Fluffy...

 AKA The Chicken Thief.

Fluffy is the smallest of my cats, also the only long-haired one.

Fluffy

She is very cute, loves to be petted and held. She likes to climb onto people's shoulders.

Fluffy using Mikey to see outside

I always worry because she never seems to eat the cat food. I've found out that she prefers people's food, especially chicken.

Last summer I cooked some chicken breast and left it on the counter to cool for a salad. I left the kitchen, came back a few minutes later, and found Fluffy had grabbed a piece of chicken and was happily eating it.  She had managed to find the biggest piece from the pan!! I couldn't believe it.

My chicken

This was a couple of weeks ago. I swear these cats work together. One cat was sitting on my feet, I looked down to see who it was, and when I looked back Fluffy had snatched one of my chicken drum sticks!  In the background you can see a full tray of chicken, she wasn't interested in those, just mine.

I've tried putting her in the corridor when I cook or eat but she cries so much and sounds so pathetic that I let her back in!! 

Part of the fun, I guess!

Sleep All Day, Play All Night

 I know cats sleep a lot, something like 50 to 70% of the day!

I get that racing around at night is normal for them but it still gets to me!

A discussion with my cats recently went something like this.

Me:  Why are you racing around at 2am? Why can't you be normal and sleep when I want to sleep.

Cats: We are cute, and we are even cuter when we are asleep. So we sleep during the day so you can take photos of our cuteness!

Look at all those lovely photos for your blog!

Me: Okay, I get that but why 2am zoomies?

Cats:  My dear we are getting our 10,000 steps in, you know we have to keep fit to have a long healthy life.

Not sure I'm buying that!  

But the cats are indeed cute when they sleep and I do like getting photos of them. I try to take some when they are awake but those never seem to work out so well. They end up being blurred because the cats move too much. Like this.

Looks like I caught a ghost image!

I need to think of something to stop the late-night madness!!  Maybe a play time before bed?

Time Flies!!

 I've been meaning to write more but I never seem to have the time!

February was bitterly cold! Most days found the cats like this:

on the sofa with an electric blanket on

one of the warmest places in the sun

curled up together

In the morning I put the kerosene heater on in the living/dining room and have a line of cats in front. I've tried to explain that sitting in front of the heater means that the room doesn't warm up. But they don't listen.  

As the weather warms up I think the cats will get more active. I can already hear them racing around and fighting more! 

One problem is the neighborhood cats that come and hang outside. I don't mind them coming, I guess no choice, but I don't think they are fixed.

One of the neighborhood cats

There are at least three that come round, I haven't had the chance to get photos of the others yet. If they are just hanging out or coming to the windows I don't mind, it's when they start fighting and yowling that gets me. Also, something keeps ripping our trash bags to pieces, either one of the cats or some other animal. I live in the countryside of Japan, we can get several interesting animals here, wild boar and occasionally monkeys among other animals!

I hope to keep this blog up. I'm learning how to take videos and edit them, should be interesting! Look out for some interesting cat videos!

Getting Settled

We moved house in December.

I was worried about the cats settling into the new house as it is half the size of the other house but they are okay.

One problem is that this is a single story house, which means that the night zoomies are outside my door almost every night!

Toast watching the world through the window

Fred and Alfie checking out the tatami room

Alfie sleeping in the sun

I keep my cats inside. Where we lived before there were too many busy roads, where we have moved to is really countryside.  At the moment it's okay outside but once spring starts we get a lot of wild animals in this area.  I've heard that there are wild hogs and sometimes monkeys come down from the mountain. I don't know if my cats are up to dealing with them!

Sam on my sofa

I had to buy a second hand sofa! I don't get to use it that often!  

Alan and Steve on my sofa

Sam and Fluffy

I should move them but they look so comfortable. I guess I can sit on the floor!

From Kittens To Cats

 All baby animals are cute. My theory is that they are cute so they can get away with anything!

All of our kittens were really cute. Even the ones that were a bit weird when they were born!

They have grown in to beautiful cats but they are terrors!

When my kids were little i never bothered with ornaments or breakable things, figuring that once the kids were older I would have chance to do that! Not with nine cats!  

Here are some photos of our cats as kittens.

Steve and Fred

Steve, Fred and the kitten that was adopted

2nd litter (maybe)

We have 3 ginger cats, it's difficult to tell them apart

Mama maybe 2nd litter

Sam?

Alfie and Sam

Alfie, Sam and another one that was adopted, 2nd litter

One thing that surprised me was how different their characters are. Each one has such an unique way about them!  Two are very stand offish, they aren't lap cats, they watch us from the edge of the room.  The older ones are bullies, they start most of the fights. I had hoped that once they were fixed that would stop, it's better but there are days when it sounds like a full on battle!  Sam, one of the ginger cats, is a love bug, he will come and get on your lap, if he hasn't seen us for a while he really cries! Fluffy, the only female, is a chicken thief! I can't leave any chicken out at all. I made chicken curry a few weeks ago, I thought it would be okay but she managed to get the chicken pieces out, non of the vegetables, just the chicken!  

It's just past their dinner time so it's very quiet now!  Some are snuggled up on the sofa, the others are on somebodies bed!

Cats

 I have nine cats!

Each cat has nine lives therefore 81 lives!

I never had cats growing up so I have no idea I'm doing, learning as I go along!

This cat adventure started when this little cat turned up about 7 years ago.

Mama cat

My plan was to take care of her outside.

Until she came crying outside during one of the worse rain storms I've ever experience.

I opened the window for her, she jumped in revealing 4 new born kittens!

Mama's first litter

This was the starter kit for our cat adventure!

Before we got her fixed she had 4 lots of kittens. One litter we lost, Mama cat was sick and couldn't feed them, we tried but they were weak, maybe born too early.

These cats have made me friends, especially one Facebook group. They have  reminded me that life can be wonderful, funny and slightly crazy! Mama turned up just after I'd had a mastectomy, having another life to take care helped me a lot. I could of sat around thinking "poor me", instead I was wondering how to help this stray cat and her kittens.

Over the next few posts I will introduce these cats.  

I'm not sure what direction this blog will take but I'm hoping to post a lot of photos and maybe videos!!