My (our) beloved Digit is a wonder. A miracle. He is still very not-dead. However, he is grumpy as hell and can sometimes be an asshole (surprise!). We cuddle all night. We hold hands. He sucks on my pillow. He purrs so hard the bed shakes. But between four and six in the morning, he wakes up mad. So when that happens (every morning), I get up and carry him out to the front sun porch, him spitting and hissing the whole way. This is his spot. He has his catnip, his water, his litter box. He likes to be in this room often during the day — away from the dog/kitten hustle and bustle of the Hehu household.
I fed him out there this morning, as I always do. As he always does, he inhaled his breakfast which WAS NOT ENOUGH THANK YOU, and he started to howl. He has to be separated from the other cats while they eat because he’s on a special diet for his crystal needs (and they’re not supposed to eat his food). So every morning and evening at feeding time, there is one minute of silence and then howling for as long as I grant the other cats to eat.
This morning I heard fumbling at the door of the sun porch that leads to the living room.
Then it opened.
He is a polydactyl – a Hemingway cat. He has finally figured out how to use his thumbs. Together, he and Clara could rule the world. Luckily, they don’t hang out. Much. I am scared.
Morning Photos For You
Harriet: Too Damn Early
This is the door Digit opened. A regular doorknob, thank you. Also, when I shut the door, I didn’t notice that Waylon was out there. Whoops.
Wrong side! O noes!
Even without a camera, Willie is usually blurry like this.
Getting ready to Plan Something Big.
Perfection. Thank you. Yes, I am.
Your mornings sound like my pre-dawn hours. Why do cats love the hours between 4am and 6am to have giant free-for-alls? I am so glad I don’t have polydactyl cat ’cause I have a regular one that has just about figured out how to open the bedroom door at 4am! I am glad however that the Digit is a feisty kitty and he seems to leave the plants in peace 🙂
Digit and Clara, ’08. Now there’s a ticket I’d vote for.
When I first got my cat Zoe, who is also polydactyl, I tried to put a collar on her. You know, in case she got lost, someone could call me, right? A few days later, I woke up and found the collar in the middle of the floor. Unbuckled. The mind boggles.
(She also sometimes eats by scooping up food in her paws. Heh.)
A cat with thumbs. My worst nightmare. The only way I maintain control in this household is via The Thumbs that Open Cans.
I have a Midnight Screamer – Higgins, who is 13, has for his entire life walked through the house sometime around midnight, wailing mournfully. He ceases after a hearty “STFU!” from me, but yeah, I’ve had him 12 years and somehow I haven’t killed him yet.
Aren’t cats great?
Our missing-a-few-toes kitteh has figured out how to open the guest room door (which is actually a fairly simple 19th century latch). About the diet, though, if the other cats don’t have incompatible dietary issues of their own, there’s no reason they couldn’t go on the same diet as Digit. Feel free to e-mail me about it.
maybe Digit wants a coffeee in the morning?
If I were a cat, I would want to live at your house, especially if I were a cat with special needs.
Love the HeHu critters! Can’t get enough of ’em.
Oah, yes, memsahib. that is a very special furperson.
Ooooh, you have such a pretty house, and cute pets!
You’re not missing a canary, are you? ‘Cause in that last photo, Digit looks like he’s just licking his chops after eating one!
It always cracks me up when cats try to open doors…I should probably stop laughing.
My cats once locked me in the garage by using one of those doorknobs with the little button in the center to lock it. Then they climbed up on the counter and stared out the window at me.
Miss Kitty Fantastico can also open doorknobs. She jumps at them and hangs on till they go pop. If I don’t lock the bedroom door at night I wake up with her doing a two-step on my forehead.
A friend whose cat could also open doors took an empty aluminum can, cut the bottom off (with a can opener), then used heavy-duty scissors to cut one end of the can into strips (parallel cuts from one end to about 1/2 way up the can, an inch or so apart). She bent the strips out (into an askterisk shape, with the uncut part of the can as the center), then used the strips to nail the can to the door, with the door knob/latch in the center of the can (does that make sense?). There was enough space that people could reach in to turn the knob, but not enough for the cat to do it. It wasn’t pretty, but it kept the cat from opening the door and running out into traffic!
Oh, man, I feel for ya (and am very impressed with Digit!) Baby Charlie learned how to open my sliding screen door a few months back, so I have to be very vigilant about either lockin’ it, or only opening the glass door a crack. Those darned dexterous kitties!
Oh dear. You are in for it, for sure. My late kitty also discovered how to open a door-with knob. He’d stand on his back legs, paw on either side of the doorknob, and jiggle it until it opened. He was so proud of himself and couldn’t figure out why we weren’t, too! We picked up one of those hook and screw-eye latches for the door that led from the back rooms. Just for those times when there was no human supervision in the house…
Digit IS perfection. I’m hoping that my whiny, gripy kitten will grow up to be like him.
Also perfect are your posts. I love reading your blog so, so much, but have always (like for 2 years) been a lurker. Not today, though! And viva the pets of the Hehu household – they live good lives!
Willie looks seriously worried about the whole thumb thing in that photo. He is clearly not sure he is ready to face the new responsibilities to be bestowed upon him after this Great Leap Forward in cat evolution.
Digit! Such a smart boy! Simon used to wake me up between 4:00 and 5:00 every morning. The only way to shut him up was to get up and feed him. At least, that’s all that works if you’re a light sleeper like me. He now lives with my sister, and she sleeps right through it. And he would also wrap both front paws around the doorknob to try to open the door. Luckily, he was never very successful!
OMG this is so funny… a few minutes ago, my dog Mattie was playing in the bathtub and my razor just hangs in there, and it’s one of the ones where the top comes off. She popped it off. Here’s the funny thing. You have to push the button and push the thing off at the same time. We may have a revolution on our hands. 🙂