The perch

Our cat perch has three levels; the bottom level is a tube that runs horizontally and the cats do use it when they are in the mood to zoom. Then there's a larger tray for the second level and a smaller tray on top. The top tray is usually, but not always, Wally's domain.

Last night Chloe did something she rarely does: she got on the perch. That triggered Eddie's bullying instinct (and yes this cat can be a bully). Here's what happened.

King Eddie

The boys are pretty clearly a bonded pair of cats—and that makes sense since they are litter mates and have been together the whole of their lives. Being bonded like that means they take turns cycling through various places they both consider theirs in terms of territory, and they’ll also share those spots.

Sometimes, though, they get in a tussle for whichever spot is the current favorite. That happened yesterday when Eddie invaded the top shelf on the cat perch. The top one is the smallest; in order for both boys to fit up there, they need to be in a cuddly, kitty piling mood. It's pretty cute when that happens. But Eddie wanted it all for himself so he picked a fight with Wally, who finally gave up in disgust and left. This video shows Eddie enjoying the perch all by himself.

The new cat perch

Apparently fairly simple cat trees with sides on the ledges are unpopular. I say that because I had to look at four different pet stores to find the replacement perch. This one is a little bigger than our previous perch and while I don't look forward to moving it on Monday, the cats' reactions were most gratifying.

Sleeping cats

Normally the boys take turns on the perch. It's not a big perch and let's face it, Eddie is a big cat. This week, though, they've been curled up in various poses up there. So I took pictures all week long and that's what you'll see in the slide show on the left.

Here's a rare video of Wally sleeping while Eddie grooms.

Bonus post!

First, I took this video just two weeks ago. I hope we are done with snow now.



This past Sunday afternoon, Kent and I did some "yard" work. I put yard in quotes because of course we don't really have a yard. But we do have a large patio and we also needed to clean the screen that covers the iron grate over our bedroom window. Remember, our window is below street level so we have a huge window well that has an iron grate over it. At some point, someone had put screen mesh over the grate and it does help cut down on the crap that falls into the window well. But the screen was covered with leaves and pebbles, and all that stuff was cutting down our precious light. So we replaced the screen. I am going to try squeezing through the window when it's warmer so I can paint that window well. The well itself is huge, but the window is pretty small--Kent could never fit through it. I may not either but I think painting those walls white would also help get more light into our bedroom.

We also swapped out our bedspread, curtains and dust ruffle. Spring officially starts on Friday but I want it to start NOW! I put a new slide show of the winter/spring versions.

Finally here's a short video I took of the boys this morning. They were very dozy and snoozy this morning and watching them sleep sure made me want to go take a nap myself.

The fun continues

I took these videos yesterday. As you can see, the kitties are still quite enthralled with the cat tree. Based on their extreme affection for the tree, I think maybe the pet store guy used an entire gallon of catnip oil on it.





This morning I was shocked and amazed to see Chloe actually get on my desk (she never ever does that, this is truly a first) and then get on the top perch of the cat tree. While these pictures aren't great photography, they show Chloe doing something other than curling up in a little ball. Eddie didn't like it that she took the top perch, so he chased her off and he's up there now.



Finally, I thought these pictures were pretty cute, too.

Plan B

We would have liked to have waited for the very cool cat tree I mentioned in my last blog entry, but Wally has a real need to climb now. So I headed out to Target to see if they had any cat trees that would work. No luck there.

But we do have a pet supply store near Target that carries a lot of stuff; I'd seen at least one tree there before so I stopped by. Obviously I found one otherwise I wouldn't call this Plan B. I took these short videos this morning after I got the tree in the house. Wally is still literally drooling over the catnip oil and generally warning off the other two cats from the tree.