Angel is looking for the limelight

This morning I was woken up by a raspy tongue on my nose...Angel's trademark wake call when I am not paying him the attention he feels he deserves. He is the elder in the household and has had many changes in his life here as more animals come into his life. For a cat that spent his first 5 years with his previous owner as a "single" cat he has adjusted well to the changes here. We have recently brought in two more rescue woofies into the household (the Ark doors are now closed!) and Angel has accepted the presence of these with barely a wary look. The three woofies sleep in our room at night in various spots on the carpet and Angel bravely walks by these in order to come sleep on the bed (his place is at the end of the bed, well established over the past years that he has been here). A woofie or two (or three) will not deter him from a comfortable night's sleep.

One of his favorite places to observe the world at large is on the back of one of our chairs in the living room (just a quick jump away from his favorite green cat bed on seat of this chair).

Coffee Table - reserved seating for one

This is a small coffee table we bought several years ago to keep in the family room. Hubby was in the midst of moving this from the family room to the guest bedroom and had put it down for a few minutes in the living room. It didn't take Spike long to find a new spot to test out and as you can see his large body is hanging off both sides.

I thought this would be an appropriate photo to accompany the new banner above. Ann at Zoolatry has captured the personalities of our cats and designed a beautiful banner for Our Furry Boys. For those of you who can identify each cat with a single glance, you will notice that Ann has put Sadie on the far right to follow the "3 white furry boys and now a girl" sub titling. In her email Ann referred to making the banner "a little wider than it might need to be"...which I think aptly describes Spike in this photo!

Peace at last

Hubby went upstairs to take a nap the other day...and found a furry boy all curled up on the bed. Not unusual if it was Angel or Spike..but we don't often see Sebastian here. The woofie sleeps on the floor at the foot of the bed at night so that is usually a deterrent to Sebastian. He does venture in when he thinks he will be there by himself..but he usually sleeps very lightly, with one eye ready to open at the slightest sound or smell of the woofie. This is an unusual pose and we were lucky to get it on camera. He must have felt relaxed enough to curl up and not worry about any unwelcome woofies!

Speaking of relaxed kitties..we couldn't resist taking this photo at one of the local animal rescue shelters. Along with all of the cats and dogs looking for a good home, this shelter also operates a retail shop and there are a few resident kitties who have earned the right to walk around the store at will. We were checking through the cat trees that were up for sale and laughed when we saw what was curled up inside this one. If you look carefully you will see this sweet tabby has her left paw tucked underneath her chin. That is actually her quite large tummy you see there - she is lying on her side with her underside in full view. I had just mentioned to hubby that the sleeping ledges would be too small for our Spike..and then we saw a cat rivalling his size, all tucked away inside this small sleeping space. (I should say "stuffed" into the space since she just barely fits in!)

Now that is a big cat cage!

The intrepid and fearless Spike decided it was time to conquer a new frontier - the woofie's travelling cage. We had taken it out of the car when I had to head out West to pick up older son from college (along with a full load of assorted household articles) and the cage had been sitting in the living room for a few days. We had placed the blue blanket on top since we didn't want any of the cats to jump up and get a paw or two caught in the slats. For the first few days there was an occasional sniff from one of the cats as they walked by but no real interest. Then one day we found Spike pulling at the partially open cage door and then climbing inside to check it out. He settled in for several minutes, looking totally comfortable on the woofie's blanket. Then he decided enough was enough, walked out and then jumped on top of the cage to fall blissfully asleep (likely dreaming of continued world domination, Spike style!)

We 3 Kings...enjoying spring

This is an unusual photo...and the smell of newly arrived spring must have been enough for these boys to put their differences aside and share the counter. Usually it is one boy at a time, face pressed close again the screen in the window, drinking in the fresh air and occasionally drooling over the sight of a squirrel running along the fence. Sebastian was the first at the scene (as always) when the window was opened..and then Angel snuck up along the left side, carefully skirting the sink full of dishes. Spike's good sniffer helped alert him to the open window and he ambled in from the living room. Once he was on the counter we knew it was just a matter of time before the other two boys would take off so hubby snapped a quick photo before the mass exodus.

It is Ladies Night

Sadie loves to curl up on a nice warm lap in between naps in her cat bed. She usually prefers to sit on younger son or hubby but a couple of times she has decided to sit with me for a few minutes. I had just put my laptop down the other day and I saw her looking at me from her cat bed (it sits on a file box right beside the laptop stand). She climbed out and slowly ambled over to sit on my leg, honoring me with her presence for about ten minutes.

This is one of my favorite photos of Sadie. The quality is not great, since we grabbed younger son's camera phone for a quick shot. She has stretched out on younger son and looks totally comfortable. She stayed this way for quite some time, purring happily.

When I saw Sadie stretched out, it made me think of some of the earlier Schmoo cartoons. You might remember that her original name was Schmoo and then we changed it to Sadie, in honor of the independent woman in the same Lil Abner cartoon. My son, being of a younger generation, has no memory of the Schmoo so I thought I'd show him one of the happy creatures!

Tasty Dish Outside

Spike has become quite a large cat over the past few years...he is one of the first to the counter at feeding time and often we find him hunched over the dry food bowl, a large paw on either side, and a crunching sound as he works his way through his snack. I'll put a little treat down for one cat and Spike will simply push his way through to the treat, regardless of which cat gets shouldered out of the way. So food is one of the key attractions for our big boy..and you can see he is already looking outside to see what could be next on his menu!