Peace

 Today has been the complete opposite of yesterday. Only one fight!

I found out later that the cats hadn't been fed, so maybe they were hangry, hungry and angry mix!

I found them like this today!

All snuggled up together. Typical, one minute trying to kill each other, the next best of friends!

Also, Fluffy was giving her approval of the chicken!

I put the dish on the table, and of course, Fluffy followed!

I was giving her some, but I was a bit slow, and she helped herself!

I think she got the biggest piece!

Fights

 During the summer, it's so quiet here. The cats just don't have the energy to fight. Now that it's cooled down a lot, the fights have started.

I've been trying to read for the past half hour, but every few minutes I have to jump up to stop yet another fight.

I've been playing the cats more, trying to use up their energy that way, but it isn't really working. 

I would love to buy a cat wheel so they can exercise, tire themselves out and also deal with the older cat's weight problem. But the wheels are rather expensive, and the reality is that we don't have room for one! So, I'll continue to jump up and down, chase the cats and hope that they will settle down a bit! At least I'm getting some exercise!

Fred

Alan

Steve

These are the 3 main culprits!

They are all male and all fixed, so I have no idea what the problem is!

Finding The Warm Spots

 This house, like many older homes in Japan, lacks central heating. We have little kerosene fan heaters in some of the rooms, but all they do is take the chill off the room; they don't really warm the place at all. Add to that, there is no insulation, so keeping the room warm is very hard!

My cats, however, always seem to find warm places. 

The sofa has a lot of blankets on it, also I put blankets on the dining table; they seem to like it there!

The other day, I couldn't see any of my cats. That's unusual as the house isn't that big!  I found some of them were on my son's bed the others were in the engawa.

Even though I've been in Japan for many years, I still don't understand what the engawa is for. It's a small corridor that is in front of the Japanese tatami room. It doesn't go anywhere; it's just dead space as far as I can see. The engawa here is wide but not long, I've turned it into my book nook as there is space for bookshelves away from the window! It's also one area that gets some sun on the windows, warming up the area nicely. This is where I found the cats, sunbathing, looking very contented.

There are two cats here!

So now I know where to look for the cats!

My Chunky Lads

 I wrote before that Steve, my white cat, was getting rather chunky! Looks like Fred is following in his footsteps!

Steve, a couple of years ago

And now

Fred is the same.

Fred before

And now

One suggestion I've received is to switch to wet food, as it contains more water, so they fill up but eat less. This makes a lot of sense to me! I eat a lot of soups because I'm trying to lose weight. I feel full quicker, but I'm not eating as much.

Also, I'm trying to get them to move more. But I think I'm getting more exercise than they are. I run up and down the corridor with one of their wand toys, hoping that they will follow me. They do for a bit, but the other cats get in the way, so Fred and Steve give up. The only time they really run is when they hear the food cupboard being opened!

This was Steve this morning. He's being all lovely and purring because he wants breakfast!

Sorry, the video isn't that great. I really have to learn how to take better videos!

Even More Photos

 As I said in my last post, I have 1000's of photos of my cats. I have more photos of my cats than I do of my kids!

Here are a few more!

This is Mama Cat's second litter.

I have 3 ginger cats, so I'm not sure who is who!

They get cute very quickly!

Fred is the older cat, Alfie the kitten

Fred and Alfie always seemed to hang out together!

Playing

I was worried when the second litter was born about the older cats. I was surprised to see the older cats were rather gentle with the kittens, until the kittens could fight back. 

Looks like Steve, the white cat, is babysitting!!

I'll sort some more photos and post them later!

Photos

 Do other pet parents have the same problem, thousands of photos?

I keep running low on storage on Google Photos. I try to download as many as I can, but still too many! And most of them are of the cats!

I spent an hour moving some to Amazon Photos. I thought I would share some here over the next few posts!

These are from when Mama Cat first turned up and her first litter!

Outside the window, crying!

She was so small

First time inside

Then with her first litter.

Mama and babies

Still with eyes closed

Tiny Alan 

She has a very expressive face.

Fred and Steve

I wonder what she was shouting at!

It's hard to believe that was 7 years ago. I can't imagine life without these cats now!

Fluffy..Again

 As the weather cools down, Fluffy's fur improves a lot. She is the only cat with long fur. She overgrooms in the hot weather, but not once it cools down.  Now her fur is nice and soft.

She prefers people food! Whenever I'm cooking, she hangs about in the kitchen. Until I get the meat out, she just sits and watches me. Once I open a pack of meat, she starts to really meow! She puts her front paws on the unit, standing on her hind legs, begging for meat, especially chicken. I usually cook her a bit of meat, but she gets very impatient! I end up telling her to wait.

She always sits on the edge of the counter or table.

Creeping along the sink

Fluffy's parrot impression

She also gets on the table when we are eating! Sometimes David or I will give her a bit of meat, but I'm trying to discourage her from getting on the table.

I do clean the counter and table after Fluffy has been on there. I tried to stop her, but it's actually easier to clean than to stop her!