The Cats have To Make Money

 I've decided that it's time for the cats to make some money!

I wish that each cat could get a job! But that's impossible, so I've decided to use this blog as an idea for T-shirts!

I've noticed a lot of cute T-shirts on Etsy and Shopify; a lot are made with Printify, a print-on-demand company. I decided to have a go. 

At the beginning of the month, I designed, with AI's help, a simple T-shirt. The design says "81 lives, endless chaos", which sums up my life with the cats. I ordered a sample, which arrived yesterday.

I was trying to show how the neck, sleeves and bottom are hemmed, so they don't fray. The material is very soft and comfortable.

Lovely T-shirt.

I never know how to stand in photos, plus my face is all blotchy and swollen from allergies. But the T-shirt looks good.

I hope to make a few more designs and start a shop on either Etsy or Shopify. 

Maybe I can make some money to pay for the cats!!!

Fred And The Oven

 I fixed the problem with the cats turning on the rice cooker. I moved the rice cooker to the edge of the counter, so there's no space for the cats to sit in front of it!

This afternoon, I was in my room, I could hear the oven beeping. It beeps when it's finished cooking; there's a timer setting on the oven. That really helps me as I tend to put things in the oven and then forget about them. Without the timer, I think I would have a lot of burnt offerings!

I couldn't figure out why the oven was beeping; I'm home alone- well, alone with nine cats! Maybe it's the resident ghost playing with the oven.

I went to investigate and found Fred leaning on the control panel of the oven!

Fred and my oven.

You can see the panel is lit up, which means that the oven is being used! Fortunately, he had only set the controls on the touch panel; to start it, you have to push a button, which I think (hope) they can't do.

I can't move the oven, and I don't want to unplug it. The best would be to keep the cats off the counter, but that doesn't seem to work!

If I Fits, I Sits

 I know cats like boxes, but surely it's too hot now to snuggle up in one?

Recently, one of the discount supermarkets I shop at hasn't had large-size plastic bags.  I try to take my own shopping bag, but sometimes I forget. The store has a stack of boxes that customers can use, so I usually get one of those, which means there are a lot of boxes hanging around the house. As soon as the box is put on the table, the cats appear; it's like magic!

Sam

I turned this box on its side to get the last few things from the bottom. I put away a couple of things, turned around to see Sam very comfortable in the box, with some vegetables!

One cat in a box I can understand; there's room for air to circulate around him so he doesn't get too hot!

But this....

Small box, big cats.

How is that comfortable? Surely they are hot! They were in there for hours!

Alfie on a box.

Poor Alfie couldn't get in the box, so he got on the one next to it!

Today Fred found his happy place.

Very contented Fred.

Like a box but not hot! This is one of the baskets I use when shopping. It got left in the dining room so Fred claimed it for his afternoon nap. I think he feels safe here, but it's not as hot as being in a box!

Fluffy And My Water

 I suffer from allergies; to manage them, I take antihistamine tablets twice a day. The medicine is great, but it dries my mouth out a lot. Because of that, I like to have some water to sip on when I'm eating. Almost every time I sit down to eat, Fluffy jumps up and tries to drink my water.

Fluffy

I don't know why she does this. There are 4 bowls of water around the house; these are refreshed every couple of hours. I tried using different bowls for Fluffy, even putting a bit of lettuce in a bowl so she could see where the water is, but she still prefers my water. I've changed the type of bowl; the ones I have are small metal bowls. I've tried plastic and have even given Fluffy an old cup to drink out of. None of that has worked; she still wants my water.

Most of the time I can stop her; yesterday, however, I was too slow!

She emptied the cup!!

A Mystery Solved

 This is my new rice cooker.

I've had it for a few months now. 

Where the yellow sticker is, that's the control panel. It's a touchscreen and is very sensitive.

Before I go to bed, I wash some rice, put it in the rice cooker, and set the timer so it's ready for me to make obento in the morning.

Some mornings, however, the rice isn't cooked, or the timer is wrong. I've gone over the manual a few times, with one of the kids helping me; my Japanese reading skills aren't that good. It looks like I'm doing everything right, so why am I having problems?

Last night at about 2 a.m., I heard a crash from the kitchen/dining area. I went to investigate and found that Christopher had tripped over the broom!

I asked Christopher what had woken him up. His bedroom is off the dining/kitchen area. He said that he could hear something beeping; he thought it was either the fridge that hadn't been closed properly or somebody's alarm clock.

When he looked round, he saw Alan on the counter, grooming himself and leaning against the rice cooker; every time he moved, he hit the control panel, changing the settings! The beeping noise was the setting being changed.

So now I know why the rice cooker settings are being changed; I just don't know what to do about it. I don't have anywhere else to put the rice cooker.

Alan

Fluffy And Toast's Midnight Adventure

 The other night, Fluffy and Toast got out.

David was leaving for work just after 11pm, he shouted to me that Fluffy and Toast were outside.

Fluffy

Toast

I went out and saw a ginger streak go by. Fluffy ran to the window to get back in, nice and easy.

Toast, however, was nowhere to be seen. Do you know how hard it is to find a black cat at night?

Our garden is completely overgrown. Also, we have a massive storage area that is undercover but has a lot of things in it- lots of hiding places. Christopher and I looked around for about an hour, but we couldn't see or hear Toast. I was a bit worried as there are wild hogs in this area; I really didn't want to meet one of those at night!

We left some food out for Toast and went to bed. 

When I got up the next day, Toast was sitting on the table, waiting for his breakfast, none the worse for his midnight adventure! I, on the other hand, have a painful ankle. I twisted it on a rock when I was out looking for Toast!

Steve

 Steve is my white cat. He's also one of my chunky cats and the best escape artist.

Steve

We moved to this house about 18 months ago. In the old house, Steve was the first cat to figure out how to open the front door!

Here he has found that the screen door in Christopher's room is easy to open; that's how they got out yesterday.

Christopher said that yesterday evening Steve opened the door to his room, wandered in slowly and went to the screen door to go out.  Christopher stopped him. The other cats were waiting to see if they could get out as well!

Today Steve has been sitting by Christopher's bedroom door crying. He really wants to go out! Maybe I should train him to walk on a leash!

I found this cute video of Steve from a few years ago.

He was completely white as a kitten; his tan marking came in later.

Another video I found is of Steve, Alan and Fred playing.

Cute!