cat – Page 8

I Didn’t Even Make It A Day

New Year’s Day arrived with a steady and gentle rain, Bear and I took advantage with a long walk in the neighborhood we had all to ourselves. It almost felt like Portland save for the saguaros standing in the mist. Trixie slept in my lap most of the day, when daylight fell the winds picked up and she hopped off my lap and hid under the blanket beside me. She disappeared when a thunderstorm arrived with the night so I went into the bedroom to check on her, bending down to kiss the tiny lump under the covers on my side of the bed, thanked with a quiet squeak. When the storm passed she returned to my lap but I was chagrined my promise there would be no thunder until July didn’t survive even a day into the new year.

Even Superman Needs a Nap

Peace

I’m Glad She’s On My Side

There are times in nature you realize you’re not the top predator, sometimes too even in your own home …

This is Scout yawning at the top of the stairs in 2006, I re-edited it last night and was going to replace the old online version only to discover it wasn’t online. It had been on my old site but apparently never made it to the blog, even though I started the blog a couple of months before the shot was taken.

Fortunately Bear Is Happy to Share His Dog Beds

I Think My Credibility Is Wearing Thin

Today’s thunderstorms are the last of the year, I PROMISE!

She’s Right to be Angry

I assured Trixie monsoon season was over (in my defense, it was) but we had a couple of boomers roll through the first week of October. If you see a tortoiseshell with the tiniest little suitcases and a placard that says “Oregon or Bust” please let us know, she’s not allowed outside much less to hitchhike across the country.

Squeaks in the Window

Boo spent much of the summer behind the wooden shutters in my office but on this occasion Trixie gave it a try. Generally if she’s by the window she prefers the pillow, though at the moment she’s sprawled down my legs with Boo curled up tight against me.

Blackout Shades

One nice thing while I was quarantined in July is the bedroom has blackout shades on its windows, so I could keep the room dark to make it easier to try and sleep off the illness. It’s hard to get them to come down the last little bit to the window sill but sometimes I leave some extra room regardless, to allow curious cats to sneak in behind them for backyard birdwatching. Trixie was one of my convalescence companions, though at times it was hard to tell if my fever had returned or I was just feeling flush from the heat of Little Furnace sleeping on my legs.

It’s the first time I’ve appreciated the bedroom being so big, normally it’s just wasted space for us but it was nice while it was my home inside our home for a couple of weeks. It gave me plenty of room to play with Bear when he was allowed in, it was nice to have time to bond with the pup, normally hard to do except on the weekends.

Quarantine Companion

One night in July I woke to my teeth chattering so badly I had to clench my jaw to get them to stop, not exactly normal for the middle of the Arizona summer. The thermometer confirmed a low grade fever and the rapid test confirmed Covid, which I later discovered was quietly sweeping through the plant. I quarantined in the bedroom, at first we kept the pets out but after talking with the vet we allowed them in when I was feeling better. Boo even slept on my chest at one point, something he hasn’t done since he was a kitten, he usually prefers curling up beside me.

In the early days Boo and Trixie occasionally complained outside the door about not being let in, with paws swiping under the door to try to catch my attention, but if Sam was still with us we would have had to let them in and just brought in litter boxes and food. He would have curled up on my chest and been annoyed if I coughed too much, but not so much as to actually get up. I would have been serenaded to sleep by the purrs of a cat who was happy so long as we were together.