World Animal Day (Dierendag)

October 4 is officially "World Animal Day." I was completely unaware of this day before I moved to the Netherlands, but I've since adapted to the fact that dierendag (animal day) is celebrated far and wide. It usually involves giving your pet an extra treat, but letting it be blessed by a priest is also a possibility (I did actually see pictures of this recently on Facebook). If I'm not mistaken, the origins of the day are actually Christian, since today is the official day of remembrance for Saint Francis, who supposedly preached to the birds (and was a great lover and respecter of animals).

So, in honour of dierendag, here are a few recent pictures of Jerry.

We're still working on the distinction between my plants and Jerry's plant, as you can see.

Why you really need to wash your fruit

I've been taught that you should wash your fruit (and vegetables) before eating them. This is partially to get rid of germs but more so to get rid of any of the gunk (chemicals and pesticides and so on) that's used to protect the apples from insects.

The other day I discovered still another reason for washing the fruit before eating it: the fact that the stem is lovely to chew on (at least, according to the four-legged-creature that lives with us).

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I think, besides washing the fruit, we'll also be keeping apples in the fridge from now on.

Jerry, my knight in shining armor.

Very early this morning, I was woken up by a mosquito. My arms were itchy, and there was this stupid buzzing around my head.

So I got up and put some water on my arms. Then I crawled back in bed and covered myself as much I could with the sheet. At least I wouldn't get bitten anymore. But it was too warm, and the buzzing wouldn't go away. And I couldn't seem to hit and kill the mosquito. I obviously wasn't awake enough to think of turning the light on so I could actually see it first. Instead, I was just lying there awake being semi-miserable.

And along came Jerry - back from his nightly jaunt through the apartment building. He came to check if I was still in bed, and he discovered the mosquito. A wonderful tasty, buzzing, easy-to-find mosquito. Whack. Instead of tormenting me, the mosquito was now running for its life. Jerry had entertainment, and I could fall asleep thinking about how great cats are...

my four-legged alarm clock

Although more than enough is happening in my head and heart (and in the life of the Kronemeijers in general), I'm not sure yet how to put it into words. I've been dreaming and wondering about what's best in a lot of things:
- how do we best show hospitality in our new place (and what do we need still to fix up?),
 - how (much) I get involved in the community,
 - what should I spend my energy on academically,
 - is my hope of finishing my dissertation by May next year really attainable (I think so),
 - what do I do to prepare for the "next" after the dissertation (i.e., what academic projects do I get begin to get involved in already now), and so on.
 I haven't finished processing yet, and so I'm not sure what to say - although hopefully it will come sooner rather than later.

 Until then, however, I leave you with a normal incident in the life of the Kronemeijers.

 The alarm clock at our house goes off at 6:30 a.m. Matthijs gets up and showers while I sometimes read (although I often just roll over and doze until it's time for breakfast). However, I'm usually awake before the alarm clock, as I have my own personal alarm clock: one with four legs and a rather loud voice. Usually around 6 in the morning, although sometimes he waits until 6:30, the cat stands in front of the bedroom door and starts meowing. I have no idea why he meows then (perhaps we don't hear him earlier in the night, and he's noticed that, or perhaps he hears us begin to move as we enter the final phases of sleep?). The fact that I often get up and open the door for him probably would be considered encouragement for his action - but I don't generally mind. Petting the cat is a nice relaxing way to adjust to the fact that it's morning. Leaving the door open at night does solve the meowing problem - he seems to meow only because he knows we're there and he can't get to us (when he can get to us, he doesn't meow - and he usually stays outside unless I call him in). But the noise from the street (the window is always open) makes that a less ideal option, and so I'm left with my four-legged alarm clock. On the bright side, we'll probably never sleep in now - except, of course, if the cat is trapped downstairs in the sports hall or he catches a mouse and is himself sleeping in.....

Socializing Jerry

Jerry hasn't been the most socialized cat. He tends to run away when visitors come and generally dislikes men. And his exposure to other cats has been rather limited. Things improved somewhat when I moved to Den Haag: Jerry  met the neighbour cats (he appeared to like the upstairs one and fought with the downstairs one), and his tolerance for men did increase (at least, it appears that he sometimes appreciated Matthijs).

And then we moved back to Amsterdam, and the socializing has increased significantly: more visitors and more cats. During Easter, he'd made friends with a neighbour cat - but the cat (and owners) ended up moving right before we moved in. But now the downstairs neighbour is watching over a cat - and Jerry has discovered the wonder of having a playmate. And the visiting cat has discovered Jerry's food. (The grass is always greener on the other side, right?)

While we have a cat door, the house of the visiting cat does not. That makes it easy for him to come visit (once he can convince the little girls downstairs to let him out), but not so easy for Jerry to visit him. So I told Jerry he just had to knock and ask if 'Baruch' could come out and play. Surprisingly enough, Jerry did listen to me!! However, perhaps in my socializing of Jerry, I'll have to work on him learning that meowing outside somebody's door at 11 at night, even if it is effective, is not exactly socially acceptable. (Fortunately, my downstairs neighbour has a sense of humour - and doesn't go to bed that early).

Life lessons for a cat

The other day, I heard my cat meowing its head off on the balcony. Often when we've been gone for awhile, it likes to go outside and meow. I joke that it's his way of expressing his dislike of being so long home alone. But as we'd been home most of the day, I figured this time it had to be something else - so I went out and checked. The cat from the neighbours downstairs was on their balcony - and Jerry was adamantly trying to have a conversation with him. The other cat, however, just stood there looking at him. And I couldn't help but feel bad for my cat - and I wondered how I could explain to Jerry that no matter how wonderful he is, sometimes others just won't be interested in being friends with him.

But the life lessons only continued! As I went upstairs yesterday and Jerry had greeted my home coming with enthusiastic meows, I heard a different meowing - and I realized that it came from the neighbour cat. And I thought to myself, "hmmm, when it suits you (i.e., you're bored or lonely), you're interested in talking but otherwise not." And how could I explain to Jerry that others might use him when it suits them?

And then I realized that life lessons for a cat are different than those for people. Jerry's a cat. He just likes meowing. What does he really care if he gets an answer to his meows? The only reason Jerry's even interested in the neighbour cat is as a potential distraction/toy. He just wants food and attention and a good place to sleep and he's happy. And he'll probably meow to tell you that :)