It's starting to feel a lot like Fall.

Which is not great for my cats, because the hot sunny days they crave are slipping away faster and faster. Pretty soon I'll be dragging out the warming pads so they can get the heat they live for.

In the meanwhile?

They luxuriate in the sun whenever it's shining. Especially Jake, who is going for maximum belly exposure...

Tell me you could resist that fuzzy belly...

If no sun is available, they're all too happy to snuggle up next to me...

And then there's Jenny.

My little princess just keeps getting more demanding. This past week she came down to complain after I ran the vacuum. Later I sat down to work and she pushed me aside on the couch because I wasn't petting her enough. Just jumped on the couch and wedged her way onto a pillow that I was leaning up against and started pre-purring to tell me exactly what she wanted...

It's only a matter of time before she doesn't allow me on the couch at all. It's bound to happen given that she's now demanding foot massages...

I don't stand much of a chance in this house, that's for sure.

Not a great day. All my plans have been scuttled because the smoke is so thick outside that it's blotting out the sun.

No trip to the grocery store. No trip to buy overpriced wood so I can buld something. No nuthin'. Except sitting inside all day and hoping that my house is sealed enough that my air purifiers can keep up with anything that might leak in. Assuming I have to open my doors for any reason.

Oh well. My cats will be happy to have me at home. I think.

Look... it's me when I drop a cookie on the floor (here's a link in case TikTok is being a dick)...

Or me when I'm trapped in the house all day.

When Jake used to get sick or be upset, he hid from me. Him not showing up for a meal or running to meet me when I walked in the door is how I knew something was wrong. But now? Complete opposite. When he eats a bug and feels sick or is stressed about something, he will cling to me like glue. He's so clingy that I've come dangerously close to stepping on him.

Last night I have no idea what happened... probably ate a praying mantis for no reason at all or something equally disgusting... but he was on me. On the couch. Going upstairs. Brushing my teeth. Climbing into bed. And it's not like he's on the bed with me... he's squeezed up to me as close as he possibly can be.

At first, it's incredibly sweet that he thinks of me as comfort food when he's not doing well. But around midnight when I really should be going to bed, it's not quite so sweet. I'm scared that if I fall asleep I might roll over on him and crush him, so I continued to work for another hour. Around 1:00am, I was so tired that I couldn't focus on work and started playing on the internet

The first thing I did was find a TikTok where a guy was talking about crAIyon, a site that draws whatever you can think of. And what was the first thing that came to mind? Taylor Swift eating corn on the cob!

Have you ever seen anything so terrifying? Well hold on to your hats, because next up was Ryan Reynolds on a boat wearing a bear hat!

Then came A bear at the movies eating popcorn in a newspaper hat!

And A cat in a birthday hat eating cake!

Once I got to the nightmare that was Ernest Borgnine Wearing a Dress and Sitting on a Toilet I knew that I had to stop.

AND, NO, I DON'T KNOW HOW MY BRAIN COMES UP WITH THIS STUFF!

After that I came across a TikTok which lead me to a YouTube series by comedian/actor Kyle Prue called Rabbit. For such a shallow premise, it gets shockingly deep. By the time I got to the third episode I was completely obsessed and had to finish off all five (even though Jake had already climbed to the end of the bed). If you want a time-waster that has some serious thought behind it, this is a trailer for the series...

Now, right off the bat I should inform you that when he hits the woman with the hammer, it's not what you think. This is smarter than that. And I'm telling you... if this was a television series, I would totally watch it.

And now it's running close to 2:00am so I really, really need to try and get some sleep. It's now Friday so I guess this counts as my Friday post? I sure hope so.

   
Home again home again lickity kitty...

My cats have been a little crazy since I got back from my work trip. I think they must have gotten into some catnip while I was gone. As I type this, they are chasing each other around the house at top speed... and I think it's because Jenny smacked Jake while he was getting a drink of water. It's like she wanted a little excitement in her life, and this was her solution.

Let's see... time to catch up on cat business after the big Blog Outage of 2022 situation.

Did I mention there was a SQUIRREL out on the patio? Boy did that cause a commotion. Jake ran right out to the catio to stalk it...

After the danger had passed, Jenny went out to patrol the catio to make sure that our territory wasn't invaded again. But then she got tired of patrolling and decided to take a nap...

A couple weeks ago I caught Jake sleeping in the chairs that I put upside-down on the table. I thought it looked uncomfortable, so I put a blanket in one of them. Now it's his most favorite spot to hang out...

He especially likes it because he can wander around the table and look down to see what's new on the floor...

But don't worry... Jake still sleeps in his normal spread-eagle configuration even if he's not in his chair bed...

Jake's a little more attentive when watching TV with me though...

While watching the underwhelming new Netflix documentary, Inside the Mind of a Cat, Jake was more intense than usual when he watches TV, so I left it running even though I wasn't interested in watching it...

And now I get to go clean my garage. Or start cleaning my garage. That's a job that will never be done in one day.

I got a late start to my day.

After serving my cats breakfast, I went to read emails and look through my newsfeed before tackling the massive list of things I needed to get done. Last weekend I hurt my back, so I didn't want to waste too much time. Except my cats did something unusual... they immediately headed back upstairs to take a post-breakfast nap...

Not wanting to interrupt their busy sleeping schedule, I waited 45 minutes for Jenny to wake up before I got started on chores.

First up was cleaning out my bookshelves to make room for new books. Then I cleaned out my kitchen pantry. Then I washed all my dirty clothes. Then I decided to clean out my drawers, which ended with my re-folding all my ties. Jenny wasted no time "helping out"...

While Jake watched...

Once I took away the last tie, she decided she wanted to walk all over them...

I used to have to wear ties a lot. I had over 50 of them. I narrowed it down to my favorites since I rarely wear them now. I saved mostly my Disney ties (half of which are Hidden Mickey ties) and my cartoon ties.

Not like I ever want to start wearing ties again... but I'm saving them just in case. Even though they're now covered in cat hair.

Remember yesterday when I was writing about how lack of sleep was turning me into a zombie? Well... I honestly thought that would change last night. Except no.

I was awakened at 5:30am this morning as ping-pong-ball-sized rain was slamming into the roof. And there was Jake right next to my head crying about it. And I honestly don't blame him. The rain was so heavy that it might as well have been 1-inch hailstones, and I was worried about the skylight in my bathroom shattering (something I definitely cannot afford to have happen)...

After comforting Jake enough that he finally stopped squawking at my head and curled up asleep next to me, I started wondering where Jenny was. She's the one who is usually very upset when even a small amount of rain falls on the roof. She paces all over my bed while staring at the ceiling and meowing her head off. If this rain was enough to upset Jake, she must be very cross indeed. But nothing. Perhaps it scared her so much that she's hiding in the guest closet or something?

And then the thunder and lightning arrived.

At which time Jenny came bolting into the room at top speed. She rubbed up against me doing that wailing thing she does when she's worrying about stuff until she too settled down and went to sleep.

So there I was... wide awake after less than 5 hours of sleep, but unable to move without waking up my two sleeping companions. Mercifully, the breakfast feeding alarm went off at 7am at which time the cats went scrambling downstairs to eat... frustrated that my sleep-deprived ass was taking so long to feed them.

Between Mother Nature, Jake, and Jenny, the conspiracy to keep me from sleep continues...

Always looking for new things to entertain my cats, I purchased a big "puzzle box" for treats that they can poke into. Figured it would be a more interesting time for them than just putting treats in a bowl.

Both cats were intrigued. At first.

But after a while Jake found that he could just wait for Jenny to pull out treats, then attempt to take them from her. Surprisingly, she never got all that upset about it... she would just go poking around for another treat. To her, the challenge was as important as the treat...

Eventually Jenny started waiting until Jake was not in the area before she would go back to digging for treats...

Earlier this week I noted that Jake was laying down chillin' with Mufasa...

It was funny to me how Mufasa was sitting upright. I thought it was nice how Jake set him up like that. But then I took a look at the security camera footage and saw that Jake threw Mufasa down the stairs and he happened to land. One could almost say... he set himself upright, because just look at this!

GHOSTS!

Or maybe not. I think that my cats would let me know if we had ghosts.

I've been performing an experiment on my cats. Well, not both of them, it's just Jenny.

It was curious to me how she always always always follows me up to bed... unless it's before her 9:00pm nighttime snack. If I head up at 9:30... 10:00... 11:00... midnight... she is right on my heels. But if I decide to work upstairs and head up at sayyyy... 8:45? Nope. She will wait for the feeder to go, then come up after.

But is there a lower limit?

Turns out there is. Experimenting for the past 4 weeks, I confirmed that it's around 40 minutes. I head up before 8:20pm and she will come up and wait for her snack upstairs with me. But anything after that and she stays put for the snack she knows is coming.

Jake's sense of time is not nearly as acute, but he still knows when his dinner is late!

I am a very nervous cat dad. I worry about everything all the time even though I really don't have cause to do so. As an example... yesterday morning Jenny didn't come when I shook the bag of treats. This is highly unusual. I thought she might be trapped or hurt somewhere, so I went looking for her. But nope! She was just lounging on the cat cushion I put on the guest bed. So after giving an impatient Jake his treats, I put some in a bowl and took them to Jenny... who was completely uninterested in them!

This has never happened before.

My cats refusing treats is a serious cause for concern.

And concerned I was. I put a security camera in the guest room so I could check in on her from work. All I saw was her resting comfortably every time I checked. Which was about every 15 minutes.

But then lunch time came and she was off the bed like a shot, running to the auto-feeders at top speed. So I have no idea what her deal was. Maybe she was full because she ate some of Jake's food.

And, oh yeah, that's something she does now.

Since the beginning, my cats have been fairly respectful of each other's food. Jake will happily head to her food bowls if she doesn't finish her meal, but rarely does he actually try to get in there while she's actively eating. But now apparently this is something that Jenny does. One day I was preparing my dinner when I look at the cats eating and Jenny has totally horned in on Jake's dinner. I was stunned. Jake just sat there staring at me like "What do I do now?" I seriously hope that this doesn't become a trend.

In other news... we had a small family of quail visit us this morning...

The babies were particularly cute. But quail usually lay a lot of eggs... like one per day or something like that... which means their families are usually quite large. It's sad to see only two chicks when usually you see much more... because that means the other chicks probably perished. Google says that quail chicks have only a 5% to 30% chance to grow into adults...

I have no idea why they would sit out in full sunlight in 100º heat on hot concrete... that can't be good because the poor things are getting cooked. Eventually they got up and scrambled off to do whatever it is that quail do. Probably look for food.

Thankfully my cats are contained and aren't contributing to the quail mortality rate. But you just know that they would like to, as they went rushing to the windows right after they spotted the quail (which is how I knew to look!)...

Best of luck to those baby quail. I hope they make it.