I Fail to See a Problem Here

Ah the joys of summer. I like to stretch out on mom's bed.

Mom, pretty much, lets me lie wherever I want, except when she goes to sleep at night. Then my sister and I have to make room for her. /sigh

Last weekend, mom got a new washer. All this new noise in the house and banging and voices we didn't know made us hide. When we came out of hiding, my sister and I went to mom's bed. It's a comforting place to be. Mom wanted to take a nap after she did laundry with her new washer.

HA! She just threw up her hands and wound up taking a nap in the recliner in the living room. I fail to see what the problem is. I have my spot and Mija has hers. Mom has other places she can nap.

Love,

Pilchard

Caturday Art: Sleeping Beauty Edition

I wanted to do Sleeping Beauty story with me playing all the parts, but Bean, who is sick with cold, nixed the production. But still. If there is one thing cats love to do, it is sleep. I am no different.

I don't know any cat who doesn't like to sleep, except maybe Pepsi the REM Sleep Disorder Kitty. But in any case. Cinamon of Adventures of Cinamon's world propose virtual camping trip which included two things I love, Bar-B-Que and sleeping. I can even get that in real life. So...

While I have my litle tent to sleep in, that not really camping out to me, so I do this one like our wild ancestors and sleep under the trees. I should try sleeping on tree limb sometime, like my wild panther cousin!



Next I do a bit of fantasy sleeping. I not sleeping under the stars, I sleeping WITH the stars. Except I don't think stars ever sleep, they always seem to be there.

Sleeping on a cloud looks peaceful, yes? I hope I do not rain down on myself!



And then there is owl and Pussycat and I am NOT sleeping in the beautiful pea green boat because it might leak and I might get wet.

Anyway, like how this one turned out, even though I have to put up with bean croaking out "what's new pussycat" song while she work on it.



Edward Scissorpaws do Snoozing Saturday on his page, but I prefer Sleeping in Sunday be cause I no good with selfies. Don't like getting flash in eyes.

So now I snoozing on both Saturday and Sunday, which suites me just fine!

Don't forget to check out the rest of the blogs on the Caturday Art Blog Hop, hosted by Athena Goddess. Click on the graphic below to go to her page where you will find the link up for this blog hop.

Until next week, sweet dreams are made of this...



All artwork is ©Digicats (and Dogs)

Home

Mom's been gone, a lot, lately. First, she went to the wedding of those two people who came to visit us back in December, Carole and Larry. Carole is her daughter. When mom is gone, usually her friend, Pam, comes to check up on us. Mija and I know Pam. We will come say, "Hi" or, at the very least, not run and hide when Pam comes over. Mija likes to follow Pam around, telling her about her day. Me? Well, I'm more of a supervisory cat. I watch and only let Pam know when she's done something not the way mom would or when mom is "late" in coming back to us.

Then, last weekend, mom was gone for 2 days because her mom celebrated her 80th birthday. This lady came to stay with us for a couple of days before they went to the wedding. We weren't real sure about her when she stayed with us, although she did give some okay ear skritches. Pam couldn't check up on us so this guy named "Rob" came by. We aren't used to him, yet, so both of us hid. He always talks to us when he's in the house, telling us what he's doing, but we miss mom.

Add to these trips is the fact that mom is working some long hours and these hours involve driving places where she's gone all day and then some. She has to get up way before her usual time and then comes home later than usual. So, everything is out of kilter at our house.

Yesterday, she left at 7:30 and didn't get back until 7:30. She says it's just until work ceases to be crazy, but we miss her. She decided, when she got home, that checking her emails could wait. She plopped down in the recliner and did counted cross-stitch. I hopped up next to her.

Usually, I sleep in her lap, but she was stitching and I decided that was annoying. Mom says that my belly is irresistible when I'm lying next to her. I let her rub my belly for awhile. I even let her take my photo because I could keep my eyes closed.

After awhile, I moved because mom kept running her hands through my fur. How can a lady get any beauty sleep when you humans keep petting us?

Then, this morning, as mom was getting ready for work, there was thunder and lightning. I don't like those. I have a hiding place to watch.

Mom gave me my morning treats here and promised she'd be home later, at her usual time, and we'd have lap time. She says she can't promise she won't have to travel for work but says she won't be going away for a couple of months. That's good. I miss lap time.

Love,

Pilchard

A Day In My Life

When momma gets up, this is where she usually finds me.

I'm on the bottom corner. It's my spot.

Sometimes, I have to walk up to her ear and meow, repeatedly, loudly, because there's this problem in the kitchen.

Isn't this horrible? Momma sometimes just scratches my ears and tells me "it will be okay. You won't starve. I'm tired", and then she rolls over and goes back to sleep. Oh the horror. But I endure and she gets up.

She heads for the shower (What is with humans who HAVE to stand in water!?) and I go into the living room to wait.

Her friend, Chris, sent her a bunch of things that came in nifty boxes. I have claimed this one. She'll mess around in the kitchen to make breakfast so I move from the box to the cat tree.

I just sit and wait because I know what comes next.

It doesn't matter if it's a week day, when momma goes off to work, or the weekend, when she decides what task to do after breakfast, it's always the same.

TREATS! Sometimes I jump down off the tree and take my treats on the bottom. Sometimes I take them on the shelf where I was sitting.

During the weekends, when momma is home, she does a lot of things in the living room. I like to supervise her tasks.

There is the added advantage of being right at ear scratching height, too. But all this attention can be annoying so I let momma know that I'm tired of ear scratching and she can supervise herself.

Eventually, I move back to the bed and get really comfortable.

The tail goes one way, with room to move, and my feet go another way, with room to stretch out.

On weekends, momma does laundry and that means I get to sleep in the clothes.

Momma's nice that she doesn't care about furs on clothes and she'll even tell me, when she dumps the clothes on the bed, "Here you go, Pilchard."

Sometimes, momma will clean and use the bed to sort things, like she did on Monday night.

She had all these really nice piles of paper on the bed. Mija and I simply could not resist.

After a day of naps, more naps, food, nap, and ear scratching, momma will sit down in her recliner. I get lap time. That's when we really have quality time, her and I.

She watches TV, I get everything scratched and I get another nap. Momma says this time is best. Sometimes, even she falls asleep.

So, that's my day. What's yours like?

Pilchard

Is It Over Yet?

So the humans celebrate these holidays called "Christmas" and "New Years". Mom put up a small tree on my spot on the living room table. I was not amused.

Then, these two people I don't know came and stayed for a week. They brought packages and boxes and these suitcase things with them. They slept in MY bed. They somehow convinced mom to leave with them on Tuesday last week and she didn't come back until Thursday. There was this guy who came to feed us, give us fresh water and clean the litter boxes. He seems sort of nice, but he's not mom.

On Saturday, the front door was left open.

I don't know what was going on, but there was all this activity with stuff being moved out of the house. It was really nice, too, for the end of December, so I had to go outside to sniff.

Then those people, who had been in our house for a week, came toward the front door. I ran back into the house. They came inside and hugged mom. I just sat there watching. I don't know if I like, wait...

Oh dear. The one they called "Larry" gave me chin scratches, really good chin scratches.

And the one they called "Carole" scratched me all over. What's a girl to do? They were really nice scratches.

They left and we all took a nap. Best part, my sleeping spot's back.

Hope you had a wonderful, snoozy, Christmas and that your New Year starts out great.

Pilchard and her sister, Mija

Dees Are Mine

Mom can be kinda slow in putting her clothes away. When offered the chance to sleep on fresh, clean clothes, what's a girl to do?

And obviously, white clothes need the judicious application of black fur.

If she brings up a batch from the basement and just drops them on the bed, well, I need a soft place to sleep.

Sometimes, she sets out her clothes for the day and well, I think cat hair is a necessary accessory. She doesn't need to wear these. She has others.

I think my favorite thing though, is her robe. She likes to leave it at the foot of the bed so she can find it in the morning. Um...yeah...about that.

She washed it and hung it up in the closet. But it got kind of chilly here so she pulled it out to wrap up in and left it in the recliner. I saw my chance and took it!

My sister even got into the act.

It's a really soft and fuzzy robe and we both like to sleep on it. Mom doesn't make us move off the recliner when we're sitting like this. She just shrugs and goes off to do something else. We have her trained very nicely.

See you next week.

Pilchard

Let's Freak Mom Out

... by sleeping together on the bed.

They grew up together, but there are times when you'd never know it. I have had to physically separate them; Mija comes into my bedroom and Pilchard is shut into the office. I leave them in these rooms for 15 minutes, which, to them is like an eternity, and then I open the bedroom door first. Mija is usually lying on that pillow. She's content to stay there. When I open the door to the office, Pilchard can't wait to leave. I ignore her for another hour or so, in an effort to reinforce that growling, hissing, spitting, attacking your sister is not permitted. We're fine for another 2-3 months and then something sets them off.

I took 2 days on top of the past weekend, to use up vacation days. That is a change to their routine, me home for more than 2 days at a stretch. Sunday evening, all heck broke loose in the kitchen. I don't know if something was on the deck or what but Pilchard cornered Mija under the kitchen table. I had to get the broom to separate them. Things like this make me really upset. I shut Pilchard in the bathroom with the lights off for a half an hour while I checked Mija out thoroughly to make sure she hadn't been bitten or scratched about the face. When I opened the door, all I could hear was growling. A black cat in a black bathroom is not easy to see. I didn't say a word to her and I ignored her for the next 2 hours, even when she hopped up next to me in the chair in the office and gave me that pitiful meow of "Please mom, I want ear scratches". Mija growled and hissed all evening. They settled down but I worried there would be another incident, particularly at 2 in the morning, when these things seem to happen most.

The next day, I see the above. Make my bed? Nope. Can't move the cats.

So, I ask those of you with multiple cats, how do you handle this? My House Panther is something of a diva. She outweighs her sister and is clearly the more dominant in the relationship. It stresses me so to have them growling and hissing and spitting. Plus, I worry there will be a cat fight when I'm not around and someone will be hurt. 3 years ago, Mija reached the end of her rope and bit Pilchard when I was at the office Christmas party. I didn't find the bite, on Pilchard's chin, until it abscessed, even though she likes her chin scratched. There was nothing to indicate there was a problem. Ugh. That was smelly.

I realize that cats are like kids and they won't always get along, but what recommendations do you have for creating more of the above and less of the cornered kitty in the kitchen? I've had cats in my house for 25 years and we've had our ups and downs, but never quite like these two.

See you next week.

Pilchard's mom.

New Digs

So mom was putting away her laundry, specifically her khaki work pants.

Yeah, well, it's an open drawer and I'm a cat. It's a match made in heaven and mom's pants didn't have any cat hair on them at the time. I fixed that.

Now, she leaves the drawer open for me but, of course, it's not as much fun when she expects me to sleep in there.

May all your sleeping spots have a good view.

See you next week.

Pilchard

The importance of sleep...

Hello brother and sister house panthers...
I've had so much fun getting to know all of you and meeting other gorgeous panther cats like myself.  We are the most beautiful, are we not? And I know all of YOU know how important it is to get beauty sleep. So, today I'd like to share with you, how rudely I'm interrupted by my mom when I try to get refreshed.

First, when my mother wakes up, I climb back into MY bed and snuggle back down into the blankets.

I love the comfort of re-arranging of the blankets, just the way I want too. But then, my mother has the audacity to remove me from my blanket nest, so that she "makes the bed" (her words, not mine) and that upsets my whole sleeping routine, so I always shoot her a dirty look to see if she'll changer her mind, but it never works.

So, finally after much grumbling, I'm finally awake...

I show her how displeased I am that she makes me get out of my bed.

 After she apologizes me, I get back to the important matter of sleeping and prepare myself for a cat nap.

I start to tune out any annoyances from either my sister, Sele or my mother..I move around the bed a bit to find just the right spot to sleep, but I can feel my eyes closing...

And finally when everything is peaceful, I go back to sleep and forget the world...

So, the important lesson here, is don't let your humans distract you from the important things in life, like sleep. With enough determination, nothing can stop we cats from getting what we want, which is to sleep.

Purrs to all of you, Miss Bella