© 2011 Lydia Hinshaw
Sometimes dirty laundry just hits the spot
Alf can stay in this position for days
ORMOND BEACH, FL -- The two cats who run our household have lived together for 14 years without ever bonding. They studiously ignore each other and can go months without interacting.
So whenever they are close enough to get into the same frame, I grab a camera.
At various times, one or the other of them has experienced laundry fetishes, curling up in either dirty or clean stuff, but until today, I had never seen the two of them in adjacent laundry baskets. Neither looked particularly comfortable with the situation, but neither wanted to lose face by leaving first.
Murphy, on the right, underwent a bit of a personality change while we were away this summer. I suspect our house-sitter introduced them to the delights of shrimp and tuna. It is not now possible to eat without Murphy (named for sitcom character Murphy Brown) trying to get between fork and face. We eat with a spray bottle of water handy.
Alf, who is a year younger, had a $1,000 health crisis just a couple of weeks before we left last April, spending a weekend at the emergency vet and then another day at her regular vet. Thankfully, our house-sitter didn't flinch when we explained that one of the cats she'd agreed to live with for five months was going to need pills every 12 hours.
When we left, Alf looked somewhat pitiful. She had two shaved "arms" where she'd been hooked to IVs. She was quite thin and her coat looked ratty. Now she has regrown a thick coat of fur and her body type has veered toward obesity.
She doesn't have the energy or the agility to steal our meals, and spends most of her time imitating an overstuffed pillow.
We all get along pretty well, as long as those of us who walk on just two legs remember who is really in charge.
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