Hazelnut Reflections

Houdini, the Amazing Weather Kitty

We adopted Hootie (short for Houdini) from his previous owners right after we came back from our honeymoon, in January of 2002, along with Wilbur (seen in previous photos).

Hootie is the dominant kitty; he claims the most food, the best spots on the bed, the primo lounging spaces in the living room. Wilbur, who is smaller (although fluffier and faster) responds with what seems to us to be great passive aggressive behavior. When Hootie is not in the room, Wilbur is the king of the mountain, um, the cat tree.

But all of Houdini's fierceness falls away during a thunderstorm. Who needs Gary England (a locally famous OKC weathercaster) when you have the Hootie? At the slightest uptick in wind noise, or roll of thunder, Houdini heads for the closest interior room with no windows. When we lived in STL on the 12th floor, with every room having at least one window, he nudged his way into the hall closet. Here I found him today in our downstairs bathroom (all interior walls--no windows). He is the poster child for tornado drills.

Wilbur enjoys thunderstorms, despite being a textbook scaredycat the rest of the time. Life, if you're a Wilbur, is improved by brief Hootie-free periods.

posted by Emily @ 7:58 PM