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Holy crap!

I opened the front door earlier to do laundry. Pepper was nearby, she let out a joyous, "Meee-ow!" and ran right out!! I had to drop everything and quickly grab her. She only got a few inches out the door, but geez! Now is not the time to be doing that. When I came back from the laundry room, she was looking out the windows at me through the blinds.

Went to visit the cat shelter again. Argh. Baby. They took her out again and put her on the same cat tree. This time she came down and got on the floor, and I thought for a moment she was going to explore...and I think she would have except that some people brought stuff to donate to a garage sale fundraiser, and each time they came in and out, the door would slam and it scared her. The bottom part of the cat tree is a tunnel and she hid inside that for the rest of the time I was there.

Oh man, Bailey pulled a Pepper. She walked into the play room while I was in there, begging for attention. She came in meowing and singing and cuddling up to me. Then she started to explore the room. She was fine until she spotted Baby inside the tunnel. Then she suddenly hissed, screamed, and ran off. Reminded me of the time Mel was licking Pepper and Pepper seemed to be enjoying it, until she rolled her head back and saw it was Mel.

Lady's still a lump.

They have two Maine Coons now! Actually, I did see the other one before, but wasn't sure it was a Maine Coon until I saw it standing up today. This one's a red patch tabby Maine Coon. She's not as big or as pretty as the other one, but my god, she's got the BIGGEST tail I have ever seen on a cat! Maybe not lengthwise, but it's huge and fluffy and looks like one of those giant oldschool feather dusters. She also has an infection in both eyes, and I think that might be part of the reason she's not quite as pretty as the silver Maine Coon.

I found out the reason the silver Maine Coon is there is because a family bought her and someone ended up being allergic to her. I also may have been wrong about her having been pre-adopted. Maybe those people were just asking about her, but didn't make a decision yet. But I could have sworn I saw them filling out paperwork, too, so I don't know what was up with that. I noticed she was growling at the cat in the cage next to her.

Okay, another goofy cat thing...

Mel and Hermes now do this thing where they walk over to the cabinets below the kitchen sink, put their paw behind the righthand door and open it slightly, look in, and then close it and leave. I saw Hermes do it earlier. Mel just did it before I made this post.

This might be another good reason we're not buying a house on a busy street. She would have to run quite a ways to get to the street, though.

I'm beginning to think Hermes is like Bubba in the sense that he doesn't want to go outside. I never see him waiting by or pawing at the door. He hardly ever looks out the windows. He loves to lie on the lookout upstairs, but he always faces inward (even when the blinds were all still open).

Okay, I was right the first time about that Silver Maine Coon - someone did preadopt it. They finally had the preadoption paper on the front of her cage today. The employee who was there today told me that she almost let someone else buy her because she didn't know she had been preadopted, and she got lucky because the man didn't have enough money for her. That's probably for the best as far as I'm concerned. I'm torn between Baby and Lady now as it is, I didn't really need a third choice complicating things farther. (And there still is that other Maine Coon, but she has eye problems right now.)

I didn't take Baby out of the cage today because someone else was in the playroom and I got there only about an hour before closing time. I did scratch her cheeks and chin and she enjoyed it for a little while, even purring a bit, but then eventually she got tired of it and smacked me with her right paw.

Lady was lumping again. I just now realized how small Lady's ears are. Pepper has small ears, but I think Lady's are even smaller. When she sits up, she looks like a cat version of a St. Bernard.

The small ears thing reminds me - I must be a "cat racist", because I don't really like Scottish Folds. Something about the way the ears are crumpled over bothers me. I accidentally flipped one of Pepper's ears inside-out yesterday and I had to flip it back. I think if I had a Scottish Fold, I'd be under this constant urge to try to flip its ears back like I did to Pepper. Also, without the pointy ears to balance out their facial features, their eyes look too large and buggy.

I think the main reason Mel has become less active isn't even so much that she's no longer a kitten, but that it's too hot. She tries to find a place where she can stretch out as much as possible and she rolls over onto her back. (Usually the main computer chair, or her castle, or the wood floor in front of the door.)

Further evidence for this is that she likes to play at night, after we turn the lights out, and the house has cooled off a little. After I went to bed last night, I could hear her playing with the plastic balls. I woke up twice in the middle of the night and found her in bed next to me, on the microfiber blankets. She seemed to be enjoying the wind from the fan.

I took a short video of Pepper meowing for her breakfast. Hopefully, we can get it posted soon.

Lots o' Kitty Pictures!!!


When I go upstairs, what do I see hiding over there...? You can see what I mean by how the cats pushed the blinds aside slightly so that they can still peek out, although I pretty much never see Hermes doing that, and both Mel and Pepper seem to have lost interest in the upstairs for now.


Closer view.




I have our two large coolers double-stacked that I use a makeshift countertop. Unfortunately, Hermes discovered it and he's usually sitting on it when I work in the kitchen, so I can't really use it for a countertop much anymore.


But would you have the heart to chase him off of it?


He's meowing at me. That's why his mouth is open.






I converted a Fresh Step plastic bin into a food bin (yes, I thoroughly washed it out with water and bleach solution before doing so). Hermes likes to sit on that, too. You can see the oven behind him. Sometimes, he sits on the food bin and rubs my ass with his head while I'm making dinner.


And sometimes he rubs his head on the coolers, too.


Hermes likes to sleep on the staircase we made for Pepper.




Hermes and Pepper at dinner time. This must have been taken awhile ago. They still have the old dry food and water bowls.


Mel!


Mel!








Look at that face!!



Mel in microfiber blankets!


This is Pepper's idea of having fun.


She's high on catnip.


I got really lucky when I took this picture. I knew she was going to jump up on the futon and I prepared the camera.


Pepper sleeping on the printer!!


And when she woke up, I finally got a picture of her with "half a face"! When she sleeps, the fur and whiskers on the side of her face that was on the ground gets pushed down really flat against her cheek, so when she wakes up, she looks like she only has half a face.





This is what Pepper looks like when she smells food. She drops her jaw slightly and sometimes narrows her eyes (sometimes she makes them really big, too).


And now, for a Polydactyl comparison: Here are Mel's front paws. She has a thumb on each paw. Her left thumb is bigger than her right thumb.


This is Hermes's front paw (yes, he was actually sleeping on the stairs with it stretched out like that.) He has two extra fingers. They both look like extra thumbs.


This is one of his back paws. Mel has the normal number of toes on her back feet, but Hermes has an extra toe on each hind foot.

Pepper wants her breakfast!

Listen carefully from about 1:00 to 1:04 and you can hear her purr.