The Little Ones in 2009: The First Half

I'm Ever So Happy. Seriously. I Am. One thing I hadn't anticipated is how much harder it is to get a good picture of Ellie compared to the cats. A trained chimp could point a camera at little Sam and get a nice picture but I've been struggling with Ellie. I expected it to be hard to photograph her black fur but hadn't accounted for the difficulties of her larger size and how sad she looks when she's relaxed. She's holding one of her favorite toys, a plush rabbit that squeaks when she bites it. She has a similar goose that was her first toy and remains a favorite. When you toss them, our retriever loves to bring them back, and especially loves to bring them back squeaking all the way. The other day Ellie had a roast. Not the sort of roast where we'd make fun of how she snores, but a pot roast kind of roast. The kind of roast that I was going to eat later. Somehow while we were enjoying the roast for dinner the leftovers disappeared from the counter upstairs. And some leftover bacon a short while later and a tub of cookies last week. Fortunately there were no gastric disasters as a result of her dietary indiscretions. We were prepared to interrogate her when her legal counsel stepped in and told her not to say another word. Little Sam said we had no evidence that Ellie had actually eaten all of these things, for all we knew he had done it. The bacon, perhaps, but even he couldn't eat that much roast, and the tub of cookies was bigger than he is. He then claimed that perhaps I had eaten all of these things and was blaming it on Ellie. The outrage! I could eat that much roast but not that fast (some here say I'm a slow eater), so what jury would believe such a story? Sam pointed out that there is prior precedent, a certain night in which a batch of strawberries freshly dipped in chocolate didn't live to see the morning. An offense for which I admit my guilt, and which I also admit could cause reasonable doubt in a jury. All charges against Ellie have been dropped.

Ellie had an upset stomach which led to a rather unfortunate if prodigious emptying of her bowels in the living room. The vet suggested we switch her to a bland diet of rice and cooked meat (no bernaise sauce) for a few days and thankfully there have been no more incidents. Erring on the safe side, we isolated her to the easily-cleanable part of the basement while we were at work and at night while we slept. She didn’t mind the imposition while we were gone but our champion snuggler was not pleased about the loss of bed privileges at night.

The morning after she had to be encouraged to eat (a surer sign of the apocalypse than any four horsemen) but otherwise her appetite has been fine. Her energy level and spirits have also been high the whole time and today we started slowly working her regular food back into her diet. So far so good!

She was allowed to rejoin us in bed at night after a few days of no accidents and I’m happy to report that she now moves over when I come to bed at night. I can’t say if her banishment to solitary affected the change but regardless I’m no longer wishing for a king-sized bed.

Emma Sleeps to the Beat of a Different Drummer After Templeton died a year and a half ago, we went to the Humane Society to pick out another cat. It's always hard to choose from so many animals who need a good home but I was leaning towards a black cat since I think they are beautiful but had never had one. Emma had lived in a multiple cat household before and I liked the way she was sprawled out as she slept — something Templeton used to do — so we requested to see her after we had selected little Sam. She was more nervous than Sam but seemed sweet so we decided to bring both of them home. It took a year and a half but now that Emma has discovered the warm beds, she is often curled up in them in a circle like all the other cats. But she also frequently sticks a paw out and on this one occasion had an entire leg sticking askew. Just this afternoon I saw Scout, our tidy sleeper, with one paw sticking out. The ways of Emma are spreading.

Lady Em I’m thankful for many things in my life and one of those things is our dear Emma. She’s a quiet cat like Scout but she chirps rather than meows. She plays frequently with Sam but also plays on her own, her favorite game is shoving her furry mice under the closet door. I empty it out several times a day but after only a few minutes the mice are mysteriously once again behind the door. We are looking to hire someone full time to empty the closet but the job pays only in purrs. Emma doesn’t give up her purrs easily and they are so soft as to be nearly inaudible, so when you hear them you know you’ve earned them. She’s not a lap cat like the others — although to be fair Scout wasn’t a lap cat at her age either — but she is affectionate. She discovered the magic of the heated beds a couple of months ago and has been a regular visitor to their electric warmth ever since. I’ve photographed all of the cats in the beds at one time or another so I was happy to finally get a shot of Emma as she poked her head out of the bed.

Her favorite game is to be chased, Templeton was always good about it but with me she has to stop periodically and wait for me to catch up before sprinting away again. In general though Scout's more lover than fighter and prefers snuggling to roughhousing. She used to play with Templeton but just as often enjoyed watching the two of us play.

But maybe her youthful companions are rubbing off on her as lately Sam and Emma aren't the only ones enjoying a rousing game of String. It started a few weeks back with a half-hearted attempt to catch the string then suddenly Scout was all claws and motion, rolling across the hardwood with arms flailing in pursuit.

The other night I was working in my office when I heard Emma running helter skelter in the next room, tossing her furry mice across the room and then pouncing in full fury. I got up to watch her and was surprised to see her sleeping in one of the warm beds. I crept into the hallway and peered around the corner and witnessed Scout in zealous fervor waging war on the infidels. Over the weekend she joined Sam and I in a game of mouse-on-a-wire, she's watched us many a time but this was her first time leaving the sidelines and joining the fray.

And I've noticed a few times lately a cat cabal cruising the midnight hours with Scout on point. But her admirers aren't limited to the likes of cats and men. The other night when I crawled into bed, our dog Ellie curled up against my legs and laid her head across my knees. When Scout took her usual spot on my chest, Ellie crept up in the darkness and laid her head beside Scout. It was such a sweet moment that I lay awake for a while listening to them breathing inches apart. I slowly drifted into sleep until I woke when Scout hopped off me and ran off to play with Sam. My feelings were only slightly hurt when Ellie immediately inched back down and lay across my knees.

It's hard to compete with the Queen of Scoutland.

A Good Man A good man could walk by a scene like this without reaching in to give the kitten a belly rub and risk waking him in the process. A good man, and a better man than me.

The Long Arm of the Paw Little Sam likes to sleep tucked down in crevices. The other morning when I woke on my back with my left arm kinked by my side, Sam was snuggled in tight between my arm and chest. If I'm on my side he'll tuck in behind my knees, and if I roll over slowly enough he'll move with me in real-time, tucked in tight. When I'm sitting in my comfy chair, I usually drape a blanket over my legs so he can hang down between them (as in this picture). This has been a favorite spot of his ever since we brought him home as a little kitten. He likes to sleep on my chest too, but since this is Scout's favorite spot, it's a good thing he doesn't mind snuggling up elsewhere. It's led to many an evening where I'm laying in my chair with Scout asleep on my chest and Sam asleep on my legs, the two stretched out nose-to-tail, me covered in kittens. Since I can't get up, I make my wife bring me my food and refill my glass. It's not that I enjoy being waited on hand and foot, but what else can I do? Wake them? Could you?

	Cat in the Nip One of the things I've been playing around with this summer is taking pictures of the cats hidden behind plants. This is Scout earlier in the summer in one of her favorite places in the backyard: behind the tub of catnip.
	Gold and Green Depending upon the light, Scout's eyes are sometimes golden, sometimes green. And sometimes one of each. In this case, she was laying down behind the clematis when a narrow shaft of light from the setting sun lit up her right eye, while her left eye and the rest of her face were still in shadow, leaving her right eye golden and her left eye green.

When we adopted Sam and Emma, I realized how much harder it was to keep track of three cats than two during their supervised outdoor time, especially since two of the three were young ones who were still learning Rule Number 1: Don’t Leave the Yard. When we added our dog Ellie it became too much to keep an eye on everyone, so Ellie got to play outside while the cats were condemned to the inside, three tortured souls staring out the window at the yard they used to roam.

The biggest issue was on one side of the yard, the neighbor’s yard is higher than ours and the way the fence was put in, there’s a small gap where cats can slip through, either our cats in an escape attempt or the neighborhood cats who keep coming in and destroying our catnip.

When I was off work for a week courtesy of an unpaid furlough, we went up to Home Depot and got some little fencing to bridge the gap between the ground and the fence. I used a very high-tech solution (twist-ties) to secure the little fence to the big one and thus sealed off the easiest avenue of escape. I’ve also been thinning out the overgrown raspberry thicket where Sam and Emma like to play so that I can extract them if needed.

That evening all four pets were able to enjoy the warmth and sunshine and at the end of the day, a nose count showed there were four pets to hustle back inside. The cats didn’t really probe the defenses but still a good first test!

Squirrel Watcher Another experiment with Sam behind the lavender, in this one he's actually watching a squirrel in the trees above. The picture isn't quite what I hoped so I'll try again, but it will have to wait, the bloom isn't off the rose(s) but it is off this lavender.

Collared While Sam enjoys his supervised outdoor time, he doesn’t understand why Scout is the only one of the pets that doesn’t have to wear a collar when they go outside. I pointed out that Scout was the only one who’s never tried to leave the yard. He didn’t see what one thing had to do with the other. Which is exactly why you have to wear your collar Samwise.

Little Sam & Little Ellie I have a dog bed in my office that sees heavy use from more than just our dear Ellie. When my wife made it she didn’t have quite enough stuffing so peaks and valleys form, an irresistible draw for crevice-loving Sam. Emma often sleeps on it as well and with her black fur resembles a little Ellie. She’s rather fascinated with the dog and often snuggles in beside or behind me while I toss the hedgehog with Ellie. Emma’s also been snuggling with Sam lately, although to be honest I didn’t see who snuggled up to who, it could be that Emma was just tolerating our Grade A snuggler.

Little Sam & Big Ellie Sam and Ellie sleeping on Ellie's bed. Ellie knows the bed is hers but is willing to share. Sam and Emma had been snuggling on the dog bed until Emma got up to curl up in one of the warm beds. That left little Sam all alone circle sleeping in the middle of the bed when Ellie came into my office. She sleeps on the bed frequently but rather than force Sam off, she lay down beside him with only her head resting on the bed. What a sweetheart!

A day or two later she broke open a bag of cat treats and finished those off, followed later by the supplements she takes for joint health. If only the cats were so eager to take their medicine!

While walking her at night earlier in the week, she had so much energy I ran with her a bit. We ran past the houses in one section of the neighborhood where the tall trees block the streetlights, where the roots of the tall trees broke up the sidewalk, where I tripped on the broken sidewalk and faceplanted into the concrete.

I landed hard but was able to get my hands out in front of me, the ground knocking out the doggie treat I was holding. I wasn’t surprised that Ellie sniffed out the treat in the darkness and gobbled it down before checking to see if I was OK. My palms took the brunt of the damage and got skinned up pretty badly, as well as the top of my right hand. My left knee and right elbow were badly bruised but not bleeding.

After the first night the swelling went down and it was clear there was no permanent damage. The wounds healed rapidly and the pain was subdued with ibuprofen. That weekend was lovely but I didn’t do any yardwork apart from mowing as I couldn’t put any hard pressure on my palms yet, leaving extra time to play with the tennis ball in the backyard with Ellie, a fair trade.

Cat Cave After adopting Sam and Emma and long before we got our cat tree, we bought a cardboard cat cavern from Doctors Foster and Smith. I can't promise you that your cat will love it, but I can say that two of our three did. It has been the center of countless hours of sleeping, scratching, and no-holds-barred horseplay for Sam and Emma. Emma in particular likes the tunnel, she loves to hide on the other side and come zipping through after a string that I drag across the front. As you can see, it is also an excellent place to sleep. The cat cave has been loved half to death, I took this picture after re-assembling it as best I could. It isn't cheap and won't last as long as real cat furniture, but it has served us well and, since our cat tree doesn't have a tunnel at ground zero, will continue in service as long as it can hold itself together.