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Can You Hear The Sound When Your Cat Purrs?
There’s this cat in London who purrs as loud as a lawnmower. His name is Smokey. This cat purrs at 73 to 80 decibels. depending on which news report you read. If I had a cat like that, I’d kick him out of bed. Heck, I’d banish him to the garage. Or at the very least, I’d make sure I never petted him unless I wore earplugs.
Like all Sacramento real estate transactions are different, all cats purr differently. My cat who died December of 2010, Brandon, had a very loud purr. He used to sit on the bench near me at the breakfast table, and when we would have overnight company, our guests could not figure out where that sound came from in the morning. Brandon was content to just sit there and purr like a popcorn popper. I didn’t have to pet him to induce a purr. But he was no lawnmower.
Pica, our marbled ocicat — the throwaway nobody wanted because he wasn’t born with spots — he used to purr very softly. You could not hear him unless you glued your ear to the top of his head. His purr was so quiet it was almost a whisper. The sound was soft as his velvety coat, yet steady and long. He could purr for a good 30 minutes, especially while brushed. We had to euthanize Pica several years ago due to diabetes complications, but I still miss him everyday.
Pia, the cinnamon spotted ocicat, she also used to purr quietly but loud enough that I could hear her without smushing my ear into her body. I’d say her purr sounded like an electric razor. Sort of buzzy and raspy. She would purr for as long as she was stroked. Once I stopped petting her, she would stop purring almost immediately. She died from a sudden heart attack years ago. Scared the crap out of us. Who knew cats had heart attacks?
Jackson is a loud purring machine. He sounds like a coffee pot percolates. It’s a steady sound and tends to get louder as he gets closer to stopping. His purring, in fact, woke me up this morning. I must have rolled over or wiggled my toes or done something that made him realize there was life in the bed, and I wasn’t dead, because he was purring away like there is no tomorrow. I think he was just happy to see a live person.
Now Tessa, she is a nonstop. She is a manipulator, like most felines. She knows exactly what to do to get attention, or maybe we are just trained too well by her. If I ignore her while I’m working on my computer, she’ll plop herself in front of my monitor and stare at me. Then the purring starts. It’s like she’s saying, can’t you see how incredibly cute and adorable I am?
Thank goodness none of them purr loud enough to be mistaken for a vacuum cleaner.
While Elizabeth is visiting Pearl Harbor today, this is a reprint from 2011, previously published elsewhere.
Hawaiian Crabbing Feast and the Sacramento Cat Puke Report
Tree and blue sky on Hapuna Beach is a calming influence
I find it astonishing how easy it is to adjust to the time zone in Hawaii, which is 3 hours earlier than Sacramento in the summer. Whenever I travel, I struggle with time-zone changes because it’s very hard to adapt. It’s as though my body is in tune here. I can retire in the evening at my regular time and get up around 7 AM, sometimes even 7:30, with no problem, just in time for the Sacramento Cat Puke Report. My husband is caring for the cats while I’m off galavanting on the beach for Labor Day.
Pica, our ocicat, seems to have developed exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. For a while, we thought he had reversed feline diabetes, but after a few weeks without insulin, his blood sugar numbers shot way up, and he is still losing weight, despite PZI (insulin). He is so thin that it’s apparently difficult for him to bend over to eat out of his bowl; he’s been using his front paw to shovel food into his mouth, so my husband has elevated his dishes. This particular condition happens in cats when they ferociously eat but receive no nutrition. It’s a maldigestion syndrome, and we won’t have the blood results back until Wednesday to confirm but he has all of the signs.
Even then, it appears our vet at Midtown Animal Clinic does not carry the enzyme powder we will have to add to his food. We are hoping our specialist vet in Roseville will have it in stock. Pica used to weigh 15 pounds, and he is now down to 10 pounds, 10 ounces. That’s a big drop in weight. Imagine what it would be like if you were always hungry, starving, despite how much you eat.
Crabbing at the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel
Not that I showed any restraint last night at the Crabfest held at my hotel on the Big Island. It was all you can eat buffet. I started out well, with a salad, topped by marinated artichokes, mushrooms, alfalfa sprouts, cukes, tomatoes but added a few snow crab claws to it, and before I knew it, I had finished two plates of steaming King crab legs dipped into drawn butter.
My server, Donna, brought me the bill, and it was under $100, which included 2 small glasses of champagne. I leaned over to confide to her: You know, there is only one thing I like better than crab legs. That’s lobster. And tonight, there is a Lobsterfest going on at the hotel next door.
Just a few seconds ago, my husband sent me an email: Have your cats puked on anything irreplaceable? Find out tonight at 11 on the #KCRACatPukeNews. Pica performs the Circle Puke for us at least once a week or so, but at least it’s cat puke on a flat, cleanable surface as he spins a 360, leaving small puddles. I hope you’re not eating lunch right now. Readers with cats will understand. You do what you have to do when you sign on to care for cats.
Photo: Tree on Hapuna Beach, by Elizabeth Weintraub
Closing Tip for a Sacramento short sale
The closing tip for a Sacramento short sale today is brought to you by Pica, the Ocicat, who lives in Land Park with this Sacramento real estate agent. He asked me to shoot his photograph and post it here. He wants to say: “Nation, don’t listen to Stephen Colbert when you can find out everything you need to know about the world from this cat.”
Pica knows a lot about Sacramento short sales. For example, Pica can tell you that when it comes time to close that short sale, you can’t simply sashay into the escrow office to sign documents and close. That’s not how it works, regardless of how many dead fish you drag to the title company’s doorstep.
For one thing, all parties to the short sale, the buyers and sellers will sign closing documents a few days before the actual closing date. Funds need to be deposited into escrow as either cash, certified check or wire, the day BEFORE closing. You cannot write a personal check to the escrow company and expect escrow to close until that check clears the bank, which could take 3 to 7 days.
The most important thing to realize, whether the buyer is obtaining a loan or is paying cash, makes no difference, is escrow cannot close until the final HUD has been approved by the short sale bank. If there are two loans on a short sale, generally approval is required from both of the lenders. Don’t overlook this closing tip for a Sacramento short sale or you won’t close.
Some short sale banks require up to 72 hours to approve the HUD. That means 3 days turnaround. You can’t rush the bank or escalate a Final HUD approval. Lots of people, even mortgage brokers and Sacramento real estate agents, tend to forget about the essential fact. And that’s how a short sale can expire, especially if the closing is intended for the last day of the approval letter. There is no time to pause for an emergency butt lick.
So, don’t be a lazy cat or an uninformed cat. Allow time for that Final HUD approval. Ask your escrow officer how many days it could take to get approval and get your documents to escrow with enough time allotted for Final HUD approval. Here, have a freeze-dried chicken treat. Pica has a nap to take now. He has given you your closing tip for a Sacramento short sale, and his job is done.
