Little pitchers have big ears

As we said when we first adopted Meow Meow, we didn't want to change her name since she clearly recognized it was hers. She wouldn't exactly come when summoned, but she'd answer with a look and a chirrup (or a yowl if she wanted something and saw the opportunity to put in her request).


Last week, we figured out that Meow Meow knows when we're talking about her, even in her sleep.

After she's had her breakfast, Meow Meow usually spends the morning and afternoon snoozing in the kitty suite. And boy does she get her beauty rest -- sometimes we don't hear a peep out of her until evening. I shut the door part of the way to give her some privacy and to keep some of the noisier things I do (like loading the dishwasher) from disturbing her. When she wakes up, she works the door open and announces her presence before coming down to join the fun.

So Dieter came home early one afternoon, which isn't a usual thing for him (but a lucky one when it happens). We chatted in the kitchen for at least half an hour about random things -- the mail, groceries, weekend plans -- without a sound from the kitty suite. But then Dieter, unaccustomed to Meow Meow's midday absence downstairs, wondered where she was.

At the mention of her name, we heard a sudden scuffling overhead, then the door pulling away from its jamb. More scuffling, then the sound of little claws securing Meow Meow's landing on the balcony rail. "Mrowr!" she cried, as if to say, "You called?"

Clearly there will be no discussing birthday presents for her -- she turns four in February -- without evasive measures!

She takes what she can get

Meow Meow is pretty shameless about begging for a lap during mealtimes (not because we feed her from the table -- she just likes laps). This is endearing, but only until her swishy tail ends up mighty close to stirring your soup.


As the shots from Dieter's phone will show you, we haven't been the best at teaching this kitty proper table manners, but she's content to get near a lap if she can't hop directly into one.


P.S.: Yes, I'm still waiting for my laptop to be functional again. The new battery and adapter are finally here, but said battery is still charging.

P.P.S.: No, my thesis is not done yet, but I saved it from potential destruction by copying all of the crucial files to a USB drive just before the laptop's power system fizzled. (I would have grabbed the as-yet-unpublished shots of Meow Meow too if the old battery had been able to hold more than three minutes of juice.)

P.P.P.S.: Hello, crunch time!

The year of technical tangles?

We hope not. But 2011 has started off with a little more electronic drama than we care for! (Hence our lack of photos or posts since the New Year.)

My laptop -- with all the backlogged photos I'd had in the folder labeled "Meow Meow" -- is permanently off, until a new power source arrives by mail. The adapter fried itself with a glorious hiss (not unlike the sound an angry kitty makes) toward the end of our vacation and the battery hasn't been able to hold more than a few minutes' charge for several months. So we look forward to some replacement parts soon. Till then, I need to poke Dieter a few more times so he can upload the few images of you-know-who that are on his phone ...

Happy January.