Ellie New Cat and the Not So Scary Feet (RL, RP)

[thistlechaser]

Ellie is losing one fear which I wish she wouldn't. Ever since I got her, she's been afraid of feet. Not just while the people-feet are walking (which is a fine and reasonable fear for a 10 pound animal living with humans to have), but if I'm on the sofa with my feet up, she'll just stare at them warily and avoid that end of it. (I guess she must have gotten kicked before she came to me, which makes me both sad and angry.)

Suddenly, my feet are a-ok with her. Unfortunately this is a 24/7 thing, so if I'm exercising or just walking around, she no longer feels the need to avoid me. I already know full well how to do the "cat walk" (I barely pick my feet up off the floor while at home), so HOPEFULLY I won't step on the poor girl, but I'd rather she not be so trusting in this case.

Work on getting her to let me touch her feet is going really, really slow. I think we're still making progress, but this is one of the slowest things we've worked on so far.

She sure is getting friendly though (on her terms). When I'm not looking at her, she comes up on my desk and headbutts me endlessly. Poor girl has poor balance, half the time she falls off my desk trying to rub against me. (I have to let her fall, if I try to catch her, it sets off the GRABBING ME EVIL MONSTER NO NO NO RUN reaction.)

- Spiffy free fanart of Thistle! I love his armor in it so much. :D It's funny, I can remember each piece of his gear, he worked so hard for it! Art by the wonderful alicethesable.

- I spent about an hour sitting at the creation screen in WoW, trying to come up with a name for a new alt (paladin). Finally I gave up and I'm trying to get a name freed instead (I suspect I'll have less luck this time than all the other successes though). Ironically, Thistle started life as a Tauren paladin, rerolled as Alliance worgen hunter, faction changed back to Horde.

- The Walking Dead is SUCH a good show. This week's ep killed me! Arg! And while I don't usually like scary things, I find I actually enjoy how it makes me jump and gasp. Holy cow, this week's ep though. Arg!

I went in search of Walking Dead fics, but didn't have much luck. The heydays of HP fandom has spoiled me-- more outstanding fanfic than you'd ever have time to read.

Odd, I always thought heyday was "hayday", people excited because it was time to harvest the hay or something. Heyday makes less sense.

Comments

[aliceinazeroth.livejournal.com]

Aww, Thistle. I love his little smile. And his spikey hair!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I call it the "freshly growing out" look. :P His head was shaved soon before he appeared ICly, so it's just starting to grow out every which way.

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

Interesting idea to not stepping on cats. I always just walked normally and then whenever I "stepped" on them I would just move most of my weight over to my other leg so I didn't hurt them. It still freaked them out because I never got all my weight off a leg/tail. They learned pretty quick not to be under my feet and no one got hurt, it's win-win!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

In addition to worrying about stepping on them, I'm worried I'd react so much that I'd lose my balance and fall. Worse yet, falling on her!

My previous cat was so old when she walked she was really slow, and when she slept she just never moved, so the cat walk/shuffle was so much better because there was no chance I'd step on her.

Poor kitties, so small and breakable.

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

I guess my cat like reflexes just help me out better in this regard. Plus I always land on my feet.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ha! I'm the opposite, on both.

[penwyn.livejournal.com]

Aaah HP fandom fanfiction. I filled my Kindle with recommendations and OMFG SOME ARE SO AMAZING.

I read an AMAZING one called Eclipse by PhoenixSong that blew my mind and took me thirteen hours to read (I'm a very fast reader). You should READ THAT.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

MAYBE I WILL. Though I can't promise anything HP related will hold my interest any longer! I haven't even seen the last two movies. :}

[siviakinut.livejournal.com]

This article was vey helpful to me. It helped me to be informed and more aware. The details were such a blessing, thanks.

[teaandfailure.livejournal.com]

I understand this all too well. The skittish cat of my two is afraid of everything in the universe EXCEPT feet, and many times I have teetered crazily on one leg after she decided to zip in front of me JUST I was starting to walk somewhere.

I have actually kicked her a couple of times, or tripped over her, not on purpose, but because she ran right underneath me when I was trying to walk. And then she looks at me like WHY YOU HURT? :( :(

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yes! Exactly! I kicked my previous kitty (poor old lady!) a few times without meaning to at all. That's why the kitty foot shuffle helps -- little steps mean less of a swing while kicking!

[doxxxicle.livejournal.com]

heyday
c.1590, alteration of heyda (1526), exclamation of playfulness or surprise, something like Mod.Eng. hurrah, apparently an extended form of M.E. interjection hey, hei. Modern sense of "stage of greatest vigor" first recorded 1751, which altered the spelling on model of day, with which this word apparently has no etymological connection.

From: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/heyday

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ah, huh, interesting! I like heyda a whole lot better than hayday.

[firebyrd.livejournal.com]

Wow. I really don't adjust how I act in my own home to protect my cats at all. I'm surprised by the number of comments that suggest that it's a rare occurrence and something people are trying to avoid. I mean, I'm not going around trying to do stuff to my cats on purpose, but you know what? If you're going to teleport right behind me when I'm at a sink and I start to back up, you're going to get kicked or stepped on. I'll apologize, maybe pat you on the head, and not think anything more about it anymore than I would with my kids. You've got a legitimate concern in not wanting to harm your relationship with such a skittish cat, I'm just surprised both by it being a previous habit and by the other people who are so worried about it.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Dax had been so old that I was really, really worried about her. She walked so slowly and tended to lower herself down to rest during trips hither and yonder. Even when she was younger, she was just so darned trusting that I wouldn't hurt her...

Surprisingly random "hits" don't seem to harm things with Ellie. I punched her in the face once (ARG! Total mistake! I was trying to pull something lose and she was in the wrong place at the wrong time and I socked her), and moments later she acted like nothing had happened. I was quite surprised by that.

[firebyrd.livejournal.com]

I think they do understand contrition. Maybe not in that complex of a concept, but voice and body language when apologizing makes it clear it's an accident and so they don't care. I know mine don't act like anything happened second after either. And if they really cared...why do they keep getting underfoot?

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Belated reply! Sorry!

I think you're right, that they understand it. Also, I suspect they know that accidents can happen. (That makes it sound like a higher-thought thing, I don't mean it that way. Animals sometimes hit/bite/step on/sit on others without meaning harm. Not every time you're "hit" does it mean someone was trying to hurt you.)