Jenny is getting to be more of a problem with food than Jake ever was. If Jake is slow to his bowl when the food drops, Jenny will eat hers... then his. It's so bad that I get up and call Jake over so he gets to eat. But this week there's been a new wrinkle. When Jenny sees that Jake is finally coming, she will stop eating her food... then go to his bowl to eat because there's more food there. Jake gets whatever she didn't get around to eating. I can't even be mad because that's a pro move right there. But there's going to come a time when she's too smart for her own good... and I'm not sure how I'm going to handle that.

Also? My cats have started talking. Quite a lot. If Jenny thinks I'm taking too long brushing my teeth and she want me in bed so she can get petted? Meows. So many meows. Jake can't meow, but he whines and frets and squeaks and wails. ZOMG the wailing. This past week I just walked in the door and he comes running up to be petted. I have to sit a bunch of stuff on the counter first, so I walk by him. He exploded with wailing. You'd think that I kicked him. In the face! Then... once I have my hands free and start giving him a rub-down? All the squeaks.

Cats only get more nuts with age. What will they be like in five years?

After my last girlfriend and I split, I texted her to tell her that she left her memory foam pillow. She told me it was a cheap one that she didn't really like so I could keep it or toss it. I remember thinking AHAAAA! It wasn't that we didn't have common interests that broke us up... it was this stupid pillow!"

I made a mental note to toss it because I had my Ghost Pillow, but it sat there on her side of the bed for weeks (making it more of a ghost pillow than my actual Ghost Pillow) because I didn't have to change the pillowcase.

Then at some point Jenny started laying on it, so then I couldn't toss it. Instead I had to start changing the pillowcase again.

On Wednesday when I was making my weekly linens change, I decided to remove the pillow and put it in the cat's room. No sense constantly reminding myself that the only relationship in my life is my cats.

Well, I'm sure you know what happened next.

That night when I went up to bed, Jenny charged ahead like she usually does. After brushing my teeth, I went into my bedroom and... saw that Jenny was laying on my pillow. Because of course she was.

And so now her pillow is back on my bed so

Some ghosts can't be busted, I guess.

Today I woke up in more pain than usual, which I really hope means whatever kidney stone drama is going on in my urinary system is on its way out. Because we're going on a month now, and I'm really over it. My first thought was to get up and grab some Advil, but Jake was on my legs as usual now.

Just look at this! Doesn't it look like he's literally trying to hold me down?

Earlier this week he hopped up on my bed... kicked my legs apart (which caused the blanket to fall off of one of them)... then promptly fell asleep like so...

Which is to say that he just doesn't give a crap any more. I'm an accessory to him. To both of them. Just a prop to lean up against while sleeping.

Reminds me of Spanky, when he would prohibit me from packing my suitcase any time it came out...

In other Jake news. He has a snaggletooth while sleeping now...

In other, other Jake news... the birds and squirrels are out on the patio regularly now. This cause all kinds of drama...

Which seems overdramatic when, at best, squirrels are a blur and birds are quick to fly off when they realize there's no food for them...

Not a lot with Jenny this week. Probably because she's been avoiding me after I accidentally clocked her this past week. Well, not really avoiding me. It's just that when she wants to be petted, it has to be entirely on her terms. When she wants, what she wants, how she wants.

Which is almost her normal, so I guess she's back to normal?

Every night Jenny naps on the cat tree where she can see me... or on the warming pad next to me on the couch. She's doing this so she knows the minute I close my laptop to head upstairs to bed. Because she knows that I'll be happy to pet her for a few hours while working or watching TV. Jake usually heads up a while later...

Then, once I set down the laptop and turn off the lights to go to sleep, Jenny leaves immediately because she knows there's no more petting happening. Jake sleeps with me a lot of the time, which is not a big deal because he doesn't need anything from me and doesn't bother me. Mostly. Sometimes he decides to crawl on me because he wants attention, but that's rare.

Well, tonight I did something I never do.

Closed my bedroom door.

It was heartbreaking seeing Jenny walking towards me anticipating getting her nightly petting time, then shutting her out. But I really had no choice. I desperately needed sleep after two nights of not getting any. And having cats on the bed would be a distraction from that.

We'll see if there are repercussions from this tomorrow. Will they shred everything? Poop in my shoes? Chew up the furniture? Nothing is off the table.

UPDATE: After getting 8 hours and 20 minutes of fairly restful sleep, I woke up and opened the door about an hour before their breakfast time. Jake was there waiting. Jenny came running in five minutes later. No repercussions that I've found. Lucky me. This time.

I was awakened by Jenny crying in the stairwell shortly after 1:00am this morning. I called to her and she came running to hop on the bed with me. I was worried she might be sick or in pain because she was acting strange... making squeaks and moving around like she couldn’t get comfortable. I was genuinely concerned that I was going to end up with an emergency trip to the vet. But was also thinking that she might have just woke herself up with a nightmare or something. Poor thing...

A half hour later, she finally settled down and went to sleep...

That's when I noticed that Jake was still there sleeping (along with Mufasa, which I had found for him earlier)...

According to my Apple Watch, I fell asleep at 2:10am. But then got woken up again at 2:52 by Jenny puking her guts out. Jake ran off (and who could blame him?) and I resisted the urge to talk to her or pet her, because I didn't want her to vomit running and give me more to clean up. After she had puked up a gallon, she too ran off. Leaving me with having to strip the bed and clean up.

When I went downstairs to the laundry room, I saw that both cats were relaxing on their heating pads. Jenny didn't seem to be in any pain when I pressed around trying to see if there was anything wrong, but it's hard not to worry...

After grabbing a couple blankets to put on my bed, I tried to fall asleep, but didn't have any luck. I kept sneaking downstairs to check on Jenny and make sure she was still okay. After I tossed the bedding in the dryer, I gave up trying to sleep and read until it was time to feed the cats their breakfast. Jenny looked okay, but seemed a little unsteady. I was glad I could stay home the weekend to keep an eye on her.

After returning from buying lumber, I thought I'd try to take a nap. Jenny was all... What happened to the blanket? And I was all... You puked like A GALLON of vomit on it last night, so it had to be wiped off and put in the wash. 3 or 4 times. Then THIS blanket will have to be washed then the sheets then the mattress protector. So thanks for that! And Jenny was all... No problem! I know you washed everything last Wednesday, but I prefer twice a week bedding washes instead of weekly anyway!

When I fell asleep, Jenny was with me. But when I woke up, Jake was there...

When night came, I thought I had better get the bed ready...
ME: "Jenny, I know you think you're being all adorable by refusing to move off the bed while I'm trying to make it... but I assure you that you are not."
ALSO ME: "Awwww! Who am I kidding? Who cares that you were the one who puked all over the bed at 2:52am so I had to wash everything again after just three days? Who's the prettiest girl? Who's the prettiest girl?"
JENNY: "Do you want me to puke on this shit again tonight? No? Might want to hold that embarrassing (but wholly accurate) talk."

I keep bringing in bedding. She moved. But in top of the sheets. For comfort, I'd imagine...

I pulled the sheets to fit them and she jumps off. Then stares at me with murder in her eyes...

Guess I’m forgiven though...

So, yeah. Quite a night. Hopefully it won't be repeated tonight.

My cats are frustrated with me because I'm on a mission this three-day-weekend to clean and organize as much as I can. They are much happier when there's no shuffling about and definitely no vacuum, but they get that most weekdays, so I'm trying not to feel bad about it.

My cats, by and large, have been uninterested in my computer. Sure if there's a video they find interesting, they will take a look, but most of the time they couldn't care less what's happening on the display. Except this past week when I was editing some text and Jake was inexplicably fascinated with the words that were appearing before him. He sat and stared at my laptop for quite a while...

I still have no idea what it was all about. If I had to guess, he's faking interest in my work because he's still a little clingy after my return from being gone four days over last weekend...

When he's not acting like he has a headache, that is...

As for Jenny? She's been playing it cool since I returned home. She's not been clingy at all... until bedtime, as usual. She has started making a home in my recycle pile from time to time though...

Which means that now I can't bring myself to take out the recycling, of course.

In non-cat news... my Instagram page has been taken over by... BATS! And I really couldn't be happier about that. They aren't as adorable as cats, but they come darn close. Especially when they're in photos like this...

Could Baturday be in my future? Probably not. I love bats, but really don't want them in my house.

I'm gone to Seattle-side today.

Which is always a big source of stress for me, because I worry about the cats being alone. Not so much because they won't be taken care of (there are feeder robots and litter robots and watering robots to handle their care), but because I know they miss me being there. At night when I'm usually home, they will wander around looking for me. And, if it's Jake, he will be crying out for me as well. That's really tough to take.

But, they always survive.

Even if I no longer let them go out into the catio when I'm gone. I do not want them bringing a bird or mouse or whatever into the house when I'm not in a place I can run home and let it back out.

So I dunno. Maybe I'm overreacting, and they're giving each other hugs to console themselves in my absence...

But probably not. They're probably trying to break into the treat cabinet.

When it comes to cat food, my cats can be picky. Or, in the case of Jenny, very picky.

I think she might not have a great sense of smell, because the only foods she recognizes as foods are pretty stinky. Namely: fish. I have tried all kinds of varieties of food and anything that's not fish is a tough sell.

I received a sample can a while back that I had kept in my car in case I ran across a hungry cat. But I rotate new food in so it doesn't go bad. When I looked at it I saw it was tuna, which is usually okay, so I fed it to my cats... who went absolutely bonkers for the stuff. They were so crazy for it that I ended up digging the can out of the trash so I could buy more of it...

I searched for "Seth & Chewy's Tuna morsels" and saw it was ridiculously expensive. Crazy ridiculously expensive. But I figured it would be a nice treat on occasion, so and bought some of it. But when it arrived, I opened the can and saw pasty, gross-looking "morsels" inside instead of the pink that the original can had been. Then I saw that I actually got "chicken & tuna" instead of just "tuna" because Stella & Chewy's has shitty product labeling that makes it hard to distinguish between flavors. All the cans are the exact same purple, and it's the little square around the flavor that's different.

But the cats loved it just the same, so crisis averted, I guess.

Something else they loved? These Tiny Tiger tuna cat treats...

I am always trying new stuff just in case the stuff I usually buy is out of stock or discontinued. I especially like how small these treats are because the cats think they're getting more than they really are. Always a good thing when it comes to treats.

Fortunately, unlike Seth & Chewy's, Tiny Tiger has excellent color identity on their products. The chicken flavor is in a bright yellow bag instead of tuna's bright blue bag.

I'm not writing this on Caturday. I'm writing it on Sunday because Daylight Saving Time starts early in the morning, which is always an adventure.

Of course this is the good time change because the cats get fed an hour earlier, which they will never complain about. The problem is that my new feeders don't reset their clocks, and so I have to manually feed the cats their dry food until they miraculously get themselves set straight.

The irony is that my Chewy order arrived on Friday, which was very exciting for Jake and Jenny...

But today-yesterday (Caturday) was less exciting. Jake had a sneezing fit...

And Jenny demanded belly rubs riiiight up until the breakfast alarm rang...

After cleaning out the closet to make room for the Litter-Robot last week, I found one of the collapsible cat tunnels I bought when they were kittens. Which made them act like kittens all over again...

Jake pounced on the tube once Jenny entered.

Jake ran.

Jenny ran after him.

Bedlam ensued.

Just another Caturday.

My cats are hating me right now because I'm painting in the guest room and have the door closed so they can't get in. Never mind that they have the run of the entire rest of the house, of course the guest room is the only place they want to go!

Typical cats.

Today my Facebook memories came up with the news that I adopted my cats Eight Years Ago (back in February... so they're late) and these two photos popped up...

It's almost enough to make me want to get another kitten. Almost. Maybe this time I will get a kitten that's not a feral rescue and not terrified of absolutely everything. Except... those cats are easily adopted. I'm thrilled to have rescued a couple problem children. Jake and Jenny have been the absolute best cats.

And speaking of them... this week was kinda a Big Deal, cat-wise.

I got tired of having the Litter-Robot in the "Great Room" which has the kitchen flowing into the dining room flowing into the living room. It's not that it smells or anything (except temporarily, every once in a while when one of the cats has a particularly stinky poo to unleash) but I would really rather not have the cats doing their business next to where I'm watching television.

And so... when the electrician was here last week, I had him put an outlet in my hall closet. That way the cats have some privacy. Not that they seem to care about that, but it's sure nice for me...

Now I'll build a shelf above it with an air-seal so that I can still hang coats above the litterbox. Then I'll put a cat door in the closet door so I can close it off. Nice!

I was very, very worried about moving their pooping place. It's been the same since I got them eight years(!) ago. What I did was move the Litter-Robot about six inches every day until it was in its new place. They never batted an eye, and now they're going there automatically.

I don't know what I was expecting. But it certainly wasn't having things go this easily!