My cats are at home while I am across the mountains.

They have robots to feed them, robots to keep their litter box clean, and fountains to keep their drinking water clean and cool. There's cameras and alarms and sensors to keep them safe and let me know if there's any trouble.

But all that doesn't matter.

They are 2-1/2 hours away being mad because I'm not there to cater to them.

But don't worry. They'll let me know when I get home.

Happy Independence Day, my fellow Americans!

This is an awful day for pet owners, because the fireworks will be traumatizing cats, dogs, and the rest all night. I think that they've been banned here this year because they don't want another fire raging in the heat we've got going on, but that never stops everybody. There's always people who will ignore it all and fire them off anyway...

When I bought my home, the previous tenant left a Speed Queen industrial washer and dryer. I was going to replace them with something cool and modern, but a friend told me I would be a fool to throw out tough, reliable, industrial models for new tech garbage where the electronics are always failing and they break at the drop of a hat. And boy am I glad that I heeded my friend's advice. Those old models just keep going no matter what I throw at them. Their capacity is huge. Clothes get really clean (the mounds of cat hair are no problem). And they are truly built like a tank.

Because I can wash such huge loads of clothing at a time, I often go weeks without washing to save money. And that was the case when I finally washed this past week. I had baskets of clothes sitting out to take up to my room.

Enter my cats.

They were very interested in the piles of clean clothes.

Jake decided he wanted to lay on top of one of the baskets, but it was piled too high. So I sat and watched him grab a single sock... walk across the room... drop it... then go back to get another sock. This time he took a few steps, decided it would be too much work to empty the basket, dropped the sock, then fell asleep on the couch.

Jenny, on the other hand, sniffed around all the baskets for a while, then went upstairs to sleep on my bed.

She could have taken some laundry with her, but did not.

My cats are weird in the best ways.

A couple days ago I was giving Jenny belly rubs when she suddenly flopped over and trapped my hand. Just when I accepted the fact that I wouldn't be able to go to work, Jake swooped in and licked her head as a distraction and I was able to escape when she twisted around to give him a better licking angle...

Then Jake decided to use his sister's butt as a pillow, which thrilled her to no end, as you can imagine...

But it was either that or Jenny would have to find a way to earn money so she can live the excessive lifestyle that she's become accustomed to.

Jenny alternates between acting like a cranky old cat and a little princess kitten, and there's not much in-between.

But in both cases, she's complaining a lot and being demanding. Which is apparently her default. If she wants something, she complains until she gets what she wants. If she's upset at a situation, she complains until it's changed. If she is angry at something, she complains until it's been removed.

Take Thursday night. I was working in bed. Jenny complained until I pet her. Then I wasn't petting her like she wanted so she complained until I figured out what she wanted. Then I needed both hands to type and she grabbed my hand... and complained...

And if I start pulling away anyway, she digs in her claws.

I blame myself.

I've never told these cats "no" except when they jumped on the kitchen counters. And now they don't know the meaning of the word.

As I mentioned a few posts back, I ended up ordering a new Nerf gun. My intent was to shoot darts for the cats to chase. I thought it would be something fun for them.

So I take it out of the package, and shoot a dart from my kitchen... expecting that it will end up in the dining room, which is not so far away. Instead the dart flies the entire length of my home and smacks into the rear window. I was more than a little shocked. Isn't this a kid's toy? How many people have lost an eye because they didn't gauge the amount of force those darts get shot.

But anyway... I never picked up the two darts I fired (it had to be two because I wanted to verify that the first dart wasn't a fluke). And Jake noticed...

So maybe the Nerf gun will end up entertaining the cats anyway.

But carefully.

Odd weather lately here in Redneckistan.

This afternoon rain started pouring down and I heard Jake hop off the bed upstairs and run down the stairs crying all the way. After he jumped on my lap, I distracted him with a Cheez-It. Usually he loves them, but he was so nervous he just made it wet.

Jenny never made an appearance. My guess is that she ran and hid in the closet.

Though she did come out for belly rubs when I went up to check in on her. Though she did end up falling asleep, trapping me there...

Soon enough she got hungry enough to head back down for her lunch that dispensed from the auto-feeder while she was hiding out.

Jenny has pretty much recovered from my being gone for vacation. She's back to her demanding self and only gets clingy when it suits her.

But Jake? He's still clingy any time I'm home.

I wake up in the morning, and this is what I see...

Needless to say, any time I'm laying on the couch, he's going to be on top of me...

The only time I get a break is when there's something new to explore. Like the tray I bought to put my little INSTAX photos in on top of the coffee table...

Guess the tray is his now. If I buy a second one for my photo books, will Jenny take that one?

After returning from vacation, Jake and Jenny have been all over me. They do that for about a week, then kinda go back to their normal (though Jake still likes to lay on me more and more often).

It makes me feel bad to leave again, which is why I'm thinking seriously about hiring a cat-sitter next time. I've always resisted it before because they are so anti-social and have robots to take care of them, but at least with somebody in the house at night, they wouldn't feel quite so abandoned maybe?

This happened when I got home last Saturday...

And every night Jake has been like this...

And Jenny has been like this...

Essentially making sure I don't leave again...

Today Jake threw himself on my Instax photo collection as I was trying to find out how many mini albums I needed to buy. I pushed him aside to finish counting, but he still held on the entire time...

And now I get to go back to work so I can take tomorrow off. Which is great, because I need a vacation from my vacation.

Here it is... Jake getting pets. Jenny waiting for her turn...

And the minute Jake goes, Jenny jumps down...

And it works the opposite too. When Jenny heads up to bed with me, Jake waits patiently for her to be done with me... then he hops up to get petted.

It's tiring for me, because I never get a break... but better than them fighting over me.

Jenny is a dangler.

She loves hanging off of any surface she can fit on, and does so all the time. And some of the time when they're particularly impressive, I will snap a photo... and I've accumulated quite a collection over the years.

This past week I found a Facebook group called THIS CAT HAS D A N G L Y A R M B S. Which is a group devoted to cats like Jenny. And so I joined and started posting my photos there because images like these needs to be seen. I mean...

It's the blerpy tongue that makes it...

So many dangles...

But her favorite place to dangle is the catio. These two photos are months apart, but you can see that the dangle is the same, but the background has changed...

And these are too...

Now all I need is a catspreading group, and Jake will have a place for me to post in as well.