Less than a month is left to Christmas! We started putting the decorations; so far the new curtains are up and yesterday we put the stars in the windows.
Our little helpers in action:
A black smoke bun, someone?
I have no clue how Maven manages to fit in such small boxes and baskets!
Albert, giving a helping paw as always:
My humans have no sense of composition!
Our cats adore the blankets we use during the winter; they are soft and cosy.
The Siamese pile
About two months ago, we went away for a vacation and our cats spent eight days in a cat hotel. That was a new place, that they never visited before. It is close to where we live now.
It was the first time we picked the cats from a cat hotel that they were cuddling with the lady that took care of them! She really spent a lot of time with them and she seemed so sad when we got them. But, we were happy!
After they came back home, Miii decided that Jocke should be her human. I was always her preferred human. Although we planned that she will be Jocke’s cat when we got her, she picked me, there was no help. Jossan was pretty pissed off because of that and it took them a long time until they worked out how to share me. But now Miii decided that both Albert and Jossan is too much to share a human with and decided that she is best friend with Maven and that they share Jocke! Maven is not so delighted with that; Maven likes to be close to humans, not to other cats. Siamese like to sleep close to humans and close to each other, on the Pile.
"You and I, we are best friends!" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . "Oh, no, a Siamese..."
When Miii came to us, 2,5 years ago, she was very shy and hid from people who would visit us. She became more and more brave and social, but that happened slowly. Last week she yelled at one friend that came by and demanded that he pets her! Then she jumped in his lap and purred and demanded more petting. She did a similar thing to another friend that came by last Tuesday.
… there is always a cat. Maven loves to sit on Jocke when he is sitting or lying on the couch. She is so cute!
Our cats showed a lot of changes in their behavior during the years, also behavior towards us, like – who is whose human and who claims whom etc.
A month ago we bought a sheep-shaped soft pillow that caused a lot of excitement in our cat group. It is funny with cats. Sometimes you buy them a toy you are certain they will love, but they do not care about it all. At other times, some, in your eyes, very boring thing becomes an immediate hit. We thought they might like the sheep, but we did not expect that it will be so popular. (We bought the sheep in Chilli, they have a store close to where we live).
Maven was the first to hug, pet and take care of her sheep friend. She would clean herself, walk all over the sheep, put it in the right shape and then sleep on it or beside it.
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But, then, Leroy also liked the sheep. He was jealous of Maven and stole the sheep whenever he could.
Leroy also loves the sheep
Then the other cats wanted the sheep as well.
After a few weeks of occasional quarreling about the sheep, we went and bought them 3 more sheep! One in beige color as the first one, and two white ones. Of course, NO ONE wanted any sheep when there were so many around, but after a few days, everyone loves sheep again.
Jossan licking the sheep goodnight
Everyone loves sheep!
Siamese and the white sheep
This is Albert’s first Christmas and he is delighted with all the ornaments! He likes to drag and carry them around, and chew on the branches.
I’ve tried real tree, plastic tree, hoping he will leave something alone, but, nope – he likes it all, nothing is safe and everything is tasty.
Every morning the poor Christmas tree is disintegrated and the ornaments lie all over the living room.
The worst was when he just discovered the beauty of everything that goes with Christmas. Now, two weeks later, Albert is a bit less creative with his constant rearrangements of our living space, but still not uncreative enough, to put it that way…
I am helping!
 Tasty! |
 How do you mean - I can't eat that? |
 Yes, I can! |
 Why are you here? That is mine! |
 You too! Go away! Mine! |
Crowded? No! There is always enough space to fit me! And - more glitter!
Maven really likes our new house, it is big and it is messy (for now). Oh, joy!
Maven is a black smoke cat (her fur is warm in tone in the autumn, since she spends a lot of time in the sun in the summer, and the fur gets lighter), and here you can also see that the bottom half of her fur is completely white! (The silver gene makes it white). If we would shave off the tips of Maven fur, she would be mostly white!
This is how it looked on the upper floor when we just moved in. Jossan and Leroy are exploring the new space.
And this is how the living room looks a week later. Maven likes to lie in boxes, but bags are also good. Soft plastic bags are dangerous for cats in the same way they are dangerous for small children and we are trying not to leave them around. This is a bag made of thicker and harder plastic.
I am sorry about the flash, Maven! (Though it is funny, those shiny eyes make Maven look like a little cat-robot!).
Here is a bigger picture of a small part of our mess:
The moving company truck is coming in 8 hours. We still have so much to pack and also, we have to disassemble some pretty big pieces of furniture. We have 2 more weeks to move, but then we have to do it ourselves, by car. We are trying to pack as much as we can now.
The cats are helping, of course!
Miii is checking if everything is closed properly.
‘You are not leaving without me!’
Leroy is tired, he has been helping us all day. Albert and Jossan are taking a nap as well:
I am tired and just now I wish I were one of my cats…
Back to packing!
I am thinking about painting. I haven’t done it in a while. Two years, maybe. Can that be true? I found this in our Cat diary, written on Jan 17, 2008, two years ago. That was about two months before Jossan came here.
Maven, our black smoke kitty, is a real snow cat. Her fur is thick and fluffy, yet silky, and she feels no cold even when it is -10°C.
I wanted to get her some little snow boots for cats, but she refuses to have anything that is not made by Jimmy Choo!
Well, dear Jimmy Choo or whoever is behind that brand; luckily for you, my cat does not weigh more than 4 kg and I can carry her easily when her little paws freeze.
Still, if more cats are as picky as our Maven, I would recommend that you better start making some fancy models for our little feline friends, because they are spoiled and they know what they want; they want – Jimmy Choo’s!
Maven is a very special cat. I wrote two stories about her (‘An Accidental Murderer‘ and ‘Capiche?‘), and she got one story sent to her that our friend Doug wrote.
‘Caught Out’ is a beautiful fairy tale and you can read it here.
I love this picture Jocke took; Maven is playing with one of her mouse toys. That cat is fast.
The veterinary checked Maven’s tail today and everything looks great, the wound has closed and the infection is gone. Antibiotics, propolis and regular care helped. No amputation!!!
Pretty ladies on a catwalk
Such grace, such beauty. Look as these two ladies showing off the latest cat fashion on the local catwalk.
Leroy fell on my mini green houses and crushed some of my Saintpaulia baby-plants. Continue reading
Maven was bitten or had an accident that left a wound on her tail about a week ago. The wound seemed to be healing well, and Maven ate and played as usual. Directly after the accident she did not want to go out for a while, and she was depressed, so we assumed that she had a quarrel with one of the cats from the neighbourhood.
I am not so sure that taking an afternoon nap with your head on the phone is such a good idea…
How high can Maven jump if her pillow RINGS!?
Jelena wrote a short story about you’ll guess whom…
Maven loves boxes and paper bags.
Even when a box is too small for her (one could think!) she magically manages to somehow squeeze herself in.
