Dear Diary...

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January - May 2003

Week 1: 30.12. - 5.1.

This week Junior left. Sigh.

It was back to the old routines then...

Week 2: 6. - 12.1.

This week Frank decided to take a chance with the Christmas tree on its very last moments.

He knocked down the tree. The people lifted it up. Soon Frank was back and gnawed a branch for quite some time (I guess he liked the taste, or maybe he was just in the mood for some salad.) Then the tree had his revenge and Frank was soon coughing under the tree as the needles of the tree decided to come up.

So, the Christmas tree was knocked down four and a half times this Christmas. One of the times is a "half" because the tree fell against the curtains and not onto the floor. Then the tree was taken away. Mini was a bit sad because he liked to drink from the stand.

Week 3: 13. - 19.1.

This week Mini developed a strange habit of poking people in the middle of the night with his head.

Mini would jump to the bed an hour before the alarm clock would go off and start poking and pushing. He would scratch the blanket and the pillow and the poor unsuspecting person who was sleeping under the pillow... Maybe Mini was hunting for bed mice, but he decided not to go all the way and refused to go looking for the bed mice under the blanket when it was be lifted up and the person said, "Aww, come on then."

Week 4: 20. - 26.1.

This week Frank was in danger. He slept in the chair, as usual, minded his own business, did nothing, had a date with Sandman, couldn't care less... He could not guess that something was about to happen.

Meanwhile, Maxi hanged out and around in the living room and did something which then made the bigger, taller and heavier person who feeds us to take him into his arms. The person said, "Maxi, oh" and decided to sit down. Oops, you'd better rewind: Frank was still in the chair, about to be crushed...

Luckily nothing serious did happen. It was close, way too close, but Frank managed to survive. Frank also decided to be merciful and chose not to have slice anyone into one kilogram chunks. He also kept on returning to the chair, so no harm done.

Week 5: 27.1. - 2.2.

This week Mini had a doctor's appointment: he went to the vet because he had been kind-of-bulimic. The vet was at the local pet shop so there were all kinds of interesting new acquaintances from rabbits to parrots that made nasty noises and a small dog that made Mini growl in his cage.

However, there was nothing wrong with him. His tiny heart did beat really fast but the doctor could not find any apparent reason for him throwing up that often. He just recommended that the food should ne moist.

So, did anyone eat the cat food that was soaked in water (well, not soaked but...)? You can guess. No. Not Mini nor Maxi nor Frank touched them. The drier the better. So, we guess that Mini will keep on gormandising on the dry food which will then have its revenge on Mini...

Then, on the weekend, to celebrate the week that did not start so well, Mini started snoring. He slept in a laundry basket in the hall and went ZZZZZZ... Yep, we could read him loud and clear.

Week 6: 3.2. - 9.2.

This week Mini caught the most attention again as he developed a slight dandruff problem. He had dandruff near his tail, white flakes on black fur did not look too nice.

Dandruff may be caused by dry air. (The air was a bit cold as the air conditioning was probably turned up and suddenly it was almost freezing cold and drafty.) There may other reasons as well, such as nutrition (we did try new food as well, James Wellbeloved was good and tasty and a nice change to Hill's Science Plan even though we do like Hill's as well) or even allergy or parasites.

In Mini's case the solution was easy to find: he got some vegetable oil and he was combed. The next day the dandruff was gone! Surprisingly easy. Almost too easy.

Week 7: 10.2. - 16.2.

This week Mini and Maxi turned three years old. Happy Birthday! The little cupids celebrate their birthday on Valentine's Day.

The celebration was joyous: we got some dried smelt and catnip, or Mini and Maxi did. They ate the fish and looked happy and rolled in the catnip, Frank sat behind the TV and disapproved of all that. Maybe it was because the people almost forgot his birthday last year... So, in conclusion: Mini and Maxi are older but not wiser.

Meanwhile Frank developed his lap cat habits, you might even call him friendly because he kept on jumping to the blond person's lap and laid there for quite some time. Sometimes he also favoured the other person as well but only for a short time and he didn't actually like it, no way, cats do not like to be petted, at least Frank does not... Oh well.

Week 8: 17.2. - 23.2.

This week Mini and Maxi got washed in the sauna. Poor things: they were all soaking wet and looked thn and miserable. Maybe the washing itself wasn't that bad, after all, the water was warm, but the nasty thing called "a towel" was worse. It kept us from running away to the sauna, to the door, under the closet where the washing detergents and dirty clothes are kept... We did not quite get the point: the towel was supposed to help us get dry, but we said no way, our tongues are the best towels.

Meanwhile Frank was safe because the people did not dare to try to catch him. He was just there and tried not to look too malicious.

Oh, and the result? Mini and Maxi had soft and silky fur when they were finally dry. They also forgave the persons - but decided not to bathe in the sauna the next week.

Week 9: 24.2. - 2.3.

This week Maxi started stealing. Now you see it, now you don't! The bigger and hungrier person looked away for few seconds and the poor, unsuspecting slice of salami was gone from his sandwich. Maxi looked very happy, after all, all his efforts to look like he just happened to innocently stretch himself against the kitchen table while the people are making breakfast finally paid off.

The next day Maxi was offered another slice of the very same salami. "What, who, me, am I supposed to eat that stuff?" Maxi said and left the slice to the floor.

Week 10: 3.3. - 9.3.

This week we were electric, all of us, you could almost see the sparkles when we were petted in the middle of the night in the dark bedroom. You see, when we want to be petted we come and wake you up, you have no choice. Too bad the static electricity did not feel too nice. Is there a way to earth a cat so we could be petted without frizzling and sparks?

Mini and Maxi also pulled the good ol' teleporting trick twice the same morning. First Maxi jumped onto the table when the smaller person was eating breakfast. Soon she heard Maxi yawn from across the room and looked. Maxi was there and Mini was sitting on the table! A few minutes later she went away and Mini and Maxi did the very same thing to the bigger person as well.

Maxi also decided to hunt for big game. It's soon spring and there are more and more birds around so we like to sit by the window and go "wah wah wah" while staring at the steaks flying outdoors and sitting on top of the trees. So, there Maxi was on the Friday morning, going "wah wah wah". So, what made him say so? Is it a bird! Is it a plane? Is it Superman? Yes! Yes, it was a plane! Never settle for any less.

Week 11: 10.3. - 16.3.

This week Frank was all lovey-dovey. He purred, volunteered to sit on the people's lap, purred again, wanted to be petted, slept on the laps... There must have been something wrong with him. He even went to say good morning to the person who still snores even though he usually just runs away as fast as he can from him (that is, Frank runs away from the snoring man even though he doesn't snore at the very moment). Frank even laid down on his lap in the evenings - several times, that is!

It's been a year and nine months (approximately) since Frank moved in. Well, we all do know that the males from Pohjanmaa take their time to forgive and forget and 21 months is a long time in a cat's life. Time will tell if this was something temporary or a permanent change of mind.

Week 12: 17.3. - 23.3.

This week the spring came or, at least the balcony season officially started. Before this we did not want to go to the balcony. It was cold, snowy and dark - but not anymore! There are birds singing outdoors, the snow has melted (from the balcony, that is, and that's what matters) and the sun shines warmly. Also, there are some heathers on the balcony for us to eat. There we sit, side by side, munching those delicious heathers that have survived through the winter. But can they survive us?

Yes, we love the spring! We wonder when will the first fly appear? When can we start chasing those poor innocent bugs?

Week 13: 24.3. - 30.3.

This week Maxi revealed something he shouldn't have revealed: he understands what he's told! Of course, he has selective hearing and most of the time he just pretends he cannot understand a word.

What happened? The smaller person was knitting, as usual, and Maxi chased the yarn and tried to chew it and the person knitting away could not understand why. "The yarn is called "Maxi" - can't you see my name written all over it!" Maxi said (without any words, of course, but with hitting the ball with his paw and eating the tail of the yarn as he caught it).

Then she said, "Maxi, go away, you're bothering me. Go hunt your own ball from the bag and play with it!" And so Maxi did. He crawled into the plastic bag full of Maxi yarn, caught an unsuspecting ball and ran away with it to the balcony door. He was killing his prey and looked very happy, but then the bigger person came claiming that the yarn was supposed to become his sweater and took the ball away. Darn.

Week 14: 31.3 - 6.4.

This week it was winter again, it snowed all week. We had just started to think that it might be nice to start going to the balcony and in the mornings Frank was already there waiting for the door to open but this week the weather got too bad. Sigh. Maybe later. We just had to stay indoors and do all kinds of indoors things.

Week 15: 7.4.-13.4.

This week Mini found a new delicacy: asparagus! It started to be the asparagus season and the smaller person who tends to eat all kinds of vegetables and does not drink a thing called "beer" (but cider instead) cooked some of that. She accidentally (and it was an honest accident, not one of those "oops, I dropped some ham" type of accidents) dropped some asparagus onto the floor and there Mini was... He even got some more so he did not accidentally eat the first piece. Maxi and Frank said they would prefer ham or tuna.

Week 16: 14.4. - 20.4.

This week the spring came! It looks like the spring finally came for good.

It was the Easter week and the whole week the weather was nice and sunny. Then on Sunday all the lovely things suddenly came at once: Mini ate the first fly, the door to the balcony was open all day so we could run back and forth and pretend we did not see the Siamese cats from downstairs who were also enjouying the weather...

What's even better, the people had been away on Saturday and when they came back that night, they brought back some delicious ham. Yum! On Sunday they also made this flat, round food called pizza which meant some more ham and some tuna to go. Yum! Could the life be any better?

Week 17: 21.4. - 27.4.

This week the ice hockey world championships started. Great! That means that people sit in front of TV, make a lot of noise and give us a cat treat after they have jumped up and down and yelled. They call it "Finland has scored a goal". Sometimes they yell but they do not give us a cat treat, that's called "The other team scored". That happened too often, we think, we prefer the first way of yelling.

Week 18: 28.4. - 4.5.

This week was the vappu week - and the ice hockey was still going strong.

There was a small vappu celebration, so we also had some visitors (see 2nd, 3rd and 4th photo) - one of them was quicker than the last time (see the last 8 photos) and so were we. Phew! That was close, and still he could grab us by the tail. Frank was saved, but Mini and Maxi were caught. However, when Mini and Maxi, respectively, started walking, he lost his grip and fell down (not badly, though) but was soon after us again.

Oh, and when he saw us he said "doggie". We didn't mind.

Week 19: 5.5. - 11.5.

The ice hockey games ended this week. During the few last days we did not get any cat treats (that was too bad). The people still kept on sitting in front of the TV but they did not yell that much anymore.

Boy, we were a bit confused at times. Once Maxi decided that it was better to hide in the bedroom and not come out, not even if there was a cat treat. There was too much yelling. We're glad it's all over.

Week 20: 12.5. - 18.5.

This week the people took over the balcony doing something called "Don't touch it, you silly cat, it's wet paint and your fur gets stained". They said they painted something. Then the things they painted were left at the balcony where they smelled bad and then they were brought back in. One thing was placed on top of a shelf and four of them were placed next to the TV. We think the first one is called "a small drawer" and the four things are called "CD thingies".

Well, whatever, we still keep jumping on the shelf even though there is now less space and fewer things we can drop to the floor and, of course, the CD thingies are something we can try to knock down when we run mindlessly all over.

Week 21: 19.5. - 25.5.

On Tuesday we saw a rabbit, or, we could have seen it but we did not give a d**n. The rabbit was hopping on the back yard, doing all kinds of rabbity things (such as eating dandelions and hopping all over the back yard) and our Siamese neighbours seemed very interested. We were like "who, me, what, a rabbit, whatever" and didn't care at all. Like the song says, "Throw your paws in the air like you just don't care..."

Well, we live on the third floor and the Siamese girls live on the second floor, so they have a shorter way down to the back yard (but they do have a safety net, too, so they can't jump down either) so let them catch the rabbits. We're sure they'd invite us to the party after they have done all the work.

On Sunday then the sallad bar was open(ed) as the people brought all the plants and some new ones to the balcony for us to eat. They did all kinds of wet and dirty stuff there that involved a lot of pots and in result most of the plants were taken back to their original places (sigh) but the orange and yellow ones were left at the balcony - which was nice. Now we can climb there and eat the plants. It seems like the eating outdoors season has now officially begun...

Week 22: 26.5. - 1.6.

This week Mini developed the strangest habit of poking people in the head with his head at night when the people try to sleep. He would come early in the morning and push with his head like he would like to move the head and see that there is, for example, a bed mouse under it on the pillow. Sometimes he would also scratch.

No wonder the people are annoyed. We assume it's not nice to wake up with someone scratching and poking you.

With love, Mini, Maxi, and Frank