Oozle The Knob

I’m sure you’re all wondering what in the world is Oozle the Knob. The Daughters and I, on the way to town yesterday for a day of shopping, were discussing “THE BLOG” and we all thought that a very good topic for a post would be Oozle the Knob. I’m sure you are aware that we, as a collective family, like animals and we have several that we care for, those in the barnyard and those which have a closer relationship with us.

Recently, that is, within the last two years, Daughter #1 who is a cat-lover-supreme decided the old fat cat named Midnight was not satisfying her cat needs anymore and so convinced/bamboozled her father and I into taking a kitten which her riding instructor’s cat had birthed under their barn. Said cat was quite wild and needing convincing to even come out from under the barn in the form of dishes of food strategically laid around the base of the barn. Eventually they were able to catch the kitten and called us to tell us that said Satan... I mean kitten was ready to be picked up. Daughter #1 and I drove over to collect said kitten and arrived to see the cutest kittens all hiding in the back of a kennel and said mother outside very anxious about what was happening to her babies.

The instructor pulled out the wee thing she had allotted for us and Daughter #1 fell in love. Well the wee thing looked rather pitiful and so I, in my wisdom, decided to bring it home as Daughter#1 would be dreadfully depressed now if I didn’t. So home came a very happy Daughter, a very tiny but obviously upset kitten, and a worried mom (that being me). You see we had never tamed a wild kitten before. All kittens that we had had previous to this one were well handled and therefore quite comfortable around humans. This one was not.

We brought it in the house as this would be its territory for the first few weeks until it became familiar with us. We felt we should make it familiar with our other pets and so a serious sniff fest was the result. The kitten, who is orangish, and had by now been named Pinecone, was not impressed with the sniff fest apparently, because when Daughter #1 finally put it on the floor to let it get familiar with the place it sought the nearest dark corner which happened to be behind the upright washer and dryer which at the time was in the bathroom. We spent the next 48 hours trying to convince the kitten to come out.

Finally after 48 hours of frantic worry on the part of Daughter #1 thinking it might die from starvation and thirst, we decided to pull out the washer and dryer which is no easy task I assure you. Hubby got to it and by the time he had the washer and dryer out there was no sign of the kitten. He had disappeared under the framing of the shower stall in which there was a hole just big enough for him to get into. Clearly this wasn’t going well. Another 24 hours and still no success. Hubby was threatening to let it die and Daughter #1 was on the verge of making herself sick with fear and trepidation.

And so it was that night time came, and finally peace descended on the house, and there I lay in my bed, awake, trying to figure out a way of luring the blighter out from under the shower. It was only after some time of lying that way that I heard stealthy movement from the lower portion of the house. Clearly something was on the move! It was then that Eureka hit in its fullness of bloom.

Pinecone was sneaking out at night and eating the dog food!

Well this would not do. Earlier in the night I had dropped a pile of laundry on the floor of the bathroom with the idea that perhaps the sound of the washing machine in the morning would scare the little blighter out from under the shower and out from behind the washer. This pile of laundry would become my saving grace.... and the kitten’s.


I headed downstairs and of course the kitten dove behind the washer as soon as he heard me, once again threatening to dive under the shower if needs be with my debut. So I boldly walked into the bathroom and sat down among the laundry and proceeded to bury myself in the pile. I draped dirty shirts over my head and piled damp towels over my lap and generally surrounded myself with smelly stinking laundry with only my eyes clear. And then I sat..... and waited.

Sure enough after about 15 minutes the little blighter stuck his nose out and sniffed the air with the thought of dog food on his mind. But I think he was kind of aware that something had changed. Hmmm... the pile of laundry was bigger than it had been. 15 more minutes of watching the kitten inch along the floor with ever suspicious glances at the pile of laundry, brought me to the point where he was past me but not out the door. It was only after he was out the door of the bathroom that I managed to withdraw an arm from the stinking moray I was in, swing the door shut, and stuff up the space between the wall and the washer and dryer to prevent the animal tucking back behind the washer again. The washer and dryer stayed like that for three months until he was too big to squeeze back in there again. For days, as a result of this drama, the kitten spent his time under the couch but finally started coming out occasionally for Daughter #1.

Since then Pinecone has become a fixture in this house. he sleeps on Daughter#1’s bed all day long and lord only knows where he goes at night. We have taken to calling him Oozle too. He has developed some weird habits the weirdest of which is oozing out of your arms like limp silly putty when ever you pick him up. He is a terrible mouser and to my knowledge has never caught anything more difficult than a dust ball (though mine are quite fearsome) thus we call him a knob! He paws at the window each morning to get to his bowl of crunchies
and pees in my flower beds with the look of utmost pleasure. He is a mooch supreme but only for junk food like cheesies, (which he loves) chips, or popcorn. He likes to freak out the Alpacas by walking up to them at a sedate and quiet pace until he gets quite close and then streaks away from them like greased lightening in an effort to startle them to the point of submission. The sheep love him and let him sleep in the barn with them and his favorite place to snooze outside the house or barn is in the old fowsty hay bails from last year. Daughter #1 is the only one who can pick him up without having to chase him all over the house first. And though I have never tried it, I expect catnip would send him to the moon.



Why do we keep him you ask? Because he is the cat with the most personality ever and because each day there is always something to watch him do..... besides I would never, without him, had the chance to act as a pile of laundry.... Mr. Bean... watchout!