6 posts tagged “zulu”
No idea how she fit back there...
What do you think your pets would act like if they were people? Do you think you'd get along with them?
Submitted by Melissa
Zulu is a hell of a cat. But I'm not so sure I'd enjoy hanging out with her if she was human. A few of the things she does on a regular basis, that would drive me crazy:
- Wakes us up at 4 AM chatting like crazy about nothing (ghosts? mice?)
- Jumps on my lap without asking first
- Periodically ambushes me with claws extended (she pulls her punches though- no damage is usually inflicted)
- Licks her genitals, exhibiting no shame whatsoever
- Rather than use the toilet, she does her business in a box, in plain view
There are plenty of things that are endearing about cats that would be just plain annoying if they were human, you know?
My colleague relayed an interesting fact to me earlier today- according to Prevention magazine, 34% of women say they would date their dogs, if they were human...
Now that the cold weather has arrived, Zulu has found a new favorite spot to hang out- right in front of the heating vent in the kitchen:
How many pets have you owned in your lifetime? Tell us about them.
Submitted by jennajellopy.vox.com.
This is the best QOTD ever. Although, it's going to bring up a lot of painful memories. You see, for years, I thought I was cursed when it came to animals. Luckily, this tragic trend stopped abruptly when Zulu entered our life.
When I was very young, my brother Bill and I were both horribly allergic to dogs and cats. There were no Moore family pets when I was a kiddo.
My first pet was a guinea pig. It wasn't a full-time pet, however. He was our class pet in elementary school (3rd grade?), and I brought him home over Christmas break.
The first pet that I actually owned was a turtle. He was a little guy that I found near our house. Ignoring the fact that he might have a family, I plucked him from his world. My mom picked up an old-fashioned fishbowl, and we set up some simple, yet elegant living quarters for him. Unfortunately, I wasn't very good about cleaning out his home (a recurring theme with my pets), and it got stinky pretty quickly. Soon enough, he was dead. Or did he escape? Actually, I think he escaped. Or maybe he died, and my mom didn't want me to freak out, so she hid the body. Either way, it was not a happy ending.
For a few years of my life, one of my favorite social activities was hopping on the #4 bus (a mere $0.20 back then) at Snelling and Edgcumbe, and riding the thing all the way out to Har Mar Mall. The summer between 5th and 6th grade, Jesse Kim and I were out there nearly every day, often joined by J.D. Mogol. One time, we thought it would be funny to buy goldfish at the pet store, and release them into the mall's fountain. One problem- we didn't have enough money to take the bus back home. So we had to catch the fish, and sell them back to the pet store (for half what we bought them for- it was a good economics lesson for a kid). I guess those goldfish don't technically count as pets, but...
For my birthday one year (7th grade?), newts were the cool thing to have, and two guys (I believe Seth Ravine and Jesse Kim) gave me an aquarium with 2 newts inside as a present. That's still one of the coolest presents I've ever received. Until the newts escaped a week later. My brother found one months later, petrified. He turned it into a necklace.
I went out and bought 2 replacement newts. They were dead within 2 weeks.
Since I already had the aquarium, I decided to try fish. I bought some neons (little bright-colored fish). They were doing pretty well, so I added some goldfish to the tank. The goldfish ate the neons. I guess I should have asked the pet store guy if they'd live together peacefully. The goldfish were all belly-up within a month.
At that point, I realized that, regardless of how much I liked animals, I wasn't a good caretaker of them. No more animals! But then, in high school, my buddy J.D. had a hamster that he had to get rid of. I cleaned out the old aquarium, added some bedding, a wheel, and a water bowl, and yet again, I was a pet owner. I found some strange tag from a bizarre brand name clothing manufacturer that had "DON ANDERSON" printed on it. That sounded like the perfect name for my new pal.
Don Anderson was pretty nutty. He'd run up my right arm, across my shoulders, and down the left one. Una problema. For some reason, Don wouldn't eat. (I think he was protesting the enslavement of hamsters in human hands.) This was not just a hunger strike, however. Don Anderson wouldn't drink a drop of his water. I probably don't need to fill in the blanks for you. 6 days later, Donny boy was deceased. I buried him in a glass jar outside my bedroom window at 2080 Edgcumbe Rd.
In the spring of 2004, I finally gave in to Jenny's pleadings. She went to the pound, and a day later, we had a loveable bundle of grey fur. Jen named her Zulu, since we had recently found out that we'd be making a trip to South Africa in November. I was pretty worried, since most cats I had encountered had made my allergies go nuts. But, Zulu was a shorthair, and we figured we'd give it a little time, and see if my body adjusted.
It was only a couple days of sneezing for me, and luckily, Zulu was a cool cat. She was very social, loved to play, made weird noises, was a great jumper...my prejudice against cats disappeared. In fact, in many ways, cats kick dogs' asses. More on that in another post.
Here's a short video of Zulu (aka The Zooz; Zuzies; Zuzers; Zuzarino; Screw-lu; Squeaker; Freakshow). Jen posted a video of kitty Zulu over at her blog, so it will be a fun comparison!
Actually, one more video. Wonder why I call her "Squeaker?"
Zulu is a great cat, but I think the die roll came up short when determining her dexterity. (That's my first- and last- Dungeons & Dragons reference, ever.) She's a great jumper, but she's always knocking stuff over. Right after we moved in, Zulu nearly tumbled down the entire flight of stairs.
The other night, my empty backpack was sitting on the ottoman, so Zulu climed in and fell asleep:
She was moving a little in her sleep, slowly rolling towards the edge of the footstool. All of the sudden, she rolled pretty far at once (maybe she was having a nightmare), and sailed off the edge, still in the backpack. It was obviously a rude awakening, and she popped out of the backpack,
quite groggy, and spent a few minutes sniffing it, trying to figure out
what the heck just happened...
