A Tree for a Tree

As much as I love Christmas and as much as it saddened me to see it go, I was admittedly a bit relieved when it came time to take down the Christmas tree. As pretty and festive as it was, I was eager to have that floor space back. Most especially, I was eager to evict my kitties' new cat tree from the walkway and move it into the Christmas tree's old residence.

So, the cat tree was relocated by a whole three or four feet, and therefore it was like new all over again. I barely even got it moved before Toby was all eager to try out the "new" tree.

 Once Evan realized what was going on, he was just as excited.

My boy Evan is very happy with this relocation. He loves the proximity of the tree and the couch, and he loves to crawl back and forth between the two. Just look at this happy face:

This tree has four levels, and there are four cats in the house. So, of course, they all want the same snoozie spot, as Toby and Evan are demonstrating here:

Well, boys will be boys.

Have a wonderful Thursday, everybuddy!

***

Here's where I explain a small, tiny change to this blog. Nothing big or drastic, just something a little extra and different.

For the New Year, I wanted to make my blog contain even just a tad bit of helpful or educational material, and I wanted to do so on a consistent schedule. I love making all of the fun posts, such as Caturday Art, Selfie Sunday, and Wordless Wednesday. However, one small New Year's resolution of mine was that I wanted to include some semblance of informative tidbits on here. I mulled over how to do this, and whether or not to dedicate entire posts to this.

What I decided is that I'm going to continue my current style and method of posting, but at the end of each post I'm going to offer a small, short bit of information that will be called "Our Tip of the Day". These will be bits of info that I've learned over the years from my own animals, from my animal sciences college courses, from my couple of years working as a veterinary assistant, or that I've just come across here and there. Of course, many of you are already veteran pet parents and so will probably know a lot or most of these tips. But, for those who may not know some of this information, I thought I'd offer these daily tips.

So, here is the first day of this new practice:

Our Tip of the Day:
In line with their natural, wild instincts, cats love and seek out levels on which to climb and perch, and often the higher the better. This is why you'll see cats out in the wild climb and perch on trees, fences, and buildings. And this is why your indoor kitties end up on surfaces like tall cabinets and refrigerators. And, this is also why cats trees are great, and why kitties love them so much. If you need to save floor space, though, there are also a variety of other options, such as wall-mounted shelving systems specially designed for use by climbing kitties, or those specially designed to be hung from doors. Or, you can use what you already have by making the tops of those aforementioned cabinets and refrigerators cat-friendly.

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday with the Neighbor

Our neighbor pays us a visit regularly.

He always makes his arrival well known.

(Click image to biggify.)

So what if the living room window is 3 feet off the ground? That's what window screens are for.

Happy Wednesday, everybuddy!

Toesies Tuesday Photobombs

The far from expert photographer in me has been trying to experiment with perspective shots lately. My girl Thimble is usually my most willing subject for this, especially when she's lounging in her perch atop our tall cat tree.

So, recently, I caught Thimble being her usual adorable self up there in the cat tree. I grabbed up my camera and started taking some shots from below. But, alas, some adorable toesies insisted on photobombing Thimble's adorable face:

Well, better luck next time perhaps.

Wishing all of our blogging buddies a wonderful Tuesday!

Mancat Monday: The Door Licker

Yesterday, our rainy and unseasonally warm weather finally turned wintry. Temperatures fell to single digits, and there were actually snow flurries in the air for the first time since November! It's like winter finally arrived.

My mancat Evan seems to enjoy watching snow fall, and watching squirrels look for all those nuts they hid in the safety of our yard. (Do you ever hide something somewhere safe, but then later can't remember where that safe spot is? I sure do. And apparently so do roughly all of the squirrels in our neighborhood.) But, what's a boy to do when he can't see the winter scenery outside because the glass door has fogged over?

 Obviously, his only option was to lick his way to a solution.

What's more, Evan was clearly killing two birds with one stone. He was clearing the fog out of his line of sight, and he was getting a nice drink of cold condensation.

 Mmmmm, refreshing.

 Look at that headway Evan made in just a few seconds' time! An expert door licker, he is.

Aaahhh, there. Much better. My mancat Evan sure knows how to take matters into his own hands paws.

Happy Monday, everybuddy!

Sunday Selfies: Rain, rain, go away.

Call us crazy, but we've been hoping for snow around here. Even just a dusting on the ground, or some flurries in the air. After all, it is winter.

But, alas, all we've been having is rain, rain, and then some more rain. So, for today's Sunday Selfie blog hop, hosted by The Cat on My Head, all the furbabies in this house wanted to show off their window-watching renditions of "Rain Rain Go Away". Here goes:

Astrid loves snow and bouncing around in it. Rain, not so much.

Evan notices a decrease in squirrels when it's wet and rainy. He loves to watch squirrels, so rain is far from his favorite thing.

Thimble has displayed more than once her disdain for rain-streaked and foggy screen doors. If she can't see out the door, there is much flailing and mewing. (Needless to say, I've been very busy lately wiping down wet and foggy glass doors for little miss Thimble.)

Let's be honest, Eddy's hardly even noticed the rain. She can hardy sit still long enough to notice the difference between a dry and sunny day at the window, and a wet an rainy one. (This only slightly blurry picture was miraculously captured in a split second when Eddy just happened to make a pit stop at the door.)

Our housemate Toby is much like Evan in that he loves to watch squirrels. When it's raining and the squirrels go into hiding, Toby tends to get a bit bored with Window TV.

Happy Sunday! Is anybuddy else singing lots of "Rain Rain Go Away" lately?

***

Caturday Art

Thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers after the passing of my grandfather. I can't describe how grateful I am for the support and compassion this wonderful community has to offer.

I thought about whether or not to go ahead with the Caturday Art post I've had planned since earlier this week. Ultimately, my deliberations led me to the conclusion that I will go ahead and post my Caturday Art as planned. I guess it all really comes down to the fact that everything happens for a reason, and life shall go on.

So, for today's Caturday Art blog hop, hosted by Athena and Marie, I have another drawing from the fun, goofy series I'm creating for the furbabies in my life. So far I've shared my drawing of Rosie as a one-eyed pirate, and my drawing of Astrid as what I call Dogzilla.

Today's piece is for my boy Evan. I'll preface this one by admitting that this may very well be the most unusual and perhaps bizarre piece in this series I'm creating. However, I really felt compelled to create this one for Evan.

Ever since he was a kitten, Evan has had a tendency to pull himself up onto stools and other pieces of furniture and then dangle his paralyzed hind legs out in front of him, with his front legs on either side of him. Somehow, the only picture I have of Evan doing this is a photo of less than ideal quality that I shared on here quite a while back. My goal is to get a newer, better picture of this pose of Evan's. But, in the meantime, perhaps you remember this one?

Well, this pose of Evan's, in line with the fact that one of my favorite movies since childhood is The Little Mermaid, has always put an interesting picture in my head of Evan sitting on a rock like Ariel. Honestly, Evan's even red-headed like the little mermaid we all know so well! Whenever Evan sits like this, I can't help but call him my little "mercat". Which, for what it's worth, is what led me to this piece of art that I am now sharing for today's Caturday Art blog hop:

So, there you have it. That's my boy Evan the Mercat.

Have a blessed Caturday, everybuddy!

***

For everything there is a reason.

This will be a quick post, and not at all the one I intended to make today. But anything else wouldn't seem right now.

I have seen time and time again the prayerful support this blogging community has to offer, and I find much peace and hope in that fact. And that is why I am here to request prayers, please. My grandfather passed away unexpectedly yesterday, and I would be so grateful if you could offer up some prayers for my family, especially for peace of mind for my father, and for a safe and peaceful passage for my grandfather.

Thank you, and God bless.