Fights

 I don't know if it's because the weather has cooled down or because this house is small and the cats don't really have enough space, but over the past few days, there have been constant fights.

Usually, it's Fred and Frodo, but then they are snuggling together.

This was a few minutes after fighting!

The air conditioner went on!

Today Alan was having a go at all the other cats, except Mama and Fluffy!

This was this morning; it was a bit chilly here, so of course the cats snuggled together. But after breakfast it was one fight after another. I think I spent most of the day moving cats to other rooms. I tried playing with them to redirect their energy, but it didn't work.

I hope they sleep tonight, as I really need sleep, not chasing cats all night!

Alan The Black Cat

 Why do I spend money on cat toys?

When a piece of paper keeps them entertained!

There was a receipt lying around on the table. David went to move it and caught Alan's attention. They ended up playing for about 5 minutes until one of the other cats came in and Alan walked off!

I got a little video of them playing.

This reminds me of when my kids were little. I would buy them toys, but they were more interested in the boxes that the toys came in! Typical!

I Missed My Cats

 Last weekend, I went on a little trip with my daughter to Kagoshima. I was away for only four days, but I really missed the cats.

The one place I really wanted to visit was a cat shrine, but it was up a rather steep hill. It had been raining on and off all morning, and the hill looked rather slippery. I would have been all right going up, but I was worried that I might slip coming down. My daughter went up and took some lovely photos of the cat statues that are set up around the shrine.

I like this one!

They are so realistic. 

My daughter said that the statues were so cute up close! 

We are hoping to go again. Let's hope that the weather will cooperate, and I can go and see this shrine.

As much as I enjoyed my trip, I was happy to get home and see my cats!

This was last night. It's got very cool here, so the cats are back on the beds. This is my son's loft bed, warm and high, the best place for the cats!

No, Sam's head isn't stuck; he just likes sticking it through the bars!

I'll update about the cats again soon!

Fred And Alfie

 I'm going through my old photos to delete some and make space for my upcoming trip!

I try not to delete photos of my kids or the cats, but do I really need 20 photos of a stray cat?

As I was going through them, I noticed that there are a lot of photos of Fred and Alfie together, especially when Alfie was a kitten.

I thought I would share some here.

I love this photo; they both have the same pose. 

These two photos show them snuggled up together. 

The top photo looks like Fred is complaining about babysitting Alfie; the bottom one looks like Fred has resigned himself to being the big brother!

Somehow I like looking through these older photos.

I have to ask does everyones phone have a massive number of photos of their cats, with just a few of family members and friends thrown in? Or is that just me?

The Cats Have Recovered

They are all better; Frodo and Alan still have slightly croaky voices, but they are as vocal as ever. 

The weather is very cool. I can always tell when the weather is cool, as the cats start to snuggle together and fight more. The snuggling is cute; the fighting is not so cute!

We had a thunderstorm the other evening. Mama, Alfie and Toast squeezed into a box. I guess that's the same as me hiding under the bed covers!

Toast had gotten out when this photo was taken.

This morning Fred and Frodo were fighting again. I tried to distract them by playing with them for a few minutes. It kind of helped, but I then realised that the cats hadn't been fed since 5 a.m., and it was lunchtime!

Trying Another Cat Game

 Another idea from Instagram for entertaining the cats is to put treats in the empty middle of a toilet paper roll.

Hannah and I tried it out with Mama; that was more successful than Fluffy and the paper bag!

She got the treats, but it took effort and time, which I think is good for her.

I worry that the cats don't get enough entertainment or exercise in this house. The house is small; the cats are fighting more and marking a lot. Makes a lot of extra work for me. I want to add a sunroom onto the front of the house that can be a dedicated cat room, with walkways and shelves for them to jump on! But that will take a lot of money!

I guess I'll have to sell a lot of T-shirts!

Cat Enrichment

 I've seen these Instagram posts about providing indoor cats with fun things to do. Most of them involve hiding treats in something to make the cat work for them. I considered buying food puzzles, but they tend to be a bit expensive, so I thought using ideas from Instagram would be better.

One idea is to put treats into a paper bag and let the cat get them.

I tried this last night; it turned out to be very funny!

Poor Fluffy was just going round in circles! She got most of the treats; the rest I gave her for trying so hard!

I'm going to try a few other ones over the next few weeks. All the cats have now recovered from whatever they had, so now the fights are starting! I need to redirect their energy without exhausting myself!