460 and Counting (December, 2011)

Pat posted the earliest baby pictures of Dolly and Dandy when they were just four weeks old.  When they were 31 days old, she posted pictures of them with Schooner, who was the oldest cat living in the house, and who passed away not long after this picture was taken:

Pat posted pictures of Dolly and Dandy, with their Mom Tess, when they were 48 days old:

 

But this year, Pat didn’t even post an entry for their first birthday, on August 29, 2011!

Pat says it doesn’t matter that she didn’t post pictures on August 29, because around here, every day is a birthday or anniversary.

We think Pat is actually embarrassed because she can’t count up the days since Dolly and Dandy were born.

So we found a page online that did the counting for her!

And that’s how we know that as of today, December 1, 2011, Dolly and Dandy are 460 days old -- or, 1 year, 3 months, and 3 days old.

That sounds to us like a perfectly good anniversary for posting pictures of what they look like today.

Dolly remains quite a tiny girl, but she has a BIG personality. Sometimes, in fact, Pat goes so far as to whisper to the rest of us that Dolly is a wee bit spoiled, as you might infer from the expression on her face in these pictures:

But Dandy doesn't mind deferring to his little sister, even when she swats him, or steals his food. He has become quite the clown:

Not that he doesn't have his pensive moments:

Sometimes we are astonished at how much Dandy looks and behaves like his old friend Schooner: 

In these pictures of Dolly and Dandy together, you can see that Dandy has also emulated Schooner by growing an ENORMOUS plume of a tale:

The plume that took over the room:

Occasionally, however, we do have to remind Dan that Schooner would never have forgotten to take his plume with him while hiding under the covers:

Tess is still a doting mother to Dolly and Dandy.  In the next picture, Tess (on the right) relaxes with Dolly, who looks SO much like her:

But now that Tess is allowed to go out in the morning with the rest of us, Doll and Dan sometimes get the feeling that they see her only in passing . . .

or perhaps at breakfast:

More before-and-after pictures and news:

Farah, our irascible Cat-Bear, isn’t very good at keeping her thick pelt tangle-free. But whenever Pat tries to brush out her knots and tangles, Farah SCREAMS so loudly that the rest of us all go scrambling to hide ourselves in safe nooks and crannies.

So finally, Pat decided on drastic action: Farah went to a groomer who, in just five minutes, shaved off all her fur except that on her head, tail, legs and paws.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

When Farah came home from the groomer, we were all quite amused. But Farah actually seems pleased with her new look, and has been much easier to get along with lately.

More ANNIVERSARY pictures:

The "new" car arrived 1,656 days ago:

Our pen opened for business 1,239 days ago:

Dolly

Boris

Boris knows that Summer has special privileges.  BUT ....

Taffy, on the roof of the pen?

Boris watching Taffy ...

How did SHE get out there?

Natasha

Boris again

Dolly again

As for what the rest of us have been up to . . . well, here are some recent, candid-camera shots:

OUTDOORS:  Any way you look at it, Taffy loves Summer:

INDOORS: Well, we don't spend ALL of our time napping:

Cocoa

Natasha, on top of the kitchen cabinets

Cocoa and Tootsie

Hershey perching

Boris perching

Hershey and Tootsie

Cocoa and Hershey

Dolly

In memoriam: 

Schooner, who left us all 395 days ago.

Zeddie, who left Pat and Henry 2,196 days ago.

Shy, who left Zeddie, Pat and Henry 2,521 days ago.

We still miss you.

Road Work (September, 2011)

August was a quiet month in our neighborhood. Lots of people seemed to be away on vacation. Pat let us spend more time than usual relaxing in the yard and on the back deck, where she and Henry spent their afternoons reading.

Then one morning, Pat warned us that it was the Labour Day Weekend. But we didn't know why we should care about that.

We got our answer early on Tuesday morning, when lots of men and noisy machines arrived right in front of our house, and Pat refused to let any of us go out there, not even Summer!

But today is Saturday, and no men have come to turn on the machines, so Pat said that if we would wear our collars, we could all go outdoors together to check out the situation.

The last time men with big machines came to our street -- back in December -- they cut down the forest across the street from us.  Then they spent months building a new house there.

But this time, there seem to be many more machines. The machines are parked all up and down the street.

The men have left piles of curious objects on almost every lawn.

In our own front yard, there is a pile of long black tubes:

Also in our yard, the men have dumped a huge mountain of dirt! On top of the dirt they stuck a huge concrete thingy, which even Pat is unable to identify.

As Toots looked on, Natasha volunteered to undertake a thorough exploration of the dirt-mountain:

After Nasha reported that the dirt-mountain seemed stable, we went right to work putting our paw-prints all over the side that faces the street:

That was fun!

But Pat complains that we are tracking in too much mud, both from the dirt-mountain, and from the street, which is being all torn up by the heavy machines.

Furthermore, we are certain that as soon as the men come back on Monday and start up the machines, Pat will again imprison us.
 
Oh how we hope that the men will soon finish whatever it is they are doing so that our lives can get back to normal!