Spike Getting Ready to Poach a Sleeping Spot

Spike in action:

And this is how it starts!  On the cream leather chair, Spike will silently appear at the side of the sleeping "victim" and will usually begin the process of removing said victim by a soft lick somewhere near the neck. That is usually enough to elicit the opening of one sleepy eye.  This is quickly followed up by a paw poke by Spike - which will typically dislodge the existing occupant, leaving a nicely warmed up sleeping spot.

When Spike wants the cat bed on the coffee table emptied for his use, he simply starts with a paw poke, followed by another..and then another..until the spot is his.

Welcome Cat at the Nursing Home

My dad is temporarily in respite care at a nursing home and on our first visit we saw this sweet "welcome" cat.  Dusty, who appears to be of Himalayan ancestry, often sits right by the front door. She wanders through the halls, sometimes popping into one of the resident rooms. My dad, unfortunately, is a confirmed dog lover, with no interest in cats, and doesn't see the same appeal I do in a friendly, cuddly cat.  My mother is the true cat lover in our family and will tolerate a dog now and then.  I, as readers know by now, love both cats and dogs!

Spike and Sadie getting used to the idea of sharing

When we bought a new leather chair from Ikea a few months ago (after the pup savaged our old chair) Sadie was quick to claim it as her own. I bought a nice red pillow with cream stitching and as soon as it was on the chair, Sadie pulled at it until it flipped over and then she curled on top of the cushion.  I guess the cream embroidery stitching must have been uncomfortable. Yesterday Spike did something very unusual and sat beside Sadie.  His normal approach is to poke at the occupant until the space is empty and then he takes over (see photo below!).  This time he squeezed in beside Sadie and sat there for almost half an hour.  Sadie must have been fast asleep because she didn't even stir when Spike claimed half of the cushion for himself.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all of our friends ...and especially those of you who take the time to read my sporadic and sometimes brief postings. My resolution for 2014...post more often! Given the more laid back attitude of our cats these days (AKA constantly sleeping) there probably will be some repetitive poses here..but we'll try and capture some more active pics.  And being an equal-opportunity pet owner, there may be the occasional glimpse of a Sheltie or two!

Sadie enforcing a work break

As you know by now, Sadie chooses the oddest places to curl up in.  I have been busy working on my laptop most evenings and typically just pop it down in my chair when I go to get a coffee refill.  I was out of the living room for less than 5 minutes and when I came back I found Sadie curled just behind my laptop, already fast asleep.  I expect the residual heat at the back of the laptop may have provided some of the appeal..but really did not look like a comfortable sleeping spot. She was not happy when I went to pick her up...giving me a baleful glare, with one eye still partially closed.  She lets her body go limp and just hangs there when I haul her over to another more suitable place to sleep.  But. of course, the relocation is not what she wants, so she quickly scurries off to find another place of her choosing.

The ham-micks are here!

For several years I have noticed cat hammocks showing up in many of the blogs I have visited.  Not knowing much about these to begin with, I checked a few pet stores here to see if they had any of this unusual style of cat bed.  As you have probably seen from earlier posts, we have a bad habit of buying all sorts of cat and dog beds then scattering them around the house.  In fact, right now, we have two dog beds stacked up in the corner of the bedroom since no one (dog or cat) seems to want to seep on these. They are more interested in the latest style was have picked up from Costco (rectangular with high sides and plushy insides). On occasion I have had to remove a cat from those beds so a dog could get in.

So..the other day when a post came in from Zoolatry referring to the ham-micks at Forty Paws I remembered that I was so fascinated that the cats in the ham-mick photos looked so comfortable...and after a quick email to find out that these could be shipped to Canada, the next step was picking out the patterns. One which included white cats...that was easy.  It took me some time to settle on the second choice...there are many appealing patterns and I keep going back and forth between a couple of them until I finally decided on a similar pattern to my first choice.  In retrospect it really didn't matter what I chose since our cats would cover almost every single square inch once they stretch out!.

Spike welcomed the package as it came in the door ...and was even more excited when he found the special catnip treat inside!  He laid claim to one of the ham-micks quite quickly and was not going to rousted by anyone, including a curious dog.  Even wary Sebastian ventured into the living room to get a quick sniff of the new ham-micks.

After the first day, we moved one bed to the corner of our bedroom and now Sadie regularly comes in to sleep on it whenever she feels like it is time for a break away from the cats downstairs. The other is in a spare room and has a rotating schedule of cats...most often Sebastian.

Thank you, Forty Paws!  http://fortypawshammicks.blogspot.ca/

And the animals came in two by two ....

Wide awake..and the dogs come to visit.

Trying to sleep..and the cats come quickly to cuddle up and sleep as well. Angel (at top) was quite annoyed to see Sadie in the prime spot and he crawled over me several times until I finally gave him an arm to snuggle into.