Here are some pictures of Molly (middle name: Cule - I'm a scientist, what do you expect?).

I first met Molly (middle name: Cule) on 2009 Apr 02. The green eyes picture was 2009 May 8. The circle picture was 2011 Dec 05.

2021 March 19 5:27 AM Molly, the bean bag position artist, has lymphoma and is dying.

2021 March 23 6:58 PM Collaborative shape art. I made the tail groove. Molly filled it.

2021 March 27 7:33 AM

dark salt carpet spot
the purring is done for now
hover drink hover

2021 March 30 5:09 PM Molly finally liked sitting in this box on the balcony.

2021 March 30 5:10 PM (empty bean bag)

Songs for Molly

• Better Now - Philip D. Zach
• Moon - Kid Francescoli
• The Decemberists - Traveling On
• Si Senorita - Chris Haugen
• A day to remember - Bensound
• Hushed Lanterns

More about Molly

She was on the second floor when I went to work one day. She was still there when I came back. So I asked her to follow me around to other buildings and she didn't recognize any. At one point a woman came out and noticed how thin she was. She brought some food. So Molly adopted me. After naming her Molly, a few days later I realized her middle name was Cule. (Hint: I'm a scientist!) I don't know what breed she was, though the vet labeled her a short hair domestic. I like cats but wasn't going to get one because of possible allergies. Surprisingly I did not react to her!

2009 Aug 13

I would throw balls and she would chase them. Somehow she was controlling them until she lost control and I could not understand how. I finally took a video of her coming towards me while controlling the ball and slowed down the action. She would hit the ball with one front paw, put that paw down, hit the ball with the other paw - all while running around at high speed. She was doing soccer moves!

2010 May 19

Molly loved to eat broccoli and baby spinach leaves. She refused to eat these from the floor or a bowl. I had to hold them while she nibbled them, just as a cat would eat grass.

2013 August 26. Three baby rabbits, a mouse and even a bat! These are the sad catches of Quick Molly, my cat, in the last two weeks. No collar will she wear, she removed every one. Fancy collar radio tracking devices got wet in her water bowl and then failed when she took the collar off so I never even found the device again. I tell her "bad cat" (she knows what "good cat" means) and she looks guilty. Then she goes out and tries EVER HARDER to please me with another ... baby rabbit at the doorstep this evening. Still alive. Captured, put in box. No interest in a bit of baby organic (no less for guests!) spinach. How about a bit of carrot? No. Open door, throw full glass of water on cat who runs off ... Come back in, rabbit got startled by my rustling some paper (to make a nest for it) - ok, it JUMPED OUT! Oh no, shades of rabbit cam! Don't go under the book case there!!! Chased her into the kitchen, rabbit scrambling around on linoleum ... blockaded the entrance with the box, rabbit tries to escape, overturn cat water, water all over floor, CAUGHT you. Ok, into box, LID ON. *WHEW*. Go out. No cat. Go down stairs. There's an unhappy WET CAT. Cat meows puzzled. Pick cat up. Hiss! Oh. Purr? Bring cat back inside. Wipe down cat with towel, cat purrs, not feeling abandoned anymore. Put cat outside on balcony. Get dressed. Flashlight. Walk out with rabbit in box. Where to leave her? Beyond Menacing Molly's normal range ... 10 minute walk north, over the bridge over the creek into the park. Open box, slide rabbit out who is pretending to be or is dead? No! She sees the cover next to the box and SPROING is gone.

So here's the problem my friends. $100 already spent on collars with bells ... If I say "good cat" when she catches local fauna ... I encourage her. If I say "bad cat" she thinks "He is upset at me, let me catch another to please him!" Is there a way to win this game?

Eventually I learned that the best way to get Molly to do things was positive reinforcement. We also worked out communication. When she didn't like something she would raise her paw. By the end she would only need to raise it a cm and I would stop whatever she didn't want.

Molly didn't like to be picked up but would tolerate it when I did. (There would be times I would have to pick her up so I did it once in awhile.) However, once picked up she would purr and loved to inspect things from this unusual vantage point ... until she would decide that was enough and indicate she wanted to go down. So I would let her down. I think that many people don't listen to what their cats want and that makes for mean cats. Molly was somewhat mean at the beginning, I think because she was mistreated and abandoned (she immediately knew what the litter box was so I think she was with people originally). Over time Molly became the sweetest thing because she and I could communicate. Her sitting on a certain cat scratch pad meant she wanted a head ear scratch. Her sitting on the towel I put on the kitchen floor (to catch food that would stick to my feet otherwise) meant she wanted a floor hug.

2021 April 10 at 12:22AM This is the last version of Molly's fort before I had to disassemble it yesterday to let the technician access my cable. The red lines are the paths she could follow inside.