Scratcher of heads, rubber of bellies
This wasn’t the portrait of the two of us I originally wanted. In the morning Emma was in bed with me and when I rolled over to curl up beside her, she wrapped her paws around my arm. I thought it would make a cute picture so I tried to ease away and get the camera but she followed me downstairs. Later in the afternoon we played with by far her favorite cat toy, the feathered one, I didn’t mean to get my hand in the picture but I like how it turned out.
For today’s post, I set the way-back machine to 2001 when Scout was just a little kitten …
The timing of Scout’s arrival was impeccable. While Templeton was vigilant in keeping the little gray mice in check, he adopted a live-and-let-live policy towards the large pink mice. Their population exploded as a result, but with Scout on the prowl, it wasn’t long before even the pink mice were brought under control.
Little Sam loved to play under our dressers as a kitten. Of the three cats, he was the only one small enough to fit under there. At first he could run under there pretty easily, then as he got a little bigger he’d have to wiggle to get in. Now he’s too big to fit under there at all.
When Emma first came to live with us, she was immediately taken with our furry mice and convinced she could train them. I was equally convinced she couldn’t. So you can imagine my chagrin one day when I’m playing with Sam and look over and see that Emma had trained one of the mice to stand on its tip-toes.
She’s never let me forget it.
As you can see from yesterday’s post, little Sam is quite the wrestler but this hasn’t always been the case. During his first week with us, even this little furry mouse was able to pin him to the floor. Cut him some slack though, he was just a little 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.
I know I said this blog wasn’t going all cats all the time, but …
My right eye specifically.
A picture of Sam playing yesterday. At first I was annoyed with myself for not doing a better job and getting everything in frame, but after a while the picture grew on me and I like the way the composition highlights the helter skelter style of his play.
A couple of action shots of Emma playing with her furry mice, in better focus than yesterday’s picture. She’s definitely feeling at home with us now, her first few days she didn’t play much and then pretty gently, but it’s controlled mayhem now. I’d describe Sam’s play as controlled mayhem but that would imply there was control involved. Some of my best shots of him today accidentally have him running out of the frame.
They are both playing quite a bit now and are very active, which I think is a combination of them feeling better as well as getting more comfortable with us and each other. They are also eating a lot, which may not be an issue given how much exercise they are getting, but it also means they are using the litter box a lot. Being in a closed room with them somehow becomes a little less appealing (what exactly do they put in that kitten food anyway?) — for the first few days it was raining so much I couldn’t open a window for relief, but the past couple of days I’ve been able to air out the room from time to time.
Boolie 