Kitty Star of the Week for Apr. 29 - May 5, 2001.
This is Charlie, a domestic shorthair who lives in Seattle, Washington.
He was adopted when he was 4 months old from the King
County Animal Shelter; he had been in a foster home. Black cats are
generally adopted last, so all of his brothers and sisters had already
been adopted a month previously, and he was the very last one to go!
The other people sure missed out, though, Charlie is an absolute
*joy* to have around. His person has never regretted bringing him
home. He loves his
brother and sister cats and you'd never know they weren't littermates.
Charlie is a very odd cat. He has never learned how to meow like a real
cat. Instead of meowing, he makes a high-pitched, warbly crying noise.
He isn't actually crying, though, he makes this noise when he is happy and
also when he is talking to himself. The noise he makes is very funny,
though; it makes his human laugh (affectionately).
He also makes
little chirpy noises like most cats. At various intervals throughout the
day, Charlie gets what is called his "I'm a crazy spastic monkey" face.
This is a very wide-eyed, staring, crazy face, and it is always
accompanied by Charlie hurtling back and forth throughout the apartment at
high speeds, meowing loudly the whole way. The slightest noise or sudden
movement will cause him to jump six feet in the air and rocket to the
other end of the apartment.
Charlie's favorite toy is the laser pointer, but he also loves tissue
paper. His favorite tissue paper game is to all of a sudden dive bomb
under the tissue paper and hide there, waiting for an unsuspecting victim
to walk by so he can attack. Charlie also likes to run away with things
in his mouth. Once his person brought home a mylar balloon with a long ribbon and
Charlie freaked out over it. He managed to jump a good 5 feet in the air
and catch the ribbon in his mouth. By the time his human turned around, he was
streaking off to the bedroom, his booty clutched in his mouth, balloon
streaming behind him.
Charlie is very curious and will immediately sneak
through *any* open closet or cupboard door, often undetected so that 5
minutes later his human hears a muffled meowing coming from somewhere in the
apartment will have to play Hide & Seek to find him. Charlie's other
favorite activities are climbing things, watching intently any activities
involving water (washing dishes, etc), and basically getting all up in his
human's business. He is very nosy.
Charlie is also a very friendly little guy. He loves strangers, and will
rub himself all over them (especially their shoes). Upon meeting a new
person, he lays down on the floor on his side and does his "Look at me,
I'm a funny little seal" undulating thing so that they have to notice how
cute he is and rub his tummy. At night, Charlie burrows under the covers
with his person and kneads he gets petted, and he purrs
and purrs AND purrs. He has a very loud motor. Charlie is a wonderful
entertaining boy; he is often considerably more entertaining than
television!
Previous Star of the Week |