Category: Cats

We lost Diane, our eldest cat, at the beginning of this week, so today’s post is an assortment of photos of her – not the oldest, we adopted her in 2009, I started with photos from 2011, and stopped at 2022 because there are so many good photos of her already included.

We hadn’t planned on adopting so soon when we found her. We had just lost a cat, Missy, and had intended to wait a while before filling the void, but, well, the Void objected. Specifically, Mungojerrie (Mungo), our all black cat (aka “a void”), suddenly found himself lonely, having never lived as an only cat before. And he made it crystal clear – around 3 in the morning most nights – that this was unacceptable. So we sped up our timeline and checked the local pet store and their partner rescue organization.

Diane, a year old at that point, was on display when we walked in – in a middle area instead of the smaller contained one for adoptable cats – and meowed at us when we approached. These photos include most of the cats she spent time with at the two houses she lived at with us. Not in chronological order though.

The internet has been fairly vile this week, with videos of two different murders that occurred in the United States circulating: a violent stabbing in North Carolina and a targeted shooting at a college campus in Utah. You’ve probably seen more commentary about the second one, despite another school shooting in Colorado mere minutes later, because the person in question was famous/infamous (depending who you ask). Either way, most of the comments you’ll see online about it are pretty terrible, with many people celebrating the death and conspiracy theorists on the other side somehow naming every person who votes for the Democratic party as a murderer, despite not knowing who the murderer is or their motive. For anyone who thinks that way, please pull your collective heads out of your collective asses instead of painting a diverse group of people with a single label. Whatever the method or motive, senseless violence is wrong.

Ideally, I would have segued into a photo that involved both a head next to an ass here, but I typically don’t take photos of the cats in those particular poses. Instead, here’s a spattering of more delightful cat photos, in the hopes that they offer you a smile today and a brief refuge from whatever you need to hide from.

Have a cat photo. Because who doesn’t need a cat photo during a dumpster fire period of history? Also because Arwen is adorable when she’s napping.

Coming soon… our recent trip to Florida and the Bahamas, and seeing how travel and Midwest spring weather has affected my temperature blanket.

We’re trying something new this year… putting ornaments on the tree! I don’t think we’ve had ornaments on a tree since we adopted Arwen back in 2017, since cats – especially kittens – and ornaments are a notoriously bad combination.

In 2020, Zuko moved in, postponing the possibility of ornaments longer. Even now, none of them are particularly breakable. We lucked out and rediscovered a bag filled with crocheted ornaments – candy canes, snowflakes, and tiny trees with wine corks – and have supplemented those with a couple 3D-printed decorations from a friend.

So far, only a couple of the cork-filled trees have gone wandering through the house. Next year, I may be tempted to dig out my animated character ornaments. They’re plastic, of course.

Many times, we just have to coo at how adorable the cats are, particularly in the rare instance when three or more are in the same general space. In this case, I was summoned to see three cats peacefully resting on the bed, only to have the fourth cat – Arwen in this case – jump up on the bed to join the rest. Of course, that didn’t last – Zuko immediately got up to give chase, quickly leaving just the two elder cats to their cat nap.

And sometimes, we have to groan because the cat is both adorable and misbehaving, as is the case in this second photo, a view of the kitchen window, slightly open, from outside. Not open quite enough for Arwen to sit in the window, she decided to lounge right next to it, which means she’s hovering on a small sliver of counter next to the dish drainer. That is not generally where we want our cats hanging out, mostly for the obvious reasons of “get your butt away from our clean dishes” and “don’t put your butt where we set any dishes”.

And then there’s yesterday, which was more of a “how in the world did you…” moment and did not involve a photo. In the early mornings, before work, I typically let the cats play in the garage. I was doing something in the living room when I heard a strange thumping from the garage (through the shared wall), so I looped through the kitchen to see what was going on. Zuko dashed out from behind the dryer as I arrived, but I couldn’t see Arwen. I could hear her though, from somewhere near the dryer. Somehow the laundry basket that was on the dryer had gotten knocked off to rest in the corner between the dryer and the freezer. Upside down. With Arwen under it. I have no idea how they managed that. (Obviously, I freed her immediately. Didn’t even grab my camera.)

Early morning is my ideal workout time, but I’ve been having trouble getting out of bed most days, largely because one or more cats are still on the bed. They used to make getting up easier – as soon as I was awake, the cats would run around the room demanding breakfast. That has changed in the last couple years, particularly with Arwen who likes curling up just under the covers, resting on my arm. And she’s staying there even after I wake up.

It’s not just her though. Diane is usually by my waist at that point, sometimes still curled up with June, and Zuko is usually by my feet. The other morning, after I woke up and was reading news updates, Diane got out of bed, walked to the other end of the house to deposit a hairball… and then came back to bed! (It wasn’t on the bed or on carpet, so I’m not complaining.) Even June, our most prolific meal howler, on occasion climbs back onto the bed instead. Not for long, mind you, but she does.

My crack-of-dawn workouts are suffering as a result, but damn, they’re cute.

It’s been a week here. You’d think I’d get ahead on the blog with a three-day weekend, but it was painfully cold all weekend (wind chills down to the negative thirties Fahrenheit) and there was a lot to do, including taking June and Diane to their annual checkups. So enjoy a cute photo of Zuko.