Darn Cat Thinks He Owns The Place

The other day, we had a massive apartment clean-out kind of day.  We started just going through dishes, and we've progressed to going through closets and drawers, scavenging for things that we forgot even existed.  But it wouldn't be a clean-out without Apollo deciding he needs to supervise our every move.  Throughout the past few days, he's done several things that seem to demonstrate how he thinks he's the top kitty in this apartment.

 The day started with us realizing we needed to re-arrange his kitty fort set-up.  It's a modular fort, so you can hook up different boxes together and change the style.  The way we had it, it was nice and tall.  It looked awesome, but we found out it was not very sturdy.  Every time he climbed on it, the entire tower would shake violently, threatening to launch the kitty.  We changed it up to make it more flat and wide, and far more sturdy.  Apollo promptly walked up, took a couple sniffs, and parked himself across the room to admire it.

Ignoring the cat who had just turned his nose up at our hard efforts to fix his fort, I went to go fold some laundry.  Apollo trotted along with me, and claimed the clothesbasket I was going to use as his own and made himself cozy.  I dumped him out, and he jumped right back in.  Apparently I'm not allowed to fold laundry without the cat's direct supervision.  He also made himself useful by flailing his paws around whenever socks or shirt sleeves flew over him, and tried to wrestle a few towels.

After he got worn out from  laundry fighting, he marched over to my desk.  He found a few hair clips on my desk.  They have little black fabric flowers on them, and are very pretty.  Apollo certainly thought so, since he tried to steal them.  He picked up the flower in his mouth, and quickly ran with one of them to the other side of the apartment to chew on it and poke at it.  I went and fetched it and put it back, only to have him steal it another three times before I finally realized I should hide them if I ever cared to see them again.

Apollo also decided to claim ownership of my grocery shopping bag.  I left it on the floor after putting away a few items, and the cat just went to town with it.  He sprinted across the room and dove right in, hopped out, jumped on the top, ran away, and did it all over again.  He did that over and over for a good 20 minutes.  Apollo wore himself out, crawled inside the bag like it was a sleeping bag, and passed out.  I was going to put it away later that night, but every time he heard the fabric rustling he would come running and start playing again.  It's been a few days and it's still out, just for him.  Of all the toys that we've bought him, the one he loves the most is a $1 bag.  At least we know for the future we can save our money...
(For your viewing pleasure, go to the bottom of this post to see bag-tackling action on video!)

I also bought new kitty food to fill up his food container.  It's a decent sized bin, able to hold a big bag of it.  As I was pouring it in, Apollo decided he was desperately hungry, and couldn't wait another second to get food in his belly.  Mind you, this was about an hour after his dinnertime.  His dish was already empty from him shoveling it up already.  He should not have been that hungry.   But nonetheless, he decided he was hungry, and plunged his head into the container as the last few pieces fell on top.  The container is about 3/4 as tall as him, and he still decided it was a good feeding trough.  Charming, cat.  This is why you have a beer belly. 

This cat totally has it made, and it seems like he knows it.  He has claimed ownership of just about everything in this apartment, including the people in it.  For being such a little creature, he sure has a big attitude on him.

Oh, hai!  You want this shirt?  You'll have to wrestle me for it.

Cat needs om noms RIGHT NOW!

Skip to 0:17 to skip through the boring part that I couldn't figure out how to edit.  It's worth the wait and suspense!

Underwater Kitty

We discovered by accident that Apollo actually likes frolicking in water.  As you saw by the picture in the last post, he has taken to sleeping for hours in the bathroom sink.  He's got a specific route he takes each time to get into the sink, and will come and yell at us if it is blocked for some reason.  Apollo has to jump up to the top of the toilet, then carefully step across the gap to the sink, then shove soap dishes or contact solution out of his way so he can make his way over and settle into the basin.  It's quite the ordeal for him.  And apparently an exhausting system, because after all this, he passes out and refuses to get up for hours.  Which in most cases is tolerable.  We can just wash hands in the kitchen sink, and deal with the kitty blob that thinks he owns the bathroom.

But it's also quite inconvenient.  I despise mornings, and choose to sleep in as late as possible, even if it means being in a huge rush in the mornings to get out the door.  So one morning this week, I had about 20 minutes to get dressed, get ready, and grab food before having to run out the door to work.  I was getting ready to brush my teeth, but of course Apollo had settled into his sink spot, and wasn't ready to move.  I didn't feel like fighting and wrestling with him, especially with toothbrush already in hand, so I just turned on the faucet.  I figured he'd get the message and storm off to dry himself off and skulk in the living room.  I was wrong.  Apollo absolutely LOVED it.  He turned around and watched the stream of water roll down his beer belly, then arched his back so that he could drink from the faucet while still laying down.  To even out the kitty moisture level, he then shifted and rolled over, so that his entire back got a helping of water.  After about a few minutes of this, Apollo finally realized that the water was not going to stop, and finally leaped out of my way.

Apollo's water fascination was not just a one time fluke, either.  Now, any time I turn the faucet on, he runs to the bathroom for playtime.  He stands on the edge and smacks and fights with the water, takes a couple sips, then goes back to hitting it.  If it's a really warm day, he rolls over in it a few times to cool off.  And he gets very confused if the stream of water changes from a trickle to full force.  When I'm brushing my teeth or standing at the sink for any length of time, I even have to stand in such a way as to block his pathway to the sink, because otherwise he moves right in, oblivious to the fact that the sink is a crucial part to getting ready every morning and every night.

For the most part, the boyfriend and I have gotten used to Apollo's presence in the bathroom.  Yes, it is incredibly awkward to shower and have a cat dozing in the sink a few feet away.  And if the door is closed with him locked away from his sink, he will throw himself against the door or stick his paws under the door and try to find a way in.  But we have friends that come over and are not expecting a kitty to be lounging there.  Multiple times I have had to be summoned to remove a cat from the sink that is defending his "territory" by smacking and poking at people that just want a minute or two of privacy.  This cat honestly thinks that he owns this apartment, and that the sink is there for the sole purpose of giving him a cool place to nap.

Apollo trying to hit a person that is invading in his personal sink space.