A new species has been born…right in my own home! I am verrrrrrrry excited, as you can imagine.
I have temporarily named the new species as follows: “Turtlecat”…although I thought that “Cardboard Cat” or “Box Turtlecat” might also fit the bill.
As you can see from the photos, the turtlecat has already begun proliferating…I found not one but TWO of these amazing-looking creatures on my living room floor this morning.
Hmmm…what else can I tell you about my discovery
? Well, I noticed that these new creatures don’t move around very much…no, they seem to be happy to stay in one place. But they are quite alert, and their eyes, as you can see, have an almost alien-like reflection.
Ah, a word of warning: when they get tired of being photographed, they glare fiercely at you and lash their tails back and forth in a most menacing manner…
Otherwise, they seem to be very peaceful critters…Oh, I should mention that they did abandon their shells hastily when it was time for lunch… 🙂
P.S. The response to my previous post has been almost overwhelming. I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who wrote to me both publicly and privately and let you know that what I have so far encourages me to keep digging…Putting all of this information together might take a while, though, since I also have a “day job” (oh, and a “life,” too!)! Seriously, though, please don’t stop sending me any information you think might be useful/relevant to my research. I appreciate your help…thanks!
Oh, Margaret, this is so cute and funny! Every cat I have had has loved boxes. But it was really neat that you cut out a “head hole.” Love it!
Actually, Hallie, I didn’t cut that “head hole.” The box, containing a large bottle of extra virgin olive oil, already had a hole in it, which enabled you to read the label (on the bottle, that is).
Our cats love boxes, too (you should watch my bigger kitties trying to stuff themselves into smaller boxes…our eldest, Puzzola, sometimes puts her head inside a box, thinking the rest of her is invisible, too…), so we always have a box or two on the floor for them.
One evening I watched Pinga dive into this particular box through the “head hole” and come out the other end(of course, my camera was nowhere near me, sigh)…and then yesterday morning I found Peekaboo lying in this box, as happy as a turtle in the ocean. I got my camera in time to take two photos of her, before she got annoyed at the flash and left in a huff. Then Pinga got into the box. Purrfect!
Yesterday a friend asked me how I get my cats to do things like this. I don’t! 🙂 They do funny stuff on their own…And that is why I should really carry a camera around my neck at all times…:-)
We love kitties around here too. Unfortunately my son has severe allergic reaction(asthma)and try as we might we can’t have one in the house. What we do get to enjoy are all the stray cats that somehow find their way to our apartment building and enjoy the sanctuary of our many basement spaces. We (along with another neighbor) get to feed them and occasionally visit with them. Sometimes our super sets traps. They get to stay the night with us, then they get the vet spa treatment and we’ve been very lucky with placing them. (If you know anyone in Seattle who would like to adopt a kitty, we’ll have a beautiful new one soon!) Our consolation prize for not being able to home one or two of our own.