some kids from the Victor Elementary on Tuesday, along with my Community School kids, and one of the new girls is named Piper. They were both on my bus yesterday for the drive to Driggs!

What are the odds of having three Pipers hanging out in your life space at one time?

This nap position is kind of strange. Piper has many Beds around the house, to facilitate her many naps, but she chose to lean into the edge of the family room sofa for this one.

I really don’t know how Piper has managed to pull this one off. She has three main beds around the house now, to satisfy whatever mood she’s in. The latest has appeared on the new couch in the living room (below).

And then of course there is the lower bunk bed in Steph’s craft room, the foot of our bed, up against my back, and on the other side between Steph and the floor heater.

SlideShow (Pipers Beds)

You know a cat trusts you when you can get her on her back and brush her belly. Most times we have these sessions in my dark office in the morning. Today we chose the family room for this short little video, with Steph operating the camera.

Bear in mind that Piper’s an outdoor hunting cat, cooped up by the winter. She’s not some lame indoor cat. It takes a lot on her part to submit like this!

Piper finally ventured out onto the deck today. She’s been on a massive sleepathon lately, from the purring I got while rubbing her butt in bed last night ;-) to the hunkering down on her blanket in my office for most of today.

This poor kitty just can’t wait for the white stuff to melt, she hates it. She will venture out occasionally to mark her scent, and then mosey towards the garage where she knows an entrance back into the house awaits.

SlideShow (Prowling)

Being a cat, especially in this household, is a pretty good life. You can soak up the sun in a temperature controlled environment and not venture outside unless you want to.

You don’t have to work, you have human servants to feed you, brush you and clean your litter-box, and you can sleep when and where you choose to.

If you get sick you’re taken to the doctor, get fixed up, and the humans pay for it! There are no other responsibilities except to purr when you’re being loved on…

If I re-incarnate, please let me be a Piper!