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

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.

Miii discovered that you can get what you want from other people too, not only us, her humans.

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.

At first, I was Maven’s human, although she showed a similar amount of affection to us both. When we got Leroy, he was fast to claim me, and be very loud and firm about his decision, and Maven took Jocke as his human. Maven showed signs of  depression for almost half a year after we got Leroy. She clearly had mixed feelings; she both liked that she was not the only cat anymore, but he took some of the attention that was all hers before and she was not happy. She got over it within a few months.

When Jossan came, she claimed me (all the new cats/kittens claim me, I guess they need their ‘mom figure’), and Leroy was not happy about it. He tried to push Jossan out of my lap and similar, but it all ended with sharing the same place with his little copy and sulking a bit. Leroy loved Jossan so much, but he did not like sharing his human. What he did was to take both Jocke and me as his humans, but I feel that until this day he did not completely forgive me that I show affection to other cats as well.

Siamese are possessive and jealous cats, and while they love other Siamese and the whole ‘mini lions tribe’ thing, they need quality time with their humans in order to feel good and be happy. After some time all the different feelings settled, and as we got Miii and Albert, they also learned to “share us” and have their slots of one-on-one time with us during the day (although most of the time all of them are with us).

The interesting thing with Maven is that since we moved to the house, she claimed Joakim completely, and when we are lying on the couch, watching TV or with laptops in our laps, she will come and lie on Jocke, and Siamese will come and lie on and around me. Maven is affectionate with me, but she does not sit in my lap, not for long (before we moved to the house, she did not sit for long in Jocke’s lap either; big changes, like moving can trigger changes in their relations and habits).

The cats respect the boundaries they set when “claiming” humans. We cannot do much about it, it is always them who ‘choose’. We can only give all of them a lot of attention and love, then everyone is nice to each other and there is a harmony in the group. It is very interesting to observe cats as individuals, but also when they live in a group, especially Siamese, who are real pack animals. Maven is a mixed breed, but she is very vocal, and behaves similar to Siamese in some aspects. But, she is more of an individual, and cares less about the cat group than the Siamese do. She likes to sleep next to us, or alone; the Siamese sleep next to us or next to each other. They are like mini lions indeed, many behaviors that exist in lion tribes, exist in their little group as well.

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.

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

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 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!

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 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!

***

Jelena was painting. On the floor. In the middle of the living room. All of her paints, brushes and the whole mess were lying there, exactly where Maven wanted to take a slow, lazy “Look who owns the room” walk after her afternoon nap.

Left paw, right paw. Left paw, right paw. Left paw landing straight into the pot of dark blue acrylic paint… what made Jelena SCREEEEAM!

Maven got scared, switched immediately from her lazy slow mode and ran away like crazy, leaving quite a few equidistant dark blue paw prints on the floor and shelves, before Joakim caught her and took her to the washing session, badly needed but not too appreciated.

Luckily, all the traces are now removed from the floor and furniture that played a central piece in yesterday’s episode from the life of a struggling painter. Maven, that is.

***

This is the painting in question, I am still not sure if it is finished. I am not sure about its name, either. I call it “Up”.

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!

‘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.

Maven is a black smoke cat, meaning that the roots of the hairs are distinctly white (not grayish - the grayish would be ‘normal’, when a cat does not have silver pigment, or is not white).

Silver tabbies and blacks look quite dramatic when they move, especially when they run – the hair parts and the white undercoat shows.

That silver gene influence is all nice and pretty, but when your hair is cut and trimmed after a week of changing bandages and cleaning the wound – that does not look that attractive.

Poor Maven, that is one not so pretty tail top. But, the hair will grow back, and not even a part of the tail will be amputated!!! We are so happy.

Pretty ladies on a catwalk

Such grace, such beauty. Look as these two ladies showing off the latest cat fashion on the local catwalk.

Jocke got scratched on his tummy, quite a lot; he was holding Maven while I was changing her bandage. She did not bite him, but she tried to escape, and accidentally scratched him with her back paws while doing that. The wound apparently hurts her a lot. Maven got painkillers when we were at the veterinary, but we do not have them at home. She cried like never before. I feel so sorry for her. And for Jocke, he is so badly scratched. :( Still, Maven’s wound looks better today.

We had problems giving her antibiotics; twice a day we have to trick her. We diluted the medicine in a drop of yogurt so it formed a paste. It worked the first time. The second time she refused to lick the paste from the plate, so we smeared her front paw with it. She licked it promptly; cats are compulsive-obsessive when it comes to their hygiene.

Maven was bitten once before and behaved exactly the same as now – being depressed for a few days, staying inside.  That wound she got back then was on one side of her abdomen. We freaked out and took her immediately to the pet hospital, but they said that she would be fine, and no medications were needed. That wound indeed did heal on its own (we only drained the abscess a few times). That happened about a year ago.

Two days ago we checked the tail to see how this new wound was healing, removed the crust, and it was bad, really bad. It looked okay on the surface of the crust, but actually it was infected and now we could see the bone. We took propolis drops and put it on the wound that we previously washed clean and then bandaged it. We took Maven to the veterinary this morning.

Today the skin got closed around the bone and it looked much better than on Saturday. The veterinary did not know what propolis was, but she was open to whatever might help the kitty get better and save her tail. Usage of propolis in Sweden is, surprisingly, relatively new to the most. Few years ago I had to buy it abroad, but now I can find it here.

Maven got some fresh bandages, antibiotics, and a painkiller shot (the nerves are not damaged, luckily, but she has pain). If her tail heals within a week, the top 5 cm will not be amputated. Poor Maven! Thanks to the propolis drops, we avoided an amputation today. If the vet only saw how it was on Saturday…

She is resting now. Maven was sedated, but not sleeping, during the examination and is still a bit disoriented and shaky. I petted her a lot and she got some juicy canned tuna recently (she was so hungry; because of the possible operation and sedation, she did not eat since last evening, and then a few hours after we came home, so she would not choke on food while reflexes are still a bit slow)!

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!?

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.