The Little Ones in the Second Half of 2008

By the second half of the year, the cats were well acquainted with each other and with us and truly felt at home.

Scout

	The Good and Gentle Queen Like most cats, Scout doesn’t like a lot of change in her life, but she had to adapt to quite a lot since December. First her beloved Templeton died early that month, then two strange kittens showed up at the end of the month. While she wasn’t happy at their presence when they were kept in isolation, she quickly warmed up once they were all in the house together. She bonded quickest with Sam, the youngest, but was more on friendly but cool terms with Emma. Over the months though she’s opened more and more to Emma, and lately I’ve noticed Scout specifically get up and lay down near her. This is one such occasion, she had been sleeping in one of the chairs in my office but got up to join Emma on the carpet. It was all I could do to not pick up Scout and give her a hug, but that’s one thing that hasn’t changed — as affectionate as Scout is, she hates to be picked up — so I let sleeping cats lie. But I couldn’t resist a quick picture.
	Raspberries and Irises Our backyard is a mish-mash of plants that were either here when we moved in or that I moved from other places in the yard until we decide on more permanent landscaping. No where is this more evident than at the border where Scout is relaxing, the ever-spreading raspberry bushes on the left and the irises I moved from the side of the house on the right. I don’t know what we’ll do longer term, but for now there’s a nice cat-sized gap between the two that all our little ones can enjoy.
	Two Girls Holding Hands The girls enjoying an intimate moment (look away Dr. Dobson!). They had been sleeping near my feet as I relaxed on the patio and I got up for a picture when I noticed Scout had draped an arm across Emma. Unfortunately they woke up when I got out of my chair, and then their attention was drawn into the house as my wife prepared dinner in the kitchen. Still a cute moment, especially when I think back eight months to when we brought Sam and Emma home and Scout would give me these pained looks of betrayal when she saw me come out of their room.
	Catnap During some recent Outdoor Time, I noticed that Emma was giving herself a bath by one of the planters and Scout was asleep nearby. I snuck over quietly for a picture of the two friends, as in this instance Scout actually sought out Emma so she could sleep next to her. Shortly after I took the picture and walked away, Scout woke up and turned around to face Emma, which would have made for a cuter picture. But by the time I got back into place, Emma had finished her bath and got up to explore the yard.

Emma

White & Black

Just a simple picture of Emma, I’d like to play around with this one in black & white one of these days. I was initially drawn both to the contrasts of the white trim and black fur as well as the straight lines on the left side of the frame and Emma’s angular lines on the right.

Our cat Emma stops to listen to a bird while playing in our backyard

Keep Watching Those Skies, Em

We’re Emma’s third home and we don’t know what her life was like before she came to live with us, but I’m pretty sure at one point she was abducted by aliens, given her vigilant scanning for UFO’s.

Next time I hope she takes me with her, depending on how nice they are with their probes.

This picture was taken this past weekend during outdoor time for the cats, you can see some of our lovely roses and soon-to-be-blooming coneflower in the background.

Emma-nent Domain

Emma enjoys a quiet moment in our backyard, with some of our daisies and blueberry bushes behind her.

Our cat Emma yawns while holding on to my hand

Emma, My Hand Is Falling Asleep, May I Move It Please?

Alright! Alright! Calm down, I’ll leave it.

You could have just said no.

Our cat Emma chewing on a piece of green yarn

String Theory

I used this green yarn to tie up some coneflower that were in danger of falling over and ended up with a piece of leftover yarn. During Outdoor Time, I’d drag it around behind me while running around the yard with Sam and Emma in hot pursuit. I held it loosely in my hand so that they could step on the string and capture it, then I’d pick it back up and the game started anew.

This quickly became our favorite game and the fun lasted for a week or two.

But then Emma started carrying the string away when she captured it. She’s always had a thing for strings so I didn’t think anything of it at first. If I did’nt take back the string, she’d find a spot to sit down in the yard and start chewing on the string. I thought it was cute so I grabbed the camera for a few quick pictures, but then I realized she was actually breaking off pieces of yarn and swallowing them.

I nipped that behavior in the bud right away, we’ve had a bad experience before with a thread chewer …

Sam

Taking Over From The Master

We have a couple of these heated cat beds, this one sits beside my desk. It was one of Templeton’s favorite spots when he was still with us and has now been claimed by little Sam. Scout sleeps here sometimes as well, but Emma prefers sleeping in the open on the floor or on the desk itself.

Our cat Sam yawns while relaxing on our back porch

5 a.m.

It didn’t make the local news, but early one morning I was brutally attacked without warning and without mercy. The coward struck under cover of darkness, attacking my feet while I slept. I knew my attacker even before I rolled over — Scout used to attack my feet while I slept when she was a kitten but it’s been years since she’s done that, and Emma is the only one of the new cats to perform such a heinous act.

I’m nearly blind without my contacts in but I can see general shapes and colors. It was still dark but there was enough light for me to know that my attacker was orange and not black. I used my feet to push Sammy off to the floor but he jumped back up, assuming it was part of the game. After getting pushed to the floor a few times he broke off his attack and cuddled up against me and we both drifted off to sleep.

You can get away with such things when you’re so cute and cuddly.

Our cat Sam yawning while sitting in a cardboard box

Wild Boys Always Shine

If you come across a mysterious box in your living room, do not open it. Even if you hear a small voice inside the box urging you to open it, do not open the box! It’s a trap!

You Don’t Want To Be A Cardboard Box In Our House

The only furnishings in our living room are cardboard boxes for the cats to play and sleep in. Templeton and Scout both loved boxes, so I wasn’t surprised to see the newcomers enjoy them so. I was surprised to see Sam add fiber to his diet by chewing on the boxes, a behavior I assumed would go away once he was no longer teething.

I assumed wrong.

Our cat Sam standing next to our daisies

Flower Child

The daisies in the flower garden out front were getting too numerous, so a year or two ago I transplanted some of them to the backyard to give us some temporary flowers until we decide on landscaping. I planted two patches and they’ve both done really well. They lean over to get more sun and many of them eventually fall over since I usually forget to tie them up.

Sam likes to play in them, sometimes hiding under the flowers so he can surprise Scout or Emma (and sometimes knocking more down in the process). I let him wreak a little havoc in the daisies since they are so numerous and he enjoys it so, but I do try to keep him out of the coneflowers.

Blogging From the Face of the Sun

We just got through a nasty heat wave here in Portland, some days over 100° Fahrenheit (1000° Celsius). We don’t have air conditioning in our house so I spent most of the weekend hiding out in the basement. It’s generally nice and cool down there but after so many hot days it was warm even there. Thankfully the heat just broke, the temperature dropped 20° pretty quickly and there’s even a soft rain now.

This picture of Sam was taken a few days before the heat wave, we were running around when I noticed he stuck his tongue out whenever he paused, so I decided it was time for a break and let him catch his breath. The daisies on the right are past their prime but he loves to play in them, so I left one patch standing for his sake.

Backlit

A simple backlit portrait of Sam. As I write this, he’s asleep in my lap, a few minutes ago both he and Scout were sleeping on me, stretched out lengthwise from nose to tail. Now that Scout has gotten up to give herself a bath, he’s taken advantage of the extra room and stretched out in a Superman pose.

Catnip

	The Catwalk While I love living in Portland, it has a dark underside that most choose to ignore. Known as the catwalk - short for catnip sidewalk - once promising felines lie about nearly comatose, drugged out and destitute. Once a cat ends up here, they are unlikely to ever leave, unlikely to ever recover.
	Young and Old Alike Perhaps the greatest tragedy of the catwalk is that it does not discriminate against the young or the old. This kitten, estimated at only 10 months old, has already given in and given up. I queried his owner (who refused to give his name) if he wasn’t ashamed to see his young charge in such desperate straits. He shrugged and said only in reply, "At least he’s not chewing on anyone’s feet."
	I Guess I Can Kiss That Pulitzer Goodbye So perhaps my exposé of the catwalk was just a little contrived. One of Sam’s paws was moving in his picture anyway, so it was pretty obvious he wasn’t sitting still. It was easier for Templeton to enjoy catnip since he loved to eat it and I could feed it to him inside the house, but Scout much prefers to roll around in it. Some of the neighborhood cats have been wreaking havoc on the catnip growing in the backyard, killing one plant entirely and breaking stems on the other. I decided to cut a few of the stems and lay them on the sidewalk in our backyard to let Scout have at it. I was surprised to see Sam join in the fun, as Scout didn’t care for catnip as a kitten, but as you can see she has a grand old time with it these days.

Outside Time

	Suddenly Sam Realized He Was Not Alone Sam emerged from playing in the raspberries and froze. He felt her eyes upon him, but from where? Then he saw her, the dark shadow under the rose bushes. “Does she mean to attack me?” She does. And she did.
	Is This the End of Sammy? Caught in Emma’s grip, will our hero survive? Tune in tomorrow, same cat time, same cat channel!
	Sammy Lives! Perhaps a better question would be “Is this the end of Emma?” …
	The Law of Jaw and Claw I trimmed the claws of all three cats earlier in the day, and even though Sam wasn’t too happy about it at the time, if you’ll look at Emma’s paw I think he was appreciative of it later. No matter how it looks, this was all in good fun and part of their normal horseplay. Sam is still smaller than Emma but at least it’s not as lopsided as it used to be — not that his small size ever stopped Sam from rough-housing as a kitten.

Our cat Emma playing in the purple coneflower

Some Lessons You Have to Learn the Hard Way

I’ve warned Emma to stay out of the coneflower. Oh how I’ve warned her! Time and again I told of how they’d lure her in, let her drink in their beauty, then attack when she let her guard down.

But did she listen to me? No she didn’t. Some lessons you have to learn the hard way.

The Feathered Toy

	Emma and Me This wasn’t the portrait of the two of us that I originally wanted. In the morning Emma was in bed with me and when I rolled over to curl up beside her, she wrapped her paws around my arm. I thought it would make a cute picture so I tried to ease away and get the camera but she followed me downstairs. Later in the afternoon we played with by far her favorite cat toy, I didn’t mean to get my hand in the picture but I like how it turned out.
	Swing and a Miss! The feathered toy evades Emma’s deadly grasp.
	Going, Going, Gone! It’s a home run! Emma’s a real sweetheart, she really is, but not if you’re a feathered cat toy.
	Fly High If you’re a bird that happens to find yourself in our house, I suspect you’ll have to evade Emma, but here’s a little advice: fly high. Unlike our other cats, Emma isn't so enamored with high places and she isn’t much of a jumper. She’s been getting a lot more comfortable in her jumping since we brought her home, though, so I’m not sure how long the advice will hold.

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