Kitty tested, kitty approved

Last weekend, I recycled some old tie-dyed T-shirts and wove kitty seats for an old, seatless wooden chair that's been hiding in my studio for years.  It took 5 T-shirts of various sizes to weave the seat bottoms and they're amazingly firm.  The cats love to sit and play on the chair... it probably helps that I put one of the big cat nip toys on the bottom seat.  :-)  I'd briefly thought about trimming the fringes leftover from the knots, but realized the genius of built-in cat toys.

It seems like all that Freddie does is lie around and nap... and that's pretty close to accurate.  While I've been typing this, she's been playing chase all around the downstairs with Cupcake.  They both just settled down to rest a while.  I'm not sure where Freddie is - Vinnie stole the top seat of the chair for his morning nap and wouldn't let Freddie near it.

Working from home again...

Well, I worked from home again.  Freddie just napped nearby... again.  So I took some pictures of my favorite aspects of Frederica.

I love her plush white ruff of fur around her neck.  It curls up and gets a little crispy from her cleaning it.  I think Puddin's been cleaning her, too, but I've only witnessed it once.

Freddie's little pink nose.  Enough said.

I love the little tufts of fur between Frederica's toes.  I'm not sure if they have any functional feline purpose, but the tufts look adorable.

The real bath...

didn't happen on the day that Puddin' gave Frederica her own version of a bath.  I got around to bathing Freddie last evening after the post-dinner cleaning up of the kitchen.  Everyone else in the house was otherwise engaged, so I performed my first solo cat bath... and it was actually kind of nice.  Frederica put up the token wriggles to escape, but the overall experience was kind of nice and peaceful.  Who would have figured that bathing a cat could even come close to peaceful?!

Since the bath was so low-key (no help and, unfortunately, no photos), I was able to towel dry & blow dry Frederica a little more thoroughly.  I guess since it was evening and everyone in the house was winding down, I also was able to brush Freddie for a longer period of time... during which I plucked a flea off of her chin!  It had to happen sooner or later.

Freddie has spent the last 2 nights playing in the Cranium tent-thingies that Christine & Molly like to play with every now & then.  Fricassee & Mr. Bits like to play with each other in and around the structures that are set-up in the living & dining rooms.  I guess I should try to grab some photos to post... maybe tonight!

The first bath of the day

Puddin' gave Frederica a good cleaning this morning... at least on her head and neck.  Puddin' has been wanting to bathe a cat for quite some time, but none of the other cats would ever go for it.  Freddie LOVED it, purring and leaning into it.

Of course, now that Freddie's fur is wet with dog saliva and crispy from her own saliva, she needs a real bath more than ever!  That'll come later today.

4th of July Freddie

Frederica spent her first 4th of July lazing about the house.  She found a sunny spot on a pool towel and relaxed awhile, passively trying to entice Link or one of the dogs to play without moving from her spot.

Since she had no takers, she settled down to nap with her butt warming in the sun.  The next go round, I'm definitely coming back as a house cat!

Later in  the day, I lay down on the big cushy chair to take a nap.  After a brief cycle down, I had to get up to deal with something... I can't even remember what.  When I returned to my napping spot, I found Freddie in my place, her head resting on my pillow.  Talk about "move your feet, lose your seat!"  She's just lucky she's so cute... and I'm lucky that she doesn't turn into a frenzy of claws and teeth with someone rubs their face in her belly.  :-D

The benefits of working from home

Not only do I get to sit on a cushy couch while working on tax returns on my laptop, but I have lovely warm company beside me.  Frederica crawled under her favorite blanket and purred and purred.

I have to admit that it's just a little hard to concentrate when the best kitten in the world is bumping her head against you, demanding attention.

After a little while, she crawled on top of her blanket, buried her face and kneaded and purred.

Check out the size of her paws!  She's five & a half months old and her feet are still BIG!  I'm really curious how big Freddie's going to get.