Silence of the Cats?

Blog Entry at Say Hello Beanty receives the All My Kids Have Fur Reward.

This is a partial reprint from Say Hello Beanty: http://www.sayhellobeanty.com/ please check it out....

In an article about animal writers, a pet writer ...explicitly stated that pets don’t talk, cats especially...

Beanty is a grey domestic short hair. Perhaps your cat is an orange tabby or rambunctious Scottish fold who loves boxes. When I say cats communicate quite clearly. I think you’ll agree. What’s the harm in going a step further and lending them the words they’re unable to say...We dress them in bizarre clothing, and that’s okay. There are cat capes, dresses, booties and wigs. I’m partial to cat wigs myself. Can there be anything better than a tortoiseshell cat in a hot pink wig?

Is the mix of cats and language a potentially lethal cocktail...Do they have the power to unleash a deadly new virus when trying to pronounce a long vowel? Does the scientific community know something we don’t?.... A cat says many things, least of which is, Why isn’t my box clean or Who moved this chair?

...Cat lovers are strange enough. We can’t have a bunch of people covered in cat hair, walking around recounting conversations with their cats during office potlucks...But they do talk. And if we can somehow manage to put down the cat wigs and calico dresses long enough we’d realize that they have far more intelligent things to say...

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to explain why I moved a chair.

For full version of this story see Silence of the Cats and please leave the author comments. Thanks! [update: unfortunately Say Hello Beanty blog is no longer on the net? :-( ]

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Mom's Comment:

Has this pet writer checked out animal research at all? Cats understand hundreds of words and can remember them. Their vocal chords are able to formulate the words they understand better than dogs can.

Based on the research I had found on communicating with chimps, dogs, and cats, I set out to see how much my cat I raised from three days old could understand and vocalize. As a kitten, my cat Spunky picked up more on food words, but he also knew my name. He had trouble pronouncing the “k” and the “th”, so it sounded like “atrin” versus Katherine.

My other male cats, Sandy and Baby would vocalize “hungry” “water” “want out.” In fact when it came to the word “hungry,” Sandy and Snow Baby came up with their own way to tell me they were both hungry. Sandy would say “hung” and Baby would walk around Sandy and say “ree.”

Sandy also decided on his own that “water” was actually “ehr” and that he was really saying, “want ehr.”

I found out that I was the stupid one... I had to retrain myself to see how beautifully intelligent my furry kids have been and still are.

=^..^=

Slickfester Dude Tells Bedtime Stories

Whin Katie tollz Bootsie ta looks fur Mom on Toosdayz Postie dis da uther parts uf da storee!

Bootsie looks fur Mom...

"Mawmee! Readz a storee frum Slickfester Dude! Him tells Bedtime storeez!"

Okay Bootsie, I'll read you the first chapter, okay? Now be a good girl and don't roll around on the book.

Katie Too pouts, But Mawm, we iz writin a bloggie!! oh pooh... (Katie luks thotfull) Ohtay, kin we puts it on da bloggie den?

Yes, Katie... let's do that! Our Kitty Friends and their Mom n Dads might like the story, too!

Slickfester Dude Tells Bedtime Stories is a really cute and humourous book written by Carol Duerksen and Slickfester Dude who live at WillowSpring Downs in Hillsboro, Kansas.

Our copy is signed by Carol and Slickfester Dude himself! (ISBN: 0964852578)

Okay, Bootsie. Here is a story

Where Reuben Goes

The night the stories started, I was lying in bed with my husband Maynard, not far from sleep. I felt the waterbed move softly, and Slickfester Dude, our black cat, three-legged his way across the covers toward me. Slick's right front leg had been permanently folded across his chest since before we found him, so everything he did was in a three-legged mode.

"Hey, Slick, how're you doin', Dude" I greeted him.

Slick Responded by sitting down squarely on my chest. Gazing at me with those big gold eyes, he reached out his good front paw toward me.

"What?" I asked.

I want to hold hands." Slick said.

"You want to hold hands."

"Yes, I would like to hold hands. It makes me feel secure."

"Okay." I took his paws with my fingers and held it.

"Thank you. That feels good." Slick was quiet for awhile, then he said. "Would you like to know a secret?"

"Sure! Tell me a secret."

"I know where Reuben goes."

"You do? Where?"

Now I must explain here about Reuben. Reuben is a black pug dog. For the last few days, Reuben hadn't been around the house at all during the day, and when he showed up in the evening to eat, he looked and smelled bad. Actually, he'd been looking and smelling more like a pig than a pug.

Slick just looked at me, so I asked again. "So where does Reuben go?"

"Down by the creek, where that crippled pig is living in the mud. He sits there with that pig."

"You've gotta be kidding."

"I told you it was a secret. I didn't say it was a lie."

"Sorry. I believe you. But why? Why would Reuben spend days with a sick pig? Especially when his best friend is a chocolate Labrador. Who would leave a dog for a hog?"

"Maybe because the pig needs him," Slick looked especially wise when he said that.

Now it was my turn to think for a while. Yes, that porker had been the victim of domestic violence in the pig pen. Maynard had moved him outside the pen, away from his abusers. Somehow, the hog found his way down to the creek, where the shade trees and mud soothed his wounds. But what could Reuben do for him?

"But how?" I asked Slick. "How does the pig need Reuben?"

"He just needs him to be there. To sit beside him."

"Oh," I said. "You really think that makes a difference?"

"We'll see," Slick said, taking his paw back from me. He began to lick it, and then to give himself a face wash.

"Well thanks for telling me where Reuben's been," I said.
"I'm going to sleep now. Good night, Slick."

"Goodnight, Carol."


And that is Chapter One, Bootsie...

Bootsie: Mawm, Whut happin to da Pig n da Puggie?
Katie Too: Dat in Chapter 2 Bootsie n Ize tired uf typin... we wait til nex bloggie time!



Purrz, Katie Kat
Bootsie Woo n Katie Too





Back of Cover second paragraph:
So it Began. These stories are true. They are the stories of animals I know - most of them have lived on our farm in central Kansas. The part that might be stretching the truth a bit is that Slick actually, out loud, told me these stories. But if I looked into his golden eyes long enough, I could hear his heart talking - Carol Duerksen

Yay! One comment saved this story! But Katie Too wont type Chaptur Too wifout morh commintz. pooh. -Bootsie Woo.

Note *** to buy this signed by Carol Duerkson and Slickfester Dude, just go to the Purple Kattery.
Portion of sale will helps kitties in need***

Bye bye
Katie Kitty Too

Slickfester Dude and Hims Friendz

(Slickfester Dude and Friends)




Him tells Bedtime Stories in his book by Carol Duerksen.

We gots hiz book wif himz autograf! Thanks Charlemagne and Tamar!

C n T'z Noo Frindz

Charlemagne n Tamar's Mama sent our Mom deze fotohz of dehr noo Frindz!

Lion Baby and Bone China Kittiez!

Dey won dem in our Aukshuns!



Dey iz gonna be goods frindz! Well da bone china kittiez purrbablee hafta sits behin glass or sumpin so dey dont fall down. Now dat lion baby iz tuff n mites wanna play tho.

No Bootsie, dey dont got noh Play-Doh!!! goh ask Mom to read you a bedtime storee...
I iz writin dis here bloggie...

Anywayz, we am furry glad dat Charlemagne n Tamar likes derh noo frindz!!

Purrz, Katie Too 

Gimme Dat!!!

Weze inturruptz normal bloggin entreez fur dis

Hungree kitteh!

Baks 2 regoolar purrgrammin next bloggie times...Charlemagne and Tamar photoz!
Dey meets Bone China Kittens and Lion Baby!

Purrz,
Katie Too

Firefighters Rescue Kitten From Under Highway!

Dis a furry goods story about a kitten gotted rescued!
Purrz, Katie Too

Reprint of Wichita Eagle Article Below

Firefighters rescue kitten from under elevated highway
BY STAN FINGER - The Wichita Eagle - Brian Corn/The Wichita Eagle

Wichita Fire Department firefighter Chris Whitchurch brings a kitten down the ladder after rescuing it from a storm drain trough under the Canal Route on East Douglas Wednesday evening. A kitten trapped in a drain trough under the canal route on east Douglas, meeows at bystanders on the street below. The cat was later rescued by firefighters.

Firefighters at Station 5 on Hillside near Second Street were just about to sit down to some fresh, hot fajitas when the call came in. A kitten was stranded in a drainage trough underneath I-135 at Douglas.

"We're not in the cat rescue business," Lt. Tom Benefiel said, "but ... "

A crew of firefighters rolled to the scene next to the offices of the Midway Kansas Chapter of the American Red Cross, where a crowd of anxious onlookers had gathered.

The kitten, only about five weeks old, was peering out from the trough and at times seemed poised to jump.

"Who knows how long it had been up there?" asked James Williams, a spokesman for the Red

Cross, who first heard the kitten's meows as he was leaving the office for the day.

Benefiel sent the station rookie, firefighter Chris Whitchurch, up the ladder first. "He got bit," Benefiel said.

Then he sent another firefighter, Justin Brewster, up next. "He got bit," Benefiel said.

"I'm not sure," Williams said, "the cat wanted to be rescued."

Indeed, the kitten proved feisty, scampering to the opposite side of the ramp from the hoisted ladder. So while one firefighter scrunched below the trough on the ladder, another sprayed soapy water from the other side — forcing the kitten to retreat within reach of the first firefighter.

.

"We probably weren't going to get a second chance," Benefiel said.

Williams said he was tempted to adopt the kitten and make it a mascot for the Red Cross, but firefighters gave it to a pair of watching girls who indicated they were students at nearby East High. The girls, Emily Ivy and Adrianna Ortiz, had first seen the kitten around 3:30 p.m. and called 911 and Animal Control.

Animal rescues are rare for firefighters. Benefiel said he's been to three in the past five years.

He's lost count of the number of times someone has asked for help retrieving a cat from a tree or a roof. Simply put, Benefiel said, a cat who's climbed a tree or a house is going to come back down when it's darn good and ready, but this case was different.

"That cat," Benefiel said, "wasn't going to come down."

It likely became frightened by traffic on the Canal Route near First Street and sought refuge in the rain trough, he said. It was too small to climb back up onto the freeway or survive a leap of some 40 feet onto Douglas.

"I'm not a big cat lover at all," Benefiel said, "but it's kind of hard to turn down a kitten when it's sticking its head over the edge."

Reach Stan Finger at 316-268-6437 or sfinger@wichitaeagle.com.

Short Updates Too: Thankful Thursdeez!!

Hiya! Just A shorts Update

Nana Mom's Mortgage Paymint last Furryday! Fanks effurry buddy!
We make longer letter latur bout dat...

bye bye.
luvs n purrz
Katie Too