Mother's Day

 Happy Mother's Day to all cat Moms out there.

I never wanted cats. Growing up, we always had dogs. Dogs, I understand, not cats!

But when Mama cat showed up my heart melted. She was such a tiny thing, so sweet and cute. Very quiet and not at all aggressive. Even when she first came around, she would let us pick her up or stroke her.

This was before she came into the house. She would come around the yard and meow outside the window. I thought we could feed her and give her clean water, but leave her outside.

That changed when she gave birth to 4 kittens outside our window during one of the worst rainstorms I've ever experienced. We had to bring her in, or the kittens would have drowned!

Mama with her first litter

When this photo was taken, one of the kittens had been adopted.

Mama cat is the matriarch of our cat family. 

She is still very quiet, rarely fights, she lets the other cats push her away from her food, she never demands attention, but is very happy when she gets love!

So Happy Mother's Day to Mama Cat, you really changed my life!

Sam....The Guard Cat

 I was sitting in my room with Sam on my lap. I'm not feeling too good; seasonal allergies have hit me hard, sneezing and sniffling all day.

Sam was all relaxed, gently snoring and purring at the same time.

Suddenly, he stood up, his tail all fluffed up, and the fur on his back standing on end.

I then heard someone outside my window. There isn't anything out there, so I couldn't figure out who would be in that area. We get wild hogs in the garden, but it's still too early for them to be out!

Sam then jumped onto the windowsill. He started hissing! My window opened, I was about to scream when I saw my son, Christopher, standing there!

He gave me a real fright! I was happy to see that Sam was trying to defend his territory!

Sam with his bushy tail.

They've Taken Over!

 The title sounds like the start of a science-fiction book about aliens invading!

That's what it feels like when my cats take over a place.

At the moment it's the bed my daughter uses when she visists. I don't allow the cats in my room, most of the time. I don't mind one or two coming in to keep me company while I'm working on my computer but not to sleep, except Sam. He kind of made it a habit to sleep with me. Unfortunately I had to stop him as I have plants growing on my window sill and he keeps chewing on them. Not good for him or the plants!

The plants that Sam keeps chewing on.

My daughter has been reading in my room this afternoon. I was busy doing other things, cooking and cleaning. I was wondering where the cats were. I found out when I came back to my room!

8 of the cats, snuggled up together.

Only Fluffy was missing, she prefers to be in the kitchen/dining area.

Fluffy, sitting on a paper towel.

This morning Fred scared me. I was half asleep, running for the toilet, opened the door to this.

Fred on the throne!

The top of the tank is a little sink, with a tap that runs when the toilet is flushed. These are common in Japanese houses, a place to wash your hands without having an extra sink. Fred prefers to drink the water from that tap, he will wait in the toilet for someone to come and flush it!

My spell and grammar checking app isn't working. Sorry if there are mistakes!

What A Night

 I think I slept for less than an hour last night. All of the cats decided to party loudly, starting at midnight and continuing until 8am!

Frodo and Fred started fighting, so I separated them. I went to bed. Just got comfortable when Steve, Alan and Toast started the song of the ancestors, you know that long yowling that goes on forever. Calmed them down, back to bed. Then Mama cat started to meow, very loudly. She sounded so sad, so of course I had to go and see what was wrong. I couldn't see anything; they had been fed, and the water bowls were full. Then Fred and Steve started to fight, so I broke my rule and let Fred sleep in my room. 

This was the pattern all night. Of course, they are sleeping now!

Fred and Toast

Fluffy is asleep on David.

I think part of the problem is the local cats hanging around our garden.

One of the local cats.

I've seen this cat quite a few times recently. There's also a white cat and a small black cat. I don't know if they are strays or belong to someone in the area. One problem is that a lot of people don't bother to spay or neuter their animals. If these cats are intact and marking the garden, then that might be why my cats are acting up. We had the same problem last year. Fortunately, once it got hot, my cats calmed down. The only problem with that is once it gets hot, I have a hard time sleeping! This time of year, the nighttime temperature is just right for me. I really hope that the cats sleep tonight!

Fred Again

 I always feel sorry for Fred; he gets pushed out by the other cats and ends up in a lot of fights. 

I'm not sure how this happened, but his littermates turned on him, and even the younger cats have a go at him, especially Frodo.

Steve, the white cat, Fred in the middle and Alan.

This is Fred with his littermates. I always think they are planning something in this photo. It's unusual to see them sitting together like this!

The only other cat he gets along with is Alfie, the other grey and white cat.

Fred and Alfie

I'm not sure if it's related, but Fred has a bad habit of marking everywhere. I think he is trying to show his dominance over the other cats. Because of this, I don't usually let him in my room.

This week, however, my daughter is staying here for a few days. She has let Fred into my room. I don't mind as long as she can watch him. At the moment, he is really sleeping. I think he doesn't sleep very deeply as he is always being vigilant.

She took this video of him making biscuits.

Cute!

Cats In Boxes

 Cats love boxes!

We buy the cat food online, so there are always boxes for the cats. More than any toys we've bought for them, the boxes are always the favourite!

I've been trying to sort through the thousands of photos I have. Even though I pay for cloud storage, I need to be careful about how many photos I have. Today, I noticed that I have so many photos of the cats in boxes.

Even if there's no room, they'll find a way to fit in.

Even if the box is too small, if we fits, we sits!

Are they comfortable?

If they want a box, they aren't going to wait for you to put away the shopping.

Alfie didn't want us to throw out these boxes. We took him out of that box at least 10 times, but he just jumped back in. In the end, we let him keep that box; the rest went to the recycling centre.

Packing to go away for a couple of days, got the important things in!

Don't need anything else!

Cats and boxes really go together!

Flea Meds Again

 Some of the cats hate having the flea meds put on them.

Fluffy is the worst of the lot.

David does the hard work of catching her, I put the meds on her while she is trying to scratch her way to freedom.

When we were doing it the other day, Fluffy was sitting on the little round table in the kitchen area. She was facing away from us.

David opened the package containing the flea meds. He was trying to do it quietly, but somehow Fluffy noticed. This was just a package from Amazon; the meds are the ones the vet recommended, but cheaper from Amazon. 

Fluffy turned round at the sound of the package being opened. She stared for a few seconds, then took off at light speed.

How does she know what's in the package? We get a few packages every month, cat food, cat scratching boards, books, occasionally clothes that I order, so how did she know that this package contained the flea meds? 

The flea meds package.

I think Fluffy must have sent out a signal because the other cats that were just chilling out also went into panic mode!

Fluffy got under the sofa, the most difficult place to get her out of!

Can you see her hiding?

It took a while, but they all got done. 

We had a day of the cats sulking, but they have forgiven us until the next time. I think we need a better strategy for next month!

Just a few photos of the cats.

Mama and Alan are sitting on the flea meds package; maybe they are hoping we can't find it?