When I got home yesterday, this was me: "GAH! JENNNNNYYYY! STOP BRINGING CRICKETS INTO THE HOUSE!!!"

At which point Jake looks at me like I'm insane because Jenny is not even in the room. This is the second time this year. And I know it's Jenny because Jake only plays with the bugs. Jenny either eats them or brings them inside. They're her favorite thing, apparently.

Meanwhile Jake's favorite thing seems to be hacking up hairballs.

But let me backup a second... first I should say that I dumped some blankets from the dryer onto the couch last week, then ran outside to water flowers. When I came back inside Jake was laying in them. And he's been there very often ever since, so I've just left them there. Ironically, the whole reason I washed them in the first place was because they were covered in car hair...

AND THEN... this morning while I was working, I hear that unmistakable sound of a hairball being hacked up. I look over and there he is... puking one out on the blankets. So back they go into the wash. Again.

Which just means he's going to puke on them again the minute I put them back on the couch.

Jenny has night terrors from time to time. It's really tough to watch when I see it happening, and I never know the best course of action. Usually, I very carefully start petting her until she stops kicking and fighting... which works some of the time. Other times she wakes herself up during her nightmare and then is pretty upset with me.

This morning Jenny fell asleep next to me, started having night terrors about fifteen minutes later, so I petted her to calm her down... only for her to flip over and wrap around my arm. Progress? At least this time I didn't get attacked for scaring her!

Anyway...

Before it got too hot, I was outside kneeling in the dirt while working in my shrub beds. When the heat finally hit and I went back inside, Jake came up to me after. He started smelling my dirty knees and rolling around on me. Maybe I accidentally kneeled in catnip?

Makes me think that I need to plant some stuff in the catio for my cats to roll around in. I bought grass a while ago, but they didn't seem to be interested enough to make it worth the cost. Maybe I need different grass!

My cats, both of whom love the heat, are obsessed with hanging out in the catio lately. Which means that activity going on out there doesn't get ignored as it usually does. On a near daily-basis I'm hearing some kind of commotion out there.

And out of all of it, this chipmunk caused the biggest reaction. But what's bizarre is how the chipmunk barely reacted to my cats going apeshit out there...

I love the way hi tail is so fluid.

But what I love most is how he stands up to look around. He's gone full-on meerkat here.

Well... not much to say for this week's Caturday.

Because you have to have cats in order to have Caturday.

And my cats are out in the catio all the time now that I was forced to turn the air conditioning on because I can't handle my home being 80º inside...

And so... in lieu of Jake and Jenny news, I'm reproducing this comic from Reza Farazmand at Poorly Drawn Lines, which might as well be Jake and Jenny...

Any day now the cats will be staying inside because it's too hot outside. Then the catio will be a rare event (and mostly at night or the early morning) until Fall arrives.

Leaving my cats for even a small amount of time is traumatic for all involved. I'm worrying about what's happening back home... my cats are wondering where I'm at... and Jake is wandering around crying while he looks for me. It's an ordeal.

I try to make things easier on them by having the television turn on and off... and making sure I leave my bed a mess so they can nest in the covers.

And of course I still check in on them via the security system. Make sure they're still eating and getting along okay. When I was on the plane I had nothing to do, so I decided to take a look. The camera in my room was off, so when I turned it back on I woke them up...

I was home four hours later, which made all of us happy.

And speaking of cats, this popped up and was an immediate hit with me...

My cats don't fight much. But it does happen. And when it does it often looks something like this.

I was gone less than a week. Do you think when I walked through the door my cats acted like it was less than a week? Oh heck no. Jake wouldn't even let me set down my bags before crying to be petted.

And of course since it's prime shedding season, the house was covered in cat hair. Right now I'm vacuuming almost daily. And of course I wasn't here to Furminator the cats. Well, one of them anyway. Jake refuses to be Furminated, and will "bite" me if I attempt it... but, as I mentioned, Jenny loves it so much that she would happily let me brush all her hair off her body.

So when I called her to get brushed, she came running. Jake did too, but only to supervise...

And now, if you'll excuse me, it's time to terrorize my cats by firing up the vacuum cleaner. Again.

Another cat-day, another Caturday.

As shown (again) last week, Jenny likes me to hold her feet when she sleeps. She pretty much insists on it. What's funny is when she falls asleep, then decides to stretch out...

You'd think that once she's no longer getting her feet held, she wouldn't mind me taking my my hand away. Oh hell no. She wakes up immediately and meows until I hold her feet again.

I was looking through Facebook Memories the other day and ran across this photo of Jake sitting as Jake does while cleaning his front paw...

I thought it was funny so I said "Hey! Jake!" so he'd look at me.

And boy did he...

I'm surprised that I didn't have my spleen cut out while I slept.

This past Sunday I was sitting in the living room working while the television was on. I catch a blur in the catio, look ourside, and Jake is climbing towards the ceiling. Usually this means a bird is around, but it ended up being a bee.

I tapped the window and said "JAKE! JAKE... LEAVE THE BIG FUZZY BEE ALONE!"

Which got his attention...

The bee was oblivious and eventually flew out without becoming a chew toy for Jake...

Jenny hasn't been going out into the catio as often as she used to. She's far more interested in lounging on the couch.

Which would be fine except she like to have her feet held while she sleeps for some reason.

So there I was, rewatching Andor Season 02, Episode 03 to get ready for Episode 04, while composing an email when Jenny came up and plopped down next to me. She meowed to get my attention, and that went like this...

She always gets what she wants. Always.

To decompress from the horrors of the day, I've been playing Torchlight II, which is one of my favorite Diablo video game clones.

On regular difficulty, my pet is an orange cat named Jenny, and she's just a normal companion that helps when she can...

When playing on casual difficulty (where I don't want to stress so much) my pet is a gray cat named Jake. Because it's so easy to play, I prefer to just use my abilities and not any spells, so I give all my spells to Jake.

And he's gone all psychotic. CONSTANTLY summoning zombies or skeleton archers to help with a fight, even if it's not needed. CONSTANTLY casting all kinds of spells just because he can, not because it's helping.

It's both funny and upsetting. All I can say from my experience is that I would never give a cat magic spells in Real Life.

Fur everywhere is always a problem with my cats, but in Spring when they're shedding their winter coats in bulk, it's a serious issue from which I cannot escape.

Fortunately, for Jenny at least, the solution is to brush her with the Furminator®. This thing is remarkable for being to pull so much fur off a cat that you'll have enough to build a second cat. And Jenny loves the thing. She wants to be brushed down with it as rough as you dare go, and doesn't want you to stop. I think she'd be happy to be brushed until all her fur is gone.

Jake on the other hand? He hates the thing. Even the gentlest of brushing will have him snapping at me. And so I do the best I can to claw at him with my hands so I can get as much loose fur off of him as I can. Which isn't much. Which means there's Jake fur rolling around the house in all directions.

Oh well. 50/50 is better than nothing.

One thing my cats seem to enjoy equally well is chomping on my lettuce.

This past week I saw lettuce puked up in two places and went rushing to the security cameras to see which of the little monsters was responsible...

The answer may not surprise you.

It was both of them!

So I guess I have to move my vegetable & herb garden to the garage?