Cats and snow

Last week my sister and her partner flew in from Norway, and stayed with us for a while before heading down to Eugene (where they will be until just after christmas). We had a nice visit, but it seems that our cats were not too happy about having house guests. First, some background:

Our dear fat gray cat has always had some behavior problems-- her whole life she has thought that rugs and floor mats are a lot of fun to poop on (I will be forever apologetic to Elaine, discoverer of the first little poo burrito, rolled up in the kitchen floor mat when we were roommates back in 2001). It has been a particular problem since our move into our new place, and I think maybe it has been related to territory wars and being terrorized by our little tortoise shell demon (who is incredibly sweet to us, but not so much to anyone else). Our division of labor currently has Jeff in charge of cleaning up after the cats, and Jeff has been in a constant battle with the poo problem, equipped with an arsenal to clean up the aftermath, but also trying to figure out some way to prevent our cat from "coloring outside the lines," as it were, in the first place. Somehow, this poo on the rug trick seems to be a sport to her-- no matter what we try we can't cure her completely of this, though the compulsion will disappear for months, even years, at a time, and only happens sporadically. The only thing that has been consistent is that she will show us exactly what she thinks of us going on vacation, the day we get back.

So, when our guests arrived, the break in routine seemed to upset the cats, and the poo wars came to a head. For the first time since an unfortunate series of events back in 2002 (so sorry to Veronica, my roommate at the time, who was caught in the crossfire), our cat peed in a non-designated area (our laundry basket). This was the final straw, and Jeff has taken a more aggressive approach to the problem. We now have litterboxes all over the house (we are up to three separate indoor approved-for-poo locations), and Jeff installed a cat door (not generally recommended in a rental, but we are desperate). Jeff also bought a new cat toy in his attempt to broker a treaty. For the past 24 hours, so far so good. But it's anyone's guess how long the cease-fire will last.

On another note, do you know what cats love? Snow! Today it snowed a little bit! It didn't stick, but I'm hoping that maybe we'll get some accumulation tomorrow. Not so much that we get stuck on top of our hill (we don't currently have tire chains that fit our car), but enough that we can enjoy the pretty winter weather. It is predicted to be a cold snowy winter here this year, and I'm really hoping that will come true-- snow is such a fun thing in places where it doesn't snow much.