Photo (Almost) Friday: Helpful Billy

He doesn't do it often, but Billy does sometimes try to fill the void left by his late Aunt Emily, curling up with me while I sit on my futon and write.



I don't let him rest his whole weight on me -- which would make breathing difficult -- but he still manages to make himself the center of attention.

Mmmm, cheese!

One of the classic motifs in cartoon shorts is the character who is spellbound by food. The smell of bacon cooking wafts past the nostrils of the sleeping character, causing him to levitate out of bed and sleepwalk after the source of the smell.

That's how it is with Billy and cheese. I was making chicken parmesan for dinner the other night. No sign of him while I sliced the chicken, diced the onions for the sauce, cooked the tomatoes .... but as soon as I got out the mozzarella and the parmesan, Billy materialized right next to my feet. "Hi Mom! Got any for me?" And yes, I do usually drop a few crumbs into his bowl.

I tell him he's very spoiled. Fresh mozzarella? Fresh grated parmesan? Some cats live with humans who stock Velveeta and Cheez Whiz. He meows and asks for more cheese.

Photo Weekend Extra: Mind Your Manners

Background: Since Oscar is on the same diet as the Catzilla brothers, we would like to feed all of them in the kitchen together, allowing our upstairs library to lose the litter-box and food bowl.

But today's photograph is quite startling to me, because as the Alpha cat, Billy is not known for letting others chow down while he waits patiently. But there we have it, Billy quietly watching Oscar eat up in the library this morning.



Of course, it has taken several days of valets shooing Billy away when he attempted to take over Oscar's bowl to get this far. We're also helped by Oscar having the confidence to give Billy push back with a paw on the nose as well, which was required today along with a couple strong hints from me. But some progress has been made towards getting the boys to eat together.

Photo Weekend Extra: Sunny Copy Cat

Oscar is not nearly the sunbeam chaser that Billy is, but after seeing Billy's photo spread, Oscar found a nice sunbeam for himself this morning.

Photo Friday Extra: I'll follow the sun

Billy isn't quite as accurate as a sundial, but he does like his sunbeams. Here he follows one across the library floor, and then searches for it on the stairs.

Photo Friday: Peace in Our Time Redux

The bedroom was nap central for all three boys this afternoon.

Oscar's Big Leap

Whitey likes to sit in the laundry room window, probably because it gives a nice view of the neighborhood, including the small playground next door. It's the highest accessible window in the house, too, which means he gets to show off his Spider Cat skills.

Then along comes Oscar. He sat on the floor, meowed, checked the distance a couple of times... and Leaped. While Whitey lands gracefully on the sill, Oscar almost didn't make it and had to scramble with his hind legs a little bit, but he got there.

Whitey looked somewhat dismayed. "What's the little punk doing here? My ledge!" At least Oscar had the sense to behave himself, as I'm sure Whitey would have dumped him off the ledge given the least excuse.

Dawn Patrol: Good Morning to You Too

We don't write much any more about feline alarm clocks, random litterbox misses or hairballs, because well, they are random and known.

This morning was a tad unique, as Oscar jumped the gun shortly after 5 AM. While he normally waits until I am awake to come by and purr at me, this first thought I had this morning was that Oscar had arrived. Maybe he saw me move in my sleep and decided I was awake. He was sweet about it though -- there are way worse things to wake up than the full throated purr of a gently affectionate cat.

This morning was also odd, because I have a cough which kept scaring him off. However, he kept coming back, and got his fur stroked each time. Not I got much sleep for during this cycle, which lasted ~ 45 minutes.

All finally went quiet however, and I drifted back to sleep ... until I heard Billy cough up a hairball down in the living room.

A loyal valet's work is never done, even if we don't post every occurrence of each task.

Photo Friday: New! Improved!

We have two identical cat towers which reside in my office and the library, both obtained when we moved to the Kitten Farm West. Since my office tower gets somewhat more use (and abuse), we decided to swap the towers to even the wear. Moving them provided just enough excitement to make all three boys curious. and so they checked one out in transit while we were carting the other one to my office.

Checking out the new vantage point

Hey, anything that entertains our feline overlords.

(Click on the photo for a clear large image...)