Blimix

There have been mouse sounds in our bedroom recently.

Three nights ago, after the lights were out, our cat Pretzel briefly played with a mouse before it got away.

Two nights ago, we heard no sign of the mouse. Karen surmised that it had learned to avoid the bedroom.

Last night, Prezel caught a mouse, leaped onto the bed, let it go, and proceeded to chase and pounce it all around the bed, in pitch blackness.

Honestly, this sounds like an awesome game. I was almost sad to discourage it. But I have a habitual move of "Get the hell off me while I'm trying to sleep". It involves swiftly raising my arm underneath the covers just as Pretzel reaches me, so that she is tampolined diagonally across the bed. I pulled it off perfectly, shooting my arm up just in front of her.

Guess what else was just in front of her. Despite the pitch blackness, I know that I launched the mouse straight upward by a few feet. I know this because of how long it took the mouse to land on my suddenly exposed torso. It had the good sense to scamper onto the sheet, and I quickly flicked it off of the bed, ending the chase.

Yes, I've been very sleep deprived lately, often because of Pretzel. But at least I got to laugh about it this time. Karen is super glad that the mouse didn't land on her.

Both of our cats have had health issues lately. Both are fine now. In the process, I've learned, and come to suspect, some unexpected knowledge that one of them possesses.

Midnight, if I haven't mentioned it before, is the smartest cat I've ever known. He has distinct vocabulary and body language to communicate things he wants: Outside, food, yogurt (a medium for Cosequin for his arthritis), scritches, lap time, TV (so he can sit with/on the humans on the couch). He has a listening vocabulary that he combines with contextual and body language clues to have a really good idea of what we want when we talk to him. (He also cares what we think, and so complies far more often than one would expect a cat to do.) One time, my dad was looking for the other cat. He said, "Midnight, where's Pretzel?" Midnight got up, walked over to the Fortress of Solitude (a low table with a tablecloth hanging to the floor), look at my dad, looked at the Fortress, and looked up at my dad again. Sure enough, Pretzel was in there.

Midnight displays model of mind: When he wants something, he will persistently ask for it, like any cat will. But where most cats will persist until they get what they want (or are shooed out of the room), he persists only until it is clear to him that the human understands him and still won't comply. Once that happens, he stops asking. He's so polite!

When we started him on Cosequin a few years ago, he used to ask for the yogurt a few times a day, but quickly learned that we only gave it to him once daily. Since then, he has only asked for it late at night, if we had forgotten his dose that day. Karen once wondered aloud whether Midnight knows that the Cosequin-laced yogurt is good for his joint pain. I said I doubted it: It's a dietary supplement, not a painkiller. It probably wouldn't work fast enough for him to make the connection.

About a month ago (IIRC), Midnight hurt himself: He started limping and favoring one paw. That day, he led us to his feeding area and said his word for "yogurt". (It sounds like "mow-WOW!") He had already had one dose that day. He knew! (We gave it to him, and increased his dosage. It helped a lot. There was also an inconclusive vet visit. He's mostly better now.)

Another of his habits: He'll sometimes tell me when he's done eating. Pretzel is on a diet, so we can't leave Midnight's food out. We bring it out whenever he asks for it, and put it away after he's done (when we remember; we don't just stand there watching him). I don't know why I think that that's what he's saying when he rejoins me and gives a perfunctory "Mow", but that's what gets communicated.

Last week, Pretzel ate a strand of Mylar tinsel that Midnight had stripped from a cat toy. The next morning, she went on a vomiting marathon. The x-ray showed that it was probably past the blockage danger zone (the small intestine), and an anti-nausea medication helped her eat. The strand took 5.5 days to pass through (5 days more than the vet expected), but she's fine now.

Meanwhile, to allow Pretzel to eat as much as she wanted, we've been leaving her food and Midnight's food out (along with giving her some chicken baby food). Last night, Midnight told me to come upstairs with him and replace the stale food in his dish. And I wondered: Does he know that leaving his food out makes it go stale? Is that why he tells me when he's done eating? I hadn't given him enough credit on abducing the therapeutic properties of Cosequin, and this connection is probably more obvious, especially to a cat's sense of taste and smell. He may well understand, and want it stowed for freshness. Smart cat.

Gratuitous links:

Doctor donates 70 acres to keep part of Latham forever wild. It's on River Road, across from the bikeway. The Mohawk-Hudson Land Conservancy will develop the trails, and open it to the public in 2017. (Thanks, Bill!)

6 Words That Are Guaranteed to End Picky Eating. (Thanks, Leora!)

At-risk students improve when they take a race and ethnicity class – study (Thanks, Akiko!)

The concept of different "learning styles" is one of the greatest neuroscience myths (Thanks, Eirias!)

Kylo Ren in Texts From Superheroes

Epic Twitter clash between Emo Kylo Ren and Very Lonely Luke

Star Wars / Calvin and Hobbes mashup fan art

Photography depth illusions

How to Teach Someone a Board Game in 6 Easy Steps