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!
 

  

Collared! (July, 2011)

Since Tootsie disappeared for an entire week, Pat and Henry have been keeping most of us under house + pen arrest.

There are exceptions.  Summer, for example, is so good about staying in the yard and returning immediately when called, that he has been allowed to go out even while the rest of us remain confined:

Farah, also, is totally trustworthy, and is allowed out every evening for an hour or so after Summer, her archenemy, has come indoors.

Sweet Cocoa is so affectionate that she will not leave Pat's side so long as Pat stays out in the yard with her, so she, also, has been allowed a bit of carefully supervised outdoor time:

Tessa and her kittens Dolly and Dandy don't mind the new rules: they are entirely content to remain in the pen wrestling with each other and killing all the bugs they can eat.

But the rest of us are NOT happy and we DEMANDED an explanation for our confinement.

Pat told us all that "pen" is short for "penitentiary," and that if we look at the roots of the word, we will understand that a "penitentiary" is a place where we should think about our misbehaviour until we feel remorse.

So, here is Hershey, doing his best to re-morse and re-pent:
 

The rest of us, however -- even Tootsie, whose bad behaviour was the immediate cause of our imprisonment -- refuse to acknowledge that we have anything whatsoever to repent, and Hershey, too, soon grew bored with this novel concept.

We have all been so unhappy, that Pat has been trying to figure out a way that we can continue to enjoy the yard during this short spell of summer weather. 

And she thinks she may have found a solution!

Look back at the picture of Hershey in the pen: Did you notice that he is wearing a collar, with a funny dangly thing attached?  Here, you can see Taffy wearing the same kind of contraption:

BECAUSE:  Pat has discovered Loc8Tor radio devices!

Here is how the Loc8Tor system works:

Before any one of us is allowed out the door, Pat attaches to each of our collars, one of the little dangly things (she calls them "homing devices"):

Pat -- who always goes out with us now -- carries a little black rectangular gadget that has buttons on it. Each homing device is assigned to a specific button.

Pat keeps track of which cat is wearing which homing device.

Then, if one of us disappears from sight, Pat presses the appropriate button on her little black gadget, which proceeds to act like a geiger counter:

Pat wanders around the yard, and whenever she happens to move closer to the missing cat, the black thingie BEEPS! LIGHTS flash on the black thingie!

The closer Pat gets to whichever one of us has vanished, the brighter the lights become, and the louder the beeps!

And that's not all: the dangly thing on the collar in question beeps in response!

Taffy was the first one of us to disappear and be located by the gadget. She was SO surprised when her collar starting beeping, and Pat came running around the corner of the house to collect her and bring her back to the deck! Where Boris greeted her, in cat-fashion, by sniffing first her front end and then her back end:

If you want to learn more about how the black thingie works, go here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSqkBFXrm9k&feature=related

There are some limitations, of course. The radio signals only reach about 600 feet.  But that's usually far enough. And anyway, in the past, whenever one of us went missing outside the yard (first Cocoa, then Hershey, most recently Tootsie), Pat and Henry walked all over the neighborhood searching.  If they had had the little black thingie, Pat now believes, they would have located every one of us within an hour.

But another problem has arisen:  the homing devices are not waterproof!  SO Taffy, who is as clever as she is naughty, while pretending to drink from one of our many bowls, gave her homing device a good dunking, so that it won't work anymore.

Now Pat is ordering new homing devices that are encased in something that makes them waterproof.

Another potential problem:  What if two or three or four of us -- or for that matter, ALL of us -- agreed to run off, all at once, in different directions? As far as we can see, Pat can press only one button at a time! And we are certain she can chase us in only one direction at a time!

Hershey tried to discuss with Summer, our Fearless Leader, the possibility of organizing such a plot. But since Summer doesn't wear a collar, he was not interested. In fact, Summer told Hershey that if we all behaved as well as he does, Pat wouldn't make us wear the homing devices!

And even if we did run off in different directions, Pat says, she would simply track us down one by one.

Anyway, as you can see from these pictures, most of us enjoy staying right here on the deck and in the yard with Pat.

Simon, the Siamese who lives two doors down the street from us, is, as usual, JEALOUS: For years, while the rest of us have tried constantly to escape, he has always tried to run IN to the house or pen, only to be evicted by Pat whenever he managed it.

Now Simon has yet another cause for complaint:  Pat refuses to give him one of the collars that the rest of us are sporting!

Summer gets SO tired of explaining to Simon that he is NOT a member of our clowder:

But at least Boris can again enjoy the flowers he loves so much: