Sleep stages in Spike's morning

This Louis 14th reproduction chair has been sitting untouched in the dining room for a few weeks. None of the cats had any interest in sitting on the shiny satin surface of the seat ... which, in retrospect, was probably a good situation to maintain at the time! Papabear felt sorry for the cats so brought out a nice soft blanket for them to sit on. By the end of the first day, Spike had claimed the chair for himself. No time sharing here! It has been a couple of weeks now and Spike is still lord and master of the chair. These 5 sequential shots show a few hours in the typical life of Spike.

visit with a fur..riend

We had a nice visit with a friend last night..and her kitty. This little one came from our local Humane Society and has been settling in to her new home over the past few months. We heard a little more about her history last night....always sad to hear how these sweeties wind up at the Humane Society. Apparently someone was driving by a travel agency, stopped, quickly dropped two kitties at the front door and then drove off right away. My friend said it was clear that her kitty had been a house pet at some time since she knew all about the use of a cat toilet and she did not jump up on the furniture until she was invited. Miss Kitty (her most recent name) is a loving little furball that purrs up a storm when scratched under the chin.

PS We are attempting to see what books are of interest to our furry boys..with an eye to helping them snooze off peacefully. Over the next week, we hope to post a few photos of favorite books (mamabear's favorites) to gauge our felines' reaction to their bedtime reading. So far results have been dismal at best..one book, two cats...and a quick exit at the sound of the book opening!

Spike's Reading List

Spike has his reading material out for the summer ...and is taking a rest after compiling all his favorite books. Actually I think he has an ulterior motive - he has his nice warm behind firmly settled on the "Encyclopedia of the Dog" and is perhaps telling us exactly what he thinks of that book!

Since the blinds are closed he unfortunately does not have that prime view of birds and squirrels that is tantalizingly close. The bottom sections of the windows do not have blinds so he has to jump down behind the leather chairs to see what is going on. Today he is more interested in what is going on inside the house - especially if there is a treat ready to be pounced on.

Time Share part 2

Ever since we watched the TV special about cats time sharing certain areas of the house we have been on the watch to see how many pairs we can put together (a bit like that old card game where you have to collect matching pairs of card - my girls played that when they were young but I can't remember the name of it). This is the second shared space we have been able to capture on film. This time it is the chair by the front door which Angel has claimed as his own. Imagine his surprise to find Spike stretched out in full glory, without a care in the world. As you can see we have to cover the chair with a cat blanket, otherwise we will find ourselves with a mismatched white seat on a green chair!

Hmmm...this doesn't look like dinner

Spike had a somewhat annoyed look on his face as he gazed into the bowl of pears. He jumped on the coffee table to get a better view of the contents of the bowl and did not seem impressed.

He will continually sniff at everything in the house, even if it isn't new. The little puffs of fur that you see on each side of his face move along with his nostrils when he is in the process of checking out what smells interesting.

Even for a cat with an incredibly good sense of smell, this bowl of pears is most disappointing since they are actually papier mache. This is pretty much the same look as the little girl visiting our house had last week when she realized they weren't real!

Let us out!!

Our cats have been inside cats since they joined our family. For many reasons they are safer in the house but that doesn't stop them from looking for any opportunity to enjoy the fresh air. Angel is always the quickest to the front door. If we leave it open just a crack when we are taking in groceries, he jumps onto the table by the door and pops his head out to see what is going. (I am still trying to figure out why we put a table by the door in the first place. It really doesn't serve any purpose other than to temporarily hold a shopping bag or two on their way back to the car - but more often than not it holds a little furry body in wait for the door to open.)

This time I sent Papabear out quickly to get a photo for the blog. Just as he was lining up the shot, another furry body came into view. Spike's incredibly good sense of smell must have woken him up from his slumber on the couch and he decided he should check out what was going on.

My Jeans

Such a look of innocence while curled up on a pair of jeans on the coffee table. Spike rarely sits on the coffee table but yesterday we came in to find him purring away, rubbing his face against a pair of little boy jeans left on the table. He did not want to leave the coffee table, instead curling up beside the jeans after he had finished checking them out at close range with his nose. One would almost think that we had washed these in catnip!

Why do the good ones get away?

By good ones...I mean good photo opportunities. Over the past week we have seen several potential shots for the blog and as soon as one of us headed for the camera, the cat (or cats) quickly scattered! We have a large ficus tree that has just been relocated by the front door, just behind a chair. A couple of days ago, Spike was stretched up on the back of the chair, trying to hook one of the smaller branches with his big paw, while Angel sat comfortably on the seat of the chair. I haven't even finished telling Papa Bear he should go get the camera, when Spike realized he was being observed and he jumped down quickly, knowing he wasn't supposed to be anywhere close to the tree. (The tree is generally off limits to our cats since they like to chow down on a leaf or two and then leave it for us in a slightly different form somewhere else in the house!)

The second potential shot was a somewhat tense Angel perched on a narrow wooden ledge with Sebastian balancing carefully just behind him (almost the reverse of the shot of the two of them on the window).

And then...my favorite pose..which I have only see once before. Spike, on the small bookcase by the kitchen counter, just getting ready to step up...and Sebastian (AKA "scaredy cat") on the counter on his way down...and a brief nose sniffing by each without a hiss on Sebastian's part. The latter is very surprising because Sebastian has a very wide personal space...and quickly lets both the other cats and the woofie know that he does not like any breaches of this space (spoken in "hiss" language).

We'll keep our eyes open to see if we can find a suitable photo to post this week...after all, we don't want to miss sailing with the other cats on the Friday Ark!

Sebastian time sharing the window seat

A couple of weeks ago we saw a documentary about cats and dogs - and found out that cats will "time share" a location. Apparently one cat might decide to sleep in a specific place early in the day and then another cat might decide that every afternoon will be spent in that same place. Although it is difficult to spot the difference between Sebastian and Angel at 10 paces, especially if their eyes are closed, a closer look at the missing fur (frostbite from prior life on street) showed us that this was Sebastian. If you look back to the earlier photo of Spike in this same bed, you will see he covers much more of the bed!