Proof of the 'Al Bundy Cat.'

I present to you proof that our cat sits like Al Bundy. Either that or she has no shame whatsoever.

She will sit like this on the couch,  in a lap, or on the floor. Pardon the upside-down-ness. She was caught in the act of attacking the door.

Haruka is perfectly content this way. With her little paws up like a bunny. Ah, yes, the sideways-ness. Haruka told me not to adjust the picture. She likes it this way.

The ninja troll.

Upside-down ninja troll is trolling like a ninja!

Since we've put the bedskirt back on our bed, Haruka has taken it upon herself to camp out underneath it, just behind it, and ATTACK.

She's like a little troll under a bridge, but with ninja-like reflexes. She will see an unsuspecting foot or ankle nearby, and BAM! a paw or two zooms out to clamp around the prey. The prey always gets away after a 'HEY!' and a shrug-off. But that doesn't deter this ninja-troll. No feet are safe. She's always lurking . . .

She tried to get me, but stopped short when she realized she was being photographed. Then she posed, but said, 'you're NOT putting this on the blog, mom.'

Well, I've got news for you, Haruka . . . . you can't access the internets.

Bug Issues #2.

So, I shall continue this by typing, as it really isn't as epic as it may have started out. Like any new home owners, we needed a pest inspection anyway to make sure nature doesn't find its way in. Like any new pet owners, we FREAKED OUT at the sight of ants making a home in Haruka's food bowl. Maybe MORESO than most . . . . I was all sorts of paranoid that she would get bitten by bugs (in reality, she was still munching when we saw it . . . . but still . . .)

We had Truly Nolen come out the next day to perform an inspection, and then the day after that they came back out for a treatment. So far, only one ant has tried to come back. We've upped our protection with a pet-friendly bug repellent disc underneath her water bowl. Haruka came out of it all unscathed, but I got bit twice.

We interrupt this broadcast . . .

. . . . to bring you CUTE CAT PICTURES. The bug stories will continue. But CUTE CAT PICTURES cannot wait!!

playing with some packing material . . .

tunneling through said packing material . . .

caught in the act of playing with her feather-duster toy!

PS. Please don't turn these into LOLcat pictures. That's MY job.

BUG ISSUES #1.

Those of you who have spoken to me or read my updates on Twitter know what we're going through right now. This is how it all started . . . Sorry if the image is still too small. I've tried to correct it, but we'll see! Click on it to see if it opens in another window!

the sleepy spot of choice.

Haruka has a few spots she likes to sleep in, but the loft bed in my office room is the main attraction. I keep an awkward assortment of stuffed animals up there; one evening I found a German Shepherd stuffie on the floor. I guess she didn't want company? She always sleeps RIGHT NEXT to the stuffies that are on the edge on a carpeted area. She usually stays off the mattress, as far as I can tell (of course, watch it--the second a guest comes to stay the night, we'll have to bust out the lint roller . . .)

She zooms up the ladder and will stay up there for hours during the day, so she's revved up to go nutso as soon as we get home. Last night, she tried to eat my elbow. I have a scratch to prove it.

Sure. Cute and innocent now, but the second we get into bed . . . . we have to watch our limbs!

A little awkward story.

We got home from work today, and Haruka was as usual waiting for us next to the the door (she never tries to get out). She has this habit of, first time she sees us in the morning or at night, weaving in and out between our feet, making it VERY EASY to trip over her.

Well, tonight I didn't trip over her, but I did accidentally step on two of her feet ;_; She made sad kitty noises and ran under the kitchen table. She got over it quickly though (and she's not hurt) . . . . I gave her one treat per ouchie. Any other cat owners have problems like that? She has a bell on her collar so we know to stop dead in our tracks if we hear her zooming towards us!

Her crazy spells are awesome, by the way. I have stories. Many stories. But those will come at another time. Until then . . . here's a picture of her in a rare instance when she's looking at the camera and not trying to attack it.

What, mom?

Wait, what's her name? Or, Haruka's adoption story.

It's been almost a month since Haruka came home with us. I had been wanting to get a cat for so long; kind of a gift to us for dealing with the wonderful task of searching for our home (our realtor Karen is awesome) . . . . We hadn't even finished moving stuff out of our old place yet, but we couldn't wait. On March 20th, the first day of spring, we drove to the Orange County Animal Shelter to search for our first cat.

We had originally wanted to get a boy cat, since in a couple of months we'll be adopting our friend's female kitty when she moves back home (not to mate or anything, just to have some sort of balance, I guess). However, the second we walked into the room with the available cats, this loud, obnoxious chirper caught our attention. This little cat in the lower left-hand cage was all about seeking attention! She pawed at our fingers and rolled around. The other cats had varying degrees of outgoingness . . . some were chirpy, some were sleeping, and a couple of them were grumpy-pants. We gave it some careful thought, and walked back towards the chirpster just as a couple had stopped to look at her. I felt a twinge of jealousy . . . . but it subsided once they left. We asked the assistant in the room to take her out and let us hold her--she was REALLY GOOD about being held! A lot of cats start squirming instantly, but not this one . . . We knew she was 'the one,' so we let the girl know and went about filling out the paperwork. Within 20 minutes, we were walking out the door to the car with our new kitty.

The car ride was mostly uneventful . . . she mewed a little bit, but was mostly silent and wide-eyed. Traffic was crappy as we were on the highway; lots of stop-and-go. Luckily she wasn't bothered too much . . . . or was she?

When we got her home, and took her out of the kitty carrier . . . . I noticed something.

Something wet.

Something . . . . very . . . . piddle-like.

The poor cat had actually gotten so nervous that she had soiled herself . . . . and continued to soil herself, and ME, and our bathroom WALL, as I took her out of the carrier.

   

And thus, Haruka got her first bath. (She was pretty okay with that, too.)

That night we left the door to our bedroom open so she could explore and get acquainted with things in the house. This mostly meant she came into our room every hour on the hour, hopped on the bed, licked our faces, and hopped off. Like many new parents, we got very little sleep.

I still haven't explained her name yet, though. Haruka is a Japanese word that can mean 'far away' or 'distant.' In this instance, however, it's written with the kanji for 'spring' and 'scent', so her name actually means the scent of spring. Quite fitting because we got her on the first day of spring, and ironically so because she piddled on herself.

It took a little while to figure out her name. When we were stuck in traffic, the song 'Haruka' by the band PIERROT came on, and it's my favorite song by them. Haruka also happens to be the name of the band in my web comic, Cardboard Angel, and the name of a character in my favorite comic, Maison Ikkoku. All of this combined is her namesake. All of this combined means that I'm beyond help when it comes to being geeky.

Her nicknames range from cute to spastic, like Harukat (hence the name of the blog--nope, it's not a typo!), and Kitty-Butt (among others). She comes to those names about 50% of the time. The other 50% you need to be opening a door to a room she's not allowed into, or the refrigerator.

Haruka has adjusted pretty well to life with us. She's gotten used to our schedule (and sometimes adheres to it) and has never made any messes since the day we brought her home. She's still very chirpy and purrs like a motorboat, and is currently on top of the loft in my office, sleeping now so she can wake us up later tonight.

welcome.

Hi there. Welcome to the craziness that is US. My name's robin, and I'll be doing most of the typing. Some of you may know me from deviantArt, my comics, or on twitter. If so, I thank you for checking this out! If not, greetings and salutations (again. For the third time.)

My husband Todd and I recently took the plunge and bought a house. We moved in on March 18th. On March 20th, we brought Haruka, our first cat, home from the Orange County Animal Shelter here in Florida. I've had pets (cats and german shepherds and some fish) all my life, and Todd has had some smaller buddies like birds and hamsters, but this is our first time actually adopting a pet ourselves. We've decided to chronicle our cat's misadventures here in this blog for our (and hopefully your) personal amusement. 

We call Haruka 'the winningest motorboat' for a reason--she sounds JUST LIKE A MOTORBOAT when she purrs. And of course, she IS the winningest kitty, in our opinion--but everyone thinks their pet is the best (and rightly so). An explanation of her name will be up shortly. We hope you will enjoy reading this blog as much as we enjoy making it.

I'm sure I could have said things a lot more poetically and cutely, but we're all just in it for the cute cat pictures anyway, right?