Fall Is Here

The temperatures have taken a nose dive the past few days. It’s been cold in the house when we wake up. I turned on the furnace over weekend. Norma slept next to my side under the covers the entire night. Diego-San slept right by my side most nights of his life. He’d start out under the covers but after a few minutes he’d crawl out and take his place next to me with his face in my neck and shoulder.

Norma likes to stretch out under the covers so she is full length next to me. I enjoy that quite a bit.
 

They Sometimes, Somehow Know

I’ve been telling Norma and Alias all summer how much I miss our naps together. I don’t think they’ve slept on me since we lost Theo. So I was glad today when Alias took his familiar place on my legs and Norma her familiar place by my feet. We took a long nap and Kenta eventually joined as well.
 

Foodie

Norma is eating better. She snarfs down her wet food even faster than Kenta, which is amazing. When she mostly finishes her dry food, she’ll hop up on the couch where the extra food is and eat some of that too. She isn’t skipping as many meals. 
 

Love

Kenta has taught me a lot about loving the life we have. He enthusiastically enjoys his entire day from meals and naps, to playing with toys and shadowing Alias around the house. He loves sitting in windows and in the sun. He loves life and it’s contagious.
 

Meow

Last night was ‘Bark at the Park’ night where fans could bring their dogs to the Twins game. I didn’t go but I told Alias if he ever wants to go to a ballgame with me, I’ll try to make it happen. I don’t think he was too interested.
 

Peace

Norma looks so peaceful when she’s napping. I guess her dreams are less anxiety inducing than her life.
 

So Good

I came home over the weekend and I found Kenta sleeping in the window. It’s always a great thing to come home to.
 

Synchronized Lip Smacking

 Whatever Alias replaced in the box was obviously lip smacking good.

Stay Home, Dad

As I’m getting dressed for work, Alias starts to bellow and roll over on his back. I know exactly what this means… he is demanding a belly rub. I accommodate him. But when I sit down to put on my socks, he’ll jump up into my lap and demand a scrunched up belly rub. He sure is making it hard to go to work (literally).
 

Same Tree Different Positions

This is Kenta’s favorite cat tree in the house. It also was Thompson’s favorite cat tree in the house. I can tell you I never saw Thompson sit in the tree like this even once.
 

Support Sister

Alias skipped his breakfast yesterday. I don’t remember him ever skipping a meal before. He otherwise acted normal but I told Norma I was worried about her brother. She took care of him and he ate his other meals.
 

Ring Around the Rosie

Commiserating about the night’s ’nip session.
 

Non Emergency

 

I lost my car key. I don’t need it immediately since I can walk to work and I have a scooter to run errands. But come winter time I’m gonna need my car. I’m convinced one of my housemates hid it from me because they realize they haven’t been to the vet this year and want to keep it that way.

Satisfying Experience

I started volunteering with Feline Rescue, the shelter I adopted Thompson, Diego-San, and Theo from. I don’t work at the shelter itself but help match up adopters with cats in foster homes. I helped with my first adoption yesterday, two kittens from the same litter, Scheana and Jax find their forever home. I’m going to enjoy talking with people about cats. 
 

Our Time/His Time

Alias spends a lot of his day in the same room with me. He carves out alone times: snuggling before I get out of bed; at least once a day lap time; and at least a couple of times of day rolling on his back begging for a tummy rub. I’m very fond of Alias.

 

Gratitude

I think Norma has had the hardest time dealing with me not being home all the time as I took a job requiring me to be away 40 hours a week. She’s definitely spending more time with me. And I like that.
 

Nice Time

Kenta and I took a long nap together Sunday afternoon. Cheek to cheek with him stretched down to my thighs. It felt nice and we hadn’t done that in forever. 
 

Buzzed

Alias just rolled around in some fresh nip. He’s watching his sister go nuts from her intake.
 

Gotcha

Yes, Kenta it worked. You got me to look up.
 

Content

Norma enjoys a sunbath nap as much as anyone.
 

Get Back

Alias photobombed another Kenta irresistible blog picture. Maybe Alias’ way to get back for all the nightly fetch complications. I’ll report back.
 

Big Talker

Alias is our talker. He always comes upstairs after dinner and howls at me. I respond back and his talk grows quieter. We do this exchange several times. I enjoy our ‘conversations.’
 

Getting It Out of Her System

Every day, Norma has an energy attack where she’ll attack a rug and roll herself up in it. Sometimes she’ll find a toy she can stab with a claw and throw it around. We always know when this is going to happen because Norma announces it with her high pitch squeal. Norma being Norma.
 

Beautiful View

Kenta has the entire world in front of him.
 

Finicky

Norma is the first cat I’ve known who leaves food in her dish every meal. And she sometimes skips meals altogether. She’s not food obsessed like her brothers or those that preceded her in our house. 
 

Coordinated

 

Synchronized snoozing.

Paralyzed

Kenta is afraid to move because there is a big snake on him.
 

Mousie

I feel bad for Alias. He loves to play fetch with his toy mouse. He loves to play so much often my arm tires out from throwing the mouse before Alias tires out. 

Unfortnately, recently we’ve had to cut the activity short as Kenta grabs the mouse before Alias can retrieve it or Kenta will grab the mouse right out of Alias’ mouth. 

I praise Alias when we play fetch (“good boy!” what a great mouse fetcher!”), I think either Kenta gets jealous of his brother getting the highest praise or he’s just looking for a way to join in all the fun.

Trying to Be Hidden

Norma seems surprised I was able to find her in there.
 

Extreme Close Up

Well, hello there Kenta…
 

Private Meeting

A house meeting was called. I wasn’t invited. 
 

Together Through Life

Another weekend of excessive heat. It was a good weekend to take things easy. And we all did.
 

People Watching

Kenta loves to sit in the living room picture window and watch people and their dogs walk the boulevard sidewalk in front of our house. Sometimes people stop and admire him too.
 

Not Willing to Share

It rained really hard yesterday. I told Norma and Alias that it was raining cats and dogs. They were OK with that as long as the extra cats didn’t impact the amount of food they get fed every day.
 

Investigators

They somehow knew there was a box of cat food inside the bigger box.
 

The Bird

I think Kenta is trying to give me the middle finger.
 

Finch

For the past year I’ve been using the app Finch, a self care app where I help a bird learn about life and she in return helps me practice mindfulness. One of the daily goals is to ‘do one thing you enjoy.’ That’s easy to cross off the list. Every morning after the alarm goes off, Alias hops up onto my bed to snuggle next to me and get a belly rub. I think maybe he checks the same thing off his list.
 

Concerned

Kenta had me worried the past couple of days. Tuesday evening he skipped a meal. This was a first for one who spends his entire day food obsessed. Instead of eating he rolled on his back as I rubbed his tummy as he purred away. But he had no interest in eating. He did eat later in the evening but I had to coerce him into doing so. And I fed him some treats afterward but he didn’t eat them.

Wednesday he dawdled at all his meals. And instead of relaxing in his usual spots, he lay on the kitchen floor just about all evening something he’s never done. He seemed to be moving gingerly up and down the stairs (where usually he tears down them at lightning speed). He was also being a lot more vocal than normal.

Given my financial situation I couldn’t comfortably bring him to the vet to have him looked at let alone having some major procedure need to be done to deal with whatever was ailing him. Yesterday he clearly was feeling better. He ate his food closer to his usual woofing it down like there are no more meals coming. And he joined me in the living room before I was leaving for work which has become our norm. When I got home I saw him sitting in his favorite window. 

He ran down the stairs with his normal forceful speed and he woofed down his meals. Afterward he chased Norma up and down stairs. I hope whatever it was has gone away for good.

Our Model

We have a celebrity among us. Kenta is Mr. April.
 

Smart Gal

I keep telling Norma how smart she is. She knows that when I get up from my desk and it’s time for a meal, she better hop up somewhere high to avoid getting run over by her linebacker barreling brothers racing down the stairs. 
 

Warmth

It’s hot outside. And I spend most of my time upstairs where it is a little warm. Kenta loves to sit in the sunshine nonetheless. Even with his impressive fur coat.
 

Edgy

Norma likes to live life on the edge. She’s daringly doing so with three legs.
 

Comfy Box

Kenta saw Alias sitting in this box so he had to try it out too. He has learned lots from his brother.
 

Fun With AI

I'm not a big fan of AI. We don't need more tools to make it difficult to discern what is real and what is not. But I was playing around with it yesterday and created these pix. Not as good as the real thing but I got a kick out of the AI created images. I did learn one thing though... I also created AI images of Diego-san and Theo but AI couldn't figure out how to create an image of Thompson. It didn't know how to make a three legged cat no matter what instructions I gave it. Proves Thompson was too special for something without a heart to understand.

The Box that Isn’t Whole

Alias wants me to know that his box has a hole in it.
 

Memories

I’ve been blogging about my housemates since 2006. The blog began after the music store newsletter columnist job I had for 14 years came to an end. That gig kept me writing every week so I started the blog to force myself to continue to write. It also was a way to retain some of the better pictures I had of my housemates. I didn’t even know other cats blogs existed and I certainly didn’t expect anyone to find mine let alone read it. But out of nowhere a woman, Shelley, who had an orange tabby, Kellie, started leaving comments on this blog. She had just started a blog about Kellie and that’s how I learned about the wacky world of cat blogs. I’ve seen many cats and their humans come and go over the past 19 years and am grateful to those who have left a comment or two on our blog. Sadly Shelley passed away a few years ago reuniting with Kellie who passed away a few years before that.

 

Our blog began the year after Theo joined Thompson, Diego-san and me to complete our home. Over the weekend I re-read the July 4 posts from over the years. I rarely go back and  read past posts. Randomly, Theo was featured in many 4th of July posts including this one, that made me laugh. Theo being Theo. It was nice seeing a healthy Thompson (he lost so much weight during his final years) and an energetic Diego-san who really slowed down in his final years. I’m glad I was able to capture one of their famous race down the stairs to get fed breakfast. That was a daily event for so many years.