It’s Spotlight Thursday with a spotlight on Ms. Zulu! Go to Piglove (click here) to read all about it. To read last week’s interview with Benji click here.
Ms. Zulu, January 2015
Wishing you a Pawbulous Thursday,
The ZAB team
As promised, here is the link to the interview I did with Bacon. Bacon is a cute miniature pot bellied pig at Hotel Thompson. He writes Piglove. His main goal “is to bring a smile to your face”. He sure brings it to us when we are reading his blog. Next week it is Ms. Zulu’s turn.
Spotlight Thursday – Meet Benjamin Griz de Tiger
Smile!
Benji
A bit later than promised but here is an update on the interviews Ms. Zulu and I did with Bacon. Mine will be published on 05/25/2017 and Ms. Zulu’s will be published on 06/01/2017. See Piglove’s Blog for all the great interviewees that went before us. We will let you know as soon as the interviews are published.
Just hang in there a little bit longer; soon enough you will get to know us even better,
Benji
Ms. Zulu’s advice on Zuluism the other day was a hit so I thought I would show more of her wisdom. The following was originally published in 2015. It is an interview between Ms. Zulu and the cats Dougy and Andy. Unfortunately, the result of the interview was removed from its original web location so I thought I would give it a new spot on my blog. The first part of the interview can be found on Doug’s blog, Benji. 
January 22, 2015: Finally Ms. Zulu can show her part of the story; she could hardly contain her excitement! A little recap: A couple of days ago Ms. Zulu called Dougy and Andy, two cats she has been following on WordPress. She decided to use Skype so they could see each other. I am sure this helped to reduce some types of miscommunication as well. The three critters had an interesting conversation. Lots of Woofs and Meows were flying back and forth. Lots of questions were asked by both parties. I could not follow all the Meows and Woofs, but I believe that I captured most of them. Here is my translation* of the second part of the conversation where Dougy and Andy** interview Ms. Zulu.
* My assistant (human mom) did the best she could at the time with the technology provided to her. The boys and girl will be available for the remainder of the day to clear up any misunderstanding or answer any lingering questions you may still have after you have read the whole interview.
** Doug who lives with Dougy and Andy (I don’t believe it’s the other way around) provided the cat photos. Aren’t they great?! Thanks Doug!
THE INTERVIEW
Dougy: We’ve heard rumors you are a dog. Do you deny this or is it true?
Ms. Z.: Definitely, and I am very proud to be one!
Andy: What the heck does “Woof! Woof! Woof!” mean and why do all dogs say it?
Ms. Z.: I gladly explain. If I say “Woof! Woof! Woof!” several times with an upward pitch, it means that I’m very excited. When I say “Woof, woof” in a downward pitch it means that I’m not so sure what’s going on. But I will never admit to this on record.
Andy: For that matter, what’s this howling at the moon business?
Ms. Z.: I’ve never done this but I know that Ms. Sierra (ed. note: we are planning on posting some of her wisdom on this blog in the near future), my adoptive sister who is no longer with us (RIP), has done this several times. As a Husky, she had a much stronger connection with wolves. I think that’s why she did it.
Dougy: Have you ever bit the hand that feeds you? (Ten points if you have!)
Ms. Z.: NOOO!! I would never think of such a thing!
Dougy: When you helped Captain Herbert “trim sails”, how did you hold the scissors?
Ms. Z.: Good question. I was not given any scissors. Maybe that’s why it was so difficult. Have to ask human Captain Herbert.
Andy: Do you like to sleep on your bed or do you prefer to share HM’s?
Ms. Z.: Oh, I want to but I’m not allowed to do this. I have my own beds. I have six at his time… Two are outside. I use those when the sun shines.
Dougy: What do you think about the noble cat, worshiped by Egyptians as a god?
Ms. Z.: That sounds like dangerous business to me. You may remember that I am a Mystical Sphinx, the Guardian of Angels.
Andy: Did you know we once were mistaken for puppies when we were kittens and we
thought that was very funny because we purred and said “Meow”?
Ms. Z.: That is so funny. I would never say “Meow”. At least not until I met you two guys.
Andy: Do you chew your food or eat it all down in one gulp?
Ms. Z.: Food is to be taken with great consideration, so I never gobble it down in one gulp. I like variation too.
Dougy: What’s your favorite food? Your favorite treat?
Ms. Z.: My favorite food is sweet potato chips. The ones that are made for dogs, mind you. They are chewy and delicious. I especially love wet food. DO YOU HAVE SOME?!
Dougy: Do you have a favorite game you play or are you always serious?
Ms. Z.: My favorite game is Chase & Catch. I like to be the one who chases. It should really be called herding. That is THE MOST important job there is in the whole universe. I used to play it with Mr. Charlie. Now I play it with HM. I am always the chaser.
Andy: Do you chase cars? Rabbits? Birds? Mail carriers? Why? Or why not?!
Ms. Z.: I don’t chase cars as that is in my opinion very dangerous. I never chase mail carriers, because they often bring goodies for me. Ducky was delivered by the mail carrier. So I have a great bond with mail carriers. Rabbits and birds are a different story. There’s something about them. Whenever I see them and just have to greet them.
Andy: What is this “Ducky” you sleep with? Are you married or just friends?
Ms. Z: Ducky came into my life shortly before Mr. Charlie passed away. We have become very close mostly because I am now the only one in the household who claims Ducky. In the past Charlie had Ducky. He was what you call a “toy hog”. I am not sure if it is legal to marry Ducky.
Dougy: What’s your position on catnip? Should it be made legal or is it already?
Ms. Z.: Well, I consider myself pretty liberal. It is my motto that cats should be able to choose what they want to use and when to use it.
Dougy: Do you know you are very pretty…for a dog?!
Ms. Z.: Well, thank you! Black is a very pretty color, don’t you think? Did you know that black dogs and cats have a much harder time at the shelter to find a forever home? Strange, isn’t it?
Andy: Do you like to sniff plants and flowers? If so, which ones?
Ms. Z.: My sister Ms. Sierra was good at sniffing plants and flowers. Me, not so much. I couldn’t tell one from the other.
Andy: If you wanted to tell the cats of the world one good thing about dogs, what would it be?
Ms. Z.: We are people‑pleasers. I love to kiss people too, LICK!
Dougy: Do you like to play tug‑o‑war?
Ms. Z.: No, I don’t like the war part of that game. I don’t like to fight.
Andy: We’ve always had each other, and we play together well, not only because we are brothers from the same litter, but because we like each other. Do you have any best buddy of your species or any other species?
Ms. Z.: I loved my brothers Mr. Charlie and Bo. Unfortunately, they both passed away too and are now on to greener pastures. But Ducky keeps me company, so I am very fortunate. Maybe we should get married.
Andy: Where’s your “happy place”? Any kitties there?
Ms. Z.: My happy place is snuggling up with my friend Ducky and HM.
Dougy: You seem to like water. Are you nuts??!
Ms. Z.: Of course I do like water. Not when it’s cold though, it has to be warm. I guess you two wouldn’t understand because you live up north.
Dougy: We’ve heard stories…not about you specifically, but…: Do you smell like a dog when wet?
Ms. Z.: Not sure what you mean. I smell terrific when I’m wet, especially after taking a mud bath.
Andy: Are you ever naughty? If so, how? If not, why not?! We mean, what have you chewed up that wasn’t yours to chew? Did you get away with it?
Ms. Z.: I don’t always come immediately when I am being called. But I would not consider that being naughty as there’s always a good reason why I do that. That could be a rabbit that is lost, a deer that needs to be herded, a squirrel that is past its curfew, you get the drift. I only started a few chewing projects. One was a doorpost. And another one was the baseboards. I never finished them as I lost interest in these projects. I guess it helps to have brothers you can chew on. Oh, almost forgot, I love to remove squeakers from my toys. But that is so that others are not bothered by the squeaks when I play. I am a very considerate being.
Dougy: You were a shelter doggy, and we very much support adoption of shelter critters
because it saves lives and gives wonderful critters a chance to enjoy a good life with loving
people. What do you want to say about adopting shelter pets, knowing that people reading this will take your word very seriously since you’ve experienced this process?
Ms. Z.: Thank you for your support for shelter critters. You may know that it is my goal to be the Ambassador for Animal Shelter Pets. Shelter life can be very stressful for us. So it is important that people who have pets do not consider them as products that can be thrown aside. Before people adopt a pet they should make sure that they can take care of us. Shelter critters may have been abused so we need lots of tender, loving care. On the other hand, we tend to be very forgiving. Seeing a critter turn its life around is very rewarding for us and humans. Please spay or neuter us so that we can all find a good home. If you cannot adopt a shelter pet, there are lots of other ways to help out critters in need. Click here to find out more.
It was great woofing with you, and I think I learned a meow or two. Again, please thank the human Doug for providing the nice photos of you two.
Yours forever,
Ms. Zulu, Woof‑Meow!
P.S. For a complete list of the interviews between the Cats and Ms. Zulu and Benji, see Doug’s web page.
Last Monday, Andy (A) and Dougy (D), two adorable and at times opinionated but also humorous cats, asked Benji (B) all sorts of questions including tough ones (see The Interview: Part I)*. It was only fair that Benji also got his turn to ask some questions. It took me a couple of days to transcribe the interview (my Catonese is a bit rusty and I am still learning Benjinese), but here it is:
[Andy is ready for the interview]
[Dougy is in charge of the computer]
*P.S.: Andy and Dougy employ Doug, the so-called “human”, to take care of them. This is pretty much a full-time job. In his spare time, Doug writes the blog Weggieboy’s blog. He was the one who set up the interviews. Thanks Doug!
B: I know we live far away from each other, but I am curious to know what you would do when you would meet me on the street.
D: Sniff your butt, of course! Cats do that, too, for the same reason as dogs.
A: Yeah, we like to stick our noses in your business. Hee! Hee!
D: Be nice, Andy!
B: My big sister Ms. Zulu tells me that cats like to scratch dogs on their noses and that it hurts. Would you do that to a doggy like me?
A: We have our claws, but we are mostly pretty mild kitties. We only occasionally scratch, but mostly to mark territory or get our human’s attention
D: Never! And we know you are a kitten so we tolerate a lot more from you than we would a dog.
A: [Brother, they are called “puppies”!]
D: [Oh! Thanks, Andy! I was unaware….]
B: I would love to play with cats, how should I approach them (I like to avoid the nose punctures Ms. Zulu is yapping about)?
D: You don’t want to jump up and down on them, for sure, because you are bigger or as big as us, and it might hurt us. We’ve heard “puppies” (as I understand you are called) sometimes get rambunctious. Kind of like kittens, actually.
A: Aw, I was always the well-mannered one, Dougy. You were the one who always hopped off the examination table at the veterinarian’s so you could snoop around the office….!
D: You wanted to. Admit it!
B: Sounds like you two are quite a handful…
A: No, I am the nice one.
D: Hisst!
B: Just sayin’… Anyway, although I consider myself a big boy and walk like one, I was only 61/2 weeks old when I went from the shelter to my forever home. How old were you when you were adopted? Were you two crybabies?
A: I was nine weeks old. Dougy came along a week or so later when the lady who had our mother noticed Dougy and I played well together at the veterinarian’s, where we both were recovering from a parasite we picked up eating a grasshopper….! We never cried, though, except when that bulldog puppy made us nervous. Remember that bulldog puppy, Dougy?
D: Yeah, but I was cute when I whimpered! LOL!
A: Well. ornery anyway. Yeah, cute, too. We both were really cute, if I do say so myself!
B: As kitties did you play a lot and how does that compare to now? How old are you two by the way? I can still ask that question right?
A: We used to chase each other. Our favorite toy was a little stuffed mouse. We’d play “keep away”. First, I’d run with it, then Dougy’d take it from me and run with it. We played that way for hours or until we took a nap. We napped a lot, of course. We also liked to chase each other when we didn’t have the mouse. We climbed all over the place, and got yelled out a time or two until we learned that climbing on people hurts them. We may have been little, but we had claws of death already! Hee! Hee! And used them!
D: And how! Of course, now that we are almost five years old (as of next July 1st), we are less active than we were as kittens, but we still like to play with our BirBug toys. (These are wand toys.) We still chase each other for fun, and running through the apartment is one of our favorite activities.
[Dougy on his favorite ottoman playing with the BirBug toy]
B: Wow, already the big five; it will take me ages to get there. Hey, do you have a treat? I always seem to be hungry; can you give me advice on how to solve this problem? A cute face certainly helps, but does not seem to work all the time.
A: Play the cuteness gambit for sure, Benji! No one can ignore that cute face!
D: Yeah, and we throw in purrs and rubbing against their legs to encourage giving us something yummy to eat! I don’t know if dogs do that, too.
[Andy is giving advice]
B: Hmmm, purrs, you have to teach me that. You seem pretty laid-back. Are you just plain lazy or is it a pose to get more treats from your human?
D: It isn’t lazy, it’s conservation of energy. Cats never waste energy. You never know when the next gazelle is coming through, so you don’t want to use all your energy up before you have more food!
A: Dougy’s being silly now, Benji! We don’t have gazelles here in Nebraska! I checked. Just bison, deer, squirrels, birds of various sizes….
Here, Andy’s eyes glazed over as he fantasized about the birds in the fir outside the back window. He and Dougy both love to watch birds!
B: As you know I like food games, do you like them too? Do you have food puzzles? Is there a trick you can teach me to solve them faster? Some food puzzles take way too long to finish and my belly is just protesting. I love belly scratches too. Do you like them?
A: We don’t play food games, though our human does give us kitty treats when we are good boys. (Like after I get my medicine!) I don’t know if we have the patience to solve them. We had a food game once that required too much work to get to the food. I trained the human to knock the game to dislodge the food to where I could get it. Hee! Hee! I don’t think he ever realized I trained him! You need to figure out how to get your human to feel sorry for you and just give you the food, too. That’s your homework assignment for tonight!
B: Good advice Andy, I will try it out tonight!
D: We both like to have our bellies rubbed, but what we like even better is to have that spot between our eyes scratched. It’s hard for us to get, but the human can get right in there!
A: Oh yeah, and we like it when he rubs the side of our mouths.
B: Do you go to the park to play? Do you like to ride in a car? I find them noisy and you can’t look out the window.
A: We are inside cats. I think we would like the grass, but out human grows some for us inside, as well as catnip. He says it’s a matter of safety since we live close to two major roads. We hate flea and tick medicine, so he says we can’t go outside since we won’t cooperate to let him put it on. I think it’s an excuse!
B: Your human is smart; better safe than sorry, and I bet it is better for the birds too :). I take lots of naps in my bed. How many naps do you take each day? Where do you sleep; do you sleep in a tree?
D: We both sleep 16-18 hours a day. I like to sleep on an ottoman next to where our human sits to watch television, and Andy likes to sleep on a side table next to the same place. That way we can keep track of him and each other, too!
B: Wow, 16-18 hours; you hardly have time for play. BTW, talking about naps makes me feel tired. I think I am ready to take one right now. Night, night.
A: And don’t let the bedbugs bite!
D: Woof!
A: When did you learn to speak “Dog”?
D: Remember? Ms. Zulu spent a few hours with us, trying to get us to speak in “Dog”. All I could get out was “Vuff” because I found the accent hard to get. While you were napping, I practiced saying that till I got it right!!
A: I’m impressed, brother! You never strike me as being that serious!
B: Thanks for the interview Andy and Dougy; you two are funny critters. Now I really need that nap; maybe I will sleep in my new cave and dream of kitties.
Happy Thanksgiving to all critters big and small
Life of Benji 