September 2009

Bessie is full grown now and can hold her own against the two seniors - but it hardly matters. Cinnamon only wants to drink from the bathroom tap and to be left alone, but Bessie still likes to give him a good chase. "Crap," he must be thinking,
"What's with you? Give me a break already!"
Ginger, on the other hand, has a different attitude. As First Cat, she wants not so much to be left alone as to be accorded her rightful due as queen. This means deference, a trait with which Bessie is not endowed. So Ginger will be stretched out asleep on the window sill, serenely enjoying her sunbathing, and Bessie will stretch up and swat her tail. This does not gain Ginger's favor. Ginger will then stare Bessie down, accompanied when necessary with a deep, alto purr-growl and Bessie will avert her gaze, acknowledging Ginger's supremacy. Except. Ginger will then resume her nap and Bessie will resume the provocation.
In Bessie's defense, it must be noted that she is only two years old and still wants to play. In fact, it is quite obvious that Bessie finds the confines of our house terribly claustrophobic and runs from window to window to follow a squirrel who may be zigzagging through our back yard. "If only," she seems to be thinking. Ah, if only. Domestication is a cruel compromise.

As Ginger and Bessie have reached a certain understanding, they now tend to coinhabit space more freely: they will sit at Janice's chair (one on each side) or share the bed. Ginger still reminds Bessie that there's only one boss in the house and Bessie continues to let Ginger know that she is a New York City cat and will go where she wants when she wants. Cinnamon, for his part, likes to stay the hell out of the way. All he wants is his bed and fresh-dripping tap water.

Andrew replies

Feb 22, Beijing -

What a great report from the home front.

But it sounds like you're TOTALLY spoiling Bessie.

She never ever saw the surface of a dining table or licked a human ear before she took the GWB to New Jersey!

(You'll be pleased to know that Moshu climbed up on the table today and sent one of our new plates crashing to the floor...)

It's funny because we too had a dinner party on Friday and Moishe (that's his Jewish name) was a huge hit. Everyone was passing him around like a hairy newborn.

Love

AJ

Feb 21 2009

As I told you, we had the Rosens, Rotmils and Wadlers over last night for Shabbat dinner – in other words, Daddy's Friday breakfast crew and their wives. We had a very nice evening and – if I may say so myself – the food was very good!

But the real high point of the evening....................Bessie!! Yes, Bessie, our very Bessie. And Very Bessie is what she was. Pre-Bessie, such evenings would be virtually cat-free as Ginger and Cinnamon would remain upstairs of their own volition until the last guest had left, at which point they would come moseying down as usual.

Not so with Miss Bessie. After all, she's (still) an East-Side-Cat, even if she's actually living in the wilds of Teaneck.

Let me backtrack a bit. At one point yesterday afternoon I told Daddy that next time you two are planning one of your own Friday evening dinners, I'm going to offer her to you, because she loves to "help." What do I mean by that? It means she wants to be in on EVERYTHING you're doing! Even to the extent of climbing on the dining-table to check that I had set it properly. I had to make sure that any foodstuffs left out (cake, for example) was covered so that she would not do a taste test. She's actually a cat who will eat ANYTHING, including my breakfast cereal if I were to let her.

So, comes time for us all to sit at the dining-table and who bounces along but,,,,,yup! And not just by me or Daddy. Nope. She made friends with everyone, climbing up on their chairs, putting her head in their laps. And the amazing thing is...........they all loved it!!! She actually capitalizes on the fact that she really does know she's so cute. Even Barry (who doesn't normally care for cats at all) was stroking her under her chin. Of course, Holly, who has three cats of her own, just adored her. She climbed up right behind Harvey and Daddy and I thought she might even (perish the thought!) drape herself around his neck, but she just nuzzled him and he had the biggest grin on his face. She was bouncing all over the place throughout the evening.

I just came upstairs to spend the morning in the recliner, engaging in my favorite activity: reading the weekend NYT and doing Sunday's puzzle. Daddy is at shul (natch) and will be there through lunch as Dennis Klein is the speaker at the Lunch & Learn. This evening we're going with the Kleins and the Fincks to see "Doubt" at the Bergen County Players in Oradell.

When I got to the top of the stairs who do I see? Louie! I see Louie in all kinds of places, on our bed, in the bathroom, on a kitchen chair, in the hallway, in the dining-room, but I NEVER see her carrying him! It's weird.

Bessie has just moseyed in and said to say "hello" to you guys. And that she doesn't miss you – no offense.

It's actually quite quiet here at the moment. A lull between hostilities. Not hostilities, really, just that everyone is always looking out for who may be behind them: Cinnamon – who's always being chased by Bessie (although they're really good buddies and nuzzle each other a lot and share the same bed (ours!) for naps; Ginger, who has not-so-latent aggression towards Bessie, but who has come a long way and they actually can sit quite close to each other in the kitchen while I'm there (remember I always said I would break my neck because Max always sat right behind me when I was at the sink - now it's because one or/and the other are right behind me when I'm there!). They also will both be in the sinks when I'm in the bathroom (I have to haul Bessie out of one of them so that I can do my teeth), just laying there looking at each other and relaxing. Then Bessie is wary of Ginger having a go at her, so that I often end up yelling at Ginger, feeling that Bessie is being disadvantaged, only to see Bessie turn around and provoke Ginger!

Then there are the periods of "thumping around" as I call it, when any or all of the parties are having a go at each other. Cinnamon usually bows out first, diving for the guest-room bed to leave all the hysteria to the females. It's not so bad, except when Bessie and one or other of the oldsters decides to thump right across me, usually as I'm just about to drop asleep. "Knock it off!" is a much-used phrase in our house.

Bessie is very quiet, vocally, except when she wants to go down to the basement and the door is closed. Especially if either Norman or I are already down there and have not let her join us. Then she comes out with this very high-pitched meow that she will keep up, together with thumping against the door in case we didn't get the message, until we (meaning me) open the door and let her down there. Which Daddy upbraids me for constantly, but honestly, she just likes to check stuff out, make sure the house is in total good order and then she moseys up again.

Okay, guess that's enough about her for one day. You'd think we actually LIKE that cat!

Mwah to you both!

Mummy/Janice

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

This morning I was woken by a cat nipping my ankle through the sheet and summer blanket! No guesses as to which cat. A far more effective method than even an alarm-clock, let me assure you. Ginger was asleep, purring gently, between our backs at the time. When I awoke, so did she. She sat up, took one look at Bessie by my feet, jumped over Norman and dove under the bed.

As you know, we were away for the weekend, where we stayed at a very nice bed & breakfast inn at New Paltz. One remarkable point of interest was the fact that we were able to eat breakfast both mornings without having to defend our cereal bowls! How about them apples. Needless to say, things are back to where they were since our return home. Bessie is absolutely relentless and I suppose it's our own fault. But she's so cute!!! Daddy has a harder time of it than I do, because she insists on draping herself across the back of his neck and just laying there, virtually unremovable. She's only tried that once or twice with me and it doesn't work, so she has gotten off by herself both times........and both times has left me scratched on her way down.

Whenever I am at the kitchen table these days she comes to nuzzle my face, usually right across the newspaper or book I am trying to read. But it's lovely having her rub her face against mine. And I can hear a very quiet purring as she does it.

Thursday, August 21

I had an unbroken night's sleep last night. Now, that's not normally thought of as a rare event, but usually there is at least one disturbance. During the evening, as is normal, all was mostly quiet, although there was some banging-around going on in our bedroom while we were watching "The Sixth Sense" (Netflix!) in the den. Then, when we went to bed there was the usual growling and thumping-about downstairs, to the extent that I was about to go down and bash the heads of both feline protagonists.........when silence reigned.

I woke to find Bessie by my feet, as has become a more usual occurrence of late. Also routine these days, she keeps me company while I'm getting ready in the bathroom. When will she ever learn that she's supposed to use only the sink under the window and leave me the other one! Come to that, when will she learn that my making the bed is not to be seen as an occasion for her to play thereon? She sees the billowing of the sheets as an opportunity for her to dive-bomb.

When I was a child in London, a kid that here would be called a "vilde chaya" would be called a "lobbus." That's what Bessie is: an absolute minx, albeit an adorable one. You never know where she's going to turn up and she delights in darting out from wherever she's been hiding, to grab your leg or ankle. I have some scars to prove it! Not that she means to do harm, it's just that she certainly has sharp teeth and claws.

Daddy has been reduced to eating his breakfast while barricaded by cereal boxes, so that Bessie will not poke her nose right inside the bowl. I hold my hand over my yogurt and try to avoid the face that is poking right into mine. She knows that I'll let her lick out the dregs and I don't eat fast enough to her way of thinking. Daddy scoffs at the idea that I'm a real disciplinarian.

Bessie loves to climb onto Daddy's shoulders, drape herself around his neck and proceed to lick his ear, which Daddy hates! And he can't just shuck her off; he has to go over to the sofa in the den and shake her down. She only tried that once on me, luckily, because she scratched my back when she jumped off.

Making my lunch sandwich is a chore, in that I have to drop her off the counter several times. She's like a yo-yo: up, down, up, down, etc. The other day, she even absconded with the (luckily closed) bag of smoked turkey slices, jumping down off the counter and running away dragging it behind her, with me hot on her tail, literally.

She has a new favorite spot: At the kitchen window to watch me washing the dishes, and even at the sink, trying to get in to lick the water.

I love how she comes running to greet me when I get home in the afternoons. We're really going to miss her, although Cinnamon won't! He doesn't get on with her at all, but I truly believe that all Bessie wants is to play with him. He views her as a Dennis-the-Menace type and his age really shows. She loves to reach up to the sink when he's in the bathroom and bop his tail. Then he'll turn and hiss at her before diving off the sink and back under the bed, where she'll go for him at the bed-skirt (although never actually under it) and they'll have a set-to. Cinnamon has spent all these weeks mostly under the bed and I'm sure he's counting the days until she leaves. He's such a wuss!

August 18 2008

Forty years ago today, Ros and I arrived on a ship into Haifa port. David picked us and our trunks up and drove us to the ulpan in Givataim, where we lived for the next five months studying Hebrew. The ulpan was situated not that far from where Faybia and David were living at the time, but if we wanted to get in touch with them we had to walk there, because in those days people waited up to four years to get a phone installed, and they didn't have one. We started ulpan at the beginning of that September, with my parents arriving in Israel in December, I seem to remember. Had it not been for our going to Israel, I'd not have subsequently come to the U.S. and the whole of our own family history would have taken a totally different path. So it was worth going through nearly 4 1/2 years in Israel to be here now for nearly 36 years and counting.