Anakin's Life Update Archive

8/2003 Mikumi was sick with a mysterious ailment. He was crouching, and grouchy, and hiding. We took him to the vet and he was perfectly fine, and the vet (not our regular vet) treated us like we were flakey and insane for bringing him in. He was fine for a week, until the morning L. and I were supposed to go on a trip. Then he was crouching, and grouchy, and hiding. I noticed that he was VERY mad if my hand went near his mouth. And I thought - if your jaw is hurting, and you are used to sleeping and resting while leaning it on a paw or pillow, then you would wind up crouching and grouchy.

Fortunately, our regular vet was on Saturday Morning call, and we brought him in. He had a bad tooth which had to come out. He is now toothless and happy. This makes our discussion about declawing him even more stressful. The poor little guy is already missing a tail, missing testicles, and missing a tooth. If we keep removing bits of him, soon there will be no kitty left.

Anakin was very friendly to our house-sitter, which was wonderful and surprising. Usually he takes quite a while to be super-affectionate to a new person. Maybe he was freaked out that Mikumi, L. and I were out of the house for a few days, and he decided he had darn well better make some new friends.

The most common response when someone sees Anakin for the first time: "Wow."

7/2003 Anakin was sick with a mysterious ailment. The vet did a lot of tests, charged me a lot of money, shrugged, and gave him an antibiotic. He recovered. There are reasons that fathers aren't supposed to impregnate their daughters; and I'm sure that Anakin's insides are a soup full of recessive genes. But he looks very healthy and hearty, and has a new odd habit - vigorously kneading Laurel and my feet when we are trying to sleep. I'm not talking about regular cat-kneading - I'm talking about huge amounts of weight, I'm talking about an almost too-intense thrusting motion with his butt while he does it. I think Anakin is a pervert.

Laurel and I sometimes talk about getting Mikumi declawed. This depresses both of us, and we really don't want to do it. I know its hypocritical - "I'll chop off your testicles no problem, but I'm squeamish about your fingertips" but there you are. He won't stop scratching at the furniture, and while I make enough money to be comfortable, I can't afford to buy new furniture every few years. We are going to do everything we can to avoid lopping them off. He likes his claws, and frankly so do we.

And my Basho... It's been over a year now. I really should get over it. I feel stupid and self-indulgent to still be missing him as I do. But the hole in my heart refuses to go away. I'm embarrassed to be admitting this here.

1/2003: My nieces, Stefanie and Melanie, sent gifts for Anakin and Mikumi this last Christmas. In the spirit of the Holiday, we took them all out at once, and dumped them on the floor. There were enough toys that Mikumi gave up on trying to steal Anakin's and they played together nicely. Laurel and I noticed that one of them resembled the toy that "came with" Anakin when we bought him as a kitten. He noticed it soon after, and batted it about, and then he brought it to Laurel and dropped it at her feet. Anakin hadn't played "fetch" for a long time, but he was clearly playing it now, and Laurel tossed it for him to retrieve. He did so. In the old days, Mikumi would have interfered by this point, but he was busy with some other toy, and the game went on.

Anakin plays "fetch" all the time now. Sometimes I will be sitting on the sofa, reading, and I will feel a paw poking at my leg. And I look down to see Anakin, beloved puffball by his side, looking up at me expectantly. If I don't play, then the meowing starts. And if I am foolish enough to still ignore him, the claws come out.

Anakin loves his puffball.

In the old days, he used to just "fetch" with Laurel and me, but recently our friend Jeff was over, and Anakin brought the puffball to him. Jeff's ma didn't raise no dummies - he knew what to do and he did it, with nary a comment. Well, one comment: "Your cat is a freak." But that is Jeff - as the Puffball is to Anakin, the Comment is to Jeff.

You might think from this description that the game is getting annoying, but it really isn't. If you saw the combination of Dignity and Perkitude that is a fetching Anakin, you would understand why

11/2002: Anakin and Mikumi are finally in Cedar Falls with me. They freaked out because of the size of the house, compared to all the apartments they've experienced. Anakin has pretty much set up shop in the closet, coming out to be affectionate to Laurel and me, and to knock things off of the card-table I have set up in the kitchen. Mikumi runs from room to room, sometimes standing in the middle of an empty room and meowing at the top of his lungs. I think he likes the acoustics - it is equivalent to singing in the shower.

There are no windowsills. Both cats occasionally jump up high just to hit the wall and bounce off. Well, when I say "occasionally" I mean that Anakin tried it once, saw it didn't work, and now stares at the window, as if trying to invent a way to get up there and stay. Mikumi, however, doesn't learn that quickly. It will be nice when the furniture arrives - they will have a lot more to climb on, and be able to see out the windows.

...and they haven't been downstairs yet!

7/2002: If you have cats, invest in soap-bubble solution. Trust me. Anakin and Mikumi have catnip-scented soap bubbles. When I go NEAR the drawer where the soap bubble solution is stored, the cats come a running. Mikumi meows and meows, a rarity. Anakin doesn't meow - he is a pretty quiet cat. But his expression becomes the model of alert longing.

5/2002: I was sitting on the sofa, grading. Anakin was also sitting on the sofa, paws tucked under, sleeping in a meatloaf-like pose. And Mikumi wanted to be on my lap. I tolerated it for a while, but it was hard to grade while he was there, and he would ooze around my hands when I tried to push him off. Frankly, I didn't have the heart to try too hard - Mikumi was being so nice and friendly; how could I resist? Finally, I put my papers on top of Mikumi and just graded like that. He was purring; he liked it.

Finally, I had to push him off my lap because the position was awkward, and I needed to stretch. So I pushed with both hands. He pushed back with his body. But my Might prevailed, and he slunk off, looking forlorn. He walked right over to the sleeping Anakin, flipped on his side, putting his head right between Anakin's head and Anakin's paws, and snuggled. Anakin awoke immediately, and instead of wrestling Mikumi as he normally would, he just went back to sleep. Mikumi can be pretty adorable, and Anakin can be pretty tolerant. After making some cuddling motions and happy sounds, Mikumi went to sleep as well.

1/2002: So when we had Anakin and Mikumi on free feed with Basho's food, Mikumi would eat all the time, and he gained weight.  Then we put them on regular meals and Anakin started pigging out at mealtimes and HE gained weight and Mikumi lost it.  Then Basho passed away and we put them on free feed again and Anakin stayed really heavy, and Mikumi was normal sized.   So we put them on diet food and Anakin lost his weight but now Mikumi is starting to get skinny.  This is insane.

Anakin is a very hard cat to read.  He will stand in front of you, making a "prrt" sound, and looking at you expectantly.  If you ignore him, he may even stretch up and claw your leg or knee to get attention.   But it isn't clear what he wants.  Is it food?  No.  Is it water?   No.  Is it a litter change?  No.  Is it to be picked up?   Definitely not.  Is it getting petted?  Sometimes.  But when you pet him he doesn't blatantly enjoy it, although he doesn't resist.  Sometimes he likes it when you get down to his level and move about the apartment with him.  But sometimes it is like he wants attention, but just doesn't quite know what kind.

Mikumi is a very easy cat to read.  I have never seen a cat with so much positive affect.  You go up to him, and he will respond like he is being petted.  You bend down to pick him up, and he leaps up as if to meet you halfway there.  You pet him, and it is like you have just performed the greatest mega-mitzvah since France sent the United States the Statue of Liberty as an anniversary gift.  Purr Purr Purr.  He isn't clingy; you put him down and there are pigeons to meow at, things to bat, and an Anakin to provoke, all accompanied by happy sounds and motions. 

11/2001: Basho passed away a few days ago.   It is hard when I come into the bedroom and see Anakin and Mikumi lying next to each other, like bookends.  I love Anakin quite a bit (hence this web-site) and I love Mikumi, too.  They are really quite amazing cats.  But they aren't Basho. He was fifteen years old when he died, and had lived with me for fourteen of them.   It is amazing how the loss of one little animal can change how the entire world looks.

10/2001: You may not believe me, but it is true.  You can either believe that Anakin is incredibly thoughtful to the point where he can plan, or you can believe that a cat can be classically conditioned to simulate very complex-looking behaviors.  Below you will find the tale of his new "trick."

When Anakin wants Laurel to wake up, and she doesn't want to be roused, he doesn't meow at her any more.  Nor does he paw at her head.   For the past week or so, he has instead chosen to open the door of the hall-closet, where Laurel's dresses are kept in that cellophaney dry-cleaner plastic garment bag wrap.   We keep it closed, but he has figured out how to open it.  (His breeder nicknamed him "Houdini" when he was a kitten, because she didn't know how he kept escaping his cage.)

After he has opened the closet door, he "herds" Basho to the closet.  He seeks Basho out, paws at him until he stands up, and then uses his massive body and impressive stare to manuever Basho to the open door.  Basho, upon seeing the plastic, starts chewing on it, threatening to ruin Laurel's dresses and poison himself in the process.  One of the humans gets up, shoos Basho away, and Laurel has been Awakened.   And (until it was witnessed) the blame went to Basho and Doug.  ("Doug!   Did you leave the closet door open?") with Anakin blameless.

It is a very impressive and adorable bit of villainy.

8/2001: This one isn't going to be all that happy, you may want to go to last month's if you are in the mood for whimsy.  Basho, now fifteen, has never been a well cat.   There was the FUS problem in the 80s, and the kidney problems in the 90s, and now, for the millenium, we have a new one.

Basho was throwing up food and water.  This wasn't really news; he always does that.  But Laurel and I thought it was happening even more than usual.  In addition, he seemed weak - sometimes his back would curve down when he was standing, like it was taking an effort to keep it straight.  He was meowing for water from the bathtub, from the sink, from the bathtub, from the sink, more often than usual, even though he wasn't drinking all that much.

We thought he was probably getting dehydrated again, given how hot it has been.  Once upon a time, we were having to manually hydrate him with weekly sub-coetaneous injections.  (It looked like an IV set up.  We would stick a needle under his skin, and let 10 cc's of water go into his body.  For an hour he would walk around with a pretty silly looking hump, and then he would be fine.   This sounds really scary, but it wasn't.)  Basho's hydration problem went away right after we got Anakin.  (Basho really perked up and got healthier after Anakin arrived.  It was like a miracle)

So we thought that this was the old problem returned, and took Basho to the vet on Thursday.  I got a call Friday morning.   "Basho has diabetes."  My first thought was, "Is it time to put him down?"  This may seem grisly to you, but you have to realize that Basho has had various health problems since the week I brought him home from the animal shelter, nearly 15 years ago.  I've had quite a bit of time to reconcile myself to the fact that the day will come when he is suffering, and I will not hesitate to euthanize my longtime friend.  So I asked, "Is he going to be suffering from now on?" because that was a more tactful question than, "Shall I give you the order to kill him?"

It is too late to make the long story short, but I can at least refrain from making it much longer.  I'm not going to off my kitty.   Basho's fine.  He needs to get a shot of insulin twice a day for the rest of his life.  He's gotten two shots so far.  The first time, I looked right into his eyes, and his expression didn't change when he got the shot.  The second time, Laurel got him when he was eating, and he didn't even pause.  This isn't going to be that bad.  The vet says that if we keep bringing him in for checkups, we can expect him to live a long time with a high quality of life.

Okay, let me make the story a bit longer.  We went in for an "insulin training session."  They showed us a videotape made by the good folks at Hill's Pet Supplies that was condescending and worthless.   "See my dog here?  His name is Buddy.  Say 'hi' Buddy.  You know, Buddy sure looks healthy, doesn't he?  But actually Buddy has di-a-bet-es." The only real information we got:  "Do what your vet says, and rub alcohol on your pet before putting in the needle."  Then, when the VA came in to teach us how to give the shot, her first instruction was, "Do not rub alcohol on Basho before putting in the needle." 

The VA asked us if we needed to practice with plain water.  I thought she was going to bring in an orange or something for me to stick, but she brought in the house cat, Dolly.  Evidently, the vet's cat's job is to be there for people to practice things on.  It felt really weird to practice on someone else's pussycat, but Dolly seemed used to it.

On our way out, I asked Laurel, "Did I just really go to a veterinarian's office so I could give a shot to her cat?"   Sometimes I feel like I live in the Bizarro world. 

I was glad to see that even when Basho was at his weakest, Anakin and Mikumi did not pick on him, still preferring to wrestle each other.  

6/2001: Anakin, Mikumi, and Laurel moved to Minneapolis in February, with Basho and I joining them in May.  THAT was a hard move to plan.  The rationale we came down to was this:  Anakin had to go with Laurel because otherwise Anakin would be miserable.  Mikumi would have to go with Anakin because otherwise Mikumi would be miserable.  Basho had to stay with Doug because otherwise Doug would be miserable.

Anakin and Mikumi reacted to the new house by disappearing.   Laurel finally found Anakin, pressing himself into the corner of a closet.   She put some water and the litterbox nearby, and left him alone.  (When we moved to Cedar Falls, he reacted much the same way)  She couldn't find Mikumi.   I can picture it being hard to find Mikumi, given his amorphous nature.  But Laurel finally was in a panic.  He was g*o*n*e.  Could he have slipped out during the move?

She finally found him.  (I print the answer upside down for those who wish to have the joy of figuring it out.  When you give up, merely lift your monitor, and turn it upside-down.  Or ask someone from New Zealand to help you)  

Meanwhile, Basho became depressed in Cedar Falls.   He was still affectionate and cuddly, but he began meowing whenever I left the room, losing weight (to the point where the vet was saying it was dangerous), and generally behaving in a grumpy way.  Even a month later, when Anakin and Mikumi had returned to normal, Basho was still in a decline. 

Finally, I took him up to Minneapolis before I was able to move there myself.  Like usual, he adapted immediately to the new place, walking around once, and then finding a spot for his inaugrial nap.  He hissed a bit at Anakin and Mikumi for the first few days, but I don't think they took him very seriously.   "Same old Basho," they seemed to say.  "Same old Basho," Laurel really did say.

Which brings us to the present: 
     Basho is happy. 
     Anakin plays hide-and-seek.  I'm not kidding!  Laurel runs and hides, and Anakin will search and search until he finds her, and then gets all peep-y and purry, and then Laurel reinforces him and then runs and hides again. 
     Mikumi has lost most of his fat, partially due to not having Basho's food around for a few months, but mostly due to his rigourous exercise regime:

	Before starting any exercise session, it is important to warm up.  Warm up by finding a warm place, and sleeping there. As soon as you hear any noise coming from outside, jump up, claws out, and tear ass to the kitchen windowsill!  It may be a pigeon! Wood floors!  Slide and slam into the wall! Jump up on the window sill.  Vocal exercise time.  Meow!  Meow!  Louder!  Louder!  You can do it! Oh no!  Scared by your mayhem the pigeon has flown away.  I'll bet you can see him from the living room window!  Claws out!  Jump down!  Tear ass to the living room windowsill!  Hurry!  Hurry! Wood floors!  Slide and slam! Jump up on the window sill.  Do you see him? If the pigeon is there, time for more vocal exercises.  If not, maybe you should do them just in case.  Meow!  Meow!  And three and four and Meow! and Meow!   Two more sets... Hey... maybe the pigeon is now visible from the kitchen window!  Claws out, jump down...  Faster!  Faster!  You may miss him! Damn those wood floors! Quick!  Was that a glimpse?  Better do your vocals, just in case. Maybe he is visible from the living room!  You know what to do!  You're wasting time!  Everything hangs in the balance!  Anakin in the way?  Leap over him!  Basho running away in panic?  Not your problem!  Pigeons, damn it, Pigeons!

1/2001:  Anakin has become a very thoughtful cat in the past year.  For example, in the old days, if you used a laser pointer to make a dot of light move around the room, he would be entertained for hours.   If you were to try that now, he would stare at it, and then stare at your hand, and just sit there, looking back and forth for a while, and then attack your hand.  I am always afraid of being anthropomorphic, but I really do believe Anakin solves problems by thinking about them.

He still climbs on Laurel's head on occasional nights, although he takes quite a long time to lie down.  It's almost like he feels compelled to "court" her head first, walking around it, butting it with his own, kneading the attached hair into a fine knot.  Only after Protocol and Propriety has been satisfied will he perhaps lie down.

9/2000:  Anakin was in a funk for a few months.  The main reason was that every time he tried to play, Mikumi would interfere.  But things are turning around, now.  Anakin has decided that the downstairs is his domain.  He will often peep at Laurel, to try to get her to follow him downstairs.  (He never developed a proper meow)  Once down there, he gets very affectionate towards her.  Sometimes, when I am home alone, he will even condescend to following me around.  He likes it when I get on all fours, and then I follow him a few feet, and then he stands next to me, purring and purring, waiting for me to move so he can trot behind me.

Basho had surgery last week; there was a growth on his tummy that needed removal.  To my horror, he cooperated with the doctor both when the stitches went in and when they came out.  At home, we had to put an Elizabethan collar on him, to prevent him from biting at the attractive string-bits poking out of his wound.  There is nothing in the world that is more pathetic than a cat in an Elizabethan collar.  After a few days, Basho didn't even seem to know he had one, except when he would misjudge and not be able to clear a doorway.  (Ouch!)  But he was very happy the day that it came off.  When he had it on, Mikumi and Anakin left him alone.  I don't know if they were afraid of the lampshade on his head, or if they just knew to take it easy on him.

6/2000:  It is hard to believe that Anakin and Mikumi are of the same species.  Anakin is an absolutely magnificent mass of iron bone and coiled spring muscle.  When people pick him up, they are often surprised at his Heft, and it is not fat.  He is a solid cat.  If he were a human, he would play rugby.  If he were one of the three little pig's houses, he would be the house of bricks.  He is also very agile.  When he pounces or stalks, he moves very silently and quickly to position, coils up, and then deals death to the catnip-mouse.   That is why it is so funny when he is very happy and trots effeminately to fetch a thrown object.   It is the same reason that it is funny when Brad Garrett, the giant man-mountain police officer on the television show Everybody Loves Raymond, says things like, "That really hurts my feelings, Ray.  I'm very sensitive."  It is an incredible visual incongruity.

Mikumi is a small cat, without a skeleton to speak of and the consistency of a hot water bottle.  Sometimes I've rolled over on him, and only knew it because he started purring loudly in his sleep when it happened.  I once was dozing on the couch, and he was sleeping between me and the couch, and I wanted him off for some reason.  In my half-sleeping state, I wasn't able to get him to the ground; he kept oozing as I shoved him.  It was like trying to shove a sphere of mercury.  He is much faster than Anakin, even though he runs clumsily.  That actually is a problem nowadays.  Whenever Anakin wants to play with Laurel or I, or we want to play with Anakin, it is difficult because Mikumi will come running out of nowhere and grab whatever Anakin is trying to fiddle with.  Anakin is a polite cat, and thus never gets to play at all unless we lock Mikumi in another room.

It has been harder to teach Mikumi to fetch than it was to teach Anakin.  He doesn't seem to understand the order:  FIRST run to the thrown object, THEN pick it up, THEN bring it back.  He tries to reverse the last two steps about a third of the time.  He does not get the idea of returning the object to the thrower.  Sometimes he will drop it at my feet, and sometimes Laurel's.   Sometimes (and this is pretty funny to see) he will retrieve something, and then tear ass to Anakin and drop it at HIS feet.  Anakin gets very confused when this happens.  To see these two animals who are technically the same species looking each other in the eye expectantly, without having any idea what the other is trying to accomplish, is to see the essence of Farce boiled down to its essentials and wrapped up in fur.

5/2000:  It is uncanny, but all three cats are getting along pretty well.  Mikumi adores Basho and Anakin and follows them about.  He knows to leave Basho alone, but often pounces on Anakin, and humorous melee will result.   Anakin also takes his turns pouncing on Mikumi, who is proving to be a much better sport about that sort of thing than Basho is.

It is laugh out loud funny when this happens:   Mikumi and Anakin wrestle for a good five minutes.  Anakin gets all riled up and dangerous.  Mikumi gets distracted and runs away to pounce on.. well on nothing.   Anakin whirls around wildly, blood lust in his eyes.  Basho comes lumbering by at precisely the wrong moment.  "Duh, what's going on?"  POW!   And then Anakin seems to be shaken out of his beserker mode at Basho's meow.   "Oh, Jeez!  What are you doing here?  I thought you were the other one!  Terribly sorry about that old man!"

The only other time Basho gets attacked is when he makes the mistake of whisking his tail back and forth when Mikumi is nearby.  Mikumi doesn't quite understand the concept of "tail" given that he doesn't have one.  I don't think he understands why Basho and Anakin inevitably whap him when he bites one of their "tails."

1/2000:  Anakin is very playful.  He has a tasselly thing that his friend sarah-marie got for him, a green tube that his friend Kathy got for him, a laser pointer, catnip mice, etc.  He loves to stalk, pounce, and run.  His favorite toy of all, of course, is Basho.  This causes problems, because Basho dislikes being stalked, prefers not to be pounced on, and would opt not to be ran at.  Basho clearly likes having Anakin around, his health and temperament improved dramatically when we got him, but he draws the line at being attacked.  Anakin, on the other hand, has been getting better at the Art of Play.  For example, he's learned to sneak up on Basho silently, and apply what can only be described as a kitty headlock. 

Last Christmas, I got the feeling that the only thing Laurel really wanted was a kitten.  (Or a very expensive computer)

Long story short:  Anakin now has a new toy.   His name is Mikumi, and he is an adorable Japanese Bobtail kitten, 5 months old.   I was afraid that we were in for a long adjustment period, but that did not come to pass.  Basho has been pretty much broken in by Anakin, so is not in the least bit hostile to our wee addition.  He watches Mikumi jump about, and then turns around with a look on his face that says, "Another one, eh?  You are so human-whipped."  I say his name, he trots over, and flops on my lap.  Doug & Basho:  Twelve years, one pose.

Anakin is fascinated by Mikumi.  He follows him around, sniffs and purrs, and (late at night) either chases him or is chased by him.   I don't know which; it happens downstairs and is very loud.  Laurel and I think this is going to work out.  Anakin is sprightly enough to be fun for Mikumi to play with, and Basho seems to be getting left alone.  At bedtime, Anakin still gets the privileged position of Laurel's Head.  Basho still winds up cuddled with someone like a teddy bear.  That leaves the rest of the bed to Mikumi.  Because he is very small and has no tail (or, apparently, even a skeleton) he can fit in any space, which gives him a veritable buffet of sleeping places.  There is nothing like waking up to the sounds of two mammals purring, and two snoring.  I'm sure that when I'm asleep as well, the room must be a symphony.

I will put some pictures of Anakin's new pal up on this site, soon. 

P.S.  Mikumi's nickname is WYFT.  If you ever find yourself visiting us in Cedar Falls, you will eventually wind up petting him.   And your hand will at some point touch his backside, and you will involuntarily ask him, "Where's your f****ng tail?"  It has happened to me more than once.

12/99: As far as Anakin is concerned, the biggest current threat to the American Way of Life (now that the Soviet Union is no more) is the gratuitous placement of things on top of other things.  He waits until the Night, when said things are less likely to resist, and makes his Patrol of Justice.   Up on the dresser he goes, knocking off every wine glass or Coke can, every pair of eyeglasses, every pen and coin, all items delicate or robust - to the floor they must go.   Then from the dresser to the nightstand.  Then off to the bathroom sink, resplendent in its evil excess of toothbrushes and toothpaste, water glasses and bottles of aftershave.  Into the sink or onto the floor they must hie.  And the patrol continues downstairs, the subtle sounds of little crashes drifting up to the fitfully sleeping Douglas.  And then, only after the home is secured against the danger of wasted gravity, will Anakin climb onto the bed, annoy Basho for a while, and then take his rightful sleeping-place atop Laurel's head.

11/99: The McCoy Septuplets turned 2 recently.  There are television specials, magazine articles, interviews, etcetera.   Anakin doesn't give a damn.  Thus my beautiful Curly kitten has shown himself to be smarter than a good deal of the human population.  Laurel should have let me name him "Smarto."

10/99: Ever since we got Anakin, we've had a problem with food.  He and Basho are like Bim and Ben from Fox in Socks:

Basho comes
Anakin comes
Basho likes Anakin's food
Anakin likes Basho's food
Anakin's food makes Basho sick
Basho's food makes Anakin sick

Basho has been on free-feed for a dozen years.   When we tried to only feed them at certain times, Basho would get miserable and fight with Anakin.  So we had to have Basho's food out, which Anakin would eat, and then when we tried to get Anakin to eat his own food, Basho would go after it.   Misery!  And, of course, Basho needs a low-protein diet because of his illness, and Anakin needed a high-protein diet because he was a mere kitten.

Well, Anakin is an adult now, and we found food that he likes even better than Basho's.  AND Anakin has found a high shelf in the closet that he can jump to that Basho cannot.  So we leave the Anakin food in a bowl on the high-shelf, and both cats get to eat their own food whenever they want it.  It is nice when life works out like that.  Now Laurel is trying to find a shelf for her own food, that I cannot access, but she never will.