Gratuitous Cat Shots

Because it is my duty as a cat owner servant to provide the great internet with more cat photos. It's what the internet runs on after all.

Cat-i-tude

Because the internet needs more cute cat pictures. That's Abby keeping me company as I hang out in the sunroom.

Cats on Quilts

Country Mouse was surprised the cats hadn't tried to claim the new quilt in progress.

What follows is photographic proof that they were not shirking their feline duties.

Abby found it first and settled into a corner.


At some point she wandered off and Jack tried it out.

Kittehs!

There have not been nearly enough cat pictures on here lately.

Fetch!

My husband, the cat whisperer, has taught Abby to play fetch. Behold.



She will keep on like that for 9 or 10 tosses before she gets tired. As soon as she's rested a bit though? She wants to be right back at it.

Apologies for the sideway-ness, I can't seem to rotate the video. : /

Hello New Friend!

A few weeks ago we found the cats glued to the window staring at...another cat. Oddly enough, Abby was not growling and hissing which she used to do to the stray cat who tried to adopt us at the old house. But that doesn't mean she wasn't keeping a very close eye on the stranger.

Mah Kittehs

There has been a real dearth of kitty pictures on here lately. That's a sad thing because these cats are just about the cutest cats you ever will find. I submit the evidence:

1. Little kitty feet. High up in the air.

Basket Warmer

The other day as I was baking some bread, I heard a rustling. I looked over and saw Abby nestled next to the basket that holds our kitchen towels. I had just enough time to grab my camera and take this shot before she jumped down (the kitty guilt!).

Snugglebug

Our kitties are sneak cuddlebugs. They like to pretend that they are big and bad and tough and don't need you and oh are you going to sit there and provide a lap? Well I might just come cuddle. But not on the lap, no, but almost.

But what really melts my heart? Makes me go all gooey and "of course I will never get up and leave you even if my legs fall asleep and I'm starving to death"?

The purrs.

How can you resist this?

Abby the Kitty Cabinet Conqueror

Amusingly enough, today's pumpkin carving was not the only house milestone of the evening. Today shall also go down in history as the day Abby scaled the kitchen cabinets (while mom watched, since her nonchalant demeanor suggests this may not be the first time). You see, the cabinets sit over the fridge. And the fridge sits next to the microwave. The microwave sits on a counter. And the counter is within kitty jumping range of the floor.

And so...



I left her up there for as long as she wanted to stay. I figured if she had gotten up, she could get down. And me trying to shoo her down was probably going to be the death of both of us. On the bright side, it's a free dusting service!

Day 52/365--Sneak

My daily contiribution to my year long "Around the House" photo project. 365 photos. Blogged here.



Our cats love the laundry room. I'm sure part of it is their natural desire to find and break into all the places they aren't supposed to be. But part of it is the nooky, dark spaces. The small gap between the doors and the machines. The room to the right of the dryer. The perch on top of the washer. Secure spots both low (for Abby) and high (for Jack). A nesty, nooky, sort of space.

Skip Day

This skip day brought to you by a relaxing date night with my hubby after a rather stress inducing day at work. We went out to dinner and caught up on Battlestar Galactica. And then slept really well. The cats didn't even wake us up to be fed. Bliss.

Day 43/365--Not Me

My daily contiribution to my year long "Around the House" photo project. 365 photos. Blogged here.



Our cats are ridiculously smart. As in they watch us and learn. And then do what we do. Like open cabinet doors. Most cats might paw at the doors and luck into opening them. Ours use the handles. And when we moved and the cupboards now have knobs? It didn't throw them at all. Hi, my name is MrsDragon and my cats have forced me to install child locks years before I ever thought I'd be in the baby aisle of Target examining their merits. A couple of nights ago the inevitable happened. Jack figured out how to open doors with full handles. You know, like pretty much EVERY handle in this house. Naturally, he did this in the middle of the night when he was supposed to be shut in another room for terrorizing Abby. He then spent the rest of the night throwing himself at our door, trying to duplicate the feat. Abby may be innocent, for now, but I know it won't be long before we have two door opening terrors.

Day 42/365--Wait by the Phone

My daily contiribution to my year long "Around the House" photo project. 365 photos. Blogged here.



At some point in the not-to-distant past my hubby and I switched to having an internet based phone line. I'd been skeptical, but for a savings of over $50 a month, my wallet won. It worked brilliantly until we moved. Only it wasn't the internet connection or the service provider that was the hang up. It's us. We're unfogiveably lazy. (I'm sorry gorgeous change of address cards that are still sitting in the kitchen.) Horribly lazy. (I'm sorry clean laundry that's been sitting in the hall for nearly two weeks.) Blissfully lazy. (I'm sorry muffin tins that are still sitting in the sink begging to be washed.)

You see, we have to plug the phone in. And we just haven't done it yet. Oops. Abby is so disappointed, she wouldn't meet my eyes. Maybe she was expecting a call? We really weren't. The only people that really called the land line were parents, people who couldn't get us on our cells, and a billion and one telemarketers. Perhaps that's why we've been so loathe to reconnect with the world at large.

Day 30/365--Fearless

My daily contiribution to my year long "Around the House" photo project. 365 photos. Blogged here.



It's the cats that are fearless, not me. Every time they pull this little stunt of "wriggle through the banister just to prove we can and take a good long gander at what's downstairs" I about have a fit. I've started to learn that they won't jump. They're just looking. Now someone just needs to tell my overactive imagination (what if one skidded into the other? Or they were scared by a loud noise and lost their balance? Or that 1.8 earthquake from today were to strike right under the house?) and that place in my gut that feels like it drops out to just chill out and go to a happy place. A happy place with itsy bitsy spaces between bannister railings.

The Kitty Litter Box of Awesome In 11 Steps

Step 1. Buy a house with an awesome kitty door into the garage (or install one)



Step 2. Have fabulously creative husband (and mother) come up with the brilliant idea (or read about their amazing idea here).



Step 3. Draw up a plan heavy on the cute, light on the details. Blog about it.



Step 4. Purchase the litter box you want to use. Find scrap wood in the garage. (Or buy some. Ideally you would want 1/4" thick mdf.) Beg, borrow, or steal some form of saw, a drill, and some C clamps. (We used a jig saw, you could use a skill saw if you are feeling brave or a hand saw if you are feeling particularly patient.) Purchase beadboard. Pick out an awesome handle and latches for the sides. Buy a fair amount of wood glue (we used two of the regular sized bottles), plenty of small 1/8" long wood screws, a couple tubes of caulk, a caulking gun, primer, and paint. Save your receipt for a blog post like this. Promptly forget where you put it. Grumble that the cats will have the most expensive litter box in the city.

Step 5. Break out your handy dandy tape measure and measure where you want your boards to fit and how. If you have a yard stick, this is a great way to get relatively straight cuts. Remember to include the little things (like your door needs to be wide enough to cover the opening AND the two sides walls). Test fit your pieces as you go. We got fancy and match cut the wood to the molding on the walls. If this is too much, you can always build it flat and just butt it up against the wall, just make sure it is well secured.



Step 6. Join your pieces. You could use pieces of wood and long nails but we used L brackets and corner braces. We had bunches of L brackets on hand and the corner braces were just easy peasy. If you are going into drywall, you will need drywall anchors to secure those screws so they can support the weight. Keep adding boards until you have the box built up. Now is the time to add a support if you feel you need one. We cobbled ours together of thin pieces of wood and more L brackets.



Step 7. Attach your beadboard to your door piece, attach hinges to box and then to door. You will want to drill the holes for your handle before you attach it, but don't install the handle yet, you need to paint!



Step 8. Attach your bead board using generous amounts of wood glue and screws. This will hide the drill holes from the anchor screws (if any) and make everything look beautiful and super finished. Clamp the beadboard in place while it dries so it will dry flat. Don't worry about any small gaps, you can fill that in with caulk later.



Step 9. Caulk to fill all the gaps, crevacies, uneveness against the wall, screw heads and random holes. Prime all unfinished wood. (Our beadboard came primed!) Paint everything.



Step 10. Attach latches to prevent kitty escape.



Step 11. Attempt to teach cats to use kitty door and the new litter box.

Skip Day

So...in a brilliant move I managed to pack up the charger for the camera battery...and promptly forget where I packed it. Somewhere very safe I am sure. *rolls eyes* Naturally, the day I realized this was the day the battery died. I will have to spend some time tomorrow attempting to unearth the charger so I can continue on with my 365 challenge!

In the meantime, I leave you all with Jack. Who is doing exactly what I wish I could do on this vacation. Nothing.

Our Very First Home Improvement Project

We are closing in on handing over an absurd amount of money and receiving the keys to our very own house! We close Friday afternoon and then have the weekend to start tinkering around in the house.

In the meantime, the hubby and I have drafted up our very first home improvement project for the new house. The prior owners also had cats, however, unlike our cats, theirs were likely indoor/outdoor cats. There is a small cat door next to the people door into the garage. The people door opens onto 3 or 4 brick steps to bring you down to the garage floor level. The kitty door comes out onto a small wooden shelf for the cats to jump down from.

The only problem is that we don't allow our kitties outside and the garage is a bit too close to escape for my comfort. However, instead of just boarding over the door,we've decided this would be the perfect spot for the litter box!

Enter the master plan:


The rounded opening is the kitty door from the house. The top part will hold the litter box and have a door that latches, so we can easily clean the litter box from the garage. The bottom part will also have a and door and will be used to store the litter, scoop, etc, out of sight. We're going to use some beadboard for the doors to give it a nice finished look.

I am stoked to have the litter box out of the house. We don't have an issue with smell (my hubby, litter-changer-in-chief, stays on top of that) but litter tracks everywhere. This should keep it somewhat contained and, even it that fails, it will be in a place that is easy to sweep up.



They may not look excited now, but they will be. ; )

Die of the Cute

There have not been nearly enough kitten pictures on here lately. Poor little things are going to feel so unloved. ; )

There Have Been Far Too Few Kitten Pictures On Here Lately

Dinner tonight was kitten approved. Sadly for the kitten, it was not kitten tested.



Spaghetti with a ground turkey red sauce and thin crust spinach, tomato, and goat cheese pizza. SOOOOO good.