Daily Caturday

Angie (blue tuxedo, a grey and white optimized for urban living) is still wearing her collar. Why? Because she keeps reopening her wound. So now she has to wear it until there is zero trace of anything that can be reopened (no, seriously, she was down to a mosquito bite sized pink skin area, and she gave herself another dime wide horror stigmata 😭). She isn’t thrilled. But at least I brought her her favorite hot dog toy to lounge with from the basement.

“The atrocities persist, but so do I”, Caturday Edition.

Nick (grey tabby) loves boxes. It doesn’t matter which kind. With spring approaching, the one kid who wants to be a gardener decided to bring out his grow pods collection, but it sat on the dining room table long enough for the box to be claimed. I like to imagine that if we planted Nick in soil for real, a flower might actually sprout on top of his head. 🤣

Planting a cat, Mardi Gras Edition.

Between this, and the related article about a cat named Leonardo da Pinchi, this absolutely made my day! ❤️

Angie (grey and white tabby) is still scratching her wound. This has earned her a donut collar + regular collar to keep it in place. She is none too pleased by this development.

The donut collar.

Ashley (ticked tabby) has never seen me up and about before 7 AM. She found it so alarming that she stared at me like this for a full five minutes. I presume she wanted to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating. 🤣

Monorail concerns Sunday

Nick (grey tabby) explores one of his humans’ potato harvest. My child decided to start growing potatoes last spring, among other stuff (pumpkins, onions). He was telling me this morning that he wasn’t sure when he was supposed to harvest his potatoes. Me: “In winter, dude. Potatoes are a winter crop, remember?” Him: “Wait. It’s winter now.” So he spent the afternoon digging potatoes out of his large container plot in our front yard. When he came back in, showing me his yield, Nick had to supervise. This, of course, reminded me of his earlier adventure this week of being turned into a babuskat. I hope his little babuska heart is jumping for joy at the prospect of enough vodka in the future (old childhood joke).

Potato Harvest Saturday.

A grey tabby is wearing a bandanna, babushka style. He looks very unhappy. Thus is what happens when your cat loves your tween, and your tween takes advantage of that loyalty. I told tween to expect retaliation inside his shoes soon.

Going too far Sunday.

“I missed you. … but I am sleepy. Did I mention I missed you? You’re my second best pillow, after all.” Nick (grey tabby) tries not to fall asleep just in case I go on vacation again.

Mixed messages Thursday

Silver lining of her medical quarantine is that we’re spending lots of one on one time with her, which has made her more “talkative” than usual.

Them damned birds, Tuesday edition

Kitty is okay, just sad and confused. We are keeping her as much company as we can. 🥰🥰

Convalescence edition Friday

Two kitties taking a snooze on a couch, together. The orange tabby doesn’t have a white belly. He was just extremely anxious, which manifested as over grooming his belly raw. This was taken circa 2018, right after he went on Prozac. His belly eventually healed enough that he regrew a thinner layer of fur there. His grey companion, Gracie, was his everything. BFF (best feline friend), sister, mother, comfy pillow. They took the most epic snoozes. Everyone should have a Gracie in their life at least once.

Bonus Goodwill on Earth, and all that Jazz. Vintage edition.

We’re on a holiday, so the cats are being looked after by their sitter. Here are some highlights: Ashley (ticked tabby) giving her best “I haven’t made up my mind about you” game face. Ash is usually slow to warm up.

On holiday, but the cats are staying home with a cat sitter. Here are some highlights: Nick (grey tabby) does his default “What? Whatever it is, I didn’t do it!” bit.

On holiday, but the cats are staying home with a cat sitter. Here are some highlights: Angie (grey and white tabby, aka blue tuxedo) gives her best “In need of emergency cuddles” look. Angie has become much cuddlier since Nick came to live with us. I suspect they actively see human attention as a zero sum game. 😂

On holiday, but the cats are staying home with a cat sitter. Here are some highlights: Nick (Grey tabby): “Ummmm, some privacy please?” Ashley (ticked tabby): “Dude, it’s not like she’s taking a photo of you licking my butt, chill!” (That is it, there’s a 4 photo limit on BS posts)

Not in the same time zone, Holiday Hiatus.

“Gibe poor bebe all the fishies!”

A ticked tabby looks a little put off and confused. The lady hiding behind the turquoise blanket just positioned her phone nearby. Nick (not pictured) and Ashley (pictured here) happen to be hyperaware of being photographed, much more so than our third resident feline, or the previous cats of the house. But whereas Nick always looks at the camera and hams it ip, Ashley is perpetually acting like the camera is a snake just barely out of view. “If I sit very still near it, it will go away. It will go away… it will go away… it will go away…”.

“She’s taking my photo right now, isn’t she?”

Surveillance, Sunday edition.

Caturday, Détente Edition.

My cats are more interesting when the camera isn’t on.

A grey tabby sits on top of a weighed kick bag, directly in the line of sight fir the TV. Nick: “Nevermind the new The Pitt Season 2 trailer. You must bask in my glorious good looks, lady!!!” 😂

Attention hog Friday.

Eepy Thursday.

Nick falls asleep to the sound of Food Dad’s conference calls.

Not My Cat Monday, Wheeling Edition. Go Fishtopher, go!

A grey tabby sits on a windowsill sideways, staring at the wall instead of the window. Nick says “Cats can just do that.”

Pensive Wednesday.

Continuing the spouse’s streak of being a cat magnet, he apparently spotted this little dude on his walk around the neighborhood last night. Kitty is pictured waiting for her owners patiently on her porch. Reports are the owners got home within the hour, and kitty got inside. Whew, it’s seriously rainy here in the evenings! 😅

Not my Cat Monday, Porch Edition

Don’t apologize. You are not alone in your frustration. I am a former teacher and have a MS in Learning Sciences, but refuse to return to a public school teaching role because I’m unwilling to be another body thrown to the wolves by inept social and fiscal policies.

A ticked tabby looks resignedly at a set of stairs. A grey tabby looks up the same set of stairs vaguely hopefully. Nick: “You coming?” Ashley: “Yeah, she’s gonna take the dumb picture.”

A picture and two moods.

A screenshot of a text exchange. There’s a picture of two cats (grey tabby, ticked tabby) spooning on a cat bed. The ticked tabby is curled up in a small ball. The grey tabby, who is larger, is wrapped around her. Accompanying texts read: “Mom said that Ashley is the mom, but it looks more like Ashley needs a mom to snuggle with” “They take turns being the mom” … for the record? 💯 agree. Not just because it was my reply (duh), but because cats organize themselves matrilineally when possible. It makes perfect sense that the job of “mom” is so coveted that it’s become a shared arrangement. 😂

Conversation Wednesday.

Just a grey and white tabby aka a blue tuxedo, sprawling for the camera.

Paint me Like One of Your French Girls Ssturday.

Angie (grey and white tabby) sits in the middle of a festive table, examining the shoddy placement of the tableware. Angie loves supervising.

Centerpiece Thursday.

Ashley (ticked tabby) likes small spaces. Sometimes she’ll paw at our bed covers to ask to be let in. Then she hides under the covers, purring away, or as I like to call it, burbling. It’s basically fast and loud purring. Here’s a moment of Ashley’s burbling session. ❤️

Hide under the covers Wednesday.

Nick, grey tabby, has been kinda mad. Mad that Angie gets the good toy pickle. Mad that we won’t let him in the basement. Mad that the cleaning lady didn’t understand he didn’t want pets. This is him letting me know he is “angy and don’t want kisses”. So I settled for air smooches while I took this pic.

“No kisses” Sunday

Angie (grey and white tabby) tests whether it’s even possible to get enough attention.

Love Overload Friday.