Coffee Anyone?

Can I pour you a cup?

Cat Assessed

... and found wanting.

We failed at putting up blinds, making the tree stand up, screwing the tree base to a plywood board and - spectacularly and devastatingly - I failed at overseeing the electricians' cable installation last week. We caught the damage today. I can't even speak about let alone post but let's leave at there is a huge hole in one wall and a white wire running down the side of the red-brown house. They will be back to make it right next week. (Promised). My Handyman would never have dreamt... and I miss him more than I can say.

Head of design?

I am seriously re-thinking The Guy's role in the design/decor decision-making process. Yesterday I took him to look at the last of my selection of walnut beds.... and we came home with a table. The table is gorgeous, and of course it was on sale, but I swear that when I first suggested it eons and eons ago he rejected it out of hand - this weekend he has to have it. Meanwhile he's still holding fast to that upholstered bed. Who is this person and what has he done with my man?
No details on the table until it's delivered - which will probably be mid-week. Until then, how about a nice Fall photo?


Hermes, who cares not a whit for design, is on the fence.

Sad Kitty Needs a Home

Found in the hood of a car (just like Hermes) this adorable kitty cannot live with his rescuers (there's a no-animal policy in their apartment) and the local shelters are full of similar fluffy bundles. (Though obviously none are as cute as Sad Kitty).
We would foster him/her but we're already known as the crazy people who take a train of kitties out with them when they walk the dogs... and I've found there's a three cat happiness metric that we are already exceeding. I don't think it would be good to add an extra bundle of cuteness to the dynamic!
Look at those beseeching eyes... that expression that says "I just want to love and be loved".... Won't someone take Sad Kitty to his/her forever home?

Busted!

Those are not your toys, Hermes.

My Life with Cats

With two dogs and four cats it's a constant battle here to keep the animal fur at lower than ankle level. But occasionally, after the surfaces have been dusted, the floors swept or vacuumed and the beds changed, just for a little while it looks like a normal clean house. Yesterday was one of those days, fresh duvet on the bed, flowers in a vase, it looked pretty good. That lasted a few hours until I noticed that a cat (difficult to pin down just which one, but it wasn't Mr Cassis) had thrown up on the bedcover. I sighed, stripped off the cover, threw it in the machine and climbed into bed.
It wasn't until I got up this morning that I realised that the cat had also thrown up on the sheet. The one I'd been wrapped in all night. Luckily, it seemed pretty much contained on The Guy's side and he was away. But still. Yuk, yuk , bloody cats, yuk!

Jefke's Water Fixation

or why the sink is never clean...

Darning the Sofa

The sofa. Gorgeous pink 1968 sectional. Let's get in a little closer, shall we


The damage. This isn't the worst, I couldn't bring myself to show the internets the worst bits that I had to darn to keep the batting in place.




The culprits. Junior cats Maya (top) and Hermes. Butter wouldn't melt, right?

Buckets of cuteness

Maya and Hermes catching zzzzzs on the dog cushion in my office.

Hide and Seek

The kitten games continue

Playing Nice

Today's cute photo - Sadie and Cassis sharing a quiet moment.

Maya on a Pagoda

Looks cute but is actually perfectly positioned to snatch passing wildlife out of the bushes and the air.....
Note the not so attractive and possibly lethal rebar....

Dog dishing

Hey Sadie, how come we aren't allowed to run on the beach today?


Well, Polly there's a ton of slimey, green seaweed on the beach and you know it makes modernemama mad when we track it into the house. And when you smear it on the sofas.


So I guess we have to walk on leash. Just one question: How come the cats never have to wear a leash?

Pest Control Quadrupled

It's that time of the year when spring glides into summer; the days are long, the nights are warm and small furry creatures abound. In other words it's party-time for the cats. This is the first summer in a while that we have had four active, healthy adult cats and boy are we noticing it. Every morning and usually evening too, the doorstep looks like a butcher's slab. What would madam like today? A nice mouse head? Side of vole? Filleted chipmunk?
But today they outdid themselves. I don't know if it was individual offerings or team work but we have 1 (one) small grey mouse, 1 (one) vole, 2 (two) chipmunks on the kitchen terrace and lawn, plus 1 (one) black rat by the garage door and 1 (one) flattened squirrel by the front drive. I willing to concede even my cats couldn't have been responsible for the last corpse but they could have chased it to its demise under a truck.
How do I deal with this carnage? Denial that's how. The Guy is in Minnesota so the death will not exist until he returns home. I will enter and exit the house by uncontaminated paths. Hopefully I won't run out of unsullied methods of egress before then.
*No other pictures for the post. You all know what these animals look like and besides, let's respect the little corpses, OK?

Friday afternoon timewaster

More than you ever needed to know about cats...and engineers
Look for very important back-up kitchen appliance at about 1 minute 30 secs.


An Engineer's Guide to Cats

Things that go bump in the night

Last night we were fast asleep when Steven shook me and asked "Did you hear that?" "What?" Actually I was really asleep so it was probably more like "Whaa...zzz." "Those two thuds".
I hadn't heard anything and I wasn't about to wake up properly, thrown on clothes, go downstairs, find the source of the thuds, deal with potential burglars or any other catastrophe. So I let the man deal with it and went back to sleep.
A little while later (I have no idea how long, I was asleep), I was shaken awake again by the returning hero. "I found it" "Hmmm?" "The problem" "Hmmm" "Don't you want to know what it was?"
I knew I wasn't going to get back to sleep until he had told the whole story. And here, for your edification, is the tale of things that go bump in the night.
I made chicken and dumplings yesterday (new recipe that replaces the butter or suet with sour cream) but the dishwasher was full so we stacked the dirty plates on the countertop. The thuds were the two plates hitting the kitchen floor. Luckily the plates were 1970s Royal Doulton Marbella stoneware and the floor is vinyl, so they are intact. If we'd had ceramic tiles they would have shattered, and we've lost quite a few china plates on the vinyl over the years.
How had the plates ended up on the floor? Steven says they had been licked clean so I can only surmise that one or more of these felines was the culprit. They were found huddled under the kitchen table doing their best to look innocent.
The question is: How can we identify the guilty party(ies)?


This one is good at catching water. Would his paw skills be equal to the task?


This one had a definite guilty air about her.


And this one looks as if he's already in gaol. That's where all three are headed if they don't cut out the nocturnal shenanigans.


One thing we can be sure about is that this cat is innocent. That's because he thinks he's a dog and he was with his doggy buddies far from the scene of the crime.
The other thing is that once Steven had reported his tale of valiant endeavours to me he fell straight back to sleep while I tossed and turned for a couple of hours. Quelle surprise!

No eBay, but some Ikea

To ease the pain of the eBay boycott I made another purchase at Ikea instead. A pink Stockholm throw to cover the scratch marks on the Harvey Probber sofa in the Great Room.


It's mostly mohair and extremely soft, which unfortunately, makes it irresistble to the cats. At least it cost a reasonable $29.99 rather than the $100+ that these things can sell for, so if it gets ruined I won't be too upset with them.

While I was busy.......

making Stollen someone else, or rather some kitty, was busy too.


Maya got locked in the powder room and had to do something to occupy the time.


Of course now she's tired out.


She's napping with her brother, who for once, was not part of the cat chaos.

Détente

It may be my imagination but I've always thought snow makes people nicer - everyone just seems happier when the ground is white. And now some empirical evidence, of the feline variety at least.
Poor Hermes, the colourpoint, has been trying to get Cassis to love him since he arrived. But Cassis is top cat and won't let the other kitties come within a whisker's breadth. Until now.
Maybe it's just protection against the winter chill, but I like to think it's the "snow effect" that's got them to cease hostilities and cuddle up close.

Wake up call

Hermes managed to sneak in the bedroom and woke me up at 4 AM by peeing on me.
Seriously.
I am actively re-considering my position as a cat lover or at least a lover of highly-strung Colorpoint cats.
On the other hand this made me laugh.



Baseball bat or pee, what's your choice for an early morning wake-up call?