Scratcher of heads, rubber of bellies
I trimmed the claws of all three cats today, and even though Sam wasn’t too happy about it at the time, if you’ll look at Emma’s paw I think he was appreciative of it later. No matter how it looks, this was all in good fun and part of their normal horseplay. Sam is still smaller than Emma but at least it’s not as lopsided as it used to be — not that his small size ever stopped Sam from rough-housing as a kitten.
Another of Emma’s traits that showed early is that she’s pretty good about playing on her own (at least until she shoves her toys behind a door). I also like how this picture shows the size disparity between the two cats at the time.
… and there are a lot of things I don’t know, but how exactly are we supposed to play with our mice if you keep shoving them under the door?
This is one of Emma’s traits that showed itself right from the beginning.
Emma had been with us about a week and was sitting in the nice light of the late afternoon sun. We were still getting to know each other and while she was more than ready to be out of isolation, she was otherwise very good-natured and playful. I wanted to capture that expression on film but she must have squinted a bit when I tripped the shutter, turning her expression from peaceful to severe, so I didn’t end up portraying Emma as she truly is.
… you’ll put the camera down and let me sleep!
This time, I wanted to emphasize how adorable he was so I zoomed in for the full-on kitten cuteness.
A picture of Sam zonked out on our couch, taken back in early January when he was just a little kitten and had only been with us a couple of weeks. I wanted to emphasize how little he was so I zoomed out and took a wide angle shot.
When I saw Sam sleeping in the heated bed with his ears sticking up over the top, it reminded me of a picture of Templeton in a similar pose and I couldn’t resist paying tribute.
I haven’t done any hiking the past month or so, choosing instead to stay at home over the weekends. There have been different reasons on different days, sometimes I’ve had to work, sometimes I’ve been too tired, sometimes I haven’t felt that well, sometimes there was other stuff to be done. Today was a little mix of everything, I did some work early in the day, then worked in the attic to clean up the debris that fell when the new roof got put in. It was hot and tiring work and afterwards I needed to lie down for a while, then in the evening the cats and I went outside. Sam and Emma are well behaved enough out there now that I got some yard work done, trimming some plants and watering and snacking on blueberries and strawberries.
Sam and Emma have been with us for over six months now and have really brought a lot of joy into our lives, waking up at 5 a.m. to your toes being gnawed on notwithstanding. This picture of Scout playing in the catnip is from last weekend.
So perhaps my exposé of the catwalk was just a little contrived. One of Sam’s paws was moving in his picture anyway, so it was pretty obvious he wasn’t sitting still. It was easier for Templeton to enjoy catnip since he loved to eat it and I could feed it to him inside the house, but Scout much prefers to roll around in it. Some of the neighborhood cats have been wreaking havoc on the catnip growing in the backyard, killing one plant entirely and breaking stems on the other. I decided to cut a few of the stems and lay them on the sidewalk in our backyard to let Scout have at it.
I was surprised to see Sam join in the fun, as Scout didn’t care for catnip as a kitten, but as you can see she has a grand old time with it these days.
Boolie 