The Cats

 Earlier today I came upstairs to this:

The Sun Puddle on the Stairs

The cats love the sun puddle so much that I can't even get by!

Kitty sleeping on back of chair in J. 's room

Cassio and the Squirrel

Cassio was very intrigued by this squirrel out on the deck rail. I doubt the squirrel could actually see inside -- it was much brighter outside than in, which renders the glass basically opaque on the outside -- and therefore had no idea about the danger only a few feet away, but it was curious about the scratching sound on the glass.

Or maybe the squirrel could see in and was smart enough to know that the glass provided protection, and was taunting the cat. Who can say?

Cassio Napping

Cats really know how to sleep, don't they?
(I took this a few days ago in J's room)

Cassiopeia and Starrllyle

We never intended to remain a one-cat family for long, and today we went to Gwinnett County's Bill Atkinson Animal Welfare Center (the animal control shelter) to adopt two new additions to our home. Their names are Cassiopeia (the more orange of the two; Casio for short) and Starrllyle (the lighter-colored cat; I think his full name is spelled with two R's and three L's, but mostly we just call him Lyle); they are three-month old brothers, and they're very sweet and also very curious about our house.

Here's one picture I took--of Elyse taking a picture of Lyle in Mom's office, within a few minutes of us arriving home and letting them out--and one picture Anna texted to me and four pictures Jessica texted to me throughout the afternoon:

Casio exploring Jessica's room

This is the one Anna sent me

Hale-Bopp is so far not amused to have two new cats living in our house, but we are confident that eventually she will warm up to them.

Goodbye, Nazzie

This was not a good day.

Today we had to say goodbye to Nosfurratu, or Nazzie for short (though we could never all agree on the spelling of her full name or nickname). She got sick just a couple of days ago, and spent two days at the vet's office, but she just couldn't make it, she was too sick. She wouldn't eat and her body temperature kept going down and there was fluid in her chest and she was having trouble breathing.

We're devastated. She wasn't even three years old yet.

Goodbye, Nazzie. We were lucky to have you as our little fur girl for two and a half years.

Jess texted this picture to me back in March. I'm terribly sad that I won't get anymore of Jess's wonderful Selfies with Nazzie.

Our cats, intrigued by stuff outside

Our cats, intrigued by stuff outside (probably birds and squirrels, but Hale-Bopp said she's pretty sure she saw a hippopotamusauras.)

The Cats in Jessica's Room

Jessica just texted me this picture of Halle-Bop and Nosfuratu on the flowery reading chair in Jessica's room:

Cats on the Downstairs Sofa

 

Cats on the Downstairs Sofa
Grayson, GA
April 9, 2021

Contented Cat

I texted these pictures to Anna and Jessica this morning before I took my shower. I had to zip out to get my pocket computer/camera to capture the image (I don't normally take it into the bathroom with me), but when I returned she hadn't stirred.

I am being watched

I am being watched as I sit outside and drink my coffee!

Jessica's Photo of Haley

Jessica texted this picture to me. I think it's pretty great. 

Cat nap on the hearth: A Haiku

Cat nap on the hearth

In the post-thunder storm calm--

And so this day ends.

Cats at the window: A Haiku

Cats at the window,

Hopeful that a bird will come--

Spring feline ennui

Critters in the Planet Burdett Backyard

We have a number of bird feeders in our backyard and one attached to a living room window. We do get a good variety of birds that visit (and probably live in) our backyard, but for this post I'm concentrating on some of the other critters who regularly visit our yard, and also on the cats who watch them.

Most of our bird feeders are "squirrel proof," though the squirrels aren't yet convinced of that:

The squirrels love eating the peaches in our backyard peach tree:

Our resident chipmunk felt sufficiently hidden from predators on our deck rail, with its cover of wisteria and whatever that bush is, to sun itself and groom for several minutes:

(I realize most of these picture are actually focused on the leaves, not the chipmunk. It was the best I could do.)

The rabbit in back kept a close watch on us--I don't even know for sure if he could see us through the window, but he sure acted like he could--while the rabbit in front ate. I don't know enough about rabbits to say if he was more likely a parent or a boyfriend to the other rabbit--or even if he is a he--but this rabbit was a good vigilant companion.

We haven't yet gotten many birds to visit our window-mounted feeder, but the squirrels love it, and the cats, especially Halle-Bopp, love watching them:

Jessica's Collages

Yesterday Jessica made these collages of pictures she's taken recently:

Heaven

Anna's in heaven--a book in her hand and two cats in her lap:

Nosfurratu

This afternoon we went back to the Gwinnett County Animal Shelter to pick up our second kitty, Nosfurratu. She was not as nervous when we first got her home as Hale-Bopp was a couple of days before; Nosfurratu was ready right away to be petted and loved, and also to play:

She did venture upstairs, but Hale-Bopp was not very happy to see her, so we're going to keep her downstairs for a few days. We're sure that after a few days, Hale-Bopp and Nosfurratu will get along just fine--or at least tolerate each other.

Kitty Hale-Bopp

Today, after a month of having no cats living with us, we went to the Gwinnett County Animal Shelter to bring home some new feline companions. It's hard--even heartbreaking--to try to pick out a pair of favorites out of so many available cats, especially when you know so many have to be left behind. Fortunately, seeing how busy the animal shelter was this morning, with many of the visitors there also to get cats, made it a little easier, for me at least.

The first cat we were drawn to was an eleven-month old orange tabby whose information named her Mistletoe. She came home with us today, but her name in our house is Hale-Bopp (named by our still-astronomically-minded Elyse after Comet Hale-Bopp, which she wasn't around to see in 1997, but which she has read about and thinks is really cool).

Hale-Bopp (whom Elyse says we can call Haley, since she's a girl) is very sweet and loves attention, and also loves to play. She was nervous at first when we brought her home, understandably, but she never seemed scared of us and never showed any aggression, and it didn't take long before she was wanting attention from all of us. She spent a lot of time exploring downstairs, and seemed more nervous about her new surroundings than about her new family. Much to Elyse's consternation, it took several hours before she was comfortable enough in our house to go upstairs. However, as I type this at 11:00pm, she's upstairs sleeping on the bed with Anna.

Here she is getting her bearings in our house, playing with Elyse, and settling down to read with Anna:

Jessica was also downstairs with us some of this time, but she really prefers to be upstairs, so I didn't get any pictures of her.

And speaking of Jessica, the cat she gets to name can't come home to live with us until Tuesday, after her waiting period is over and she is spayed. Her name, when she comes to live with us, will be Nosfurratu, named after the famous 1922 German Expressionist horror movie Nosferatu. (Also, in Daniel Pinkwater's great novel The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death, the audio book of which Jessica and I listened to a while ago, the narrator has a parakeet named Nosferatu; that, and having recently gone through my copy of Great Monsters of the Movies, are, I'm pretty sure where she got the idea of using that name.)