One day, I was in the utility room looking for Beavis. I was calling his name, and I heard some scuffling around in the corner. So I went to the corner, and bent down under the desk while still calling his name. Then I started hearing that the scuffling was coming from above me in the ceiling. So I kinda look up, and suddenly there’s Beavis’ head peaking out of a hole that I had no idea was there! It was totally reminiscent of “ceiling cat”.
He also likes to hang out under lamps that are on. I decided they must be warm.
He keeps doing miscellaneous cute things, and Clint says I should blog about them, but I am too lazy, and then I forget what it was.
We had to buy a scat-mat because he likes to go behind the tvs. He was shocked once within 20 minutes of us setting it up, and hasn’t been back there since. Poor kitty!
Anyway, he’s not as cuddly as Misfit, but he’s an awesome kitty! He usually sleeps with me, but instead of being on my chest or between my legs, he’ll be on the other side or the foot of the bed. Or sometimes he’ll be on the pillow next to me (where Clint’s head is supposed to be.) Other times, he’s not even in the bed, he’ll be up on the headboard behind the curtain (Misfit liked to sleep there too, and there was a perma-Misfit indentation.)
Beavis is also smaller than my other cats. I didn’t realize how huge Misfit was until I look back at pictures. So it’s possible that Beavis is the same size they were, but he just appears smaller to me. Plus, he’s a kitten, duh! 
Right now, he’s about 4 lbs.
For awhile, he wasn’t as vocal as either Samhain or Misfit, but lately he’s started to meow a lot more. He still has his cute higher-pitched kitten meow. As far as I can tell, at least.
Part of the move towards house 2.0, I got some curtains for the windows. Beavis likes to go behind the curtain and sit in the windowsill.
I still am very hesitant to let Beavis outside. I’ve started letting him go out, but only during the day, only when we are home, and only out the back door. Unfortunately, Beavis knows what a door is and tries very hard (sometimes successfully) to escape when we are leaving. I don’t know if I have the heart to continue to prevent him from escaping (or catching him when he does escape.) We had a close call before Stacy’s wedding. Beavis escaped and I had visions of chasing him everywhere and being late to the wedding. Luckily, there was another cat hanging around in our driveway, and Beavis stopped in his tracks to check out the cat so I was able to sneak up on him and grab him. (whew). Close call.
November 11, 2007 at 2:50 pm
That was night, too. Oh well, if he can’t cope outside, he’s not going to make it in the long run, and it’s gonna happen sometime. So it’s probably good that he is getting short trial runs, because at some point he’ll inevitably have his “first night out”.
November 11, 2007 at 3:38 pm
I guess. I’m torn as to whether I should allow him to do what he wants and have his freedom, or to keep him inside and have him be safe. I think I’m going to end up letting him have his way.
I also forgot to mention how he likes the pool table and was actually playing pool once.
November 11, 2007 at 4:11 pm
I talked about the pool-playing and foosball playing here:
http://clintjcl.wordpress.com/2007/09/28/journal-beavis-the-foosball-cat/
November 11, 2007 at 6:22 pm
Ahh thanks! He’s a cute-heart!
November 15, 2007 at 7:18 am
I had a cat when I was 16ish that loved going outdoors when she was young, but for some reason when she hit 2-3 years old, she stopped wanting to go out AT ALL. She would sit near a window and seem to want to go out, but I’d open the door and she’d just freak out and run away. We just had to assume that something outside had scared her so much that she simply lost all interest in going out. There was a nasty Siamese on my old street (heh) that I witnessed chasing her once, so I think that was it.
I can understand why you’re hesitant, though. You guys sort of live near a busy street (from what I recall), and the cars on Braddock can go fast. I can’t remember–does your backyard have a fence? If it’s relatively closed in, maybe that would be a good spot for Beavis for now..
November 15, 2007 at 3:45 pm
Yeah, our first cat would never go near the street, and if you tried to take him to the edge of the driveway, he’d freak out and scratch you to get away. My second cat got hit on Braddock Road, so that’s why I’m hesistant. I had never seen Misfit go near the street, but apparently he did.
If Beavis would stick to the backyard, he’d definitely be fine, because it’s a huge backyard hill that goes down to a creek, and then up another hill before hitting other houses. The problem is I don’t think he’ll stick to back there. I think the other night he went to the neighbor’s yard.
November 15, 2007 at 4:09 pm
Well, I think it’s natural for them to explore and consider a certain amount of land to be “their” territory. And of course they don’t know where the property boundary lines are drawn. It’s just natural.
Really, a cat needs to have proper survival instinct. Some do. Some don’t.
Our situation works best with intelligent cats that have a good survival instinct, which is why we don’t want idiot cats, or coward cats that run away from non-threats.
I’m actually starting to think that it might be better to let cats out earlier, if you’re going to do it at all. If they are incapable of comprehending or learning the threat of a car, they’re probably gonna get hit. If it’s gonna happen, it’s gonna happen. It might be better to have it happen sooner, before getting very attached. That’s the practical standpoint.
I’d love to breed super-smart cats with opposable thumbs
November 15, 2007 at 4:10 pm
(that can play ps2)
November 15, 2007 at 5:14 pm
Clint: I can sort of see the logic, but a cat could have *superior* survival instincts and still get hit by a car. Meaning, how would a kitten know that a car = death unless it had gotten hit by one before?
One could say that any intelligent animal would run away from something moving towards it that’s huge and fast, but if you happen to have an especially curious cat, he could simply not realize that the road is dangerous, and have his attention be drawn elsewhere (ie following a bird, or some other natural instinct). Most cats will stay away from busy streets, but sometimes people go around corners so fast that the animal wouldn’t even have time to run. You know?
As you said, “it’s only natural for cats to not know where property lines are drawn,” I also think it’s natural for them not to always recognize when a car is a threat or not–especially if a car is going so fast that the cat doesn’t even have a chance to react or escape.
I dunno. I personally don’t think it’s worth testing whether or not his instincts are up to par. He sounds like a really intelligent, playful cat…I would just be sad if something happened. But I guess I can understand not wanting to keep him cooped up all day, either..it’s a complex issue, I suppose!
November 15, 2007 at 5:55 pm
“I’d love to breed super-smart cats with opposable thumbs”
Now think about that one really carefully. Be careful what you wish for. Next thing you know, they’ll enslave the human race.
November 15, 2007 at 8:08 pm
Parthena:
Even a fly usually knows to get out of the way, but yea — the cat should hear the car coming, possibly see the headlights. I mean, it’s hard to sneak up on a cat even as a quiet human. It’s gotta miss some very obvious stimuli to get hit.
Misfit seemed to have gotten to the median of the road (unless someone put him there), which would indicate perhaps he got there, and then cars were coming in both directions and he didn’t know what to do.
Bad move.
Simple pattern recognition should say “um, cars come here, don’t bother, there’s a whole acre of *creek* and forest in the other direction” (which there is)”.
So who ever knows what really happened. It’s frustrating. Cat is NOT happy staying inside only. Nobody who’s tasted freedom is.
Of course they could be raised like in the movie “The Island”, where nobody even had an idea what freedom was like, and accepted it.
But to me it seems that making something live a life that is a lie is … unethical somehow.
November 15, 2007 at 10:37 pm
@#10: Anybody ever played Wing Commander 3? The Kilrathi are ruthless…
November 16, 2007 at 12:55 am
I know I played Wing Commander. I loved that game. Just don’t remember which one. Probably the first one. I’ll have to look it up. I still have the box on my bookshelf. Talk about old skool!
November 16, 2007 at 7:12 am
Yeah, in a weirdly objective philosophical way, I get what you’re saying. Hehe.
My sister’s cat was mostly outdoors, but simply disappeared one day and they never figured out what happened. They don’t think she got hit by a car, b/c she always stuck to the same neighborhood and was really good about keeping away from the street.
They eventually just concluded that since she occasionally would crawl into their car and sleep, if the window was open, that maybe the cat did this with someone else’s car whose window was open and either just got stolen or ended up being taken far from home. (random story)
November 16, 2007 at 9:23 am
Interesting. Sometimes I hear about them crawling up inside engines, and then when the car is started — yuck. Outside cats do seem to disappear for the most part, according to Carolyn.
(My family’s 4 cats all died by age 5 and we never had any afterwards. They were awful shit-generating puke-generating [on a daily basis] cats for the most part, and caused me to mistakenly think dogs were better for some 13-14 years or so.)
But Carolyn says all her outdoor ones just disappeared. So I suppose at least we had some closure. Though having to re-bury Misfit after [WHATEVER] dug him up was probably pretty sucky for Carolyn.
Anyway, guys: Wing Commander *2* was where it was at!
November 16, 2007 at 11:36 am
Our cats are semi-outdoor cats. They never really go farther than the neighbors yard. Traffic isn’t really an issue, as we live at the end of a cul-de sac. However, we have seen both a fox and a coyote around our neighborhood and in the woods behind our house.
So basically, if we’re home, the cats can go out. But if we’re not home, or it’s nighttime, they stay indoors.
November 16, 2007 at 1:07 pm
It’s hard when we get home after dark. I’ve been letting Beavis go out even though it’s nighttime, but unfortunately, he doesn’t come when I call him. He comes when I call him if he wants to come in, but if he’s not ready to come in, he basically ignores me. Bastard.
Luckily, I guess, Clint is home now, so he can start letting Beavis out during the days more.
November 16, 2007 at 4:06 pm
In the winter, they’re happy enough to go out on weekends.
November 16, 2007 at 4:15 pm
@clint:
You’re kind of being a hypocrite here. On the one hand, you say that letting the cat out is normal, and it would not be humane to not let the cat live out its instincts. On the other hand, a few months ago you said something along the lines of it not being worth putting up an invisible fence, cause it’s cheaper to get ten cats than to pay for the fence. That really shows alot of caring and compassion for the cat.
That way the cat could be free and go outside, and you wouldn’t have to worry about it being in a dangerous situation. But I guess you put a very low monetary value on the life of a cat, much like the the corporations figure loss of life as a monetary value when designing for safety. Which will cost more? The extra money to make it safe, or the money spent in settling lawsuits?
November 16, 2007 at 6:20 pm
Wanting something to be free does not imply wanting to foot the full cost of ensuring something lives a long time.
November 16, 2007 at 6:50 pm
I can see your point. However, I’m one of those people that sees my cats as companions also. So them living longer gives me happiness.
November 26, 2007 at 10:25 pm
Speaking of Beavis, he likes to hide and then jump out with both his legs spread when I walk by. It’s hilarious. And then if I continue to walk away, he’ll grab the leg that moves forward, then he’ll grab the other leg when it moves forward, and he makes it hard to walk.
It’s really cute. He’ll play tag in a similar way that Misfit used to, but he has his own way also.
I was just sitting here at my computer, and I kept feeling something bump into my chair. I looked down, and there was Beavis inside this basket thing. He looked up at me looking down at him, and then I turned away. Next thing I know, Beavis had climbed up the chair and tagged me in the head.
(He doesn’t use his claws. He does bite sometimes, but I think I’m succeeding in discouraging that. Yay.)
And now that Clint is home during the day, he supposed to be letting Beavis out. Beavis doesn’t really ask to go out much lately. I don’t think he’s been outside since Saturday. One day last week, he was out from like 1pm until 7pm when I was suddenly like, “Hey, where’s Beavis?” Clint had forgotten he was outside.