Breaking Cat News by Georgia Dunn for March 22, 2021

Other than the stretch where someone tries to remove him from the curtains, and he insists on hanging on to the very last claw… Which I suppose is more of a post-climb stretch anyway.

“I’m still a kitten.”

All Elvis is stretching is the truth.

Unfortunately, young and spry eventually gives way to old and arthritic.

I hope it’s not going to take the mailman to get you down from there, Elvis—especially since you were so reluctant to believe he was real!

Ugh, I feel your pain, Elvis! I can still remember the days when I could run up and down stairs, but now I find myself sometimes hanging onto the railing to either pull myself up the stairs or keep myself from stumbling down. Sigh…….

Elvis, NOBODY uses “spry” to describe someone who really is young.

I feel your pain, Elvis. I feel your pain.

You are up there, Elvis, and it counts.

The biggest brat of a hyperactive kitten we ever had grew into the creaky Resident Old Grump. She certainly didn’t seem to mind, as long as she had a lap whenever she demanded one and could continue to put the younger cats in their place. It was weird for us to see her go from “How the heck did you get THERE?!” to “Has she moved today?” “She materialized in the kitchen when I opened the cat food, so yeah.”

Looks like Elvis is climbing Mt. Curtains!

Help Elvis. Someone!

Those of us who are just beginning to glimpse, in the far distance, the barest beginnings of the slight slopes leading to the first foothills of the preliminary uplands of very early middle age sympathise with you, Elvis.

Reread yesterday’s strip and comments and just noticed Goldie’s little term of endearment (“my dude”) when talking to Lupin.

Young and spry? You? Ha ha ha ha.

Sigh. The people are going to have to get him down before the ‘worst climber in the world’ gets up there…

Ah, lovely Elvis. You don’t need to prove yourself!

This is poignant coming a few days after Tony Hawk had to retire the 540° ollie.

Elvis, you used the word “spry” – that’s a word old people use when they (okay, we) really mean “I don’t need a cane yet”…

Even aging is dignified when it comes to Elvis.

I thought cats had a stretch for everything.

One of our cats, gone these many years, had a favorite, apparently impossible to reach, perch on a speaker mounted just below a very high ceiling. Watching her reach it was quite impressive, but eventually she couldn’t manage. But she did live to be twenty-one.

Sprinkle has two curtain rods bent and one broken.

I have vertical blinds on my picture window with a valance across the top. Never had a problem with a cat getting up there until recently. When she was small (just a few months ago), Cookie could jump up there and the whole thing would shake like crazy. She still looks up there longingly but is now a full size cat and I’m afraid if she tries it the whole thing will come crashing down.

♪"Climb all the curtains

Ford every stream

Follow every red dot

’Til you find your dream"♫

I love the back view of the CN studio in panel three.

Young people don’t use the word spry.

Go, Elvis, go! Those of use in the old-folks bleachers are cheering you on!

And when you finally reach the top in the most dignified fashion, Elvis, you must shout- ‘GET OFF MY LAWN!!’

The climb is long

With many a muscle burn

That leads him to wonder why

Who knows why?

But he’s strong

Strong enough to carry on

But he ain’t Haley*, we’ve discovered

So on he goes

His welfare is our concern

Can’t climb like Gent nor Yogi Bear

But he’ll get there

And I know

He would not admit to us

He’s so heavy, it scares his brothers

[*Colin Haley, acclaimed mountaineer]

(Bob Russell – He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother/The Hollies)

Come on, Elvis you can do this! Do it for all us senior cat wanna-bes out there.

Even so, Elvis made it. As Karen Carpenter sang:

Such a feelin’s comin’ over me

Climbing’s not as easy as it used to be

But I’m still gonna try, show I’m still young and spry

Just need a little stretch, and you will see!

…….

A bit more effort and you all will see

Climbing curtains is such fun for me!

And the reason, it’s true, it’s the thing cats all do

It’s like climbing up towards Heaven you can see

…….

I’m on the top of the world lookin’ down from the curtains

And the only explanation I can find

Is I just need to try, ‘cause I’m still quite young and spry

I love to climb to the top of the world!

I feel you, Elvis.. it still surprises me that I can’t sit on the floor cross-legged. Or get up without a freaking winch.. or hubs help :)

Revealing one of my (very) guilty pleasure movies – whenever I hear the word “spry,” I can’t help thinking of “Bad Santa.”

This strip if very appropriate for me, especially lately.

When I was young, I was consistently overweight. Then in my twenties I lost a lot of the weights and discovered the joy of working out and running. I would run multiple times a week and I kept it up through my twenties and thirties. My preferred distance was 10K. I would listen to my Walkman and just lose myself in the run.

I managed to gain all that weight back in my forties and in my fifties. Furthermore, I developed arthritis in my hands, arms, shoulders so I stopped my working out altogether. Then, as some of you may remember, I lost my job over a year and a half ago. During my sabbatical, I began to eat better and lose weight. I dropped over 60 pounds and felt great. I was able to get into clothes that I had not worn for two decades. Woo Hoo!

I would do long walks each day, at least 2.5 miles or more. Well, early last summer during one of those walks I broke into run. Just short distances at first, but by last November, I did a 10K run (6.3 miles), for the first time in over two decades. It was wonderful. I was not nearly as fast as I was, but it did not matter, I was doing this for me.

Then I tripped on a run in January.

The sidewalk I was on was uneven and I caught my toe and went straight down. Didn’t hurt anything much, but my pride and my knees got scraped up. Two weeks ago, I tripped again and this time, I hurt my arthritic arm, elbow, wrists, and I hurt my ribs on the right side (they still hurt today). Marie was furious with me.

When I run, I get into the Zone it’s just me and the music and I actually do my best writing after a good run. I don’t want to stop, but I sense entropy stalking me. I still feel young and spry after a run but one of these falls, I may break something. Marie would never let me hear the end of it if that happened.

Stretching the truth? Say it isn’t so!

Random thing:

Ah, but “Old age and trechary shall overcome youth and ambition”

This is why the only nice things we can have are our cats :)

why elvis why

Having had a houseful of kittens that did it with ease i can attest to the rapid drop off in this particular skill. Probably has to do with hanging around us humans too long.

We got a younger cat recently for our older cats, and we hadn’t realized how much they settled down

OT: I’ve been shot! 8-)

While I was reading this, a cat jumped to the top of the wardrobe. She can still do it, but just lately she seems unsure that she can.

Next he’ll describe himself as “Fit as a Fiddle”! :-)

Dignity is great! If someone is watching I walk fine, if no one watches I waddle.getting old is soooo much fun.

Curtain-climbing is a sport for the young and shout-tolerant.

I feel ya’, Elvis buddy, I feel ya’.

Tucker, who will soon turn 14, easily jumps onto the kitchen counter for his treats. Cindy, who is maybe a couple of years younger, can’t manage it. Which is why the treats are served on the counter (she terrorizes poor Tuck at ground level).

Apparently the curtain rod is sturdy.

When our previous male cat was old and his sister had passed away, we adopted a 12 year old female cat that our vet was boarding after her owner went to a nursing home. We thought “older cat, will be nice and sedate”.

Nope, she was as athletic as a one year old cat, possible because she was on steroids for a skin condition. When we took her out on harness and leash, she’d climb trees and go as far as the leash extended. We had to add a barrier to the top of our back yard fence so that she wouldn’t climb the posts and go trotting off down the row of backyard fences.

We only had her two years, because the steroids eventually had a bad effect on her (Cushings disease), but she was a cat in a million. I still remember the long walks she’d drag us on, all over the neighbourhood.

Our middle aged (and chubby) lady cat lets out an audible grunt when she jumps on the kitchen counter. Her younger, slimmer sister can stealth jump to the counter and I am surprised to turn around from the table and see her looking over my shoulder!

I feel ya elvis! ❤️

I so resemble Elvis that this is depressing.

mrowr?

OT:

Some time ago a I told you my husband was very ill. The love of my life passed away this morning at 5:30AM. My heart is broken. I haven’t been commenting very much since he took ill. My heart just wasn’t in it.

I used to have an older cat that I can imagine telling me at times that she was still young and spry, As she got older she had a harder time to get up on my bed. She could still get up there, but sometimes it took a few tries. I bought some nice steps that she could used to get up there, but I don’t think I ever saw her use them.

Face it Elvis, you’re old. But you’re only as old as you think you are, if you think at all.

Some days I fell I’m fifty years older than I really am, that actually used to be worse twenty years ago. Some days I feel twenty-five to thirty years younger, and I act it too by just being a goof ball. Most days I feel I’m as old as I am. And the aches and pains remind me of that. Better to be a goof ball.

Local cat in denial about passing of time and getting older.

I have a blanket hung as a curtain over my bedroom door. Sooti climbs it every so often. She is very athletic.

Never give up Elvis, don’t let reality get in your way.

Off topic:

As someone who just turned 65 I totally sympathize with Elvis.

The struggle is real for Elvis.

That Elvis is “young and spry” is a stretch in itself.

oh the indignity