November 2016 Surprise

This fall, work began on replacing our deck and expanding our catio.

First, the old deck was removed and a new deck was built.  Like the old deck, the new deck is L-shaped, wrapping around the side of the house:

In these pictures you can see the door that leads from the kitchen to the deck, and the screen door that separates the deck from our original catio:

The next step was to enclose the new deck, in order to make it an extension of the catio:

 

The following two pictures show the doors that lead from the family room on to the deck, at the side of the house:

Previously, although we cats could enter the original catio through windows or through our cat door, there was no direct access for humans from inside the house. And we cats were unable to join humans sitting on the deck.

Now we -- and also humans! -- can go directly out to the new, enclosed deck + catio, either from the kitchen, or from the family room:

The new deck / expanded catio is illuminated!

More pictures of the deck + catio at dusk:

THANK YOU, to Dean Smith Carpentry Services, 69 Kingston Road, Cornwall, PEI, COA 1HO -- Prince Edward Island's premiere designers and builders of quality catios!

Snow Days (February 2015)

Outside ....

Natasha, Hershey, Boris, Cocoa

Dolly

Boris

Summer Cat

Natasha, Hershey, Boris

Dolly and Boris

Boris

Hershey and Tootsie, with Boris in the background

Hershey, with Tessa in background

Inside ...

Reese

Dolly, Boris, Reese

Taffy

Dandy on left, with his mother Tessa

Reese

Dandy

Boris at the top, with Cocoa and Hershey

Boris and Hershey

Reese

Hershey

Reese

Taffy

New Construction! (July 2014)

 

When our pen was developed in 2008, the section nearest to the garage was left pretty bare, as you can see in the following photo:

So this summer, Pat decided it was time to build something over there for us to play on.

Pat had a meeting with our usual contractors -- Dean Smith Carpentry Services -- and plans were made to build a new structure right up against the wall of the pen. The plans called for:

--three stories

--entrances on the front of the structure to each of the three stories, opening on to ...

--three balconies

--side entrances to the top story and to the bottom story

--new planks connecting the two side entrances to our already existing system of walkways

--peepholes on the back of the new structure, so that we can spy on the next door neighbors

--strategically cut holes inside the structure, between the first and second stories and the second and third stories, so that we can leap between the different levels 

Dean and his associate Mark got right to work and completed the new structure in just a day and a half!

Here is what the new structure looked like before we moved in. We think the staggered balconies are a really great design feature:

 A view from the side:

The next picture, taken from outside the pen, shows the peepholes on the back of the new structure:

Hershey was the first to go inside:

 

If you look carefully at the next two pictures, which show Cocoa and Taffy inspecting the new structure, you can see a bit of Hershey's tail, just inside the top right entrance:

In the following picture, Hershey exits from the side door of the top story:

Here is a view of the side entrance to the bottom story; the plank from the top side entrance is overhead:

On top of the new structure, there is plenty of space for perching and sprawling. We can also leap, from the top of the structure, to the walkway that passes above it:

We will be posting more pictures as we come up with more ideas for using all this great new space:

 

THANK YOU, Dean and Mark of Dean Smith Carpentry Services, 69 Kingston Road, Cornwall, PEI, COA 1HO -- Prince Edward Island's premiere designers and builders of quality cat pens and furnishings!

Cabin Fever (Winter, 2013)

It snowed a lot this winter! Which usually doesn't bother us because we like to skip and twirl and slide and play tag on ice-covered snow.

But this year's snow was different -- when we tried to walk on it, we sank down so deeply that it was a struggle to claw our way out. So Pat said we had to stay indoors -- and then she closed the window and the cat door leading to our pen!

So what have we been doing while we are house-bound?

Natasha has the easiest time of it because she has so much to do inside. She loves to help Henry as he works in his office:

And, Natasha has a favorite indoor sport that involves lots of vigorous rolling back and forth:

Can you guess where she is?

Summer also has an indoor hobby: he likes to listen to the television news. But judging by this picture, Dandy was seriously bored by news reports concerning the (American) State of the Union:

Office work, bath-tub gymnastics, listening to the news -- these are activities that take quite a bit of energy. In the next picture, Boris joins Natasha in demanding that dinner be served early:

Here is what happens when Pat tosses us a handful of treats:

 In fact, we spend quite a bit of time eating:

Did you notice anything odd in the preceding picture?  That's right! Farah and Summer are no longer bitter enemies -- they can now be right next to each other without growling and howling and boxing each other's ears. It is Summer who deserves the credit for this detente: Farah still growls when he comes too near, but he ignores the provocation.

In the next picture, Farah and Summer exchange meaningful glances:

Take a good look at the pink carpet in this picture. Because, just when we thought our cabin fever was at its peak -- just when we thought things couldn't get worse -- Pat announced that she has always hated that pink carpet and she was having it replaced! And for good measure, we were also getting new tiles in the upstairs bathrooms!

As our much-stained and therefore much-loved carpet was being taken away, Summer was allowed to go outside to the porch to say goodbye on behalf of us all:

Then men came into the house with noisy machines. They spent days putting down the new carpet and tiles.

Whenever the men left the house, we hurried out of our hiding places to inspect their tools and see what damage they had been doing:

We were SO upset that Pat tried to calm us down by promising that after the men left, she would buy us a new tower to match the carpet!

Here is Hershey on the new tower:

(By the way -- if you are wondering, the print on the wall is "End of the Day," by the well-known Alaskan artist Rie Munoz. It depicts scenes from Juneau, Alaska in the 1960s, when Pat went to high school there.)

Taffy on the tower:

We are glad the men are gone now and we can get down to work scratching and staining the new carpet. But even with this project to keep us busy, we remain a bit bored.

So we devote many hours to the most reliable pastimes of all:  perching, and sleeping.

Dandy continues to be a mama's boy who prefers the company of his mother Tessa:

Hershey and Summer are best buddies who like to curl up together on the sofa:

But when Summer decides to stretch out, there isn't much room left for Hershey:

When that happens, Hershey goes upstairs to join his sisters: in this next picture, he is with Cocoa:

And here are all four "Jets": from left to right, Cocoa, Tootsie (who is Hershey's favorite sister), Hershey, and Taffy:

Sometimes, though, it seems best just to rest alone quietly while we wait for better weather: