First Nippy Fest of the Season

The human was waylaid by the influenza virus for half a week, but yesterday she was better and back at it.  After checking the mail toward evening, she thoughtfully brought in the first tender catnip leaves of the seasons for the furry people.

The first batch she got contained insufficient leaves as suddenly the whole crew showed up for the nippy fest. She went back out and retrieved a larger cluster of leaves and you can see the results.

Fireball got so high that he literally “swam” around on the floor.

Clearly, the human will need to bring in lots of fresh catmint this spring and summer.  Interestingly, the meows are for the most part quite lackadaisical about dried catnip. Fortunately, there is no shortage of the fresh organic kind growing in this yard in warm weather so we should have happy kitties this year.

(c) Copyright 2015, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Photos my own.

Candy Crush

You know, when the Duo first arrived, my biggest worry was that the Merkitty was going to teach Corky and Pepe to eat with their feet and I’d have even more mess beside kitty dinner plates than I did already.  However, nearly 2 months on, I realize that what I really should have been worried about is Pepe teaching the Trio how to get up on the table and counters and steal whatever looks interesting.  Here’s a case in point.

The other day I came home from running errands. I’d stopped and gotten some take out Thai food. At this restaurant, they give you a little guava-flavored hard candy with your meal that’s packaged in a bright green Mylar (metallized plastic film) wrapper, which is both shiny and crackly sounding when moved.  I put the candy on the kitchen table along with other items and started putting things away. I stepped out of the room for less than 5 minutes and when I came back in, I heard the sound of my after-dinner candy being knocked around the floor by Pepe, who clearly had jumped up on the table to investigate and run off with a prize.  All that evening and most of the next day, that candy was dragged upstairs and down and banged into every surface available by Pepe, who clearly was getting his jollies by chasing this crackly prize around the house.  (Mind you, we have several crackly Mylar toys in the kitty toy boxes that get no love at all. Obviously, to be enjoyable, the toy must be both crackly and stolen.)

Finally, on day 3, I found that the wrapper had given up the candy, which was lying several feet away with a chunk broken off. Wrapper alone without candy = not interesting.  Candy alone without wrapper = not interesting.  The human has since disposed of both items.  I am sure this is not the end of the thieving!

 

(c) Copyright 2015, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Photos my own.

High-Flying (Toy) Mice

In this house, we seem to have a particularly unusual species of little orange (toy) mice. They fly through the air — but only at night — and take up residence in pots of plants that are inside for the cold weather. Even when the mice are removed from their new homes and put back in their (toy) box, the next night they come back out and fly around again, only to roost in another pot come daylight. Maybe they are hiding from the kitties.

 

(c) Copyright 2015, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Photos my own.

Cat Fishers

Corky and Pepe have discovered morning play time.  Corky is now as crazed at chasing the laser pointer as Fireball is, and both have become big fans of the fishing pole, Caesar’s favorite toy.  Here they are enjoying a little hunting action the other morning.

(c) Copyright 2015, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Photos my own.

Big Boys’ Bed

Here are Pepe (left) and Caesar (right) lying side-by-side on the bed.

And here is the Care Bear leaning over to begin grooming the Pepster.

Pepe definitely approves! Awww!  Maybe he’ll rethink his stance on other cats.

 

(c) Copyright 2015, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Photos my own.

Swirling Masses

This pic of the swirling masses is just the kitties enjoying their morning snack. The human seems to have done something right this week and found a new treat that they all like. That doesn’t happen very often. A little more than 6 weeks into the mixing, the Trio and the Duo are starting to become the Penta pack.  It’s quite nice to see.

And, yes, that’s the Little Red Hoover pushing his face into everyone else’s snack area trying to vacuum up the last little bits of the treats.

 

(c) Copyright 2015, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Photos my own.

Jaguar & the Climber

Early this morning during the pre-wake-up heckling phase, the human heard a crash. However, it was dark and cool and she just rolled over and went back to sleep. When she got up an hour later and walked downstairs to start the morning feedings, she saw an astonishing sight.  A framed picture of a wax rubbing of a stone jaguar from a Mayan ruin that normally hangs on the wall above a chair and below a window in the “stove room” was hanging by a corner — literally.

One of the 4-leggeds clearly had been up and down between floor and window ledge and somehow had knocked into the picture. It’s a wonder it didn’t come completely off the wall and crash to the floor.

No worries, the human straightened the jaguar back up so now it’s back on guard again.  You just never know what surprises await from a nighttime of kitty adventures.

 

 

(c) Copyright 2015, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Photos my own.

Heart

The human saw that Caesar and Fireball had ceased tracking the movements of squirrels, chipmunks, and birds out the kitchen window and had just curled up for a bit of a nap.  Initially their heads were together and the way they were laying seemed to form the shape of a heart.  Of course, hearing the human creeping up with the horrible camera put the Big Guy on alert and spoiled the moment. Fortunately, he decided he wasn’t in danger and went back to looking out the window.

Note how Fireball’s curly tail is wrapped around Caesar’s rear leg, which extends under Fireball’s hip, while Caesar’s front paw is buried under Fireball’s front paws and chest.  Can we hear an awwwww?

 

(c) Copyright 2015, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Photos my own.

Tumbled Toy Box

The human walked out of the “salt mine” (office) and saw Mac sitting on the stairs and looking up.  Pepe was further up the stairs.

Just above her, the toy box seemed to have been knocked down a step or two. It was sitting with its patterned side to the wall, opposite its normal position. Toys had spilled out over several stair treads and the box was actually sitting partially on top of one toy.

Mac immediately turned to look at the human and adopted “the face,” a sardonic glare that brooks no accusation. She was not going to admit to anything and don’t you dare accuse her of it!

The more the human looked at Mac, the more Mac copped attitude — it’s something she’s really good at doing.  It’s almost like she was saying, <<Hey, I just arrived on the scene and am as confused as you are by this mess.>> Since Pepe was not far away, it’s entirely possible she was right.

The human’s guessing someone went digging around in the box looking for a favorite toy and perhaps leaned a bit too heavily on a corner and over it went.  No harm done.  Toys were returned to their box, which was restored to its rightful place on the stairs. Cats wandered off no longer interested.

 

(c) Copyright 2015, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Photos my own.

Car Alarm at 4:30 a.m.

Well, you can tell spring is here because the kitties have a major case of sillies.  At 4:30 a.m. the other morning, I was awoken to the sound of a car alarm going off quite loudly in my garage, which is about 40 ft from the house.   When I get home, I normally toss my car keys on the inner-most corner of the boot bench in the kitchen where the cats observe birds and squirrels.  Obviously, someone stepped on the key fob and triggered the car alarm.  Fortunately, it didn’t last long so I was able to roll over and fall back to sleep. However, from now on I guess I will have to hide my keys from wandering kitty feet.

 

(c) Copyright 2015, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Photos my own.

Floodasaurus Strikes Again — Repeatedly!

Well, only half filling the pretty green cabbage water bowl upstairs didn’t remotely slow down the Water Monster. No only was she flooding the guest bedroom every day, but she was continuing to flood the downstairs with the large elevated water/crunchy bowls. Finally the silly human decided to take action. First she moved the large elevated bowls, along with their rubber mat and dish-drying pad upstairs. They went to the room generally occupied by the Trio.  Next, the smaller elevated bowls and mats were moved from the Trio’s room to the room occupied by the Duo, and the pretty cabbage bowl came downstairs.  The upstairs flooding has decreased significantly, but the WM is continuing to flood the downstairs. That’s her handiwork above. The human doesn’t want the kitties not to have access to fresh water on the first floor, but she’s getting darned sick and tired of the daily downstairs floods.  What to do with a Merkitty!

(c) Copyright 2015, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Photos my own.