Professor Ceiling Cat has halted for the day in Indio, California, where the current temperature is 106°F (41.1°C). I’m within striking distance of Mesa, Arizona, home of Official Website Artist™ Kelly Houle—only 3.5 hours away (today was a relatively easy 8.5-hour drive, though the freeways around Los Angeles were daunting, even though it’s Sunday and I was going away from the city).
Meanwhile, Reader Charles Spotts has decided to participate in the Trump Your Cat mania (reported earlier by reader Stephen Barnard), and has fashioned some kind of wig for his moggie. It looks like the lint you pull out of the drier after your clothes have dried! (But it still beats Trump’s own rug.
If you wish, you may Trump Your Cat as well: just send me a photo of your moggie with a Donald Trump Hairdo. If there are more than 15 entries, the winner will get a lovely new book of Japanese cat-themed tattoos that I’ve been saving for an impromptu contest. Deadline: July 25 at 5 pm Chicago time. One entry per staff member.
Mr. Spotts’s comment:
Cleo wanted to participate in the “Trump your cat” activity. Being the dutiful staff that I am, we managed to get this photo.
It is inconceivable that any decent cat lover would make their most precious companion look like a turkey
sub
I live nearby in Palm Springs. 106° is below average for this time of year.
-Florian
Yes but what about humidity, the real killer in the heat. Your dew point was likely in the 40s. Call in when it hits 70.
Dew point high almost 60 today.
“It’s not the teat, it’s the tumidity” (Safire)
Remarkable resemblance.
The hair, of course. Cleo is much prettier than the Donald.
But of course.
Anything/one is prettier than The Donald!
I don’t know anyone with an orange cat that I could brush. Maybe the craft store will have something that looks almost alive.
Beautiful (angry-looking) cat! Nice rug, too. Enthusiastically sub 🙂
My cats would never for a moment put up with such an indignity.
Hi – I’ve got a bit of a real-life cat problem and I’m hoping PCC won’t mind me crowd-sourcing some kind of answer from the few people who’ll see this.
My little sister heard a whining coming from our garage. She went and looked and found a kitten, maybe two weeks old, maybe a week old(I really don’t know that much about cats). We brought it into the house, although it’s very hissy at us and very ruffled. We have a fairly young cat called Raffles who may be connected – we’re such a useless family we’re not completely certain that Raffles is even male and obviously he’s not been spayed – so we feel responsible for the kitten.
Anyway we put him in the bathroom with food and drink, basically because there are so many places in the house where he could run into and not come out of(Raffles had done exactly that when he was a kitten and he first arrived – we didn’t get him out of the space under the kitchen bench for the first two days) and we thought the bathroom didn’t have any hideable spaces. Needless to say the kitten immediately found a quite impregnably awkward space in which to hide – a kind of tunnel as wide as he/she is which goes behind the lavatory and starts almost flush against the wall so it’s impossible to reach in. The kitten’s been there for the weekend and we’ve no idea how to get the poor little sod out. Raffles went in to say hello, looked into the tunnel gloom and we just heard a loud hiss before Raffles swiftly trotted out. This kitten is scared and angry. Even if we could put our arms in it wouldn’t be a good idea for either of us. I’ve sat with a spoon of food, trying to draw it out but it’s just too wary. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
You need to contact someone in your local pet rescue organization. I would start with the SPCA or a local vet and see if they can give you a lead. These people are very experienced with the type of problem you are having and have helped us rescue a number of strays in the past. Once the kitten is trapped it needs to go to the vet for spaying, vaccinations,etc.
In our experience, if you can domesticate a
kitten early enough they can become wondeful
pets. Good luck.
Thanks – I’ll definitely take that on board.
If you have a pet carrier that you can rig to use as a trap, try putting a bit of tuna juice (the water or oil from a can of tuna) in there and leave it where the kitten can smell it.
If you have a trap, that will work itself. If you rig a cat carrier, make it so all you have to do is pull a string, and the door will close. It might not lock, but if the set up is close enough to the bathroom door, you might be able to hold it tight with tension on the string, while you reach in to secure it by hand.
Additional tips: Put a towel in the bottom of the trap or cat carrier. You won’t be able to add one in, after the cat is caught.
If you cover the trap or cat carrier with a towel or some-such, the cat is much more likely to enter it. As you described, it has already entered such a space, behind your toilet. That one doesn’t have any holes to see in or out of, other than the hole that the kitten entered through.
I imagine the kitten is small for its age, more likely at least 4 weeks old, and if so, just old enough to start weaning. Younger kittens might not be so hissy and frightened, but rather confused and infantile.
Good luck!
Calamanca cats are my favourite.
Great shot, Charles!
My money’s on dog hair for the wig, but maybe just because my two are shedding copiously at the moment.
Thank you Diane.
The hair is her own. I read somewhere on the interwebs that the way to make the wig is to brush the cat and use whatever is in the brush. 🙂
Ah, with a second look, it does look generally softer than dog. Though my elderly lady (15) is shedding her undercoat which is also remarkably soft and sticks to everything. (But the dog.)
Come to think of it, the cats would probably be far more tolerant of their own hair, should I attempt this. And Winston is also shedding now…
*looks around the house* Heck, I could Trump Madison Square Garden!
LOL!
My silly dog sheds much more in the winter than now. Makes no sense, unless it’s the temp differential between inside and outside.