Friday, February 03, 2012

More about Inkwell

I promise I won't turn into a full-time cat blogger. But we're still getting used to our new friend, so it's hard. I wrote about Inkwell in the paper today.

This afternoon when I got home I found Inkwell had claimed my chair in the living room, but seemed surprisingly happy to see me. He followed me upstairs, where I found Eric had forgotten to feed him. Not a surprise, this is new to Eric as well. Eric said Inky had been VERY active, getting in his way, running around his feet, jumping on the kitchen counter and generally making himself a proper nuisance like a proper kitten.

After I fed him, he played a little, then settled down in the crook of my arm...

Elbow Kitten
His absolute favorite spot, if he can get it, is the crook of someone's elbow. He gets heavy after a bit.
At work I told my co-worker, M, who talked me into taking care of Inkwell in the first place that I really needed to get a scratching post, so she took me over into the pressroom and cut up a cardboard box, explaining that she was making a redneck scratching pad. She stacked the sheets of cardboard into a little pile, then used the machine that straps the bundles of newspapers together to strap the pile into a block.

While we were doing this, the pressman came over and mentioned there was scrap material over along the wall. M went over and found a roll that is the remains of a huge roll of paper. The paper for the press comes on these rolls that are larger than most people, and the cardboard center is really very strong. M handed me one of those, and then found a plug of wood that would fit in one end. She had me hold the roll while she used a board to whack the plug into the roll. Then she took the board over to the pressman, who found some nails and made a base for the redneck scratching post.

Redneck Scratching Post
The roll is one that newsprint comes on, the base was nailed to the bottom by the pressman. The remaining paper is still on the roll.
Right after I got off work, M told me to go to the local flooring place and ask for scrap carpet. I headed out, asked, and they suggested I check the dumpster. I found three clean and likely pieces out there and took them home. Two are kind of odd-shaped and I've put them along the couch, but the third was a strip. I found some nails and nailed the sucker to the post in a spiral.

Redneck Scratching Post carpeted
The scrap of carpet goes around the post successfully, with a bit of extra lumpiness at the bottom.
Happy with my handiwork, I tried to get Inkwell interested in it. He was unimpressed, even when Eric showed him the trick of it.

Eric tries to train Inkwell
Eric confuses a cat by trying to show him how to use a scratching post.
I went and snagged one of the bags of kitten treats, and put one on the base. Inky gobbled it up. I put another up on the top of the "lump". Inky found it and gobbled. I stuck one along the edge of the carpet a little higher up. Inky reached up with his claws and found the piece by pulling himself up, then did a bit of comfy scratching on the post. I suspect it won't take long to train him to use it, if we want to.

Sleeping so he can torment us later
As I write this, this is where Inkwell is, right on my lap curled up enjoying my presence.
I still can't believe we have a kitten.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was adopted by a little black rescue kitty as well -- although she's now a big fat cat -- so I'm enjoying the ongoing Inkwell saga.

It's awfully hard to resist them when they snuggle up so affectionately. (My kitty, Lucy, favors the same spots as inkwell.)

Your technique with the scratching post is spot on -- I'm sure he'll get the hang of it soon.

Please keep us posted on his progress. I hope his eye heals up and the herpes doesn't cause too much troubled for him.

And thank you for the newspaper column as well. I hope your readers there take it to heart.

Paul

Jay said...

I love the last picture.

"You guys drive me crazy, but I love ya."

Then when he gets bigger, he'll start plotting world domination.

Eric TF Bat said...

I'm getting big red "no hotlinking" images everywhere. I'm in Australia, if that matters. Looks like your permissions are being weird.

Tegan said...

Eric, my permissions should be working if you are trying to get to the images from the blog itself or Google Reader so I'm not sure what's wrong. They don't look like they've been altered at all...

Very strange.

Anonymous said...

"Now I lay me down to sleep/I pray this good new life to keep/I pray for toys that look like mice/and sofa cushions soft and nice/I pray for tasty kitty snacks/and nice humans to pet my back/for windowsills all warm and bright/and shadows to explore at night/I pray I'll always keep my cool/and keep the secret feline rule/to never tell the humans that/the world is really ruled by cats."

Doc Redbat said...

My suggestion with your homemade scratching post is to make sure that you have an adequate base so it doesn't fall over and traumatize the little bugger.