It's snowing!

We just got our first snow of the season a couple of days ago. Yea! Bruce and Alex acted like they had never seen any in their lives, and stared mesmerized as the fat flakes drifted slowly down. Bruce even started chittering at the flakes :)

Lately I have been doing a lot of my work on the kitchen table, mainly because it has the best light and the most space. Both my daughter and the cats have been protesting the fact, because time-wise I don't have much time for any of them. Alex takes an advantage of my work and lays by the exhaust of the laptop and feels nice and toasty warm.

Bruce doesn't like my use of the table, but he doesn't let it hinder his tail!

Drooling all over...

Have you ever met a cat that drools worse than a dog? I have one that would win all timed drooling competitions like nobody's business... Bruce goes from dry to drooling in five seconds flat. It is SO funny, when he starts forming huge droplets on the middle of his "lips" (cats don't have actual lips of course..) and then he starts dripping on the person holding him. It is always connected to his contentment, the happier he is, the more he drools.

Bruce is getting more and more character traits from our other cat Alex. He didn't use to have the same kind of "kitty madness" Alex has, but these days, he looks like he has been attacked by invisible fleas and jumps about wildly. Thank goodness it doesn't happen every day, our stairs are under enough strain as it is, without a relatively large cat bowling through like a herd of elephants (because that's what it sounds like!).

Colder...

Summer is now well and truly gone, last night the temperature dipped below zero for the first time this fall. This morning Bruce was sitting by the front door, eagerly waiting to get out. As a lark, I scooped him up and took him outside. Aby that he is, he was both shocked by the cold (shivering like mad) and eager to absorb all the different sights and sounds (tail twitching like there's no tomorrow). Two minutes was all he got, but enough to get a "kitty madness" - to run around the house like there was a fire under his tail. 

I usually lay my daughter's outerwear on the floor, so it is easier to put on. And of course we have a little furry helper (Alex), who usually plants himself smack-dab in the middle of them. Usually he also resists her trying to get her clothes and she has to drag both her jacket and the cat to get clothed. Alex is also very fond of her shoelaces, so it's not necessarily easy for her to get dressed in the mornings.

Lately we have been getting feathered little visitors outside our kitchen window, and you can just imagine what our kitties have been doing... Here is a picture of our furry brothers, stalking birds together.

Friendly helpers

Hubby and I did some spring-cleaning and had some help... Hubby took out some papers to sort out and every five minutes or so he also sorted out some cats from the top of the papers. Alex also has a habit of gnawing on paper! "Teacher, the cat ate my homework!" He also tends to "help" me on the laptop, sometimes when I have to leave in the middle of my work and leave the laptop open, I come back to find lines and lines of gobbledygook, occasionally he has also switched the screen sideways or upside down (which requires several different clicks, btw). He also enjoys helping with the laundry (see below)

Bruce managed to out-do himself a couple of times this week. They claim that cats are agile and never get stuck on places - THEY just haven't seen our aby... He jumped on a cabinet on the corner of our kitchen (there is a tiny space between the wall and the cabinet), and of course slipped and fell - face first. So there he was, standing on his front legs, between the wall and the cabinet  - and all we could see was the tip of his tail swishing back and forth from behind the cabinet! On another occasion he jumped on the tall speaker we have in the livingroom and again he fell face first. It never seems to go out of fashion with him, and we always get a good laugh!

Vignettes

A couple of weeks ago Alex jumped down from the couch and his hindlegs gave out! He started staggering towards the kitchen and slumped down on his side. Naturally we were horrified and immediately picked up the phone for the on-the-call vet. The comment on the other end of the line was for us to wait and see how the situation progresses, but we were having none of it. We hauled all the 7.5 kilos of our spotted furry friend to the vet and the examination got on away. He got prodded and streched every which way and the final verdict was "a strain or a jolt he got from falling". He got a jab of anti-inflammatory/pain medication and a prescription for the same and we were told to go see our own vet later if we wanted to. Of course we did! He is our baby and he was hurt. The medication clearly made him feel better in the evening already and he kept getting better in the following days, but we still went to see our vet four days later for Alex's yearly check-up (he has just turned four). We also decided to catch two birds with a one stone and took Bruce with for his yearly. X-rays and bloodtests revealed nothing alarming, so we got off with a scare!

I came home from work the other day and was wearing my heavy winter coat. Hubby handed me Bruce for a hug and he noted that his fur looked a bit funny for some reason. I scratched him and he purred and all was well. I hung my coat and went in for a while and later when I went out again I smelled a strong stench of cat pee. I was a bit baffled, but I thought I had stepped on pee outside without noticing it. But no such luck. It was revealed that Bruce had actually peed ON ME! What is wrong with my aby?? He wasn't startled or anything, I just held him... My trusted washing machine took care of the stench, but I wonder if my cat needs a diaper...

Last night I woke up around midnight to the sound of something small sliding back and forth on the kitchen floor. Rather peeved I clambered down the stairs and saw Bruce happily playing hockey with a fridge magnet. Lovely. I was so glad we decided to get an aby! I took away the particular magnet and got back to bed. Five minutes later he was back at it. Jeez! I had to go downstairs and swipe all the magnets so high on the fridge he could not reach them again (that night). Earlier in the evening we were equally happy for getting an oci when we listened to him having a momentary mental breakdown on the kitchen parquet floor and getting a good grip on several different spots with his nails as he spurted upstairs. Dog owners have no monopoly on the scratched floors...