Oliver was walking along the top of the headboard of the bed and apparently just fell off onto Daddybird’s face. In the process, he managed to give him the world’s tiniest black eye.
This picture doesn’t do it justice. It is a lovely shade of red. It’s not the only bruise Daddybird is sporting right now. He has two bright red spots from being shot playing paintball earlier in the week. Poor thing!
Archive for the ‘cats’ Category
Blackeye
November 10, 2009Oliver-in-the-Box
October 24, 2009We recently received two of our boxes shipped from the States. (Christmas decorations, yeah! I had the Peanuts Christmas song in my head the whole time I was unpacking.) The kittens went crazy “helping” and smelling all the exotic smells on and in the boxes.
Once the boxes are emptied, they become the bestest toys.
Napping Spot
October 19, 2009Miss Kitty has found a unique place to take her naps. As long as there isn’t a fire, she’ll be fine.
Miss Kitty napping in the fire bucket.
Buddy Movie
October 2, 2009You’ve all seen at least one buddy movie – Lethal Weapon, Tango & Cash, Beverly Hills Cop, Rush Hour, Turner & Hooch, etc. You know the basic formula – two males are forced together by circumstances out of their control, they don’t like each other or at least one doesn’t like the other, through the course of the movie they overcome their conflict and bond for life.
Here’s our buddy movie. It only took about 4 weeks for the break through to happen.
Awww…
September 30, 2009
How cute is this? Crossed tails and everything. Enjoying some raw egg to make their coats shiny (and get them out of my breakfast plate).
Here’s Bert’s switch maneuver.
And a peaceful resolve.
Cat Hog
September 29, 2009
It was awfully quiet and I was feeling lonesome, so I went in search of our kitties and found Daddybird hogging them ALL!
Stalker cat
September 22, 2009So, for three weeks, Oliver has been hating Bert. His freak out reactions gradually decreased little by little, but even now he still growls and hisses at him.
Oliver used to drive us crazy because he would howl piteously as if abandoned even though we were in the room. Or, he would go into another room and begin the howling. All this time I’m thinking we are going to get evicted for noise.
Now, Bert and Oliver are playmates, chasing each other around. Well, actually, it’s Oliver doing the chasing. He follows Bert everywhere, sneaking up from behind or the side and attacking. They aren’t using claws and teeth, so it really is play even though it looks like dirty tactics. Oliver is quite the “sneaky snake.”
Now, he only howls when he can’t find Bert or someone (read Daddybird) has picked Bert up and thereby disrupted the play.
Neither has stopped for a nap, yet, so I don’t know how that will go. They have to stop sometime.
Bert has always been good about playing independently and entertaining himself. Oliver has always been high maintenance needing to be played with. This is how the game of fetch came about. I’m not sure how long Bert will put up with having to entertain Oliver. It will be interesting to watch.
American Ingenuity
September 22, 2009Pet stores are fairly rare here and not necessarily fully stocked. We went to one of the “best” and they had three brands of cat food to choose from – the cheap brand we were already using (and which seems to be giving the cats digestive trouble) or two really expensive brands. The only litter scoop they had came with a litter box. There were no separately available tools. AND they were all out of litter. They had a few cat trees, but they were short and one was covered in powder blue shag carpet – way too foofoo for two male cats. They were also not particularly sturdy.
We have very high ceilings and Bert, especially, wants to be as high as he can get. He climbed on top of the dining room chair and stared longingly at the ceiling the other day. Plus, there are plenty of interesting things for them to see out the window, if they can just get high enough to see over the balcony railing.
To order a nice, big cat tree via the internet and have it shipped here is prohibitive. Finding a carpenter who could build us one would be time consuming and possibly impossible.
So, while at Ace “Hardware” (I use quotes because they have very little hardware) we found tall metal shelving for a fairly reasonable price and I had an epiphany, alright, it was just an idea, but a really, really good one.
We bought two sets of shelving.
I cut up the box to make the wire shelving easier to walk on for cats.
I was very frugal, this is what is left of the boxes the shelves came in. 
I cut up cheap fleece blankets to cover each shelf. These can be removed, laundered and replaced (unlike carpet covered cat trees.)
I added dangling toys. Daddybird gave me a hard time for putting the Star of David on a tree for Arab cats.
Again, I was being frugal. The stars were attached to some felt place mats I bought for another project.
We will connect the two shelf towers with heavy duty plastic ties. I have to run to the store to get them, so not quite complete, yet.
And Voila! The best cat tree in town.
You know what they say – You can tell how crazy a person is by the size of their cat tree.
Oliver’s day
September 22, 2009Oliver had a big day today. #1 Sores on his lips & tongue #2 First ride in the car #3 First trip to the vet #4 Two shots & oral medication #5 Ride home in the car #6 Feeling better fast #7 Played with Bert AND had fun doing it. Major progress made today. Now he is deep asleep. Whew!
Oliver, again
September 7, 2009When he is awake, Oliver is a busy kitty. I was sick this weekend, so I spent a fair amount of time locked in the bedroom with him (still keeping Oliver & Bert apart). Oliver is getting so big. My “baby’s” growing up.
Living the Travel Channel 