Crazy Cat. And I Mean that Lovingly.

Mel is one active cat. He does not fit the stereotype of "lazy cat." He sometimes gets into fits of activity and literally gallops across the house, from the back windows to the front ones, and back again. He jumps over any obstacles in the way. Adel being one such obstacle. He dashes the distance (of about fifty feet) in under two seconds. I'm not exaggerating.

He also like to jump up onto the china closet.

There he goes!


...almost made it...


Hi, all!


Majestic king of furniture.


These stars are a thorn in his side. The boys and I made them for Purim, to hang from the hood of the stroller. Three stars, to symbolize the end of Shabbos, to complement our havdala theme.


Before Purim, I hung them on our chandelier for the fun of it. Mel went mad! He tried to reach them from the top of the china closet, but they were too far.


Time for Plan B.

(Sorry for the awfully blurry and grainy photo. I wasn't prepared with the right camera settings at the moment Mel jumped.
But you can still see him flying off the china closet head first. And the shadow is great!)

Maybe I can get it from this angle!
Standing on the table?

No.

Standing on a chair?

Still no.

Annnd, it's Hillel to the rescue. Finally someone had pity on the poor animal.
Mel bats at the stars till his furry little heart's content.


Well, this crazy active cat of ours...
Wanna hear how he earned the title of "crazy"?

Yesterday morning we woke up, but there was no cat running into our room to try and catch the last minutes before the hamster retreats to his den for the day. There were kids running in, but no cat. My initial thought was, "Pheeew. Finally that creature has learned to leave the hamster alone."

We went on with our day. I thought it was weird that Mel wasn't meowing for his breakfast, so I just opened a can for him and put it in its spot.

That's when I began to worry. We searched all around the house. Maybe he was sick? Hillel went out to look in front of the house. No Mel. Having nothing else to do, I decided to wait, and began doing laundry. While loading the machine, I was gazing out the kitchen window. There was that hugely pregnant orange cat that lives on our block and a black and white cat next to her. The clack and white cat looked too fat to be an alley cat.

I dashed out of the house SO fast. As I approached the cats in the backyard, the pregnant orange cat whispered to Mel, "There's someone coming!" And they both started running away. The Orange cat ran through the fence, and Mel hesitated. I knelt down and "kss-kss-kss"ed at him. He turned to look at me.

I was afraid he'd choose freedom over me and run. But as soon as he saw me, he ran right into my arms!

No matter how many times we questioned Mel on his escape methods, he kept his lips sealed.
We only open our windows from the top- too high for him to jump. He'd be able to jump that high, but having nowhere to balance, he'd fall right down 2.5 stories.

So my theory... Sometimes Hillel leaves the computer room window open a few inches on the bottom. I've told him not to, but he claimed that he was careful... that he closed it before going to bed...
Well, I'm guessing he forgot to close it this time.
Very conveniently, there is an awning right under that window.

My theory:

Now you see why "crazy cat"?? He's too confident in his jumping skills, and that causes him to do crazy things.

But honestly,

Mel doesn't always quite clear the jump!