When cats hunt

Do your cats ever hunt for you?  Sure, maybe it's just that tattered little mouse toy they've had for years, but doesn't it make you feel special, nonetheless, to be so dutifully presented with such a prize?  My personal favorite is the deep throaty yowling in the middle of the night, as the cat comes to the bedroom carrying its prey (aka toy mouse) in its mouth.  Waking up to a pile of little toys next to the bed in the morning or in front of the door when I get home at night lets me know I am very loved.   To think I deserve the fruits of their labor.  Thank you cats for your random displays of affection.

Oh Bordeaux

So one of my recent food explorations has been in Bordeaux wines.  I'm a red wine lover, and have long enjoyed the big, bold cabernets from the West coast.  Sure I had tried Bordeaux (you know, the French stuff) now and then, but had never really taken the time to learn about it, compare it, taste it, think about it, and discover just how miraculous this stuff really is.  Through a series of recent Bordeaux tastings, I feel like I'm getting there.  If you like wine, you know that moment when you pick up a glass, give it a swirl, take a sniff and are lured into a secret world of ecstasy by the aroma alone.  To then take a sip and feel that delight of so many flavors harmoniously dancing in your mouth just seals the deal.  These are the wines I am constantly in search of.  I drink many I consider to be nice "table wines", inexpensive, fine for sipping on a random evening, but every now and then I need something to just wow me.  One that did this for me recently was a 2005 La Fleur de Bouard Lalande-de-Pomerol, Chateau La Fleur Saint Georges.  Amazing. That's all I can say.

Why do cats vomit anyway?

Why do they vomit?  This is an eternal question that I think every cat owner must ask at one time or another.  Cats vomit.  That's just how it is.  While I can certainly think of plenty of perfectly good physiologically sound medical reasons for a cat to vomit, which certainly do happen and should be taken seriously, sometimes it seems like physiology has nothing to do with it.  For instance, one of my favorites is the vomit placed strategically just inside the doorway to my bedroom in the evening.  Of course I won't see it entering the dark room, and I will be sure to step in it with my stocking feet, or worse yet, a bare foot.  Yuck.  You can't tell me the cat didn't get some strange pleasure out of that.  There's also the vomiting on any available soft fabric.  I have hardwood floors, no carpeting, and as few rugs as possible.  Yet, with vast expanses of hard, easy to clean surface, the cats will inevitably vomit just on the edge of whatever rug is handy.  They could  have moved over just two inches and avoided the rug, but no, that would be too easy.  But nothing, and I mean nothing, is as bad as the strategically placed vomit on the bed.  Preferably on top of as many layers of bedding as possible so that you need to wash everything.  Of course, you won't discover said present until actually getting into bed to cuddle in for sleep, making the event all the more fun (for the cat who is probably curled up as cute and innocent as can be on a clean blanket somewhere.)  Alas, once they're curled up next to me, purring contentedly, I always forgive them, and think of vomit duty as one of the occasional annoyances one must endure for the privilege of living with such creatures.

Birthday Cake

Few occasions warrant a gratuitous amount of cake like a birthday, and this is the cake from my day.  There is something so special about a homemade birthday cake.  This year it was a luscious moist chocolate cake with an orange cream cheese frosting so nicely made by my roommate, decorated beautifully by my other roommate who is getting into cake decorating.  It was truly delicious and such a treat.

Sleeping Beauty

Few things are as calming as a sleeping cat. The cats are asleep, all is right with the world.

La Reine de Saba

So, this is where my night wound up.  It all ended in chocolate cake.  Not just any cake, mind you, but the queen of cakes.  Isn't it lovely?  Here I sit at 11:30 pm, savoring my just finished creation, as I took the notion to make this at about 8:30.  Not bad considering it had to cool before I could ice it.  A little impromptu cake baking never hurt anyone, and I did have a rather large block of Callebaut chocolate staring me in the face every time I walked into the kitchen pantry.

This is quite possibly my favorite cake, and that is saying something.  I love to make it and I really love to eat it.  Tonight just seemed like a great night for a Reine de Saba (Queen of Sheba) cake, since I was feeling especially domestic goddessy.  (Then again, wouldn't any night be a great night for Reine de Saba?) Since I had already made a pan roasted pork loin for dinner and indulged in my roommate's fabulous chocolate orange muffins, it didn't seem right to stop the evening short of a little more decadence.  Do I feel a bit like the Queen of Sheba?  Eating this cake, why yes I do.

Vanilla Bean Chai Cookies

While cake may be one of my favorite things to make and eat, I do basically make just about everything else too. Sometimes you need a cookie. Feeling the need for lots of butter, I tried these vanilla bean chai shortbread cookies with icing, and they turned out to be quite tasty.

Red and Green Velvet Christmas Cake

I did promise some cake....so here it is. This was a Christmas cake as you could probably guess by the festive colors. This was a 6 layer monster made of the traditional red velvet as well as some holidayish green velvet. Put all of that with 6 layers of lovely cream cheese frosting and you have one spectacularly festive cake.  The truth is, this was delicious.

My Babies

Now really, no proper veterinarian could go too long without telling you about their own pets.  Since I'm sure they'll come up frequently, I might as well bring them into the picture right now.  I have three cats, who are spoiled, pampered, and worshipped with great satisfaction by me, having no children to occupy any of my affections.  Alice, Balin, and Fiona are presently curled up, surrounding me in my bed, having satisfied their daily duty of getting me to bed at an acceptable hour.  Here on the bed they will stay until late in the morning when I rise.  I am thankful to have cats that worship sleep as much as I do.  I don't have any stories about cats pouncing on my bladder at 5am or sitting on my face until I get up to feed them.

While I've had many pets in my lifetime, my current three are the only pets of my adult life.  Balin came into a clinic where I was working one summer before vet school as a pathetic, wounded little creature.  A very kind soul had noticed this little kitten along side the road with an obviously injured leg.  After a cast on the broken leg for several weeks, and lots of love from me, no one claimed him, and I took him home.  He's a seal point Siamese mix of some sort and is my little weirdo as I affectionately like to refer to him.  Balin was a very enthusiastic kitten, to say the least, and when he was about 6 months old, I decided he needed another cat to play with, so my legs would not be his preferred playmates.  

Alice is my sweet girl, a muted orange tabby who I fell in love with during an animal handling laboratory session during vet school.  We were supposed to be practicing putting on a cat muzzle, which is downright comical with a cat like Alice.  She soaked up any attention and handling she could get and was more than happy to sport the muzzle for the sake of more loves.  She was there from the humane society, was spayed, up for adoption and promptly found a home with me and Balin.  She knew exactly how to come right in, make friends with Balin, and made me feel like I'd always had her.  I tell you, Alice is the kind of cat you sit down with and have a cup of tea and conversation.  You can probably see a trend developing in where my pets come from.  I managed to go 3 entire years without bringing another one home, and hadn't really planned on more than 2, given my small apartment at the time.

And then there was Fiona.  I was smitten from the moment I saw Fiona, once I finally did see her.  You see, I was in vet school, and we were going to spay and neuter some pets for adoption.  I went to examine the cat to which I was assigned, but upon first glance there did not appear to be a creature in the cage.  Not until I actually opened the door and took a close look did I see this tiny grey tabby curled up and flattened down in the round litter pan in the cage, doing a very good job of making herself as invisible as possible.  I picked her up and she wrapped her little front legs around my neck as though hugging me and clung to me as hard as possible, pleading to me with her scared eyes not to let anything bad happen.  In keeping with that promise, I took her home with me.  She is every bit as adorable, tiny, grey, soft, and sometimes as scared as she was that day.  She has short little legs and a short little tail, and everything about her is as dainty as possible.  Her greatest solace is in laying next to me on her favorite soft blanket, where she is as safe and warm and pampered as she can possibly be.  I should add that Balin absolutely adores Fiona and seeing the two of them grooming each other frequently reminds me that the world can't be all bad.

And next time, we'll get to the cake....

The Truth About Me

So, I guess I should say a little about who I am before I give you my random musings on everything from cats to cake.  To put it briefly, I'm a veterinarian and I love to cook.  Once you know the great truths about things like cats and dogs and cake, there is no turning back, it's just part of who you are.  I work in disease research so think rogue infectious disease scientist saving the world from infectious diarrhea by day, domestic goddess saving the world from bad frosting by night.   Or something like that.  Some days I'm more rogue than others, and some days I'm more goddess than others.  But isn't that the case with all of us?  We'll get to the frosting later, likely on numerous occasions.